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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
Ethiopia: The Tragic Reality beneath the Myth of 'New Breed of African Leaders'(A human rights perspective)
| Panel |
89. Makers of the Ethiopian Political Crisis
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| Paper ID | 757 |
| Author(s) |
Haile, Dadimos
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| Paper |
No paper submitted
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| Abstract | The 1991 regime change in Ethiopia that saw the replacement of Menghistu Haile-Mariam's dictatorship with the Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) - a coalition of former guerrilla movements headed by the current Prime Minister Meles Zenawi - was supposed to usher an era of democracy and respect for human rights. Unfortunately, however, Ethiopians have known little respite from political repression and violence notwithstanding the favorable international image and support that Mr. Zenawi has enjoyed as a 'progressive leader' and one of the 'new generation of African leaders."
Indeed, in many ways, Ethiopia's post 1991 transformation not a new beginning but a sequel to the revolutionary transformation of the 1970's that is aimed at a further reordering of what remained of the pre-revolutionary socio-political order through yet another round of radical social engineering. The latest experiment has thus far led to the emergence of two states, Eritrea and Ethiopia, and the reconstitution of the latter along largely ethnically/linguistically redrawn boundaries, with each ethnic group entitled to a residual right to secede. The future implications of this new reality remain unclear. For the past 14 years, however, the country has been beset by the proliferation of inter and intra-ethnic conflicts, a 'border conflict' with Eritrea, and gross human rights abuses. Although, the massive repression that followed the May 2005 elections have somewhat dented the regimes international image, it has failed to produce a corresponding policy shift among influential international actors who continue to treat the crisis as an aberration or a temporary hiccup of a regime that is otherwise committed to democracy and human rights.
The paper attempts to provide a better picture of the scale and magnitude of the human rights violations committed by the incumbent government than is currently available and trace the political doctrine and systematic policy that underpins the patterns of those violations. It also seeks to trace the unbroken thread that binds Ethiopia's current predicament to its past and the consistency that characterizes the role of the 'international community'. |
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