Ethiopia reshuffle boosts Meles power: opposition

[Faafan]

Ethiopia reshuffle boosts Meles power: opposition

 

By Barry Malone

Oct 05, 2010

______________

 

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi appointed a new cabinet on Tuesday in a post-election reshuffle that the opposition and analysts said would further cement his position.

 

Meles, in power since 1991, was sworn in as prime minister by parliament on Monday after a disputed May 23 vote gave his Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and allies 545 seats in the 547-seat parliament.

 

A European Union observer mission criticised the election and the United States said it failed to meet international standards. Demands by opposition parties for a rerun were rejected by the Horn of Africa nation's electoral board and by its Supreme Court.

 

The most high-profile cabinet change was the retirement of Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin, who had been in the post for 19 years. He was replaced by former government whip and advisor to the prime minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, seen as a Meles loyalist. Hailemariam will also serve as Deputy Prime Minister.

 

"They just changed the old horses and replaced them with the same breed," Beyene Petros, spokesman for the biggest opposition party, Medrek, told Reuters. "People like Hailemariam are the 'yes people' who have not shown any independence or creativity. They just follow the party line."

 

Other senior ministers stepping down include Minister for Trade and Industry Girma Birru and Deputy Prime Minister Addisu Legesse.

 

"OMNIPRESENT POWER"

 

The top jobs in the finance, defence, justice, health, education, agriculture and federal affairs ministries are all unchanged. New appointees to other ministries were mostly drawn from the ranks of state ministers and senior officials.

 

"It seems that Meles now has more or less omnipresent power, as there seems to be no one in cabinet who has the status and experience to challenge him on policy development," Kjetil Tronvoll, Ethiopia analyst at the International Law and Policy Institute, told Reuters.

 

The Mines and Energy Ministry has been split in two, with Sinkenesh Ejgu heading up the new Mines Ministry in a country being explored for deposits by foreign oil and gas companies, including Africa Oil Corporation.

 

Diplomats say the full European Union report on the elections will be published in mid-October.

 

Source: Reuters

[Faafan]

Ethiopia’s New Cabinet Said to Lack Fresh Ideas.

Peter Clottey VOA- 05 October 2010

 

Photo: Oromo People's Congress

Ethiopian opposition leader Merera Gudina (File)

 

A leading member of the Ethiopian Federal Democratic Unity Forum (Medrek), the largest opposition party said Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s new cabinet comprises people who have no capacity and new imagination to transform the country.

 

Merara Gudina said the new cabinet enables the prime minister to consolidate what he called his already enormous powers.

 

“Very little is new about the reshuffle. I think the prime minister moved some people around, moved some people up and moved some people down. But, it is from the same pool of half-baked cadres. No giant intellectuals joined the government. Really there is nothing new about what is happening,” he said.

 

Analysts say Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin was the highest profile of the ruling party members not to be named in the new cabinet. The others include Deputy Prime Minister Addisu Legesse and Trade and Industry minister Girma Birru.

 

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi was officially sworn in Monday after his ruling Ethiopia People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) won an overwhelming 545 seats in the country’s 547-seat parliament.

 

Some poll observers said the May election was not credible, adding that the vote failed to meet international standards.

 

The opposition groups also condemned the election as fraudulent and demanded a rerun which was rejected by Ethiopia’s electoral body.

 

Opposition leader Gudina said there are no technocrats in the government who are capable of resolving the country’s problems.

 

“They (new cabinet members) have been major cadres, they have been around. You don’t see intellectuals from the universities and from the business community (joining the cabinet). You know, it is the same pool of cadres. It is people who have been wondering around the prime minister… You don’t see new people from outside, real professionals. Academics from the universities,” Gudina said.

[Faafan]

Ethiopian Opposition Leader Birtukan Released From Prison After Two Years

 

Ethiopian opposition leader Birtukan Mideksa was freed from prison today after the government granted her request to be pardoned from a life sentence she began serving almost two years ago.

 

“I’m very pleased to be back with my family,” Birtukan, 36, said in an interview at her house in Addis Ababa, the capital. “I’ve been relieved from a difficult situation. The first five months in solitary confinement were very difficult.”

 

Birtukan was one of the leaders of the now dissolved Coalition for Unity and Democracy, an alliance of opposition parties that claimed victory in Ethiopia’s disputed 2005 elections. She and dozens of other opposition politicians, journalists and activists were jailed in the aftermath of that vote, during which government security forces killed at least 193 protesters.

 

Birtukan was jailed for life on Dec. 29, 2008, after a dispute with the government over a pardon agreement that freed her from prison in 2007. Amnesty International, the London-based human-rights group, described her as a prisoner of conscience, according to its website.

 

Ethiopia is Africa’s biggest coffee producer and the continent’s second-most populous nation, after Nigeria. The Horn of Africa nation’s economy has grown more than 9 percent annually since 2004 and is forecast to expand 9.7 percent this year, according to the African Development Bank’s website.

 

Pardon Request

 

Shimeles Kemal, a government spokesman, said Birtukan submitted a request for a pardon at the beginning of September.

 

“She wrote a statement asking to be pardoned on the grounds that she regretted what she did in the past,” Shimeles said in a phone interview. He declined to provide any further information until a Justice Ministry statement is released later today.

 

Birtukan confirmed she had requested a pardon.

 

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front won 545 of the 547 seats in parliamentary elections in May. A European Union observer mission declared that the vote failed to meet certain “international commitments.” The U.S. National Security Council said it was “concerned” about the observers’ findings.

 

Birtukan wouldn’t comment on what her plans are following her release.

 

“This is time for my family,” she said while surrounded by family members, colleagues and well-wishers at her home.

 

Sakharov Prize

 

Yesterday, lawmakers in the European Parliament nominated Birtukan as one of the candidates for the 2010 Sakharov Prize, which is given to individuals who combat intolerance, fanaticism and oppression. Previous recipients of the award, which is named after the Soviet scientist and dissident Andrei Sakharov, include former South African President Nelson Mandela, former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and detained Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

 

“We at the European parliament are delighted to hear about Birtukan’s release,” Ana Maria Gomes, an EU lawmaker who led a mission that observed the 2005 vote in Ethiopia, said in an e- mailed statement today. “At the European Parliament, we will continue to support all those who fight for democracy and the rule of law in Ethiopia.”

 

To contact the reporter on this story: William Davison in Addis Ababa via Johannesburg at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.

 

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin in Johannesburg at asguazzin@bloomberg.net.

[Faafan]

Ethiopia's Parliament breaks Guinness World Record

 

 

In a comical prelude to what “Parliament” will be like for the next five years that visibly embarrassed its speaker, Abadula Gemeda (whose reversed Kafkan metamorphosis from a hapless POW to Speaker of “parliament” illustrates the lie that is at the core of the EPRDF) Ethiopia’s lower house of “Parliament” approved PM Meles Zenawi’s new cabinet in world record time.

An amazed nation watched a live broadcast from “Parliament” as Meles Zenawi placidly introduced his prospective cabinet Ministers for deliberation, but who were neither commended nor disputed by the new “Parliamentarians”, and then sworn in, all in world record time of ELEVEN MINUTES ( Between 10:30 am and 10: 41 am local time. Will someone please inform Guinness!)

 

 

“The floor is open for queries and opinions,” said Abadula, the Speaker, after Meles completed his presentation. He was met with utter silence, provoking an embarrassed smile from Abadula. In the café where I watched the proceedings on TV, viewers, including those who were apparently pro-EPRDF, laughed in unison when Abadula moved on to the swearing ceremony.

Haile-Mairam Desalign replaced Seyoum Mesfin at the Foreign Ministry. And in a clear blow to the ANDM, he was also designated as the sole Deputy Prime Minister. If Meles keeps his word, Haile-Mariam is now his most likely successor. Seyoum Mesfin, who is only in his late 50s, reportedly favors a cushy job in the UN system (in the spirit of the new adage about age: “the 60s is the new 40s”), but rumor also places him in Washington as the new Ethiopian Ambassador.

 

Girma Biru, OPDO’s best prospective PM, has left the cabinet after an unusually long tenure. The OPDO, much like the ANDM, now has no high-flying star to compete with Haile-Mariam. Soft-spoken Suffian Ahmed, the long-serving Minister of Finance, and formally a member of OPDO’s leadership but more of a grey-technocrat in practice, has surprisingly retained his position. “(The macroeconomic stability) attests to his competence,” Meles said.

 

Of the five key Ministries--- Foreign, Defense, Federal, Finance and Justice--- three have been allotted to Ministers from the South: Haile-Mariam at Foreign; Siraj Forsedin at Defense; and Shiferaw Tekle-Mariam at Federal. One each has gone to the OPDO and ANDM: Suffian Ahmed of OPDO at Finance and Haile-Birhan of ANDM at Justice. The head of ANDM, Demeke Mekonen, has retained his junior Ministerial position at the helm of the Ministry of Education. Putting a brave face to Haile-Mariam’s unexpected rise to the post of EPRDF’s deputy, which many had assumed was ANDM’s by default, Demeke has said, “It’s division of labor within the party. I am not in the least bit disappointed.” Few, however, are inclined to take his words at their face value. The disappointment both to him personally and his party is palpable.

 

The Ministry of Trade and Industry, long Girma Biru’s turf, has now been split, and the position of Minister of Industry has gone to Manyazewal Mekonnen, the only non-EPRDF member of the Cabinet.

 

Veteran of Ethiopia’s KGB, Debre-Tsion Gebre-Mikael, who is also Jammer-In-Chief of the VOA and ESAT, the latter Ethiopia's first independent satellite TV, has been awarded a Ministry; perhaps in reference to his successful jamming duties, at the helm of a new Ministry where his jamming duty is expected to continue with renewed vigor.

[Faafan]

D/p