Ethiopia prime minister a no-show at African Union summit, raising questions about his health

[Che -Guevara]

Monday, July 16, 2012

 

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Ethiopia’s longtime ruler and most powerful figure, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, is not attending an African Union summit that opened Sunday in Ethiopia, which further fueled speculation that he might be seriously ill.

 

About three dozen African heads of state and government gathered in Addis Ababa on Sunday, but Meles did not attend the meeting — a first since he assumed office in 1991.

 

Meles was expected to open the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) meeting on Saturday. But Senegalese President Macky Sall opened the gathering instead, telling participants that Meles was unable to be present due “to health conditions.” Sall wished Meles “good health.”

 

The most recent images of Meles aired by state-run Ethiopian Television showed him noticeably thinner. Opposition websites are claiming that Meles is being treated for a serious illness.

 

The government declined to comment on the matter.

 

Ethiopia’s parliament was set to hear from Meles last week when the country’s lawmakers were scheduled to approve Ethiopia’s current fiscal budget, which began July 8, but Meles did not address parliament.

 

Meles in 2010 promised to step down by 2015. Hailemariam Desalegn was named deputy prime minister. He is also the country’s foreign minister.

 

Source: AP

[MoonLight1]

maybe he is away preparing his campaign to run for Somalia presidency.

[The Zack]

^No, the MTF has a brain cancer. Look at the middle picture of him taken in June.

 

[Somalia]

Shame, lets all hope he weathers through this, no regime change for that country just yet.

[Che -Guevara]

The rumor is he has cancer as Zack says though don't if it's brain.

[The Zack]

Somalia, Say what? You are wishing good luck to Zenawi?

 

 

CHe- Ethiopian sources indicate that it is the brain.

 

We couldn't kill the SOB with a bullet, we are killing him with habaar LOL.

[Somalia]

The Zack;851056 wrote:

^Say what? You are wishing good luck to Zenawi?

And good health.

[Somalia]

I will.

[The Zack]

^Good. While you are at it, do it in orthodox too, that is what He believes in.

[Somalia]

Why you mad sons, this is just business?

[Che -Guevara]

One wonders what are the consequences of his ill health for the region?

[The Zack]

My prediction: This is the end of the what is known "Ethiopia". Things can go back to where there were in early 1900. Abysinia = Tigray + Amhara. Even them will break into two.

[Che -Guevara]

Well one thing is sure no Tigray wants to live under Amhara rule. That said, I don't chaotic breakdown of Ethiopia might be not the interest of the region.

[Somalia]

Che -Guevara;851072 wrote:

Well one thing is sure no Tigray wants to live under Amhara rule. That said, I don't chaotic breakdown of Ethiopia might be not the interest of the region.

Exactly.

[Che -Guevara]

Ethiopia mosque sit-ins see deaths, arrests: protesters

 

By Aaron Maasho

 

ADDIS ABABA | Sun Jul 15, 2012 10:59am EDT

(Reuters) - Protesters against government interference in religious affairs staged the latest of a series of mosque sit-ins in the Ethiopian capital on Sunday, saying police had arrested dozens in the run up to this weekend's African Union summit.

 

Two activists told Reuters the sit-in - in protest at the government's promotion of the moderate Al Ahbash branch of Islam over other doctrines - had already been surrounded by police although there had been no clashes as yet on Sunday.

 

Online activists, who have been using social media to call for demonstrations, have reported several deaths during previous clashes, and published several pictures of injuries they claim are those of victims.

 

"They have arrested dozens, even hundreds, of protesters in the past few days, while police fired teargas and fired rounds to disperse the crowd," one activist, calling himself simply Hassan, told Reuters. Two other activists gave similar accounts.

 

Protests are uncommon in tightly-controlled Ethiopia and the unrest has caused concern in a predominantly Christian nation of 84 million that takes pride in centuries of coexistence.

 

The government fears hardline Islam is taking root in the Horn of Africa country, which has long been seen by the West as a bulwark against militancy in neighbouring Somalia.

 

Hassan said the planned sit-ins were held in a number of mosques throughout the capital, including the Awoliya mosque, where the first protests took place late last year.

 

Government officials were not immediately available for comment on Sunday, but a state news outlet said security authorities have arrested "extremists who tried to disrupt the (AU) summit."

 

LEBANESE SECT

 

Any attempt to exploit sectarian divides has the potential to destabilise Africa's second most populous country, which is 60 percent Christian and 30 percent Muslim according to a 2009 census.

 

Also known as the Association of Islamic Charitable Projects, Al Ahbash was founded in the early 1980s by Sheikh Abdullah al Harrari, an Ethiopian cleric who was forced to leave his country for Lebanon in 1950.

 

Muslim protesters say the government is promoting the ideas of the group, which has few followers among the bulk of Sunni and Sufi-inspired Islam in Ethiopia, through the leadership of the Supreme Council on Islamic Affairs. They say the government is trying to prevent new elections to the Council in aid of promoting Al Ahbash because it opposes ultra-conservative ideology and rejects violence.

 

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has dismissed accusations of interference in the religious domain but often says Islamic hardliners are "peddling ideologies of intolerance".

 

"It (Al Ahbash) has the right to exist in Ethiopia, but it is unacceptable that the Council tries to impose it on all members of the Muslim community," Abubeker Ahmed, head of an independent Islamic arbitration committee, told Reuters.

 

(Editing by Duncan Miriri and Patrick Graham)