Zenawi – BBC’s missed point
By Wase Lehagere
July 30, 2005 — BBC’s recent “hardtalk” interview of the Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has been much touted and a subject of hot discussion within Ethiopia and the Diaspora community. The BBC interviewer’s searching and incisive questioning and the revealing responses, albeit with a bit of discomfort at times, by the Prime Minister were quite remarkable.
Although the experienced and sharp interviewer was able to slice through the Prime Minister’s attempts at covering the truth such as the important point as to who appointed the Ethiopian Election Board, he was nevertheless hoodwinked on one extremely important point. The wily Prime Minister was able to get away with his deliberate disinformation that it was due to a justified police action that 36 people were killed on June 8. Though the BBC interviewer did attempt in vain to elicit an apology from the arrogant Prime Minister for the death of the peaceful protesters, he failed to raise any question as to whether the perpetrators of the killing were actually members of the Ethiopian police force.
The fact of the matter was that the June 8 massacre in Addis Ababa was perpetrated, not by the Ethiopian police, but by the murderous commando force known as Agazi. This commando force was brought into Addis Ababa a few days earlier on the orders of the Prime Minister with the obvious purpose of doing what it did. The evidence for this conclusion is the statement by the Chief of Police, Col. Workneh Gebeyehu, who declared shortly after the eventful date that the loss of life was due to the use of a force that had no police skills. In effect, what the Prime Minister did was to deploy a murderous army without any policing capacity against his own people in Addis Ababa most probably because his front suffered such a humiliating election defeat!
Another important point is the fact that the Government had a hand in giving rise to the June 8 protests. Student arrests were conducted at the Addis University on the night of June 7, which triggered an unexpected wider protest that led to the killing of over 36 people.
The full facts of the matter would have been revealed if Ethiopia had a responsible government. The Prime Minister’s promise to establish an independent commission to investigate the important issue has yet to take place. Considering the Prime Minister’s personal responsibility in the matter, such an investigation by a truly independent commission will obviously not be feasible at this stage. But it shall not be forgotten!
* Wase is a resident in USA.