Democracy in Ethiopia

Quest for Democracy in Ethiopia
By Laike Demena

When Dr. Meqdes testified before the House Subcommittee on Africa on March 29, 2006, she was thinking of her father, Professor Mesfin Wolde Mariam. Professor Mesfin, a prominent Ethiopian human rights activist, has been incarcerated in Ethiopia since November of 2005. In thinking of her father and his situation, Dr. Meqdes also wondered why the United States is not doing more to help democracy in Ethiopia. As she stated in the hearing, "Honorable Members, for more than three decades, my personal and family life has been impacted by what my father has committed in his faith and belief that Government belongs to the people and that these fundamental freedoms that we all seek are a necessary element in allowing democracy to flourish in an environment where the rule of law is supreme.”

Dr. Meqdes believes that the United States has not exerted enough pressure on the Ethiopian Government to release prisoners of conscience like her father. She and many others like her have been speaking out in support of democracy. Dr. Meqdes has been engaging actively to let the world know about her father's struggle for democracy. She spoke at several gatherings throughout the nation, wrote papers and led a hunger strike in opposition to the arrest of the political prisoners.

On June 27, 2006, three months after Dr. Meqdes' testimony, a comprehensive bi-partisan bill, H.R. 5680, the Ethiopia Freedom, Democracy and Human Rights Advancement Act of 2006 sponsored by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ), unanimously passed the International Relations Committee and was forwarded to the full House. The bill is expected to bring freedom, democracy, human rights and economic development to Ethiopia. On its passage, Rep. Smith said, “Violence against dissidents has increased significantly and yet there have been no credible accounts for the slaughter of protestors in the streets of Addis last year.” He added, “We not only call on the Ethiopian Government to unconditionally release all political prisoners, but establish a program to tangibly assist them.”

In his statement, Rep. Smith was referring to hundreds of political prisoners like Professor Mesfin. Professor Mesfin is a 76-year-old retired geography professor and founding member of the Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO). He is the winner of the 2006 Heinz R. Pagels Human Rights Award and among the 10 nominees for the European Parliament's 2006 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. Prof Mesfin is currently one of the prisoners of conscience and a senior member of the main opposition party, Coalition for Unity and Democracy Party (CUDP). Along with many others, Professor Mesfin was imprisoned in November 2005 in connection with opposition demonstration against the Ethiopian Government. He is not alone at Kaliti Prison, where many of the political prisoners are jailed including Dr. Berhanu Negga, an economics professor and the newly elected Mayor of Addis Ababa; Ms. Birtukan Mideksa, a former judge and vice chairperson of CUDP; and Dr. Yacob Hailemariam, a former UN prosecutor in the Rwanda genocide trial in Tanzania.