U.S. Congressman Donald Payne: Ethiopia should stop dictatorial policies

Ethiopia is an important US ally with a long history of close relations with Washington but the US administration should stop the dictatorship of Meles Zenawi so that the interests of the two countries can be promoted, a leading US lawmaker said on Friday.
Donald Payne (D-NJ) who chairs the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health of the US Congress told AllAfrica he was not sure if the Obama Administration had come up with a new policy concerning Ethiopia.

"Ethiopia is a very important country. We should attempt to have good relations with them. However, I would hope the current administration would tell Prime Minister Meles [Zenawi] that for good relations [with the United States] you have to stop the dictatorial policies. You can't arrest people without cause. You can't have the corruption that goes on," Donald Payne said.

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has been in power since 1991 and his longevity is largely drawn from sheer brutality and draconian laws that have stripped the people of their basic political and democratic rights. Zenawi hit rock-bottom as one of Africa's ruthless leaders when he lost elections in 2005 and his security forces killed about 200 protesters. He rules the country by sheer terror eversince.

"You can't have courts that are unjust, and Meles Zenawi should stop military attacks on the unarmed civilians of the Ogaden region," the congressman said in a long AllAfrica interview that covers issues from Nigeria in the West to Somalia in the East, from Zimbabawe in the south to Darfur's Sudan in the North.

You have been critical of the previous U.S. administration's approach to Somalia.

Payne: There was a period of time when the Islamic Courts Union [ICU] took over governance of Mogadishu. The warlords were repelled. Schools were re-opened, the seaport was open, airport was open. The warlords attempted to expel the ICU and they were thwarted. There were stories circulated that this [the ICU] was a Taliban-type group. [There was an effort] to make the ICU seem evil and extremist. It is hard to tell where the spin came from but it ended up being in the media.

So the U.S. government funded this group of outlaws [warlords] - the same people who killed the U.S. Rangers [in 1993] - to fight against the ICU. And the ICU defeated them. The U.S. government also asked Ethiopia to go into Somalia as 'peacekeepers' and that made no sense because there have been hostilities [between Ethiopia and Somalia] for the last 100 years. After a while the Ethiopians were wise enough to realize that this was not working and they withdrew their force last December.

Do you expect to see a different approach to Somalia and Ethiopia from this administration?

Payne: I don't think the Obama team has decided what their policy should be toward Ethiopia. Ethiopia is a very important country. It has had long ties with the United States. One of the first countries I visited back in the early [19]70s was Ethiopia, when Emperor Haile Selassie was there. Ethiopia has a long history, a rich history.
We should attempt to have good relations with them. However, I would hope the current administration would tell Prime Minister Meles [Zenawi] that for good relations [with the United States] you have to stop the dictatorial policies. You can't arrest people without cause. You can't have the corruption that goes on. You can't have courts that are unjust. And you have to stop military attacks on the unarmed civilians of the Ogaden region of Ethiopia. You need to have discussions with them so that there can be autonomy.

As for Somalia, I held a hearing in the Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health with representatives from south-central Somalia, Puntland, the AU, and the UN and the consensus was that more support is needed for the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in defeating el Shabaab and the foreign fighters from the Middle East that have gone to Somalia to engage in the terrorist violence. I believe the Obama administration also sees the need for this and hope to work with Assistant Secretary [Johnnie] Carson to prevent a takeover by the extremists in Somalia.

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