According to Peter Heinlin of VOA Zenawi was angry that Ambassador Douglas Griffiths of the US acknowledged in front of the UN Human Rights Council members in Geneva that senior government positions were held by one ethnic group in Ethiopia ie Tigrayans. This truthful statement sent the foul mouthed dictator ranting and raving and calling Ambassador Griffths an idiot. So why did Meles go ballistic at Ambassador Griffiths’ statements?
A couple of months ago Ginbot 7 had exposed Tigrayan domination (58 out of 62) of the top positions in the so called Ethiopian Defense Forces which made it look more like a Tigrayan Force rather than a national force. Imagine if the top brass of the US military was exclusively composed of only Irish, Germans or Italians. Totally unthinkable right! But in a multi-ethnic society such as Ethiopia a minority ( 6%) ethnic group rules over a diverse population of 80 million at the barrel of a gun. The charade is exposed and the little dictator is mad as hell. By denying these charges and attacking the American envoy Meles is hoping that this story will not have any traction and wants to discourage others from ever raising this sensitive issue.
Sure, there are the token ethnic underlings such as Girma Birru ( Oromo) Addisu Legesse (Amhara) Teshome Toga (Wolayta) and a sprinkling of others with permanent positions within the tribal regime. The problem is having a sprinkling of Oromo and Amhara ( two groups that constitute 70% of the population) here and there does not give good cover at all. Meles has used these affirmative action quota positions to hood wink the donor community that under his 18 years of tribal reign Ethiopia has become a nirvana for ‘nations and nationalities.” While much of Africa has tried to shake off tribalism after independence, Meles, the poster child for the tribal ruler, has enshrined it in his constitution complete with tribal id cards Ethiopians are forced to carry.
Again a couple of months ago Ginbot 7 had exposed the total domination of the Ethiopian economy by the Tigrai People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) the ruling party in Ethiopia with some 66 companies under EFFORT e basically controlling all the strategic sectors of the economy. Sebhat Nega, the founder of TPLF and ex-Chairman of EFFORT confirmed in his VOA-Amharic program interview that indeed was true. The rest of the economy is controlled by the Saudi tycoon Al-Amoudi and other TPLF underlings. Meles as the head of government and as the head of his party has a choke hold on the economy to steal as much as he can and launder the money to his personal accounts overseas making the Tigrayan ruling elite fabulously wealthy. The donors belatedly are realizing that they are really enabling this obscene corruption taking place in Ethiopia. Meles knows this and is getting extremely nervous that the genie is out of the bottle. While he is willing to do anything for his paymasters, they on the other hand seem to belatedly realize the moral hazard of turning a blind eye to Zenawi’s excesses. In a nut shell, that is why the foul mouthed thug is ranting and raving against his paymaster’s envoy. If he loses their support he loses everything, for it will not take a day for Ethiopians to evict him from his squatter house – Menelik Palace.
It has really been a bad couple of weeks, bad press for Meles and that is why he is foaming at the mouth.
