Selassie, Jimmy Carter confer on Ethiopia misrule
By John Crouch, Attorney at Law,
Crouch & Crouch, Arlington, Virginia; (703)
528-6700;
Copyright John Crouch 1994 / / Amicus Curiae, College of William
and Mary
Other Crouch Articles
Former president Jimmy Carter met Professor Alemante Selassie and several
Ethiopian opposition leaders at a small conference at the Carter Center
in Atlanta Feb. 5-8. Carter is "a go-between" among opposition
groups and the country's undemocratic ethnic minority regime, Selassie said.
Selassie described the conference as "aimed at exploring means by which
the current transitional process in Ethiopia can become fair and inclusive."
As to its outcome, he said that, so far, there was "willingness on
both sides" for continued negotiation.
Ethiopia is ruled by a party representing the Tigrai, a nationality comprising
five percent of the population, Selassie said. They have fired non-Tigrai
government workers, soldiers, professors and judges and replaced them with
their own people. They have banned some opposition parties and hamper the
others to keep them ineffective, Selassie charged. Open dissenters are jailed,
harassed and intimidated.
The Tigrai moved in when a reviled Marxist dictatorship collapsed in 1991.
Selassie had vocally opposed the Marxists since the mid-1970s. The current
opposition groups also opposed the old regime.
Conferees on trial
On Friday, Feb. 18, the government put participants in a similar, government-endorsed
conference on trial for attempting to overthrow the regime. Selassie was
to attend that conference last December, but heard of his colleagues' arrest
as he was going through customs in Cairo.
The charges are ridiculous, Selassie said, especially since many defendants
have been in exile for 18 years. "I do not expect any fair trial,"
he said. However, he said the government might acquit or pardon the conferees
in order to make it look as if the judicial system still works fairly. Western
countries and international organizations have put great pressure on the
regime to release the conferees, he said.
- John Crouch
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