June 14, 2012, As Submitted To The Congressional Record
Mr. Leahy. Mr. President, later this month, I and other Members of
Congress will be watching what happens in a courtroom 7,000 miles from
Washington, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. That is where a journalist named
Eskinder Nega stands accused of
supporting terrorism simply for refusing to remain silent about the
Ethiopian government’s increasingly authoritarian drift. The trial is
finished, and a verdict is expected on June 21. Eskinder Nega is not alone. Since 2011, the Ethiopian government has
charged 10 other journalists with terrorism or threatening national
security for questioning government actions and policies – activities that you and I and people around the world would recognize as
fundamental to any free press. Ironically, by trying to silence those
who do not toe the official line, the government is only helping to
underscore the concerns that many inside and outside of Ethiopia share
about the deterioration of democracy and human rights in that country.
Ethiopia is an important partner for the United States in at least
two key areas: containing the real threat of terrorism in the region,
and making gains against the region’s recurring famines and fostering
the kind of development that can bring the cycle of poverty and hunger
to an end. The United States has provided large amounts of assistance
in furtherance of both goals, because a stable, democratic Ethiopia
could exert a positive influence throughout the Horn of Africa and help
point the way to a more peaceful and prosperous future.
That is why President Obama invited Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to
last month’s G-8 Summit at Camp David. The subject was food security,
and Prime Minister Meles and the leaders of several other African
countries helped inaugurate a new public-private alliance for nutrition
that aims to increase agricultural production and lift 50 million people
out of poverty in the next 10 years. I can think of nothing that will
do more to further peace and prosperity of the region than this kind of
targeted, practical, and cooperative initiative.
But initiatives like this depend for their success on broad national
consultation, transparency and accountability. Consultation to
integrate ideas from diverse perspectives, transparency to maintain
partner confidence that their investment is reaching its targets, and
accountability to ensure it produces the desired results. And
transparency and accountability depend, in no small part, on a free
press.
In Ethiopia, that means enabling journalists like Eskinder Nega to do
their work of reporting and peaceful political participation. But seven times in Prime Minister Meles’s 20-year rule, Eskinder Nega
has been detained for his reporting. In 2005, he and his journalist
wife Serkalem Fasil were imprisoned for reporting on protests following
that year’s disputed national elections. They spent 17 months in
prison, their newspapers were shut down, and Eskinder Nega has been
denied a license to practice journalism ever since. Yet he carried on,
publishing articles online that highlight the government’s denial of
human rights and calling for an end to political repression and
corruption.
In some of those articles, Eskinder Nega specifically criticized the
Meles government for misusing a vaguely-worded 2009 antiterrorism law to
jail journalists and political opponents. Now he stands accused of
terrorism. At his trial, which opened in Addis Ababa on March 6, the
government reportedly offered as evidence against him a video of a town
hall meeting in which Eskinder Nega discusses the Arab spring and
speculates on whether similar protests were possible in Ethiopia. If
convicted, he could face the death penalty.
The trial of Eskinder Nega, the imprisonment of several of his
colleagues on similar spurious charges, and the fact that Ethiopia has
driven so many journalists into exile over the last decade has eroded
confidence in Prime Minister Meles’ commitment to press freedom and to
other individual liberties that are guaranteed by the Ethiopian
constitution and fundamental to any democracy.
The United States and Ethiopia share important interests, and the
Administration’s fiscal year 2013 budget requests $350 million in
assistance for Ethiopia. However, to the extent that any of that
assistance is intended for the Ethiopian government, the importance of
respecting freedom of the press cannot be overstated. What happens to
Eskinder Nega and other journalists there will resonate loudly not only
in Ethiopia, but also in the United States Congress.
