By Tedla Asfaw
Dear Ambassador Jendayi Frazer,
I watched you yesterday remembering the late Madiba on program aired on Ch7 in NYC. You saw and worked with Madiba very closely and I am sure you know him as a person more than many of us. I hope to read your Madib’s African Vision and its impact on you. As former USA Ambassador to South Africa and serving as Secretary of African Affairs I wonder how you fall in love with the late Meles Zenawi, “fighter of poverty” as President Obama claimed on his passing more than a year ago ??
I want you to compare and contrast Madiba as a man of justice and reconciliation with the late Meles Zenawi a man full of hate and master of division. You know both of them very closely.
For your information let me share what I learnt recently on ESAT TV in Amharic Ambassador Kassa Kebede ‘s interview commemorating Madiba. I was shocked like millions of Ethiopians who learnt it for the first time Madiba’s proposal for United Ethiopia in 1991.
Madiba put on table his proposal as follows. Let Isaias Afeworki be the President and Meles Zenawi a Prime Minster of Ethiopia including Eritrea. Madiba’s love for United Ethiopia is due to his inspiration from Ethiopian people victory over Italy in the battle of Adwa in 1888. Ethiopia was also a vanguard in supporting the anti colonial struggle of Africans in the 1960s. For Madiba Ethiopia is a symbol of Africa !!! If Ethiopia is breaking apart Africa will fail !!!
However, the dictatorship and the anti Ethiopia rulers both in Asmara and Addis ignored Madiba’s proposal and went to war in 1998 with huge human loss and squandering scarce capital on their way. The West, USA/UK, politicians chose side and encouraged Meles Zenawi to keep on abusing Ethiopians for more than two decades. 9/11 saved Meles Zenawi. He was given a green light to terrorize Ethiopians contracting himself as “General on War on Terror” siding with USA.
I saw you, Ambassador David Shinn and Ambassador Susan Rice and others at Abyssinian Baptist Church organized memorial service forMeles Zenawi a year ago in Harlem, New York. We were protesting the memorial service for Meles Zenawi a registered human rights abuser for more than two decades.
We cried for Madiba but like millions of Ethiopians the passing away of Meles Zenawi was nothing to cry for. Madiba and Meles are opposite but some of you guys “cried” for both of them. Meles has no legacy to be remembered for. His death in fact will accelerate the Madiba’s wish for Ethiopia. United Ethiopia and Eritrea is a real possibility. Long Live Madiba’s Love for Ethiopia !!! Long Live Africa !!!!