Military Rule in Ethiopia - Term Paper Example

 Military Rule in Ethiopia The landscape of Ethiopia is rugged and mountainous, contributing to its isolation from surrounding nations and subsequently the world. As we move into a more globalized world, technology erases national borders, but it cannot instantaneously transform national thinking. Progress is slow and hindered by the militant nature of the government, infighting with splinter groups, and the fact that erosion and famine continue to plague Ethiopia. There are more than 70 ethnic groups and languages in Ethiopia, and it is primarily a Christian nation surrounded by Muslim neighbors. Changing Governments Emperor Haile Selassie ruled Ethiopia for nearly 40 years. In September of 1974, he was overthrown in a military coup. Famine and drought were sweeping through Ethiopia, but the emperor kept most of those details out of the press. When the people discovered the true extent of the terrible disaster, they welcomed revolution and saw it as the first step to modernizing their country after four decades of autocratic rule. Unfortunately, the military junta (the Derg) could not deliver on its promises because of a series of wars, invasions and skirmishes following on the heels of drought and famine. Mengistu Haile Mariam executed General Teferi Benti in 1977 and took over the government, bringing the Red Terror into full swing (Beshah and Tupy, 2008). The military junta collapsed in 1987, and Mengistu became president (Gavish and Shabtai, 2009). Throughout their reign, the Derg looked toward Marxist-Leninist policies to structure the government. Nationalization, a foundation tenet of Marxism (Donham, 1999) caused large businesses and vast tracts of land to be co-opted and put under the government’s control. Banks and factories were seized, and schools were shut down for two full years as students were conscripted into the nationalization efforts (Beshah and Tupy, 2008). The Dergue government was overthrown in 1991, but decades of wars and natural disasters have made it difficult for the nation to recover itself (Beshah and Tupy, 2008). Stories of torture and death abound from the Red Terror days. One man was arrested in 1987 for being Jewish, held in solitary confinement in a 1 meter by 1 meter cell for a year, beaten with an iron rod, and otherwise tortured day and night (Gavish and Shabtai, 2009). Another man, a member of an opposition student movement, was arrested in 1978 by agents of the Ethiopian junta, tortured for 15 days and then shot. The police threw his body on his mother’s doorstep, which ironically saved her paying a “wasted bullet tax” instituted by the Red Terror government for families to retrieve the bodies of loved ones for burial (Beshah and Tupy, 2008). While the Dergue government committed many atrocities, perhaps the most catastrophic came in 1984, when famine once again struck the country. It’s estimated that nearly a million people starved to death or were killed by diseases. The government forcibly resettled 700,000 people from areas where the famine was worst to parts of Ethiopia that were unsuitable for agriculture (Green, 1995). It is not known how many people died as a result of this resettlement plan. In 2006, twelve years after the Derg government was overthrown, Mengitsu Haile Mariam was convicted of genocide, and now he lives in exile in Zimbabwe (Beshah and Tupy, 2008). Another resettlement scheme enacted by the Dergue government moved rural people from their homes to central locations with roads and essential services such as education and health care facilities. The government did not create jobs in these villages, however, so farmers had to walk great distances to tend their fields, making the scheme more difficult for the people in the end. In addition, the explosive population growth in large cities such as Addis Ababa overwhelmed basic infrastructures such as clean water and city sewage facilities. Recent Government Situation Numerous wars have been fought in and by Ethiopia since the downfall of Emperor Haile Salassie in 1974. The U.S. currently has a tenuous relationship with Ethiopia, not entirely friendly but at least they are not total enemies. U.S. backed Ethiopian forces fought in Somalia in 2007, for instance (Lobban, 2007). The military governments of Ethiopia sometimes subvert foreign aid, however, leading to international repercussions. “Unbeknownst to many people, the Derg channeled some of the [foreign] aid to feed the military machine in its war against two rebel movements: the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front and Eritrean People’s Liberation Front” (Beshah and Tupy, 2008). This upset the international community, for obvious reasons, but both public and private aid continues to flow into the country. In 2008, the TPLF and the EPRDF took the elections, and Meles Zenawi continued in power (BBC (a), 2008). There are probably more than a dozen militant splinter groups operating in Ethiopia, and their names change frequently. Currently, the dominant party is the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) has accused of blockading aid trucks, obstructing refugees, and of continuing war crimes (BBC (b), 2008). In strong language, the ONLF states that the “TPLF regime’s policy of expansionism and suppression of the will of the peoples of the Horn of Africa is beginning to unravel…. Furthermore, its unjust sinister designs on its neighbouring countries are destabilizing the Horn of Africa” (BBC (b), 2008, para. 6). The TPLF was also accused of subversion by the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), which sternly stated, “For the project of defaming and isolating the OLF, the TPLF has allocated a huge budget and has assigned a full time staff of several hundred agents, including highly paid lobbyists. To date, the TPLF regime’s wicked effort to defame the OLF did not succeed” (BBC (a), 2008, para. 6). Ripple Effects of Living Inside the Military Machine: The AIDS Problem That HIV/AIDS is ravaging the African continent is well-known, and it’s estimated that up to 20-35 percent of the populations of some African nations have the disease. Rumor also has it that some particular units have the disease at an upwards of 90 percent rate (de Waal, 2006). The military governments of these African nations are shrouded in secrecy, so exact numbers of those infected are impossible to determine. The military lifestyle has contributed significantly to the precipitous spread of the virus. Soldiers are away from home for months on end, living in extremely risky situations, and the villages surrounding military camps are ripe for sexual exploitation—both consensual and non-consensual. Special units of HIV-positive soldiers mass raped Tutsi women during the 1994 Rwandan genocide; the Sudanese army burned villages, relocated inhabitants, and raped women and girls; Somali refugees reported shocking levels of rape in Kenya in 1996 (de Waal, 2006). Safe sex messages are usually ignored by soldiers. Upwards of half of soldiers who die in wars die from AIDS, not combat-related injuries. Ethiopia serves as an example of pseudo-successful AIDS containment. The nation as a whole reports 7 percent of the population has the disease. The army reports a 6 percent infection rate, which has remained stable for six years instead of rising. De Waal (2006) states that perhaps one reason for this success is the military governments of the 1970s and 1980s instituted “quasi-democratic institutions such as the ‘council of commanders’” (para. 15), which has allowed the Ethiopian army to talk openly about the AIDS problem and to institute anti-AIDS policies for the whole army. Because of the culture of secrecy, not many people in Ethiopia know about the stable level of infected soldiers, and few outside the nation’s borders are aware of that fact. Continued Struggles Nearly 80 percent of Ethiopia’s people depend upon agriculture for a living (Green, 1995). However, the land does not produce enough food to support the population. In 1995, three-quarters of all imports were food. There is little to export to foreign nations except coffee and a small amount of leather goods produced in Addis Ababa. These facts make the nation dependent upon foreign aid, which in turn causes the government to adjust national policies to satisfy Western nations which are donating the food. Free-market programs encouraged by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are difficult to implement in Ethiopia because of the rugged terrain, the diverse ethnic groups and languages, and the continued wars (Lobban, 2007). At every turn, it seems, situations just keep growing worse for the Ethiopian people. Militant government officials, continued infighting, the rugged landscape, the diverse ethnic groups and languages spoken in Ethiopia, and immense dependence on foreign aid all contribute to Ethiopia’s difficulties. Progress in education and social policy is slow or non-existent. While Ethiopia’s struggle with the AIDS epidemic is less than some other nations, it is of major concern. The situation for the Ethiopian people has not been easy for many decades, and problems will continue as long as the government continues its policies. Works Cited BBC (a). Anonymous. “Ethiopian rebel group denies responsibility for bomb blast in capital.” BBC Monitoring Newsfile, 30 May 2008. Accessed 5 April 2009 from ProQuest database. BBC (b). Anonymous. “Ethiopian Ogaden rebel leadership appraises action plan.” BBC Monitoring Africa, 31 July 2008. Accessed 5 April 2009 from ProQuest database. Beshah, Brook H. and Tupy, Marian L. “Arrest this man.” The Wall Street Journal (Europe), 16 May 2008, p. 17. Accessed 5 April 2009 from ProQuest database. Donham, Donald L. History, Power, Ideology: Central Issues in Marxism and Anthropology. Full text electronic book. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1999. Gavish, L. and Shabtai, L. “A delayed exodus.” Jerusalem Post, 9 January 2009, p. 24. Accessed 5 April 2009 from the ProQuest database. Green, David. “Setting a course for development.” Geographical 67(5), May 1995: 16. Accessed 5 April 2009 from Academic Search Premiere, EBSCO host. De Waal, Alex. “African Governments Must Acknowledge the Role of the Military in the Spread of AIDS.” At Issue: Responding to the AIDS Epidemic. Daniel L. Leone, ed. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2006. Accessed 5 April 2009 from Gale Opposing Viewpoints database. Lobban, Richard. “Commentary: After 3 epochs, a new U.S. relationship with Africa.” The Providence Journal, 26 June 2007, p. B4. Accessed 5 April 2009 from the ProQuest database. Perry, Alex. “Horn of Dilemma.” Time International (Europe Edition), 17 September 2007, p. 30. Accessed 5 April 2009 from Gale Opposing Viewpoints database. Read More