From Kenya with Love: Barack Hussein Obama

Senator Barack Obama's decision this morning to throw his hat in the presidential race is a significant moment in this nation's history. In MLK, Jr., Ethiopia, and Protest Politics, we honored the work and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., and in so doing, recognized the numerous legislative and judicial victories scored by African-Americans in the last century (to name a few, voting rights, access to education, health care, housing, public benefits, employment, and affirmative action). The African-American struggle for equality clearly made America live up to the promises of liberty and justice its founders promised to the governed in 1787.

Beyond the historic significance of Obama’s announcement, the Illinois senator’s candidacy will allow registered African-American voters (including Ethiopia-Americans) in the Democratic Party a clear alternative to the carpet-bagging junior senator from our favorite state in the Union. Yes, Hillary Clinton and her arrogant and demeaning posture vis-à-vis African-American voters is back and managing to convince, yet again, many in the African-American community that she, like her husband, is "black" and deserving of their support. (When, by the way, will African-American voters stop giving their vote lock, stock, and barrel to the Democratic Party?)

This is not a posting that throws its support behind Obama's campaign—we simply find the candidate to be compelling and one who reconciles the dreams and aspirations of African-American voters, be they descendants of slaves or the recently arrived. In her recent comments, writer Stephanie Molkins opined that the meaning of Black History month "has far exceeded the hopes of its founder [Carter G. Woodson]. It not only highlights the impact of African-Americans on society. It also helps people remember the danger of racial and socio-economic oppression which effect more than just blacks. This month helps everyone see the importance of human rights for all people and is the reason why it should always be celebrated."

In continuing to honor the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., Black History Month, and the importance of today’s announcement to American history, we sign-off with one of our favorite passages from Obama's book Dreams of My Father (2004):

I have seen, the desperation and disorder of the powerless: how it twists the lives of children on the streets of Jakarta or Nairobi in much the same way as it does the lives of children on Chicago's South Side, how narrow the path is for them between humiliation and untrammeled fury, how easily they slip into violence and despair. I know that the response of the powerful to this disorder—alternating as it does between a dull complacency and, when the disorder spills out of its proscribed confines, a steady, unthinking application of force, of longer prison sentences and more sophisticated military hardware—is inadequate to the task. I know that the hardening of lines, the embrace of fundamentalism and tribe, dooms us all.

Revenge: A Dish Best Served with Civility

So we started the New Year with images of a botched cell phone-recorded hanging of a man a few months shy of his seventieth birthday shooting through a trap door while attempting to drown out the taunting jeers of an angry mob with his own incantations of an incomplete death prayer. By turning a judicially sanctioned execution into a degrading display of vengeance, the Iraqi government failed to seize a momentous occasion to show one of the worst offenders of human rights the dignity of death he denied to millions of Iraqis, Iranians, and Kuwaitis during his quarter-century rule. The Butcher of Bagdad certainly did not deserve to be afforded dignity in his last hours but it is not unreasonable to expect a young democracy emerging from decades of bloodshed to use every opportunity to teach those it governs the virtues of justice and forgiveness.

We recognize the Iraq war is highly divisive and many, including those in the Ethiopian-American community, are frustrated about this war that has dragged on with no respite in sight and that has left tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis and more than 3024 U.S. troops dead. Despite the horrific Faustian scenes out of Bagdad and Anbar and the Bush administration’s screw-ups since declaring victory in Iraq (we draw our conclusions from Bob Woodward’s three-part book Bush at War (I-III) and particularly State of Denial—all three are great reads), immediate redeployment of U.S. troops at this time is not a feasible option and would be disastrous for the people of Iraq. The Democrats on the Hill have so far failed to articulate a sound and a workable solution in Iraq. Their hands are understandably tied--they do not control the executive branch of the government and there are few options left. But to demand instant troop withdrawal is to abandon any hope for democracy in Iraq.

No one needs to remind Iraqis to rise to this critical point in their history and to reject sectarianism and the temptation to vendetta themselves into extinction. Those with cooler heads--including the government of Nouri al-Maliki--must do everything in their power to become the calming waters that douse the passions ablaze in that nation and not the kindling that enflames them.

The Iraqi government’s missteps of late demonstrated its ability to sink to mind-boggling levels of incompetence leaving a world aghast and to wonder if the yet again botched and nauseating beheading of the despot’s half-brother is a harbinger of worse times ahead for the people of Iraq. We certainly hope not. Iraqi blogs we often visit, including Iraq the Model, Iraq Pundit, Iraq at a Glance, Iraq Girl, Healing Iraq, The Mesopotamian and others depict a challenging but not an impossible road ahead for Iraqis.

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In Republic of Fear we briefly touched on our extreme opposition to the death penalty, even when administered to those who commit mass human rights violations. We applaud the Ethiopian High Court’s decision to sentence Mengistu Hailemariam and his aides to life in prison following that court’s conviction of the primary architects of Qey Shibir (Red Terror) of the crimes of genocide, murder, imprisonment, and property seizure. We have lost families during the Qey Shibir scourges but nothing we do can return our loved ones to us. (Postings that discuss the Qey Shibir include Revanchist Hearts and Perfect Genocide Memorial.)

We continue to grieve our family members but no Kerchele hanging or firing squad will provide solace to our bruised souls. Contrariwise, the High Court’s decision uplifted our spirits: the life sentences reminded us that somehow, the cycle of death spun by Mengistu Hailemariam—one of the most evil Ethiopians alive—needed to come to a halt.

Several questions arise following the Federal High Court’s decision: was it prompted to project the image of judicial independence in Ethiopia? Is this a cynical attempt to legitimize the same court that is trying the leaders of the Coalition for Unity & Democracy (CUD), journalists, and others, and who are facing charges that carry the penalty of death? Was it intended to make possible convictions palatable for consumption in the international community?

The EPRDF’s relentless pursuit of convictions for bogus treason and attempted genocide charges forces cynicism into our writing. Regardless, whether the High Court's decision was made in the Guebbi or in the minds of undeterred judges, how can Ethiopia ever justify the need for a death penalty statute in its books? If the High Court’s life sentences survive appeal, given the fact that an Ethiopian court has spared the lives of some of the worst human rights offenders, what use does the death penalty serve the country? Put differently, how can an Ethiopian court pass a death sentence on a common murderer when those who exterminated an entire generation of kids were spared the ultimate sentence? Would that death sentence ever pass the smirk test?

The only solution is for Ethiopia to get rid of state-sanctioned death immediately and to join 13 nations in Africa that have abolished the death penalty for all crimes (Angola, Cape Verde, Cote D’Ivoire, Djibouti, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Sao Tome & Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, and South Africa). Twenty other African nations retain the death penalty on the books but according to Amnesty International, no longer carry out executions (guess which country is on that list).

This is the last posting we will write on Mengistu Hailemariam. We consider the chapter on that monster closed and we’re pretty much done talking about that vermin. More pressing issues confront Ethiopian democracy, and perhaps the most important is the February 2007 date when the Ethiopian High Court will decide if the charges and evidence presented against the leaders of the CUD and others hold water. This is Ethiopia’s greatest test in 2007—whether its judges will tell the EPRDF that its pitiful treason and attempted genocide charges are as empty as the democracy the party promised and took away from the people of Ethiopia in 2005.

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This posting is for the thousands of Ethiopian families (including mine) who lost loved ones in the hands of the Derg since that fateful day in November 1974 when 58 former officials were slaughtered in the Alem Bekagn ("Enough of this World") ward of Kerchele Prison.

This posting is also for the children of Iraq who’ve learned to fall asleep with the sound of exploding mortars. May God protect them in the coming days.