Ethiopia’s former opposition leader, Birtukan Mideksa returned to her home after eight years of exile in the US. She was arrested twice and spent several years in prison.
The Ethiopian government initiated her return as her skills are needed for the ongoing reform in the country.
Birtukan has expressed an interest in the area of building democratic institutions relevant for democratizing Ethiopia.
Birtukan is Back
Over 40 police, defense, security officials arrested
In what has become a major operation, a special task force has begun arresting higher officials of the National Defense Force, former security and intelligence directors and police officers since the middle of last week. The task force which is being led by the Attorney General’s Office has reportedly placed over 40 people in custody.
Those being incarcerated are suspected of human rights violations, according to sources in the Defense Force. One of those is the former director of Attorney General’s Office, who previously prosecuted people under anti-terrorism law.
The suspects from the intelligence office include Dr. Hashim Kassim and Yared Zerihun. Hashim was serving in the Legal Affairs Directorate of the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS).
Yared Zerihun who resigned from his appointment as the director general of the federal police commission was among those detained. Yared was among the few who were appointed by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed during the cabinet reshuffle on April 19.
Before serving as police commissioner in April, Yared was a deputy director in the NISS.
Leaders of the Addis Ababa Police Force are also on the wanted list, sources revealed.
Reta Tesfaye who was leading the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the rank of Deputy Commissioner was also said to be among those who are suspected. He was replaced by Tekola Ayfokiru, during the first reshuffling measures of Abiy Ahmed.
The ongoing investigation which consists of many cases is said to involve major corruption, violation of human rights and terrorism.
Berhanu Tsegaye, Attorney General of FDRE declined to comment about the matter.
In a related development Ayisha Mohammed (Eng.) Minister of Defense told Capital that the change in the National Defense Forces is due to the change in the criteria and the diversification, but not because of the arrests. The diversification was said to be made based on gender and education.
For claims of violations of human rights over the high post commanders in the NDF Ayisha stated that her knowledge is limited to the current efforts of the force for improvement or its values.
“We will conduct various intervention to raise the understanding of the military on the humanitarian core values” she added.
NBE evaluating suppliers credit scheme
The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) is evaluating the amended directive FXD/47/2017 which addresses external loans and supplier’s credit, Capital learned.
The directive amended the 2002 ‘external loan and supplier’s credit directive no. REF/05/2002’ which allowed foreign investors to access foreign commodity credit with a guarantee from local commercial banks. The law was applied as of October 2017. It has been criticized by local investors engaged in import substitution and heavy industries. The financial leaders and experts have also expressed their concern that it may pressure them to settle the credit as opposed to allocating foreign currency on a letter of credit basis. At the same time banks expressed anxiety that they would be unable to collect their money from manufacturers who received large loans. In the past two years the hard currency shortage has forced manufacturers to shrink their production or stop it altogether.
Experts are arguing that the directive goes against the investment proclamation.
Legal experts argued that the 769/2012 investment proclamation erroneously mentioned on the central bank directive FXD/47/2017 as ‘679/2012’ on its part one article 2/4 stated that investor means a domestic or a foreign investor that invested in Ethiopia.
“The proclamation indicated that it has not divided local and foreign investors in relation to acquiring external loans,” a business consultant said, “but they claim the central bank directive went against it.”
“This is an apartheid law that only benefits foreigners at the cost of local investors,” one of the legal experts explained.
This was one of the top issues in discussions held at the central bank last week between leaders of the central bank and financial firms.
Bankers said that the suppliers’ credit scheme not only affects local investors but the financial institutions themselves because there is a risk their clients may default.
“When the banks secure hard currency they focus on settling the credit rather than approving the LC for other clients who are not included in the supplier’s credit scheme, which is also another effect on local investors,” bankers told Capital, “this system has also forced the local producers to be excluded from the market and suffer from bankruptcy due to several expenses including overhead cost and salary for employees that are difficult to avoid”.
“The suppliers credit issue was mentioned in the meeting and we have also asked about the legality of the directive when comparing it with the investment proclamation,” one of the participants at the meeting told Capital.
However sources who attended the meeting told Capital that any response regarding the supplier’s credit was not given by the governor.
Meanwhile sources said that the central bank is looking at the directive to see what to revise. Sources said that the governor ordered experts to revise it, however Capital was unable to confirm it from Yinager Dessie (PhD).
Investors that Capital talked to said that they are not against facilitating credit for FDI’s since it is one of the ways to attract new investors. “We are claiming that the law should consider the reality,” an investor who asked to be anonymous said.
They said that if they partly or fully sold their factories to foreigners the factory may be allowed to import input via the supplier’s credit scheme. “We are asking this, why did the government force local investors out from the manufacturing sector using these kinds of tactics. However, at the same time the government pushed the local business community to get involved in the manufacturing business as opposed to focusing on importing finished goods and wholesale trading,” they claimed.
According to manufacturers, currently several businesses like heavy industries in the chemical, metal and some food and beverage and garment companies owned by local investors are up for sale because they are unable to run their usual operation and at the same time the bank loans have to be paid.
When local investors, who have thousands of employees, layoff their workers, it will also affect the social structure, according to experts.
WHAT ABYE AHMED MUST DO NEXT
Fast forward ten years, I hope to tell my granddaughter that once upon a time, Ethiopia appeared headed for a bloodbath. Many believed that ethnic extremism would capture the day and that the country was destined for violent chaos. In the end, Abye Ahmed and Team Lema’s visionary leadership proved them wrong.
Jumping back to 2018, Addis Ababians (and the Diaspora) remain overwhelmingly crazed by Dr. Abye and Team Lema …And why is it that Dr. Abye and Team Lema are so mesmerizing?
One of the main reasons is that these fellows, by some miraculous actions, not only defeated and chased TPLF’s goons and its minions, they, and in particular Abye Ahmed (AA), had the temerity to do what no typical Prime Minister would dare do… manage a revolution; and he has done it with so much style, sophistication, flair and wit, it may have heralded the end of an era.
Let me share my five favorite take-homes so far: Peace with Eritrea, opening of the political space for all, freedom of the press, a ministerial team that for the first time in the country’s history is equally balanced between men and women, and the pushup stunt with the mutineers.
No, Dear Readers this fellow (AA) can walk on water and can perform miracles. He literally tried to make us believe that government is now a saint, that it (the government) fears us… the citizens? But we’re no fools. Cover it up with sweet honeyed myths at the end of the day we know government uses a big stick to get what it wants.
Anyway, there is nothing wrong for citizens to begin to think of Ethiopia as a possible success story as long as they understand that the post-TPLF transition remains unfinished. Reforms take time, and progress depends on patient, considerate, and honest win-win deals. Allowing win-win deals is the only way to know what people want… and the only way for them to get it. Win-lose deals imposed by governments are a drag on growth and progress.
Meanwhile, to claim the crown in 2020, there are three issues Abye Ahmed should consider, before time is running out:
Establish a Special Committee on Electoral Reform that will consult broadly with Ethiopians from north to south and from east to west. The aim is to improve the representativeness of our political system, make sure it works effectively and fairly for all nation and nationalities of the country. The Committee should, among other things, deal with issues of public financing for political parties, identify and conduct a study of viable alternate voting systems to replace the first-past-the-post system, develop cases for or against parliamentary democracy, examine mandatory voting, create E-Consultation on Electoral Reform to solicit Ethiopians living abroad views on the issue etc…and more. The big challenge here is to try to figure out a system where the pluses outweigh the minuses.
Establish a Task Force that will identify actions to address Government regulations that are unnecessarily burdensome, complex, redundant, or duplicate to unleash business transformation. In Ethiopia today business is the victim of excessive regulations. Clearly business go through too many regulations and, in many cases, these regulations impose excessive and unnecessary costs on business. The main focus should not be on policy as such, but rather on any undue costs for business in the implementation of policy through regulation. In short, such taskforce should be tasked to identify a forward agenda comprising some 80-100 reforms to existing regulations that would boost growth. In addition, the taskforce should also advise how the processes and institutions responsible for regulation could be improved to avoid the same problems simply re-emerging.
Reform the Judicial structure of the country. It’s critical at this juncture for both the federal and regional governments to occupy a direct role in shaping the nation’s court system. Because it’s critical to maintain control over the quality of judges and patronage opportunities for prestigious judicial positions on the nation’s most senior courts, the government (regional and federal) should agree to allow the federal government with the authority to appoint judges to the regional superior courts – that is the superior and appeal courts in each region. As a consequence, in each regional state, there exists a regionally-created court system in which the lower courts – where the vast majority of the nation’s legal business occurs – are administered by provincially appointed judges. In that same province the superior courts, which hear trials involving serious criminal offences, civil suits involving amounts above a specified limit, and appeals from the province’s lower courts, are supervised by federally appointed judges.
Anyway the guy knows what to do and how to do it. But just in case…
Stay tuned!
