Prelude
On January 26,
2012 the state secretary in the Norwegian Ministry of Justice, Pål K. Lønseth appearing
on TV channels announced with great sigh of relief the coming to an end of 20
years of negotiations ordeal with the dictatorial regime of Meles Zenawi to
repatriate the rejected Ethiopian asylum seekers. According to the official
press release of both the Ministry of Justice and the Directorate of
Immigration (UDI), the signed agreement carries with it the threat of forced
repatriation of about 400 rejected asylum seekers to the regime in Ethiopia.
The news of the signing
of the agreement; however, has shocked and saddened in disbelief the Ethiopian
Community in Norway in general and the stakeholders in particular (the rejected
asylum seekers who have been leading a life full of uncertainty and
hopelessness for many years). Most of these rejected asylum seekers were
working legally for many years paying taxes to the Norwegian Government, established
families, well integrated themselves with the Norwegian society and most
important of all, they have been politically active in the matters of their
country of origin, Ethiopia, with the Ethiopian opposition organizations in
Norway.
The talk about
forced repatriation agreement was surfaced for the first time on media some
seven years ago in 2005 by the then Communal and Regional Minister, Mrs. Erna
Solberg and the minister (Mrs. Erna Solberg) announced that the government of Norway
has finalized repatriation agreement with the dictatorial regime of Meles Zenawi.
Given Norway’s
track record as a leading democratic state among the western nations that
promotes the realization and respect of basic human right principles and rules
of law throughout the world including Ethiopia, no one anticipated that Norway
would be serious about negotiating and reaching agreements with the world’s
worst repressive regime of Meles Zenawi.
Meles Zenawi was the leader of the Tigrean
People Liberation Front (TPLF) during the cold war era of the 1970’s and 1980’s
and took power by force and controlled Ethiopia with iron fist without
interruption since 1991 with the approval and blessings of the victors of the
cold war era United States and United Kingdom in a negotiation meeting held in
London in 1991 which was presided over by US Ambassador Mr. Herman Cohen.
With the above
mentioned background of the Meles regime which is also well known to the
authorities and government of Norway, the government went ahead with the
experimenting of deportation of some rejected asylum seekers and the attempted
experiment was met with strong reactions from the Ethiopian Community and Ethiopian
political support organizations operating in Norway reversing the
implementation of the forced deportation.
Given the
seriousness of the situation signaled by the futile attempt to deport Ethiopian
Asylum seekers, the Ethiopian Community in Norway called for a meeting to all Ethiopians
in Norway and established in 2005 the Ethiopian Asylum Seekers Association to
engage a lawyer which would assist the association in bringing the matter
before the Norwegian courts. The process of engagement was slowed down due to
confirmations from the Communal and regional department to the association
dated 22 December 2005 that Norwegian authorities have not made a repatriation
agreement with Ethiopian authorities.
The Norwegian
and the dictatorial regime of Meles Zenawi’s diplomatic relationship faced a
serious setback after the dictator’s visit in Oslo in September, 2005 to
receive a prize from a private fertilizer producing company called Yara. The
then government of Norway led by Mr. Kjell Magne Bondevik courageously
distanced itself from officially receiving the dictator and oppressor as a head
of state due to the fact that Ethiopian in Norway had staged a huge campaign
against the Yara prize award and also staged a grand protest demonstration accusing
the dictator for bloodshed committed in his command and watch against innocent
election fraud protesters following the 2005 parliamentary election. In June
and November, 2005 around 200 innocent civilian protesters were massacred in
Addis Ababa on a broad day light by the TPLF’s Special Forces called the
Agazis.
Following the
humiliation, the Meles regime forged a hostile move against the government of
Norway culminating it in 2007 with a diplomatic break down between the two. The
Meles regime accused Norway of helping terrorism in East Africa. As a
consequence of this false allegation and Norway’s maltreatment by the Meles
regime, the crisis got a huge media attention in Norway and lead a public
resentment blaming for the failure of the first (2005-2009) Stoltenberg’s
coalition government in handling with caution the delicate and often shrewd government
of the TPLF regime of Meles Zenawi.
Since then the first
(2005-2009) and second (2009 – to date) Jens Stoltenberg coalition government
took a serious of conciliatory measures to win the trust of the dictator and
thereby stop the latter’s hostile propaganda against the good reputation of
Norway as a peace negotiator (as in Israeli-Palestinian and the Tamils-Sri Lanka’s
government conflict cases) and peace prize rewarding state (via its Nobel Peace
Prize Institution).
The following
are among the series of reconciliatory moves made by Norway:
1. Prime
Minster Jens Stoltenberg’s interest to work with the foe dictator Meles Zenawi
(the African delegate for the negotiations on climate change). Meles Zenawis’
participation at the climate-change conference in Copenhagen in December, 2009 was
met with a fierce protest from demonstrators from all over Europe including the
Ethiopian oppositions from Norway.
2. The so called open seminar and discussion
under the title ‘’Election and development in Ethiopia’’ arranged in Oslo in May
2010 by the Norwegian Development Fund. In this seminar one of the speakers
from the director of the department for east and central Africa at the
Norwegian Foreign Ministry Mr. Hans Jacob Frydenlund actually highlighted the
fictitious double digit economic growth claimed by the Meles regime and tried
to defend Norway’s continued development aid which the Ethiopian oppositions in
Norway always insist and demand to link this aid with the respect of basic
human rights and rule of law in Ethiopia. This meeting was also attended and
witnessed by the regime’s operative in Oslo.
3. The
so called open seminar and discussion under the title ‘’Politics and
development in Ethiopia’’ arranged in Oslo in November 2011 by the Norwegian
Development Fund. This time the Government representative was Mrs. Ingrid
Fiskaa, the state secretary in the Foreign Department. For questions I raised
to her as to why the Norwegian government gives a deaf ear to the repeated outcries
and concerns of the Ethiopian oppositions in Norway who always knock the doors of
your government’s ministries and; on the contrary, you continue to support the
oppressive regime making it difficult to forces who work hard day and night to
get rid of the regime? Her answer was simply ’’ it is not our job to get rid of
the regime’’ but she had no answer to another related question from the
audience i.e. ‘’Why then Norway bombed Libya and Gadafi?’’.
4. The invitation to the dictator Meles Zenawi by
the coalition government of the second Jens Stoltenberg government. The arrival
in Oslo of the dictator to participate in the conference entitled ‘’Energy for
all financing access for the poor’’ held in in Oslo, in October 10 and 11, 2011
was marked by three successful anti-Meles protest demonstrations staged by the
Ethiopian oppositions functioning in Norway. At this moment of his visit, the
dictator was once again so humiliated that he had to leave Norway without
attending the luncheon party arranged by the Norwegian Government to the
participants of the conference.
It was after this
historic resolute of the opposition in Norway in exposing the true face and
nature of the oppressor and the dictator, Meles Zenawi to the Norwegian public
and the international community that sparked the signing of the repatriation
agreement to revenge the Ethiopian Asylum Seekers who both at the leadership
and grass roots level were instrumental for the successful accomplishment of the
October 9 &10, 2011 anti-Meles protest demonstrations.
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