EU praises Zenawi

Commission’s president highlights contribution to development made by the controversial long-time leader of Ethiopia, who died today.

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The president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, today (21 August) expressed “great sadness” at news of the death of Meles Zenawi, praising Ethiopia’s long-time leader for improving living conditions in Ethiopia and for his leadership in Africa.

Zenawi, who died in a Brussels hospital of an infection received while under treatment for an undisclosed ailment, was 57 and had been Ethiopia’s leader for two decades.

In a statement, Barroso described Zenawi as a “a respected African leader” who had “demonstrated his strong personal commitment over many years to improving the lives of not just his own but all African peoples, through his work on African unity, climate change, development and in promoting peace and stability, particularly in the Horn of Africa”.

Barroso singled out the material advances for Ethiopia’s people during Zenawi’s rule, using the UN’s Millennium Development Goals as the benchmark. Barroso said that Ethiopia, which has a population of 76 million, had “made great advances”.

In its 2010 report on Ethiopia’s progress toward the Millennium Development Goals, the UN Development Programme wrote that “the government has maximised its efforts and shown the highest level of dedication to bring about pro-poor economic growth”.

Barroso’s message of condolence made no reference to the many criticisms of Zenawi’s record on political and human rights. He did, though, make oblique reference to the limitations of Ethiopia’s political scene, saying: “I sincerely hope that Ethiopia will enhance its path of democratisation, upholding of human rights and prosperity for its people, and of further regional stabilisation and integration.”

In the latest elections, in May 2010, Zenawi’s Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) supposedly secured 99.6% of the vote.

While the US and the EU voiced some criticism of an anti-terrorism law passed in 2009, official criticism of Zenawi’s policies has been muted. Zenawi himself praised China’s approach to development while insisting that his government respected the rule of law.

Richard Dowden, the director of the Royal African Society in the UK, writing of Zenawi in May, said that “aid donors love Meles. He is well-informed, highly numerate and focused. And he delivers.”

The US-based campaign group Human Rights Watch said that Zenawi had left a mixed legacy on human rights. While the country’s economic development had been “significant, albeit uneven”, civil and political rights have deteriorated sharply since 2005, with “mounting restrictions on freedom of expression, association, and assembly”.

Leslie Lefkow of Human Rights Watch said that “donors” – such as the EU, which describes Ethiopia as “one of the largest beneficiaries of EU support” in Africa – “have too often said too little, too late about the dramatic deterioration in rights that we have witnessed over the past years”.

“Rather than focusing only on short-term stability, donors need to use their leverage to press Ethiopia’s new leadership to take steps now to ensure a truly stable Ethiopia in the long term,” she said.

Zenawi was one of the leaders of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which fought to end the military regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam in the 1970s and 1980s, and he became Ethiopia’s president in a transitional government in 1991 when the regime was toppled. Four years later, he became prime minister.

Zenawi missed several important engagements in July before confirmation emerged in late July that he was receiving treatment in Brussels. There had been speculation about Zenawi’s condition since 2009, but he had appeared in no hurry to groom a successor. Indeed, in his last government re-shuffle in 2010, he promoted younger allies over the heads of longer-standing supporters, suggesting that he planned to run for re-election in 2015.

Zenawi’s deputy, Hailemariam Desalegn, has taken over as acting prime minister.

Desalegn is one of several people seen as possible long-term replacements for Zenawi. Others include Zenawi’s wife, Azeb Mesfin, and a personal friend, the health minister Tewodros Adhanom.