Etiopie na cestě k diktatuře: jak hodnotit vládu Melese Zenawiho?

Abstract

Ethiopia is probably the most important country in the Horn of Africa as we can suggest according to the renewed Czech interests as well as economic presence of mainly Asian countries. Moreover, Ethiopia is a country whose stability directly influences neighboring areas and that is why it has been chosen by the US administration as the major partner in the ‘war on terror’. Internal political life has been shaped by elimination of democratic elements and strengthening of the position of the dominant party, Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF), and its head, the Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. In the past decade Ethiopians witnessed systematic abuse of state power, physical elimination of political rivals and opposition leaders, and emigration of hundreds of others. Ethiopia has thus become the target of criticism coming from the West. The rule of Meles Zenawi is labeled by journalists as well as scholars as a “Stalinist”, “authoritarian” type of rule, or “dictatorship”, and in this sense it is often compared to the Mengistu Haile Mariam Marxist regime (1977–1991). In this study I attempt to discuss major features of the contemporary regime and show some concrete examples of TPLF policy in Ethiopia. The study is based on recent literature, Ethiopian newspapers, and interviews with scholars and informants and generally on my own research I have been conducting in Ethiopia since 2008.