Teaching dictatorship; Meles Style
Meles Zenawi is attending the official inaguaration of Yoweri Museveni in Kampala, Uganda. The parallels between these two leaders are quite astonishing.
1. Both leaders have their wives, Janet Musevini and Azeb Mesfin, elected to parliament.
2.Both put their political rivals in prison.
3. Both stayed in power for fourteen years
4. Both assumed their leadership through a rebellion.
5. Both used excessive force against demonstrators in recent months.
6. Meles is partly Eritrean while Musevini is half-Rwandese.
7. Both were praised as the new generation african leaders by the West.
Yet their differences are also noteworthy
1. Musevini has allowed independent electronic media to flourish while meles only recently allowed only two very pro-government media organizations to have a broadcasting license.
2. Uganda still has a relatively independent and strong judiciary while the Ethiopian Judiciary is such a sham.
3. Meles killed demonstrators; musevini spared lives
4. Musevini brought bailable charges of rape and corruption against his main rival while meles charged hundreds of opposition members of high treason and genocide.
5. Under musevini Uganda's economy has grown relatively faster than most sub-saharan Africa. Meles has little to show in the economic front with the ethiopian economy growing only 2% a year(with population growth taken into account) in the last fourteen years.

My Ugandan Friends tell me that Meles is having a bad influence on their leader. The teacher is in the student's inaguration. More meles style repression is expected in Uganda.

Ethio-zagol comes up with the story of the incredible court room drama tomorrow.