A Government-in-Exile for Ethiopia?

October 19,2015

by Alemayehu G. Mariam

Foreword to a “government-in-exile for Ethiopia”

A few weeks ago, I gave an interview to an Ethiopian civic group on the topic of “government in exile” under international law.

I was asked to comment on whether the idea and practice of “government in exile” is cognizable under international law.

The implicit question was whether Ethiopians could constitute a legitimate “government-in-exile” in opposition to the Thugtatorship of the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (T-TPLF) lording over Ethiopia today.

A word or two on the aim of this commentary.

The aim of my analysis here is not to endorse or discredit a particular group planning or purporting to be a “government-in-exile” for Ethiopia.  Nor is it my aim to make a political point against the T-TPLF and show my opposition to their regime, their endless crimes against humanity, their bottomless corruption, their ignorant arrogance and sheer incompetence as a governance body.

I have done that with ferocious tenacity every Monday over the past nine years.

The aim of my commentary is to shed light on a question of broad interest among Ethiopians from my legal perspective.

As a defense lawyer, I have a particular perspective on legal issues. I do not pretend to be an impartial judge.

I am a highly partisan advocate for the causes I support.

But as an academic and human rights advocate, my commitment is to the unvarnished truth, impartial justice and the defense of the rights of humans against tyrants.

That’s why I proudly proclaim in the tagline of my website, “Defend human rights. Speak truth to power.”

For the last nine years, I have been speaking truth to users, abusers and misusers power in Ethiopia, in Africa and elsewhere.

To paraphrase George Bush, “I make no distinction between the abusers and misusers of power who commit crimes against humanity in Ethiopia and the hypocrites who harbor and support them.”

I have come to believe that the root of all evil and suffering in the world is ultimately the abuse of political power and the power to abuse political power. Not money.

That is why I will advocate with the same intensity for Syrian refugees suffering under the Assad/ISIL/ISIS regimes as I would for Ethiopians suffering under the T-TPLF.

My concern for human dignity is not tied necessarily to any particular nationality, but to humanity.

As I like to say, it is not about the nationality of the man or the woman but the huMANity of the man and woman.

As most of my readers have known for nearly a decade, I would not have been involved in Ethiopian politics or human rights advocacy but for the Meles Massacres of 2005.