guardian.co.uk,
Afua Hirsch, Wednesday 8 August 2012
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| Meles Zenawi, pictured in September last year, is believed to have received medical treatment somewhere in Europe. Photograph: Khaled Elfiqi/EPA |
He hasn't
been seen in public since the G8 summit in Mexico, and since then Ethiopia's
prime minister, Meles Zenawi, has even missed the African Union summit held in
his own capital city, Addis Ababa.
Zenawi, 57,
usually a conspicuous figure at meetings of African and international heads of
state, has now been missing for more than seven weeks, amid growing
incredulity.
Government
sources in the secretive African nation say that Meles – who was seen looking
frail before his disappearance – is resting but well, but more than one eyebrow
has been raised at the reasons for his absence. "The Prime Minister is on
vacation recovering from illness," an Ethiopian government source told the
Guardian. "There has been a lot of ill-meant speculation about his
health."
But there
have been numerous reports that Meles traveled to Europe for medical treatment,
prompting debate about its success as his recovery period continues unabated.
Some media reports have claimed Meles visited the Saint-Luc hospital in
Belgium, while the Egyptian state information service reported that Meles
underwent surgery in Germany, prompting a cable of good wishes from President
Mohamed Morsi.
The
Ethiopian press – regarded as one of the least free in Africa – has also
reported that Meles is recovering from medical treatment. Experts say there is
widespread confusion as to the fate of the prime minister, even within the
secretive ruling party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF).
"It is
a mystery what has happened to Meles and not even his own ministers know his
fate," an exiled Ethiopian source said. "Media in Ethiopia have been
getting it wrong and have now dropped the story altogether." Some analysts
have claimed that Meles will not return to power at all, after a senior member
of the TPLF, Sibhat Nega, stated that the party was working on a power
succession and that the regime could continue in the event of
"individuals" dying or leaving the government.
The death
of president John Atta Mills in Ghana last month led to a rare broadcast on
Ethiopian state TV on how to mourn the death of a leader, which has also
fuelled speculation that Meles's health may be further deteriorating. It is not
the first time that an African government has failed to confirm the illness or
death of a leader in office, prompting periods of mysterious absence.
A century
ago Emperor Menelik II, the founder of modern imperial Ethiopia, was buried in
1913 without any public announcement after he had been incapacitated by a
stroke for several years, leaving the administration of the country in the
hands of a specially appointed council.
More
recently, the late Nigerian president Umaru Yar'Adua was neither seen nor heard
from for almost six months – apart from one phone interview with the BBC –
between travelling to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment, and his eventual
death in May 2010.
Earlier
this year news of president Bingu wa Mutharika of Malawi's death was leaked to
the press, but not confirmed by the government for 24 hours, prompting fears of
a power struggle and nearly triggering a constitutional crisis before he was
eventually succeeded by the current president, Joyce Banda.
The
tendency to shroud the sickness and deaths of leaders has been repeatedly criticised
for destabilising often fragile democracies and triggering secretive succession
crises. There have been a flurry of searches and social media interactions on
the fate of Meles by Ethiopians – including a popular #WhereIsMeles hashtag on
twitter, but his absence from government is of concern to donors, who pump
almost $4bn (£2.6bn) of aid into Ethiopia every year.
It is
thought that deputy prime minister and foreign minister, Hailemariam Desalegn,
is temporarily in charge, alongside other members of the ruling party. But one
diplomatic source in Addis Ababa said that no western government was sure as to
the whereabouts or fate of the Ethiopian leader.
Meles, who
came to power in 1991 following a 30-year war that toppled the Soviet-backed
regime of former president Mengistu Haile Mariam, has long been popular with
donors for his record of delivering growth to Ethiopia, whose economy has been
growing at an estimated 9% per year for almost a decade.
Ethiopia
receives hundreds of millions of dollars in aid and support from the US, which
welcomes its peacekeeping and military intervention in neighbouring conflicts
in Somalia and Sudan. But Meles is viewed by many as a dictator who has stifled
democracy and used draconian methods to silence dissent. The Committee to
Protect Journalists, which regularly condemns the trial and imprisonment of
journalists in Ethiopia, says that one newspaper – the weekly Feteh – was
ordered by the government to block dissemination of 30,000 copies reporting on
the prime minister's whereabouts.
"The
ban on Feteh's latest issue illustrates the depth of repression in Ethiopia
today and authorities' determination to suppress independent coverage of the
prime minister," said Tom Rhodes of the CPJ. "Every citizen has a
right to be informed about the wellbeing of their leader and the conduct of
their government."
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