January 25, 2008 Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2246188,00.html

Ethiopia’s prime minister, Meles Zenawi, tells Simon Tisdall in a rare interview that western policy in the region is ill-informed and at times arrogant

‘To impose democracy from outside is inherently undemocratic’

Western countries should stop trying to browbeat Kenya’s warring political leaders into submission and do more in practical terms to prevent poverty, lack of opportunity, and Islamist terrorism from further destabilising the Horn of Africa, Ethiopia’s prime minister, Meles Zenawi, has told the Guardian.

“The threat of western sanctions as a response to the current crisis in Kenya is very, very misguided,” Meles said. “If it is presumed that the Kenyans will democratise in order to eat the peanuts of development assistance from the European Union, for example, it would be a big mistake.”

Placing pressure on resources to influence the post-election process, which has degenerated into violence amid claims of government-engineered fraud, would not work and could be counter-productive, he said.

“What it does do is give the impression that Africans democratise in response to development assistance and all you have to do is close the taps and they will sit up and behave like proper schoolchildren. That is very unfortunate and quite demeaning.”

Meles, a former guerrilla who has become one of sub-Saharan Africa’s most respected and thoughtful leaders, has held power since 1991 when the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) coalition overthrew the cold war military dictatorship of Mengistu Haile Mariam.

Praised in the west for subsequently switching ideological tack and adopting pro-market policies to boost Ethiopia’s impoverished, largely agricultural economy, he has also faced sharp criticism over alleged human rights abuses and the violent crackdown that followed his victory in the last multi-party general election in 2005.

In an exclusive interview at his office in Addis Ababa, Meles said he had personally urged Kenya’s presidential rivals, Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga, to settle their differences peacefully and legally.

And he warned that any permanent destabilisation of Kenya as a result of the current unrest would represent “an unmitigated disaster” for the entire region, adding to existing problems in Somalia, Eritrea and Sudan. Kenya’s stability was of “paramount importance”, he said.
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