Word: ababa
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...important as more democratic governance is the need for a method by which clans can settle grievances without reaching for rifles and hand grenades. This week in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, the U.N. is sponsoring the first of a series of conferences designed to set up an interim Somalian government prior to holding elections within two years. Of necessity, the major warlords are among the invited delegates, although some are not happy about the meeting. "The outside world cannot dictate or force us to do anything," says Mohammed Awale, one of Aidid's deputies...
...began this trip in Ethiopia. I have been to Addis Ababa many times, but am always surprised at the lush greenness and precision farming around the capital city. After overthrowing the communist regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam, acting President Meles Zenawi is attempting to implement a free-market system, protecting human rights, forming an independent judiciary and sharing political power in this poorest of all nations. With some degree of luck and moderate assistance, Ethiopia can become the most dramatic example of progress in recent history...
Other crises press on the government, giving rise to the phrase most commonly heard around the capital city of Addis Ababa: "We're still working on that." One troubling issue is the detention of nearly half of Mengistu's 400,000-strong army in two dozen camps around Ethiopia and over the border in the Sudan. Meles is worried that if the troops are released en masse, they will return home to find no food and no jobs. With half the population unemployed or underemployed, freedom for the soldiers is not likely to come soon. "You'd have people trained...
There are also thousands of civilian detainees, former sympathizers of Mengistu, who are being held without trial in Addis Ababa. The conditions are better than tolerable, and there have been no charges of torture. But few are being released. "We can't deal with them without a new judicial system," Meles explains. He believes that the establishment of courts must take a backseat to political and economic agendas, and offers no apology for the delay...
After three decades of civil war, Ethiopians are not eager to take up arms again, but many consider it an option for the future. "We don't need more war just now, but perhaps in five years we will go get Eritrea back," says a woman in Addis Ababa who has already lost one son in the civil war. That ordinary people are talking about sending their children off to war so soon after the killing has stopped is a measure of how precarious the situation remains...