Power Politics Trump Democracy in US-Backed Ethiopia

Editor's Note: While reporting on water scarcity in Ethiopia, journalists Alex Stonehill and Sarah Stuteville happened to meet up with Ethiopian journalist Eskinder Nega, who has been imprisoned multiple times under the country's restrictive press laws. While not directly related to water, it felt like the story was too important to ignore.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia—Dawn in the Merkato breaks over a tangle of streets jammed with shouting hawkers and towering pyramids of ripe produce from Ethiopia's fertile countryside. Today it is a popular destination for sunburnt foreign tourists, expensive cameras poised to capture lively scenes from one of Africa's largest open-air markets.

Few of them, unloading from tour buses today, know that less then three years ago these bustling streets were stained with the blood of murdered citizens who had flooded into the center of Ethiopia's capital city to protest the contested re-election of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

"People were pissed off," says Eskinder Nega, who was a columnist and publisher for several Ethiopian newspapers during the 2005 protests. "It was the first time we really had hope, and when the elections were stolen, people were angry. … It wasn't planned — people just started pouring into the streets," Nega said. The government reaction was swift.