Jendayi E. Frazer’s Deceptions, Evasions and Lies at the University of Washington

Sophia Tesfamariam
June 14, 2008

When I heard that US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs was going to speak on 30 May 2008 at the University of Washington, I was hoping that Eritreans, Ethiopians, Somalis and others who have been negatively affected by US Policy for Africa could attend. Many did and I have been reading their varied reports and watching the video on youtube. Despite the deaths and destructions her faulty intelligence and analysis have caused in Africa, she admitted to no mistakes and maintained her arrogant and unrepentant stance. The same rehearsed spill she presents in Washington, DC was repeated in Washington State.

In my opinion this event exposed her irrational and myopic thinking, as well as her arrogance and condescending impressions of Africa and its people. This time the people questioning her were not policymakers who are too removed from Africa to give a hoot, they were the stakeholders- those whose fellow countrymen, women and children were being affected by the racist and incoherent policy she promotes as being pro-Africa. Instead of dealing with facts, she seemed to dwell on hearsay and rumors -a characteristic she shares with her Horn advisor Meles Zenawi. Frazer´s presentation was filled with lies, evasions and deceptions. The scary part of it all is that this woman believes what she is saying!

For today, I want to address Frazer´s blatant lies, deceptions and evasions. The biggest glaring evasion was Ethiopia. Better than half of her time has been spent shuttling to and from Ethiopia, so it was interesting that she conveniently left out developments in Ethiopia as part of her Statement. Whilst she talked about the “setbacks” encountered in the Kenyan and Zimbabwean elections, she neglected to mention the rigged 2005 May elections in Ethiopia, where post election violence resulted in the deaths of over 200 people, and the detention of over 40,000 across Ethiopia when Ethiopians voted Meles Zenawi´s regime out of office. She also did not mention the imprisonment of opposition leaders and their supporters, nor did she mention of the massacres in Gambela, Ogaden and Oromia region of Ethiopia.

As I said earlier, the audience was not made up of bored disengaged technocrats, there were Eritreans, Ethiopians, Somalis and others who insisted on raising issues she would have rather shoved under the rug. Almost all the questions seem to concentrate on Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia, her three biggest, deadliest strategic blunders and failures. Ethiopians asked her some very poignant questions about the United States, its fast declining moral standards, its continued support of Meles Zenawi despite the rigged 2005 elections, the massacres of unarmed protesters in Ethiopia, the genocides in Ogaden and more.

Claiming she was not at the State Department at the time of the Ethiopian elections, she attempted to duck responsibility. She began her answer by saying that she was the US Ambassador to South Africa at the time of the Ethiopian elections and had made no comments. She also said something that was blatantly false. She repeatedly denied that the US had supplied the Humvees that were used by Meles Zenawi´s forces during the post election protests. Frazer said:

“…I have no knowledge of US selling humvees to Ethiopia…”

She may have not been at the Bureau of African Affairs at the time but she more than made up for that absence when she did come. As for her amnesia on the US provided Humvees to Meles Zenawi´s regime, allow me to present a statement made Huddleston which will contradict Frazer´s lies. Here is an excerpt from a January 2006 report by AFP on the said Humvees:

“…The United States has barred the sale of Humvee military vehicles to Ethiopia after Addis Ababa used previously purchased Humvees to quell political protests in violence that killed at least 85 people, a senior US diplomat said…Vicki Huddleston, the charge d’affairs at the US embassy in Addis Ababa, said the United States had been disappointed to see that several of 20 Humvees sold to Ethiopia in the past had been misused to “disperse demonstrations” and that future sales had been cancelled…”(These vehicles) were here only for use in anti-terrorist activities,” she told reporters. “We have now decided not to sell any more Humvees to the Ethiopian army…”

How is it that Vicki Huddleston had knowledge of US selling Humvees to Ethiopia and Frazer didn´t? I have long considered Huddleston, Frazer´s surrogate, to be dishonest and callous, but on this issue, the facts again speak against Frazer. For someone who spent the better half of her time in Ethiopia, I am wondering why she chose to deny any knowledge about the Humvees in Ethiopia. This person who claims to read the minds of Eritreans, knows for a fact what Eritreans are doing and saying even though she has never set foot in Eritrea, yet, claims to have no knowledge of what her own Administration is doing…go figure!

Frazer also did not mention the role played by US officials, including Aurelia E. Brazeal the former US Ambassador to Ethiopia, Donald Yamamoto, current US Ambassador to Ethiopia and Department, in the weakening and dismantling of the Ethiopian opposition.

She also did not mention the US-backed Ethiopian war of invasion and occupation of Somalia. She did not admit to any mistakes and any wrongdoing in the planning and execution of the illegal war. It should be recalled that Jendayi E. Frazer was present at the meeting in Addis Ababa where the plan for the invasion of Somalia was hatched. It was agreed at that meeting that the minority regime in Ethiopia would not be condemned. Frazer and the State Department saw to it that the US media did not talk about the invasion as being in violation of Somali´s sovereignty or as occupation.

She also did not mention Vicki Huddleston, the former US Charge D´Affaires in Ethiopia and how she along with Frazer sold the US-backed Ethiopian invasion of Somalia through their media. Vicki Huddleston, one of Meles Zenawi´s skirted friends encouraged the invasion of Somalia, which she justified as being necessary to prevent an “Islamic” Government from being formed in Somalia and to prevent the expansion of an “Islamic Caliphate” in the Horn of Africa and beyond. This woman wanted the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) removed because they were creating too many rigid rules that Somalis did not like. From banning movies to banning Khat, which according to her was “the mild narcotic” good for Somalis (even though it is banned in the US).

Today, after a year and a half of chaos and destruction in Somalia, after the massacres of thousands and the destruction of Somalia, Frazer now wants to talk to the UIC-the very same group that she ousted in December 2006. Who is going to be held responsible for the war crimes in Somalia? Who is going to compensate the people of Somalia for the wanton destruction of their country? Frazer cannot simply talk about the “situtation” in Somalia, she owns the carnage in Somalia. Whatever the “situation” is in Somalia, she owns it.

Frazer talked about the US training peacekeepers for global missions through the African Union and the United Nations and said that Ethiopia, Ghana, South Africa and Nigeria were amongst the top 10 troop contributors. I am not surprised that Ethiopia is amongst the list, as the mercenary regime is only following in the footsteps of its predecessors who have sent Ethiopia´s sons to far away places in order to effectuate external policies. Ethiopia´s sons have served in Korea and in the Congo in the early 60s. I encourage all to read about that UN Mission to the Congo and its role during the CIA killing of Patrice Lumumba, the democratically elected leader of Congo. It´s not hard to discern the real purpose of these peacekeeping missions anymore. The fact that Ethiopian forces are today in Somalia and Burundi comes as no surprise; they go where their handlers need them to go.

This statement from Frazer made aboard Air Force One En route to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania on 16 February 2008 explains the rules for mercenaries:

“…We can also go to Burundi, where the United States pushed the regional countries to respond to what was then a possible genocide in Burundi. We stopped that from occurring and we, in fact, supported South Africa, Mozambique and Ethiopia, which was the first AU-peacekeeping mission that had ever been deployed on the continent with those three countries. And we financially backed in and then actually pushed those countries to deploy that peacekeeping operation in Burundi…”

As long as Meles Zenawi´s thugocracy gets its stipends, who cares about Ethiopia´s sons!

In explaining US-Eritrea relations, Frazer said that the relationship had soured during the Clinton Administration, again attempting to distance herself-this time from the Clinton Administration. Whilst she may not have been at the US State Department, she was at the White House and the National Security Council (NSS), working under Gayle Smith during the Clinton Administration where the very Policy for Africa that she is implementing was crafted. Her hostile attitudes and bias against Eritrea were cultivated during the Clinton era and a change in the colorful personalities made no difference!

If we were to look at its record in the Horn of Africa, it allowed Meles Zenawi to invade and occupy sovereign Eritrean territories, deport over 80,000 Eritreans and Ethiopians of Eritrean origin from Ethiopia and confiscate their hard earned properties, did nothing when Meles Zenawi violated the air moratorium that Clinton personally brokered and went on to bomb Asmara and other cities in Eritrea, and watched as Meles Zenawi launched three successive offensives that led to the deaths of 19000 Eritreans and over 120,000 Ethiopians and appeased the regime as it destroyed vital infrastructures, grazed Eritrean farmlands, burnt and looted properties, and destroyed the cemeteries of Eritrea´s beloved Martyrs. For their credit, the Clinton team did craft the Algiers Agreements, which have brought a legal resolution to the border conflict between Eritrea and Ethiopia.

So what is different about this Administration´s handling of the butcher in the Horn? Not much. Under this Administration´s watch, Meles Zenawi committed genocides in the Gambela, Ogaden and Oromo regions of Ethiopia, massacred hundreds of innocent civilians and detained over 40,000 Ethiopians for voting the regime out of office. Frazer and her cohorts covered up for Meles Zenawi´s crimes and provided it with diplomatic, financial, political and military support and shield, as he continues to violate international law by refusing to abide by the Eritrea Ethiopia Boundary Commission´s Final and Binding delimitation and demarcation decisions. Joseph Opala, an American anthropologist, stated that the Clinton Administration record in Africa was more like “a thousand triumphs and a million dead”; I´ll venture and say the Bush Administration´s record might just be worse.

The latest bloodshed is the US-backed Ethiopian invasion and occupation of Somalia. Frazer was present and participated in the planning of the Ethiopian invasion of December 2006 which has caused the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians, destroyed schools, hospitals, markets, airport and ports and other vital infrastructures. Meles Zenawi´s forces have managed to create the greatest humanitarian disaster in Somalia´s history. The bloodshed continues and today, Frazer and her cohorts are attempting to create an exit strategy for Meles Zenawi´s invading forces.

Insulting the intelligence of the astute Horn of Africa citizens present, in a futile attempt to deny the undeniable, trying to explain the souring of US-Eritrean relations and that the problem was Eritrea´s “misinterpretation” the 2002 US National Security Strategy (NSS), Frazer denied what was clearly spelled out in the NSS by saying:

“…we didn´t call them “anchor states”, we didn´t call them strategic US partners…”

Frazer ought to go back and read her Administrations policy papers more carefully before opening her mouth and embarrassing herself. As for Eritrea “misinterpreting” the US National Security Strategy, I believe it is Frazer that is misrepresenting what it said. She tells her audience that the Eritrean Ambassador had discussed it with her. He may have, but philosophical or intellectual discussions and opinions should not be misconstrued to mean more. The mistake here is that he believed he was talking to someone who could tell the difference.

As for calling the said states “anchors”, for the record allow me to present an excerpt from the NSS and also the interpretations by others as to what it meant. In July 2003 the State Department released a statement amplifying the Administration´s strategy for Africa. It said:

“…Africa´s great size and diversity requires a security strategy that focuses on bilateral engagement and builds coalitions of the willing. This Administration will focus on three interlocking strategies for the region: …countries with major impact on their neighborhood such as South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, and Ethiopia are anchors for regional engagement and require focused attention…”

In an 8 October 2003 Ask the White House session, Frazer clearly sates the following in response to a question about Kenya:

“…in President Bush’s national security strategy, Kenya is designated as one of the four strategic countries for US engagement in Africa…”

Eritrea was not alone in interpreting what the NSS meant by “anchor states”, others had similar understanding. Frazer herself detailed what the NSS meant during a speech she delivered in South African on 24 February 2005:

“…We look at Africa in terms of its sub-regions. We´re trying to pursue our four priorities in each of the sub-regions, looking at West Africa as a whole, Southern Africa as a whole, East Africa as a whole, the Horn and then Central Africa. The first cut of our approach to our Africa policy is this strategic understanding of the importance of the sub-regions…When we look at those sub-regions, Nigeria is obviously a key country on a strategic basis for engagement in West Africa. South Africa is a key country for strategic engagement in Southern Africa. The NSS also sets out Kenya as a key country in East Africa, and Ethiopia in the Horn of Africa…”

So what is there to misinterpret? Eritrea did not imagine this, or misinterpret it. Regardless of what Eritrea felt about the NSS, it is after all the prerogative and sovereign right of the US to promote whatever strategy it wants and have relationships with whomever it wants. Ditto for Eritrea. Eritrea would have issues only if the US were to advance its own national interests in the region at the expense of Eritrea´s peace, security and stability-as it has done for the last 40 years.

Furthermore, the actions of the State Department belie her assertions, especially in the case of Eritrea and Ethiopia where the bias is obvious. The double standards employed by the Department, the duplicitous and hypocritical stance during the Eritrea Ethiopia border conflict and after, the manner with which it handled the Final and Binding delimitation and demarcation decisions, its disproportionate diplomatic, financial, military and political support and shield of Meles Zenawi´s belligerent vote rigging minority regime on the one hand, and the unprovoked hostile stance towards Eritrea, the incessant harassments and interference in the internal affairs of the country, and the financing of subversive activities in Eritrea are just a few examples. Whatever biases existed at the US State Department against Eritrea, they were fueled and exacerbated by Frazer in her attempt to appease Meles Zenawi and the minority regime in Ethiopia.

Exposing her vindictive and myopic thinking, Frazer insinuated that Eritrea was upset with the US for declining Eritrea´s offer for a base in Eritrea. If Eritrea had indeed offered the US a base in Eritrea, as Frazer claimed, there is nothing wrong with that and Eritrea is certainly not upset with the US´ decision to go elsewhere. Actually, it may have been a blessing in disguise. Frazer must know that Eritrea´s strategic location is not one that Eritreans have to market; it is obvious. I am not sure what point Frazer was trying to make by making such a childish statement, but then again, she knows nothing about Eritreans. Unlike the minority regime in Ethiopia, which suffers from an incurable inferiority complex, the politically mature and visionary Government of Eritrea (GoE) is not in the habit of throwing Meles Zenawi-like childish tantrums, or making important political decisions on the fly.

Frazer was asked what part of the Final and Binding decision of the Eritrea Ethiopia Boundary Commission (EEBC) she and her cohorts didn´t understand. She went into a long-winded incoherent explanation in a futile attempt to justify her illegal behavior of going to Badme, a sovereign Eritrean territory under Ethiopian occupation, through Ethiopia. Something she said just didn´t jive. She told the participants that the Eritreans said:

“…We are not going to give you a visa…We are not going to allow you in our country…”

That is not true. Eritrea issued her a visa but told her that they would not facilitate her trip to Badme through Eritrea, as they did not see the relevance of it. The Eritrean delegation led by Yemane Ghebreab, traveled all the way to Washington, DC to talk to her. She was issued a visa and welcomed to visit Eritrea but was told that Eritrea would not facilitate her trip to Badme or anywhere else on the border because she did not have any legal or other mandate there. Frazer seems to have learned the “divide and conquer”, “pit one against the other” techniques of her masters quite well. She said that whilst Yemane Ghebreab was willing to accommodate her trip to Badme, the President of Eritrea refused to allow it. How desperate and laughable!

Frazer denied that she ever tried to reverse the EEBC decision and insinuated that John Bolton had it all wrong in his latest book in which he says that she did. Her actions prove otherwise and the record remains clear. Having had absolutely no mandate to delimit or demarcate the border, what was the point of her visit to the border and what about her introduction of General Fulford to “adjust” the border line by 1km? If not to change the decision and give Badme to Ethiopia what are we supposed to make of her public statements about “divided villages” that parroted Meles Zenawi´s minority regime´s sentiments? Instead of trying to “understand the demarcation process”, Frazer and her cohorts should have enforced the rule of law and allowed those who were given the mandate to demarcate the border fulfill their obligations without interference.

In another attempt to blame Eritrea for the US-led international community´s failures, Frazer told the audience that Eritrea kicked out the UN Mission to Eritrea and Ethiopia (UNMEE) knowing full well that it was Ban Ki Moon and Meles Zenawi that decided to vacate Eritrea and “relocate” UNMEE to Ethiopia without ever discussing it with Eritrea. If Frazer had indeed contemplated shutting down UNMEE, why did she approve to have UNMEE “relocate” to Ethiopia? It was obvious to all and the agenda was transparent. The “relocation of UNMEE to Ethiopia” was an attempt to perpetuate Ethiopia´s occupation of sovereign Eritrean territories, including Badme, and create another interminable crisis.

Frazer also referred to the status between Eritrea and Ethiopia as an “impasse”. When one party refuses to abide by the rule of law and the Security Council refuses to shoulder its moral and legal obligations to enforce the rule of law because the US Administrations prevents it from doing so- it is realpolitik and a recipe for disaster. The fact is that the Eritrea Ethiopia border issue has been legally resolved and the border has been legally delimited and demarcated. Whether the Security Council endorses it or not, whether the US State Department accepts it or not, the issue now is not about “demarcating the border”, rather it is removing Meles Zenawi´s occupation forces from sovereign Eritrean territories, including Badme. Misrepresenting the facts is not going to absolve the US and UN of their moral and legal obligations under the Algiers Agreements and the UN Charter.

In discussing US diplomatic strategies, Frazer said that the US was engaged in dialogue with various parties. When asked about Meles Zenawi, the US´ “staunch ally in the global war on terror” meeting with terrorist organizations in Ethiopia, once again, Frazer denied knowledge of Meles Zenawi´s meetings with members of the Eritrean Islamic Jihad (EIJ), a terrorist group, which is part of the Eritrean Alliance. For someone who has courted the so-called Eritrean opposition, held dialogues with them at the State Department, and encouraged their anti-Eritrea activities, it is hard to fathom that she did not know of their meetings in Addis under the mercenary minority regime´s leadership.

When asked about US-Eritrean relations and dialogue with Eritrea, Frazer said:

“…I tried just last week to call President Isaias to give him an opportunity for us not to designate him as not fully cooperating…Secretary Rice has called President Isaias, he does not return her calls…”

The audience jeered her and rightfully so. First of all, these issues are too serious to be discussing them by phone and if she wanted to talk on the phone, it is not going to be President Isaias. She may be accustomed to picking up the phone and talking to the mercenary Meles Zenawi, but she should not expect President Isaias to stoop to that low level. If she calls Asmara, she should expect to speak to the Africa Desk Head at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. If Secretary Rice called Asmara, she would speak to the Eritrean Foreign Minister, as he is her counterpart, but neither one of them should be speaking to President Isaias, especially not on the phone. I am glad that the President of Eritrea is maintaining the dignity integrity of his office and not availing himself to every Tom, Dick and Harry that calls Asmara-especially on issues of such importance.

At a time when the US is being labeled the biggest jailer in the world, with over 2.3 million persons incarcerated in US prisons and jails, an all-time high, with more than one in 100 American adults is behind bars, the highest such rate in the world, higher than the United Kingdom, Canada, France, China and even Iran, and with African Americans and Hispanics incarceration higher than amongst Whites, Frazer feigned concern for two Eritrean nationals employed by the US Embassy in Asmara who are being detained. Ignoring the fact that Eritrea was a sovereign nation with its own internal laws, and that they were Eritrean nationals and not foreign nationals, Frazer said:

“…we don´t think that our employees should be put in jail…”

Well, US Embassy employees are not immune from prosecution if they break national laws. Nobody is above the law.

Frazer knows that the US Embassy in Asmara is responsible for the predicament of the two Eritrean nationals. They did not get arrested for nothing. It serves no purpose to pretend that the US Embassy in Asmara is not equally culpable. Since she worked for Gayle Smith, she knows only too well why the two were detained. Frazer´s concern about these two individuals who are detained in their own country is hypocritical when the very US Administration she works for is engaged in “extraordinary renditions” in which thousands are taken to secret jails around the world, some are tortured and almost all are held “incommunicado”.

Frazer´s concerns are misplaced and disingenuous. If she really believed what she was saying, where is the concern for the three Eritrean journalists that were snatched from the streets of Nairobi, Kenya on orders from the American Embassy in Kenya and sent to some god forsaken FBI run secret prison in Ethiopia, through Somalia? Why were they taken from Kenya and turned over to the illegitimate Transitional National Government (TNG) to be turned over to Meles Zenawi´s forces? What about the thousands unknown others who are being extra-judicially massacred by Meles Zenawi´s forces all over Somalia because she labeled them “jihadists”, “extremists”, “fundamentalists”- whatever that means? Frazer does not have the moral authority to point fingers at others, least of all Eritreans.

Jendayi E. Frazer´s appearance at the University of Washington exposed the bankruptcy of her office and her ignonimity and underestimation of Africa and its Diasporan citizens. It exposed her manipulative,deceptive and flip flopping nature-a trait she shares with her Horn Advisor Meles Zenawi. At the end of this term, I hope she stays clear away from Africa and takes her “expertise” elsewhere…she has caused Africa two generations worth of damage!

The rule of law must prevail over the law of the jungle!