By Deresse Eshetu
January 10, 2018
Getachew Assefa is the Director General, with the rank of Minister, of the TPLF controlled Ethiopian National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS). Put differently, Getachew Assefa is the Minister of National Intelligence and Security Services. Part 2 (4) of the proclamation that re-established NISS in 2013 states the following:
“PART TWO: NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY SERVICE:
Re-establishment
1/ The National Intelligence and Security Service (hereinafter the “Service”) is hereby re-established with a ministerial status as an autonomous federal government office having its own legal personality.
2/ The Service shall be accountable to the Prime Minister.
3/ No other institution shall be established that provide similar intelligence and security service at the Federal and Regional State level.”
As stated in the proclamation, NISS, was re-established with “a ministerial status”. However, the head of this key government agency, although appointed as a cabinet minister, has never been seen in public. He has been operating undercover for nearly 27 years. He had been the Deputy Head of the agency until the death of the former head, Kinfe G/Medhin, in 2001 after which he ascended to the helm. Why should a government appointee holding a cabinet level public office go undercover for so long? Why is he in hiding for over 27 years? Is it because the nature of the work requires him to do so? None of the provisions of PART 2 (12) of the NISS proclamation (2013) that describes the powers and duties of the Director General (with the rank of Minister) of the agency requires the head to conceal himself/herself from the public in order to discharge his/her duties. Part 2 (12) states:
“Powers and Duties of the Director General:
1/ The Director General shall be the chief executive officer of the Service and shall direct and administer the activities of the Service.
2/ Without prejudice to the generality of sub-article (1) of this Article, the Director General shall:
a) exercise the power and duties of the Service provided for by this Proclamation;
b) employ and administer employees in accordance with the Service’s employees administration regulations to be issued by the Council of Ministers;
c) prepare the annual work programs and budgets of the Service and implement same upon approval;
d) effect payments in accordance with the approved budget and work program of the Service;
e) designate personnel profiles, financial documents and accounts , payment receipts, work equipments, sources of information, methods, directives and work outputs as top secret and make inaccessible to any other body when there is reason to conclude that a secret that harms public interest and national security could leak;
f) represent the Service in its dealings with third parties;
g) report to the Prime Minister on the operations of the Service.
3/ The Director General may delegate part of his powers and duties to other officers and employees of the Service to the extent necessary for the efficient performance of the activities the Service.”
It is obvious that intelligence gatherings involve both overt and covert operations. So employees (or agents) who are deployed to the field to collect intelligence need to operate undercover to fill their duties effectively. However, the head of the intelligence agency who is a minister and a cabinet member doesn’t have any reasonable justification to hide himself from the public. Why would Getachew Assefa conceal himself from the very people he purports to work for their safety and security? None of the job descriptions listed above requires him to hide himself from the public. His main responsibilities in this role are to direct and oversee the agency, brief and advise the Prime Minister and the legislature on national security matters/policies and represent the agency at third party dealings. None of these responsibilities predicates concealment of the head. He is not a field agent who goes out and collects intelligence.
Moreover, none of Getachew’s predecessors who held the same office before him hid himself from the public with the exception of Kinfe G/Medhin who most likely did it for the same reason as Getachew. For instance, Colonel Workneh Gebeyehu, who founded and headed the first ever Public Security Agency in Ethiopia during Haile Selassie’s Imperial regime was a public figure. It is worth to note that Colonel Workneh took part in the 1960 failed coup against the Emperor and lost his life in the ensuing commotion. Colonel Belachew Jemaneh also ran the Ministry of Public Security during the Imperial regime without hiding himself from the public. Colonel Teka Tulu was the head of the Derg’s Standing Committee for Security Affairs and he was a well known public personality. Colonel Tesfaye Wolde Selassie who was the long serving Minister of Public Security during the Derg regime was a public figure and a face of the intelligence community in Ethiopia. He never tried to hide himself from the public.
A classified US Embassy Cable that has been leaked through Wikileaks describes Getachew Assefa as elusive. The cable summarizes a rare encounter between Ambassador Donald Yamamato of the US and Getachew Assefa as follows:
“In a rare meeting with the elusive head of the Ethiopian National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) and main hardliner within the powerful executive committee of the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) party, Ambassador and NISS chief Getachew Assefa discussed a wide range of regional and bilateral issues. Getachew made clear during the four hour private meeting that Ethiopia sought greater understanding from the U.S. on national security issues vital to Ethiopia, especially Ethiopia’s concerns over domestic insurgent groups like the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF). He spoke at length about former Addis Ababa Mayor-elect Berhanu Nega XXXXXXXXXXXX; VOA’s biased reporting; the dangers of former defense minister Seeye Abraha’s growing authority within the opposition; Ethiopia’s views on democracy and human rights;
Eritrea’s role as a rogue state in the region; and regional issues including … End Summary.”
Furthermore, Getachew Assefa is not a mere technocrat heading one of the most important agencies/ ministries of the country. He is a politician appointed to a political/public office. He is not just a politician but a member of a political party. He is not just a member of a clandestine political party but a member of the all powerful 9-member Executive Committee (the highest echelon) of the ruling political party – the TPLF that currently runs all the show in Ethiopia single-handedly. He is not just an Executive Committee member of the TPLF/EPRDF but the third ranking member of the Executive Committee next to the Chair and Deputy Chairpersons. Some analysts who are in the know of the inner workings of the front argue that he is the second most, if not the most, powerful person in the ruling party.
By the same token, Getachew is arguably the most powerful person in the TPLF/EPRDF regime in today’s Ethiopia. Needless to say that Getachew Assefa is making decisions on the fate and the day-to-day lives of over 100 million Ethiopians including on life-and-death matters (albeit extra-judicially) without the Ethiopian people (the subject) having the chance to have a glimpse at his face.
The public office that Getachew has been holding for over a quarter of a century is a cabinet position. According to the Constitution, any appointment to a cabinet position requires the consent of the Parliament. However, Getachew’s appointment has never been presented to the Parliament – not even once. He has never taken the oath of office before the Parliament as the Constitution stipulates – not even once. Therefore, he has been holding this key government position for so long without the approval of the Parliament and without taking the required oath of office before the Parliament. As stupid as it may sound, let alone the ordinary citizens of the country, even more than 95 % of members of the Ethiopian Parliament have never been shown the face of a cabinet minister holding a key public office for so long. Where in the world is this possible except in the “Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia”? Might this qualify as one of Ethiopian exceptionalisms? Sarcasm aside, this is not only a testament for how the TPLF regime violates the Constitution at will unscrupulously with impunity but it also demonstrates without a shadow of doubt that the leaders/members of the TPLF are above the law of the land in Ethiopia.
As mentioned earlier, all of Getachew’s predecessors with the exception of one led the agency in public. Why has then Getachew Assefa been so furtive for nearly three decades while holding one of the highest and key public offices in the country? There could be multiple plausible explanations for Getachew’s hiding from the public. Two of them are described as follows:
Getachew has been in hiding for all these years because of the crimes against humanity that he has been committing against the Ethiopian people. There is a saying in Ethiopia that goes something like “…hyena hides during the day because it knows what it does at night…” Getachew knows as well as the Ethiopian people do that he is the main criminal who is responsible for all extrajudicial and summary killings, forced disappearances, torture, maiming, incarcerations with or without sham trials/sentences on trumped up charges, exiling and internal displacements in Ethiopia for the last 27 years. The hiding also allows Getachew to do whatever he wants without any inhibition, none whatsoever, by giving him the power of anonymity. The self-concealment makes him feel more powerful as he feels more unreachable and more unaccountable for heinous crimes he commits. The number of innocent Ethiopians who have become victims of Getachew’s heinous and barbaric crimes easily runs into millions if not tens of millions.
The TPLF has been keeping the agency out of public attention intentionally for a number of reasons. Chief among them is TPLF’s intention to keep the agency always in its hands and one way of doing that is by making it operate under the radar without attracting much attention. Doing so has made the agency effectively inaccessible and unaccountable to anybody except to the top echelon of the TPLF. The agency is off-limit even to members of the TPLF surrogates parties like ANDM, OPDO and SEPDM. All department heads of the agency at all levels are populated by Tigreans only and most of them come from Adwa district. More than 95 % of the entire staff of the agency is composed of Tigreans. Moreover, although Getachew holds a cabinet position, his appointment doesn’t count towards the total number of TPLF’s share in the power sharing arrangement giving TPLF yet another excuse to apportion itself more cabinet positions more disproportionately.
Leaving aside TPLF’s Machiavellian modes operandi, the Ethiopian people have the right to know who runs all public offices especially at ministerial levels. The people have the right to know the names of all ministers and how they look. There is no earthly justification, none whatsoever, for a cabinet minister to hide himself from the public he claims to serve (unless he is hiding for the atrocious crimes he has been committing against the Ethiopian people). Getachew Assefa must either come out of his long hiding and appear to the people or vacate the position. The Ethiopian people should not allow him to continue to hide himself anymore.