Prime Minister Zenawi Meles of Ethiopia
The most significant reform regarding land use since PM Meles took power in 1991 has been the release of rural farmers from the previously oppressive fuedal system.
Meles was named leader of an interim government in Ethiopia after his party, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), waged a successful rebel war against the highly unpopular forces of dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam.
Like many other newly-appointed African heads of state, Meles is promising democracy for his nation of 50 million, as well as economic and agricultural reforms.
The task facing him is formidable, but Meles expresses great hopes for his country's future.
Meles was growing up in Tigre during these turbulent years, and he became involved in the Tigrean People's Liberation Front first as a soldier and later as a leader.
Meles has endured criticism from some Westerners for developing such a unique brand of economic policies for his country; policies that prohibit private ownership of land and maintain government control of some major industries run contrary to capitalist philosophy.
Meles expressed his dreams for his homeland in the Washington Post: "We expect that Ethiopia will be a really democratic and united country, a country not united by force of arms, but by the expressed will of the various peoples concerned.
In 2000 Meles was elected Prime Minister after national elections where the main opposition UEDF gained parliamentary seats.
Meles was also elected for another term after his party, EPRDF, won the elections, while the top opposition groups, the CUD, UEDF, UEDP and OFDM, gained a lot of votes in the 2005 elections.
Reply to Happy B-day msg on the board: Do you really mean what you say? stop using 10% of your brain lady, there's nothing good that comes from Melez Zenawi he's an animal and back stobber, you speaking down on Oromo people, lady please don't forget if you are from the Tigray or Agame tribe which i assume, you learn everything you know from the Eritreans which fed you, educate you and made you whom you are but you didn't turn to be as you suppose because you stupid you don't know any better besides cleaning and begging, meles is a killer and if it wasn't for the Eritreans you were nobody and he wouldn't be the president that he is now but yet he turned on the Eritreans and try to still a land, I am proud Eritrean and don't hate Ethipians because we are the same people but hate Meles and his whole tribe/Tigray Aghame.
For all intents and purposes, Meles has virtually been a mercenary to EPLF-Eritreas Issayas.
because independence is not divisible.
colonial dreams and territories at Ethiopias expense.
from the very beginning of his participation in the TPLF.
or even about Tigray but about Eritrea.
But by the time its fighters marched into Addis Ababa, Meles had realized the global political winds had changed and that he would be better off with patronage from Washington and London.
Meles had scores of opposition leaders and journalists arrested, and about 100 face charges of treason.
And yet for all his abuses, Meles remains our friend.
After all, Meles had pledged his support for the President's war on terror.
It's a hypothetical Bush seems not to have pondered.
And so Meles is further emboldened, a Washington-backed Big Man who now has ruled Ethiopia for as long as the Communist dictatorship he deposed.
he wants to go; we are very supportive of that.
image building and looking presentable to his benefactors.
According to one seasoned analyst (quoted anonymously from Addis): 'Meles is simply an authoritarian.
Mr Meles is a great leader ever in our history but some dont agree on it, even me in some cases but The guy is determined to change our bad side that we got it from leaders in the past.
right of any ethnic group to secede from the country.
claim that Meles is an autocrat who supports ethnic policies.
This is how a leader of a nation supposed to speak, not hurling insults at everyone.
own citizens live in fear and silence.
while speaking the foreign language of democracy, words of which he seems to have no understanding.
in his own country is at an all-time high.
enrage people from both sides if they fall for it.
of killing Anuak there; however, the plan may have backfired when the guns were used against another group who had cattle.
Meles has little to offer to the people of Somalia and should take care of his own problems first.
Meles is spreading a parasite that has been eating and infecting the Ethiopian people.
mentioned how many Ethiopians were killed in what appears to be a war for his survival.
Meles has convinced them that he is needed in the War on Terror.
Meles said the bridge constructed across the Abay River should not only be a bridge that enables smooth flow of traffic along the main highway but it should also be an instrument to speed up development of the nation.
In fact, Meles is always defending the interests of Egypt and Sudan.
Under Meles Zenawi's leadership, Ethiopia has undergone dramatic change since 1991.
Mr Meles had completed his schooling at the General Wingate School in 1972, and then entered the medical faculty of Addis Ababa University.
We have tried in the past, but it takes two to tango.
In the last 12 months, Mr Meles has also enjoyed the favoured status of being one of the members of Tony Blair's Commission for Africa, which has brought poverty reduction to the fore.
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.
Speaking one year after he sent up to 10,000 troops into Somalia to end Islamist rule in Mogadishu and southern areas of the country, Meles said progress was being made towards establishing "democratic, responsive and inclusive" governance there.
Meles said there was accumulating evidence of a growing Islamist threat across the Horn of Africa and accused Eritrea, Ethiopia's sworn enemy since the 1998-2000 war between the two countries, of aiding and abetting the jihadis.
Meles said Eritrea continued to reject offers of bilateral talks.
Meles said Ethiopia was working "quite closely" with the US on counter-terrorism in the region but that the extent of American military activity was "negligible.
In a sudden burst of intellectual firepower, Meles said continuing western criticism of Ethiopia's democratic governance and human rights record, in common with that of other African states, was partly based on misunderstandings - and partly on arrogance.
Meles is saying that in some polling stations within Bugna constituency, less than half (48.
The Ethiopian people have spoken and Meles is not listening.
Assab because independence is not divisible.
to restore Italian colonial dreams and territories at Ethiopia's expense.
propaganda and publicity functions of the TPLF.
in reality, if not in rhetoric, he still does today.
much money that he would not regret his fall.
In a nation-wide televised programme Meles said the construction of the $33 million new bridge with funds from Japan, not only eases transport bottleneck, but also it is a harbinger for the development of the area through use of the Nile River water.
Meles is in Chitose for the Group of Eight (G8) Hokkaido Toyako Summit which begins on Monday.