Meles Zenawi who was expected to attend the NEPAD meeting at AU for today this afternoon was unable to be available due to deteriorated health condition.

As the current chairperson of NEPAD, Prime Minister Meles is expected to deliver a report to 27th Summit of the NEPAD Heads of State and Government Orientation Committee (HSGOC) ahead of the 19th Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU) to be kicked off tomorrow here in Addis Ababa.

On behalf of Meles, Senegalese President, Macky Sall opened the meeting and he wished Meles to recover soon.

“PM Meles is not attending this meeting with us this afternoon for health reason. We would like to express that we wish him to recover soon to a better health, President Sall told participants.

Following his disappearance from the public, rumor is growing about Meles’s health condition as no official confirmation was released from government as to whether his health is deteriorated or not.

Specially, Meles has not showed up at the parliament in the last two weeks where he was expected to deliver the already concluded fiscal’ year’s government performance. Following his absence from the parliament, public remains in dark with the growing speculation of his ailing condition, and the next year’s budget has not been endorsed yet. The parliament has not been even officially closed for recess despite one week has already gone from the usual schedule.



Ethiopian Reporter

http://www.thereporterethiopia.com/News ... eason.html

This year’s African Union summit was kicked of today in Addis Ababa with unprecedented scene despite the main agenda on table that drew head of states across the content is dominated the security issue of Mali, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the two Sudanese states.

Unlike the last two decades the meeting, the main issue that drew the attention of most participant’s became the unusual absence of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi since he came to power. And equally, the appearance of new democratically elected Egyptian President Ahmed Morsi is the other subject which could manage the attention of most participants and journalists at the meeting as it the first time for Egyptian leader to attend the AU Summit in Addis Ababa since the failed assassination attempt occurred in 1995 against the ousted President Hosni Mubarek.

On Saturday, it was reportedly indicated that Meles was unable to attend the 27th Summit of the NEPAD Heads of State and Government Orientation Committee (HSGOC) due to the health problem though he was expected to deliver a report as the current Chairman of NEPAD.

Yesterday it was Senegalese President, Macky Sall who opened the meeting on behalf of Meles who confirmed officially for the first time Melese’s bad health condition saying “The Federal Republic of Ethiopian Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, is not attending this meeting with us this afternoon for health reason”.

http://www.ethioabay.com/2012/07/19th-a ... range.html

Yesterday it was Senegalese President, Macky Sall who opened the meeting on behalf of Meles who confirmed officially for the first time Melese’s bad health condition saying “The Federal Republic of Ethiopian Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, is not attending this meeting with us this afternoon for health reason”.

And this is Aigaforum.

To our readers... On PM Meles health!
Many of you have asked us about PM Meles absent from public view the last few weeks. Here is what we have found out: The primier is well and has been resting to recover from exhaustion with a much deserved "forced" vacation. The wild rumors about his health by the extermists aside, the primier has been the most healthy hardworking prime minister Ethiopia has had. The infromation we have is the doctor has given him a relatively clean health for his age and we expect him to continue work shortly. As expected some of the international news meida have started to cover the news of his absense from the AU meeting. But, all is well! (aigaforum 7/15/12)

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi did not attend scheduled meetings with other African leaders in Addis Ababa on Saturday and Sunday, fueling speculation about his health.

The government confirmed the prime minister was ill but gave no details.

Mr. Meles had been scheduled to chair a meeting of the New Partnership for Africa's Development, or NEPAD, on Saturday, and an African Union government leaders' summit on Sunday. Ethiopia's foreign minister attended in his place.

The foreign minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, told Bloomberg news Monday that Mr. Meles was receiving treatment.

The agency quotes him as saying, “There is no serious illness at all. It's minor only.” He said the prime minister would be “back soon” after receiving medication.

Mr. Meles has not been seen in public for at least two weeks. He is 57 years old and has ruled Ethiopia since 1991.

Senegalese President Macky Sall told the NEPAD meeting Saturday that Prime Minister Meles was not attending “for health reasons” and expressed wishes that he “recover soon.”

Ethiopian state television on Sunday acknowledged the prime minister's absence from meetings. State TV noted what it said were “various media reports” saying the prime minister has been sick — including opposition reports that said Mr. Meles was receiving treatment in Belgium.

http://blogs.voanews.com/breaking-news/ ... -meetings/

17/07/2012bY Thomas C. Mountain

Mareeg.com-With its foundations irreparably cracked and its edifices of power crumbling the Ethiopian regime headed by Meles Zenawi is turning more and more to the CIA to make the critical decisions in the ministries of power in the capital Addis Ababa.

Faced with growing nationalist insurgencies, an ongoing economic crisis and calls for regime change from the heights of the religious community, the isolation surrounding Meles Zenawi grows almost by the day. Addis Ababa has become home to an ever shrinking inner circle of regime insiders allowed to share in the spoils of power but with no one able to replace Meles himself as head of state.

When the Egyptian people finally exploded President Mubarak quickly became expendable for the USA had a “Plan B” in the Egyptian military. But no such back up plan exists in Ethiopia for Meles Zenawi knows all to well how quickly he can become “expendable” when it comes to the interests of Pax Americana and has made sure that the Ethiopian army has been purged of any and all who might replace him.

Towards this end earlier this year Meles “retired” some 120 of the last of the top generals and colonels left over from the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front guerilla army that brought Meles to power in 1991.

Hated in his ethnic homeland of Tigray, once his power base, and hated by the Amhara elite, the ethnic minority who previously ruled Ethiopia, Meles has ceded de facto control of his ministries to technocrats from the CIA and US State Department.

The USA is desperate to keep Meles in power, for without anyone they trust to replace Meles from within or outside the regime the options facing Pax Americana should be causing a growing sense of anxiety in the White House offices of President Obama’s Senior Policy Advisor on Africa, Gayle Smith.

The last five years has seen an historic shift in world economic power, with Asia, headed by China, and Europe, headed by Germany, becoming the major trade partners on the planet. And all of that trade, hundreds of container ships a day, must pass through not only the Suez Canal, guarded by a mercenary Egyptian army, but the Red Sea and the potential choke point Bab al Mandeb where it joins the Indian Ocean.

So far $7 billion a year in western aid has kept Meles Zenawi and his army, the largest, best equipped in Africa, in power and able to do Pax Americana's dirty work in the Horn of Africa. But with Meles gone and no pro-USA replacement waiting in the wings the options facing America will be daunting.

Ethiopia is not so much a nation as a prison house of nations. The people of the Ogaden, Oromia, Gambella and Afar, some two thirds of of Ethiopia’s 80 million people, are demanding the right to self determination, de facto independence. Once this happens, and matters have gone to far to prevent such, there will no longer be an Ethiopia and no longer an Ethiopian army to do the bidding of the USA.

The result will be that Eritrea, population 5 million, will have the strongest, most capable army in the Horn of Africa with Eritrea’s national motto being “Never Kneel Down”.

So no matter how many drones it may have the USA may find itself having to put thousands of American boots on the ground in the Horn of Africa alongside a permanent naval fleet, a task that is a political and public relations disaster in the making.

No matter the control wielded by the CIA inside the ministries of power in Ethiopia the end of the Meles Zenawi regime grows closer and with it will come the end of Ethiopia as the world has known it. And with the end of Ethiopia as a regional power and policeman on the beat for the imperial interests of the USA all bets are off in the Horn of Africa and America will be left to scramble for a solution to maintaining their control of one of the most critically strategic areas of the world.

Thomas C. Mountain is the most widely distributed independent journalist in Africa, living and reporting from Eritrea since 2006. His interviews can be seen on RT and PressTV. He can be reached at thomascmountain at yahoo dot com.