Meles was born on 9 May in 1955 in Adwa, Tigray, in northern Ethiopia, to an Ethiopian father Zenawi Asres from Adwa and Alemash Guebreluel from Adi Quala, Eritrea. He was the third of six children. His first name at birth was "Legesse". However, he eventually became better known by his nom de guerre Meles, which he adopted in honor of university student and fellow Tigrayan Meles Tekle who was executed by Mengistu's government in 1975.
Meles received primary education at Queen of Sheba Junior School located in Adwa. It took him 5 years to complete the regular 8 years program as he was able to skip grades and join the next level. He then joined the prestigious General Wingate High school in Addis Ababa on full scholarship and completed high school in 1972.
After high school, Meles studied medicine at Addis Ababa University (at the time known as Haile Selassie University) for two years before dropping out his studies in 1974 to join other students and form Tigrayan National Organization (TNO) the forerunner Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF) in Dedebit, Tigray.
Meles Zenawi acquired an MBA (Master of Business Administration) from the Open University of the United Kingdom in 1995 and an masters of science in economics from the Erasmus University of the Netherlands in 2004. In July 2002, Meles received an honorary doctoral degree in political science from the Hannam University in South Korea.
After Mengistu Haile Mariam's rule came to an end in 1991, Meles was appointed the president of the Transitional Government of Ethiopia during a July 1-5 conference for Peace and Democracy. In 1995, the Council of Representatives, whom Meles was also the chairman of, elected him for a five year term to become Ethiopia's first prime Minsister and reelected him again in 2000 for another five year term.
In 2005, Meles allowed Ethiopia's first elections to be held, to which western observers stated it did not meet international standards. After Meles declared victory, massive protests erupted throughout the capital over election fraud. As a result, Meles ordered a heavy-handed crackdown where 193 protesters were shot and killed and another 763 were injured. Meles' security forces apprehended and detained 30,000-50,000 civilians without charge and arrested 131 senior opposition, civil society, and journalist on political charges ranging from "outrages against the constitution," to "treason," to "attempted genocide."
In 2010, Meles held elections again, this time with severe restrictions for opposition members and Ethiopian citizens. Meles declared his EPRDF party won over 99.6 percent of the parliamentary seats, to which international observers critisized Meles for holding an unfair elections that fell below international standards.
Meles was a Co-Chairperson of the Global Coalition for Africa (GCA.). The Global Coailition for Africa brings together senior African policy makers and their partners to deepen dialogue and build consensus on Africa's priority development issues.
Prime Minister Meles served as the Chairman of the Organization for African Unity (OAU, now the African Union – AU) from June 1995 to June 1996.
In 2007, the African Union elected Meles to chair the executive committee of the NEPAD (the New Partnership for Africa's Development)
Meles was chosen to represent Africa at the G8 Summit and the G20 summit in London.
In February 2010, the UN named Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles as co-chair of the Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing, a new high-level U.N. advisory group on climate change financing
His political views are seen in his work. Meles Zenawi is the cleverest and most engaging Prime Minister in Africa – at least when he talks to visiting outsiders. When he speaks to his fellow Ethiopians, he is severe and dogmatic. But he entertains western visitors with humour and irony, deploying a diffident, self-deprecating style which cleverly conceals an absolute determination to control his country and its destiny, free of outside interference.
Meles’ remarkable achievement since he took power in 1991 has been to attract foreign companies to Ethiopia through a policy of low taxes and a free hand. Growth has been between 8 and 11 percent over the past eight years thanks to the private sector (both western and eastern.) The economy has doubled over the last five years. Meles is rushing to develop the country as fast as he can. Using the Chinese model he has attracted foreign investors to develop agriculture and manufacturing.
He was one of four African presidents to be invited to the Camp David G8 meeting some time ago. The aid donors love Meles. He is well-informed, highly numerate and focused. And he delivers.
Quotations:
“Although I was born and raised in rural Ethiopia, I was in a situation not so different from you (an urban person). When I joined the revolutionary struggle, I was a student at Addis Ababa University medical school, and had already been to one of the best high schools in the country. On top of that, I had read revolutionary books about Ho-Chi-Minh and Che-Guevara and had unflinching ideological views on life. When we joined the struggle and started living with the peasants, the reality on the ground couldn’t be further removed from what we had read in the books. We had to teach ourselves from scratch and learn from the wisdom of the people we were fighting for. At the time, it was not easy to earn the trust of the people and secure political legitimacy for the struggle.”
“If you want political office and political legitimacy from the people, start by accepting the people as your equals. Don’t patronize them. They know better than you. Understand them, accept their views, and help them shape their own future. Do not try to shape the future for them. But leadership cannot be learned through theory alone. You must be in the thick of things and practice it.”
“There were a lot of tough times and difficult decisions that I had to make in the past 21 years. But for me, one stands out more than the others. It was during the Ethio-Eritrean war, I was at loggerheads with my party over the decision to continue or discontinue the war with our neighbor. I and another colleague of mine in my party supported the ending of the war. An overwhelming majority of my party rejected this view and decided to continue with the war. This meant, not only did I have to accept a position that was contrary to my own personal beliefs, but as a leader of the country, I also had to take the decision to the public, convince and rally the public behind that decision. This was an extremely difficult task to undertake. This was a time that I felt very lonely. Luckily, my party provided a therapeutic platform for me to vent out my frustration. And I got out of the loneliness through the subsequent discussion and debates I had with my party.”
Critics of Meles describe him as ruthless tyrant who has conducted massive human rights abuses, including ordering the deaths of thousands of citizens, extrajudicial killings, torture, rape, and using food aid as a political tool. Supporters of Meles argue he has brought some progress to Ethiopia, such as building infrastructure and improving health services.
Physical Characteristics: He was 5'4" in height.
Quotes from others about the person
Adal Issaw: "I believe, Meles Zenawi was born for reasons other than the ordinary ones that you and I were born for. Meles was born to lead and help build a modern, sovereign, and a free Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.
I have a reason to revert back to the religion that I have abandoned early in life. Things were trite and nothing was out of the ordinary then, and, I had to walk away from my religion as a result. But now, and after many years of abandoning my religious belief, I am a born-again believer and my religion is Meles Zenawi.
I believe in Meles Zenawi and he is my religion from now on till the end of my time. This I believe is not the result of stretching my emotion. Instead, it is the result of seeing the tangible change in the life of Ethiopia—in part, by way of my newly found religion; I aver."
Meles married to Azeb Mesfin. They have three children.
