No Fond Memories of Abdourahman Boreh: Says Meles

Abdourahman defends his record as decent businessman who does not believe    in corrupt practices

Djibouti’s self exiled businessman-cum-politician, Abdourahman Boreh, may have withdrawn his candidacy from the April presidential elections in Djibouti, demanding the return of Democracy International (DI) to that country, as one of the preconditions. Nonetheless, he would have been a presidential hopeful whose memory Prime Minister Meles Zenawi is not “fond of.” Neither does Meles have “high respect” for the politician he said he first knew as a businessman. “I heard of him first as a businessman in Djibouti when he was involved in corrupt practices with our former Prime Minister,” Meles told a press conference he gave on March 12, 2011, in his office. He was referring to a coffee purchase Abdourahman made in the mid 1990s, worth 16 million dollars. It was this case that landed Tamrat Layne, Prime Minister during the transitional government, and later Defense Minister to serve 12 of the 18-year sentence. “So I can’t tell you I have fond memories of the individual or high respect for him,” Meles said during the press conference. But who voters, in Djibouti, elect as their president is “their affair,” according to Meles. Djiboutians will have a presidential election in April 2011, where members of the opposition boycotted and the lead challenger to the incumbent, Ismail Omar Guelleh, verbally withdrew his candidacy. Abdourahman demands for the date of voting to be postponed and for the return of observers from DI back to Djibouti. The government of Djibouti declared DI’s activity in Djibouti “illegal.” DI has had an eight-person team in Djibouti with a budget of 2.2 million dollars. “We have not closed up our operations, [but] we are not undertaking any active programming,” Glenn Cowan, DI co-founder, told the Financial Times, last week. Authorities in Djibouti accuse DI staff for involving in the recent popular turmoil, where protesters have demanded the departure of the incumbent president from power. Ismail has been in power since 1999, representing the party that has ruled the country ever since its independence from France in 1977. He scrapped a constitutional provision last year that prohibited him from running for the presidency for more than two terms; his second term comes to an end next month. Opposition leaders in Djibouti hurled accusations that the incumbent president is out to rig elections in the absence of international observers. It will not be conducted in an environment that is free from “fear or favour,” Abdourahman told Fortune, from his residence in London, during a telephone interview on Friday, March 18, 2011. “I can’t contest where there is no rule of law and transparency, while the rules of the game are not clear,” said Abdourahman. But he was more disappointed with the remarks Meles made last week, which he said was made as a show of support to his political opponent. Abdourahman recalled his first meeting with Tamrat back in the early 1990s in Addis Abeba, together with Ismail, then chief of the security, and Barakat Gourad Hamadou, then foreign minister of Djibouti, to facilitate agreements of cooperation between the two countries. They entered into an agreement with the post Derg Ethiopian leaders to get scholarships for students from Djibouti at Haromaya (Alemaya). They secured an agreement to let Djibouti nationals enter Ethiopia without visas, while Djibouti had agreed to let Ethiopian trucks enter into its territory without seeking visas, according to Abdourahman . “Tamrat subsequently sent letters and other documents in relations to the coffee export,” he said. “I had no reason to suspect there could be something wrong with the letter signed by a Prime Minister.” Abdourahman defended his record as a decent businessman who does not believe in corrupt practices. “I was never involved in corruption with Tamrat Layne. The remarks [of Meles] will not affect me,” he told Fortune. “I have a record which Djibutians all know.” Abdourahman feels he deserves “better recognition” for the creation of the dry port in Djibouti and the building of the Doraleh Port under his watch as Chairman of the Ports Authority of Djibouti, which he said have benefited the people of both countries. “I’ve a respect for Meles,” said Abdourahman. “I believe he is devoted to his country and really changed it.” He recalled his last meeting with Meles in early 2008, when he had visited Addis together with a high level delegation from Dubai; he had made his condolences to Meles on the loss of his father, according to Abdourahman. “But mentioning this [Tamrat’s case] after 10 years from when it happened, I think it is politically motivated and it is clear that it shows friendship,.” Abdourahman said.