Yes.
There is also the ombudsman's office, which is also getting all kinds of things. I understand Meles has said he will carry these reforms through the ombudsman's office and things like that. Very honestly, that's another joke.
Ethiopian civil servants are being politicized now. If you graduate from university in Ethiopia, the government will ask if you want to work for them. If yes, then you sign to be a member of the ruling party. You have to. If you don't, you don't get a job. You're sitting in the office of some of the bureaucrats, they will come to you and tell you....
I'll give you an example. One of the persons I just received in western Ethiopia in a place called Mattu was a candidate for one of the oppositions. She works in one of the commercial banks. What do they do? They talk to her and say, “You want to compete? You want to continue with this? You will lose your job.” So you decide to pull out, or continue and lose your job. This is the kind of thing that's happening.
The ombudsman's office hasn't even issued a single statement, one line, to condemn this kind of interference by the government. So in my opinion, if you strengthen them, what you are doing is strengthening the government itself, strengthening the repression itself. It is good to build capacity, it is good to build institutions, but not the government's capacity, not repressive institutions. It has to be the other way around. Civic society, independent groups--that's where we have to invest, in my opinion.