ADDIS ABABA: Thousands of wailing Ethiopians turned out yesterday to greet the body of Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi as an official national mourning period began after his death in a Brussels hospital.
A military band played as the coffin, draped in the national flag, was taken from an Ethiopian Airlines flight in the early hours of the morning, a ceremony also attended by political, military and religious leaders as well as diplomats.
Deputy Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, who has also been foreign minister since 2010, will take over interim power, officials said. He wept as the body was carried to the hearse.
Meles died overnight Monday to Tuesday following a long illness. The 57-year-old had not been seen in public since the G20 summit in Mexico in June.
His two daughters and widow Azeb Mesfin, dressed in black, walked ahead of a military band as Azeb wailed loudly. People carried candles and portraits of Meles, following a convoy of cars accompanying the body.
The coffin was taken to the prime minister's official residence at the national palace, where Meles's body is lying in state until the funeral, said national television, which broadcast live footage from Addis Ababa streets as the coffin passed slowly.
Several hundred mourners gathered to pay their respects at the palace.
Much of the capital appeared to return to normal later yesterday, although in shops and offices across the city, coverage of the leader's death blared from televisions and radios. No date for the funeral has been set.
Meles, a regional strongman in the volatile Horn of Africa, was a former rebel who ruled with an iron fist for more than two decades.
He came to power in 1991 after toppling the brutal dictatorship of Mengistu Haile Mariam, set Ethiopia on a path of rapid growth and played a key role in mediating regional conflicts, but also drew criticism for cracking down on opponents and curtailing human rights.
US President Barack Obama led tributes to Meles, who he said deserved “recognition for his lifelong contribution to Ethiopia's development”, while UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon hailed Meles's “exceptional leadership”.
Meles was a key Western ally in a region home to Al-Qaeda-linked groups.
But while world leaders praised his legacy, rights groups said his death offered a chance to end a brutal crackdown on basic freedoms.
He was regularly singled out as one of the continent's worst human rights predators, and Amnesty International called on the country's new leaders to end his government's “ever-increasing repression”.
His death also leaves a major power gap in the region, with Ethiopia playing a key role in the fortunes of many of its neighbors.
