one family on a journey through recent german history. and it. starts november 6th do you w. . he's cleaning up your mess isn't a no no how do you sleep at night with an apology by people living in the middle east from ethiopia has come a long way in a short time there's a new peace deal with eritrea and the new prime minister apparently determined to bring accountability for the human rights abuses of the past my guest this week here in brussels this is previous haile mariam decile and who denied for many years that human rights violations have taken place and whose government many thousands

of political prisoners have seen no shame for the torture that was perpetrated and the lives that were ruined during his time in office. highly of my. welcome to the conflict so thank you so much thank you for having me ethiopia has a new prime minister now of the who took over after you resigned last he has not received the nobel peace prize basically for doing many of the evils of your government and doing what you couldn't do within 100 days. don't you feel something of a failure when you look at what he's done. i know that because. i have done my share to bring this change to happen. and. promise that abby has not come from blue

moon it has come from the past in which i was there is a thing you have but he's begun correcting the massive human rights abuses which were a prominent feature of your tell you at least that is it is my party which started the reform process and we say. the process should be in the north to the country basically but also to the party itself so i think that is a process which yielded prime minister rabin. prime minister so he continued with the process pro reform my gender that my party and his party whether this is nobel committee cited his achievements as lifting the country state of emergency granting amnesty to thousands of political prisoners for years you always denied there were any scrapping media censorship legalising outlawed opposition groups dismissing military and civilian leaders suspected of corruption

all the things that you failed to do when you were in office by the way do you know that 9095 percent of the prisoners released due to my office. before i left office and before i resigned so i think what i did was they remain in 5 percent which has to be released so the decision was the decision of the party. and i took that action before i resigned how many did you release almost all the millions something. more than 3000 or so you know where there were many more than 3000 in jail yeah but it's only young people who've recently been arrested have been released but the main political figures which has been adverse to been released. during my term before i resigned in may this year the attorney general. filed criminal charges against your former intelligence chief get that you asked

for alleging human rights abuses and corruption he's gone missing that you know where he would have it i don't know i'm not in office now no information 20 other people were charged with him he had served until june 28th being. he had served you as prime minister who were denying that any human rights abuses were being committed i think you're you're lucky information lou you're lucky evidence it is my government and my party who admitted that there has been. abuse if you start here often here in interviews say nobody's being mistreated we have no political prisoners one off to the other you gave interviews sitting smiling across the billions of us say no everything's fine here you know if you are reasonable and you have to understand there will be how our part to operate the overstepping the way you operate with literacy and if you like yourself let me finish 1st if that's the case then you know that we have been historically you

have to understand that in the 1st place this is a party fighting left and you know us. when there is a communist mentality and when it's a marxist mentality there is a centralism. you don't award after your party decides on issues even though you have differences in as a minority you take with you so you just hold the line whatever it is because you're too cowardly to say anything about what's really going though is that it's no excuse that sort of misplacing the whole thing here is that we believe that in our party and the government that we need to reform our system we need to bring up. changes and we need to democratize our country because that's a country always number of interest is and there is an introduction of ethnic

mobilized politics which is very dangerous and therefore we have we have decided that we need to go how does that end deeply in the forming our country which is a person of that she'll be busy in washington you didn't get it i need we're going to be forced to well if you had done that prime minister when he came in brown is the abbey wouldn't have had to condemn police brutality pledged to return rein in the security services tackle what he called economic mismanagement corruption and rights abuses all of this spending phase you want to spin off this is also misplaces because premise that abby has not come from a blue moon he has done the other way where he came for us and they're with us he's cleaning up illnesses and no no it's not he's not cleaning up his misses he's going on if you'll mess up the mess you left part and i think this is also misplacing and i really always say that you know correctly this is our party's admission of our

collective mistake and then we put in place properly these are the things that you failed to do by november last year dozens of intelligence officers and high level officials have been arrested including people from the military run metals and engineering corp met tech on charges of corruption and human rights abuses you let them put those charges through that speed that is the study which i introduced new york to be finished i did it. november last year you weren't in office i did if you don't have been able to say did it i should the studies and then completion of the 2 studies then action has been the attorney general said 63 people have been arrested that months november last year 27 for corruption $36.00 on charges of human rights violations that included the former head of mattick conflict bagnio a brigadier general over whom you did nothing you did nothing about and made that

study you lucky with this i love the study and a group of people who study the study it's charging people with human rights in north charleston to you know you showed up challenged people after you said after concretely there is a criminal investigation unit that investigation has been launched by may 3rd local media said huge sums of money were missing from this company a matter of whether the girl let the let the court decide on it as prime minister he was supposed to look after the public places and the military was supposed to follow the orders. and you 15 to fail spectacularly to make them do that for you to feel any remorse at the crimes you allowed to take place when you were prime minister no i think i have resigned because i was not able to change dramatically whatever has to come between 2 week no i i say fiction actually i have my own the strangeness and i have my own weaknesses and you have to not to look into only the

weaknesses but you have to also see the strengths of this country has gone and you know you know that my country has been visited during my tenure by 6 of the 77 leaders and they all announcing that this country has been working very hard at double digit grows and they cannot make. achievements where we have it's decorated our people out of poverty the only country which has actually and. 7 out of this 8 images and now where are the by the united nations by my time so i think you have to see all those positive things we have achieved last day of them by the last of them mr either by the attorney general. said investigated her uncovered serious abuses by security services at secret prisons in the capital and elsewhere do you know what your security officers were doing in the single prisons

i don't know those sticks minds i'm sure the fish were asked to a visit how can i do or if your intelligence doesn't give you information how can you know there were plenty of foreign reports that torture was going on which you didn't own it and you're good enough you're telling me you didn't know what was going on i didn't say you said i also serves your denials we're just pro forma denials no are not going to know everything when you were in office no not at all if you did you said they didn't know everything you didn't you didn't know what was going on in these prisons you didn't ask you weren't interested. they know in his office shelley we know some of the appeal of abuse this and i have taken in my time some of the actions. of those things but i didn't know that there are informal prisons which has been there the attorney general said there are people who have been blinded and held in darkness for long periods of time others have been left infertile because of blows to their genitals there are some that had limbs broke or

women have been subjected to rape and men have been sort of modest all this happened until your rule so i had a skill and she was shame that this was going to who can do you will rule no i am assured that you shared that when this happened but i didn't know those things and if i knew those things i would of course acted them because this is a very sacred things happened well it didn't take long for this prime minister to find out what was going on so obviously nice looking in like places and you do not believe you know either you didn't want to look at each area in mid whom for displaying to art i tried been very hard to bring him to power and i did every you lost your job that's why you gave up you lost control of the party lost faith in you that's why you gave up what i think you can you can say that when he was struggling to control the rest of the country because it was very a case of their eyes were open i mean it myself i did it intentionally because i

wanted to see that this change should come so i think this is genuinely what has happened and i did my best in paving the way for this to happen so i think that has to be clearly kind of did i did i think a big clearly rigol of it when we have been in your prisons during your term in office with being subjected to gang rape and men too so the mothers ation know that you know this even if you say you didn't know later at the time. the gene to the victims i didn't have a permit was when i went out he said when they resigned because that's the system which was open to be done many of you meant to the victims and apologize personally to them if there is a need to be and when you haven't done so have you i know i have i have been to get those plants and i will we have been conciliation proves i made a conservation commission established and asked processes how do you sleep at night

knowing that this was going on in your torture centers carried out by your officials when you were prime minister if you sleep at night. if i knew. then i said to you that i was there to collect everything in my disposal if i knew it but i did know that your meal your said could be a religious man from a family of pentecostalists stubborn deathstroke. how others gang rape and sodomy zation fit in with your religious values no i didn't know i see if a new it doesn't fit in in my brain yes but you went on denying it denying it denouncing those born every interview that that's the report there the noisy despite the reports coming out every minute human rights groups all over the world which you just rubbished you said that's not true they're outside as there are

enemies don't listen to them everything is following the you said i think i have never said everything is fine you said there was no mystery letters i said there was no mistreatment going on there is a problem but i was saying that my report is that it's not to the extent where has been said that's what i'm saying by then any case i report which i wish i was giving to the public which which was the case let's take another detention center she gigo central prison otherwise known as jail regional detention center in the east of the country but ministered in public by your special police it was closed in august last year you know what was going on there as well no i don't know why not you knew the prison existed and you know what you and i do i will during our city you have no curiosity mr high among you didn't want to know what was going on in your jails no it's not the case you know that if you tell governments have their

own rights and i think the whole thing is i did my my work according to the reports they get from my intelligence and from my sources and therefore that's what what was the kids people reported there were many of the former prison those who said they saw people dying in their cells after being tortured by officials in this or garden jail and as it was called what should happen to the officials who carried out this torture. i mean what should happen to them. there in prison and that's it. just prison sentences and what should happen to you for turning a blind eye to it that depends on the legal system of the country you know either his own simply because to take all the responsibilities but what is extraordinary is that with all the abuses that were carried out when you were prime minister you

accepted from the new prime minister the nation's highest award for service without even blushing without any embarrassment whatsoever now that you know what was going on while you were prime minister why didn't you get back to the war. why should i because i have a number of positive things i have because you failed to show all this is one part of you and that it's a shut down incident that says you tallest is a you rationalize war kid in my make country that doesn't explain that's not the only thing you know i have done many good things there are issues in the system which are definitely what i initiated to inform and the conduct before because i understood that age of you know before my use of mission and the student there are something going on therefore i initiated this new form and then i have released 95 percent of the you were in if you were in office for 6 years and this new prime

minister has come in and done more for human rights than you did in all the time you were there this is because they paved the way for him billy the us state department in 2016 published a catalogue of human rights abuses taking place on the your rule which of course you deny it but then the known to be true arbitrate killings disappearances torture harsher life threatening prison conditions detention without trial you know minute whatever you want but it's what they said but how can you tell you that you didn't know what was going on when all these reports were pointing to what was years old whenever they knew that there are things going wrong i initiated that form and the serious reform and the before and that's the result where the prime minister has come into power. you said one euro zone that you wanted to be part of the solution in ethiopia how can you be part of the solution when you so much part of the problem. you know i would become part of the solution because in there is

a problem which would result in procuring to created the atmosphere permissive out in the sphere in which your security officials believed they could torture but it was all right to torture go on torturing disappearing people not judicial experience no do you created the atmosphere in which that was possible no i didn't create the atmosphere so our profile is and then the constitutional system has been established then anyone who's in what way then is could be accounted for but i didn't create this this point of environment for them it is a deep system which i was not given to look into because of my background and because of my you know i must say they were coming into the deep system so i put in see that when mr big came into power he couldn't wait to condemn the legacy of your government and draw a line in the old time in office could be

a pro last year he said that government your government had sanctioned torture of its prisoners and said it had been guilty of state terrorism he said it he said in parliament does the constitution say anyone who was sentenced by a court can be tortured put in a guard let's say doesn't that still that government was a his eyes were not on your mind you were the prime minister who was outcries in this order fight with you is there also the buck stopped yeah you call it simply this a bit of the form including indian outs of what the responsibility lay hailes not to you how do you yet you this yes it is not to try to get out of it why do you try to get out of this relationship with them for that's why admission that you know why i'm here to tell you for the here in asia is usual for you blocked every attempt by the united nations special rapporteur that should tell you or anyone has a call from as we have issued the or at least we should. come up from us and the

only message you need locked i only reason you block them are you at least be gating was because you didn't want them to find out what was going on i did and i initiated the before before my is that mission a year that will undoubtedly for me is that work that we sell to planes that are going to come to power conjured so beautiful lied to all of it him to power the conscience of people were killed in the your regime and you refused to have an independent investigation led by the un chief human rights official if you ask the killings the last one and half years the number of kill inside passed in 6 years what happened in my town if you ask for killings look that's ridiculous so the whole thing is you know i initiated this new form and a year ago before my 2nd mission and i pave the way in for the new system you would have this in the bush was mean you say you are surely to reform you created

a regime where people were tortured and disappeared and had their rights taken away from them consistently turns i have our sense of people i was not needed a while since i am basket an apology to my people that the region has some abuses of you know who my doubts and the deficit and democracy and that has happened i am and i still feel that i'm sort of for that but i can dish it out so that change will come as not much of an apology as it really is and that's a half hearted apology no it is not a new michael you are not the same you know it would have taken you to the last as many leadership program as ours you didn't want to spare you lost the faith or not i haven't lost that security forces haven't watched the army they're all going to have a rest for their big arrest and they should know better that they should have been investigated under your design of a worthwhile one to continue eyes of the south us you know i could have missed everything up to the. last of my bit if you want you know was the least

a dictatorship yet you always claimed democracy took time you always said this is a fledgling democracy it takes time and this isn't this is what every dictator says act the way they just said well you solve all the good yourself in europe you pass through a number of civil wars before you can use this one person read to you terry davis says it's not our big boss 1000000 that's on hurry to use this while they show even in europe united states everywhere in the western countries you do your classy has taken time and it has not come in one short and one day and one week and 1000000 it has taken you to much of that school and that will continue democracy is building them over the culture here is not justice everything to slow it down this trial of war and we've never shied away from associations or friendships either with indicted or convicted war criminals do they hold some special fascination for you

and these people which ones like mr r. by sheer the former president of the bill in august you posted a controversial picture on facebook of you smiling next to ethiopia as exiled marxist leader mengistu haile mariam and then you took it out when there was a huge outcry because this man of course was found guilty and obscenity of genocide by the way i met him incidentally when i was there in somebody he was in the president's office when i was there in the president's office when i made him and i talked to him so that's what happened in any case and you posted a comment saying i wish to see more former heads of government and states in my country contributing their parts in different capacity of the peaceful transition of political power of the that is not me it is the officers there who did it and they say this is wrong. certainly you don't want mr mingus to with his conviction

for genocide to play a part in the new ethiopia i think if we go through a true isn't it a consideration commission and if he is on some given chance to know to apologize and then anything what the through senate conservation commission brings into it i then that leads the country and it's a conciliation i have a deep belief that we need conciliation what matters is what some of the past even the future is what is something the possible answers that genocide isn't something you just you just either see by just feeling our way anyhow you did it with relation to the to make country explain to me please how a conviction for one of the most serious crimes on the planet would qualify mr mengistu to contribute to the well being of your country i would i would imagine with a qualification like that. i think it depends on how that one conviction for the side of genocide for the most serious crimes in us you are entirely this is south

africa as if you can say a part of it isn't genocide with the whole mind that for you it's not just a few times it is more than genocide where is your truth and reconciliation commission it is it has been established and we see that it is that for you your support and it's not my for us it is so you're quite happy for convicted war criminals to come back to your country and play their part good old boy is good old of course initially pulls it allows that yes if not then no how should future generations in africa protect themselves from people like you. they should democratize the country's gross dictators like you know. i think living media title is wrong. is wrong and this is use is not my my people. so i think this is misplacing again this is

a good from yourself. i learned thank you very much for being the culprits and some of.

the 1st time that americans at some point in our lives will experience hardship and . take a trip back on us to go christmas market hopping with d.w.i.

and cologne and what would call death toll by airfare and hotel included for you and the. guest. just tell us which german state is your favorite. what's the most beautiful place in germany. what would you like to explore most to enter check in at d w dark come slash travel good luck and enjoy some modern. i am a flower. yeah i'm beautiful i've heard it before and it never grows old. i'm worshiped from my looks and my scent my looks but here's the thing. life starts with me. you see i feed. every fruit comes from me. everybody taito me every kernel of corn me every grain of rice me me

me me i nailed but it's true. and sometimes i feed their souls. i am their words when they have none i say i love you without a sound. i'm sorry without a voice. i inspired the greatest of them painters poets pattern makers i've been amused to them all. but in my experience people underestimate the power of a pretty little flower. because their life does start with me. and without me.

this is g.w. newswire from berlin tonight the us for. zidan declares a victory for his foreign policy in northern syria trump are taking credit for a turkish cease fire in the region even though on korea's offensive against kurdish militias was made possible by the withdrawal of u.s. forces also coming up tonight was it human traffic.