The Pragmatism of Meles Zenawi

During his interview with TIME's Nairobi bureau chief Marguerite Michaels, the President talked about his old Marxism and his new ideas.

Q. You ran a successful Marxist insurgency. What's different about running a democratic country?

A. Running an army is dealing with a group of highly motivated people with the same ideals, willing to undergo hardships. Now it's a very wide country with varying and contradictory interests. People are not willing to endure the same hardships.

Q. By dividing the regions along ethnic lines, don't you risk tribal violence?

A. Trying to bury the differences has always been the problem. Let...

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