Problematic Ally

The moral hazards of dealing with Ethiopia's Meles Zenawi

Saturday, July 21, 2007; The Washingtonpost

MORE THAN once during the Cold War, the United States aligned itself with dictatorial or corrupt, but anticommunist, foreign governments, compromising democratic principles for perceived advantage against the Soviet Union. These choices were not necessarily wrong, but each one put the U.S. on a slippery slope, at the bottom of which lay a completely amoral foreign policy.Read more on ...

Ethiopia's freed leader defiant

Ethiopia's opposition leader has hit out at the government just hours after being pardoned and released from a life sentence in jail.

Hailu Shawel said he had signed a document admitting to organising violent election protests in 2005 and asking for clemency "under duress".

The government had come under strong international pressure to free Mr Hailu and 37 others to help reconciliation. Read more on the BBC

U.S. officials negotiated behind the scenes

U.S. officials -- urged on by the Ethiopian immigrant community -- had negotiated behind the scenes for the prisoners' release. Rep. Donald M. Payne (D-N.J.) sponsored a bill in Congress calling for the unconditional release of all Ethiopian political prisoners. Washington post...

38 opposition politicians and activists released after Ethiopian government pardon

The Associated Press

Published: July 20, 2007

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia: Three minibuses left an Ethiopian prison carrying 38 opposition politicians and activists pardoned by the government Friday. Dozens of family members and their supporters outside shouted in joy and whistled.

The politicians and activists were released only minutes after Prime Minister Meles Zenawi told journalists the government had pardoned them. They had been sentenced to various prison terms, including life, for inciting violence in an attempt to overthrow the government.

As their minibuses left Kalici Prison, some of the politicians made the victory sign, which is also the symbol of Ethiopia's opposition. The family members and supporters gathered outside waved Ethiopian flags and also made victory signs. They then pursued the minibuses in other vehicles. It was not clear where the politicians and activists were being taken. Read more on the International Herald Tribune

Pardon for protest Ethiopians

Thirty Ethiopian opposition leaders sentenced to life in prison over election protests are pardoned and will be freed today. Read more on the BBC

Breaking News:-Amnesty board decides for the release of prisoners

USA, 18 July 2007 (EMF) – The amnesty board has made a decision to accept the release prisoners of conscience from kality prison, source from KIL told EMF. According to the source, the board has sent it’s final decision to the president office few hours ago. The symbolic president is expected to sign on the document today and the prisoners will be free in the coming days. KIL was negotiating and working with co-mediator Ambassador Yamamato for the last six months for the releasing of political prisoners. The government of Meles Zenawi is under extreme pressures from international communities, it has been reported. Read more on EMF

Ethiopia's democracy is on paper only

The Wall Street Journal, Editorial
July 18, 2007

Let’s play name-that-state. After the EU declared its 2005 elections flawed, this country’s troops killed 193 protestors and arrested 20,000 more. Last week, 42 of the accused were convicted of inciting violence to overthrow the state (down from an original charge of genocide and treason). Thirty-five were condemned to life in prison and forbidden to vote on Monday. Some of the accused were journalists, so their publishing houses were fined and closed.

Did you guess Ethiopia? Probably not, since this African state has often been held up as a pillar of good governance on a troubled continent. In just over a decade, Ethiopia went from military rule to a parliamentary system. But this democracy is on paper only.

The convictions are not an isolated incident, nor are the 42 defendants just any opposition figures. They include the elected mayor of Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, a former Harvard scholar and a former U.N. envoy. They’ve been condemned to the same fate, life in prison, as ousted military strongman Mengistu Hailee Mariam, who is held responsible for the murder of 150,000 academics and university students in two decades in power. Read more on Ethiomedia

US officials uneasy about Ethiopia

By Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - Both the Bush administration and Congress are growing exasperated over Ethiopia's backsliding from democracy but are wary of applying too much pressure against a country that has become an important anti-terror ally in East Africa. Members of the Democratic-controlled Congress are under fewer restraints than President George W. Bush's administration, which has relied on the help of Ethiopian troops in ousting Islamic militants from power in parts of neighboring Somalia. Read more on EthioMedia

Possible release of CUD prisoners rumoured in Addis

onday, July 16, 2007

Case referred to amnesty board

The government media is announcing that the case has been sent to Amnesty Board. So the information I heard earlier is right.

Will Meles release the prisoners?

I may eat my words later. My sources are telling me Meles could give clemency for the prisoners tonight. It isn't yet confirmed, and I don't trust Meles. But that is the news I am getting right now.
I am hearing that the case has been sent to the Amnesty Board. Again, I advise caution. Take this story with a pinch of salt.

Life in jail for Ethiopia leaders

An Ethiopian court has handed down life sentences to all of the main opposition leaders convicted of links to violent election protests in a major trial.

Eight of the 38 opposition figures in court were given shorter prison terms. The prosecution had demanded the death penalty for them all.

They refused to recognise the court, saying the trial was political.

A BBC correspondent says a political process is under way which could mean their sentences are not served.

High court judge Adil Ahmed also barred the 30 Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) leaders from voting or standing for election. Read more on the BBC..........

Breaking News: Court sentences CUD leaders to life(and takes away thier right to be elected or elect)

Monday, July 16, 2007

The Federal High Court today sentenced all CUD leaders who were convicted of outrage against the constitution to life imprisonment. The other nine who weren't in CUD leadership got sentences ranging form 1 year and six months to 18 years imprisonment.

The court also decided to take away the political rights of CUD leaders to elect and be elected. It decided that the judicial interdiction is absolute. It means the interdiction is applicable throughout their life time.

Posted by ethio-Zagol at 2:47 AM

Will the political dissidents be spared?

Ethiopia

Off with their heads, maybe
Jul 12th 2007 | NAIROBI
From The Economist print edition

EARLIER this year, Ethiopian courts released many of the country's most important political dissidents from the grim Kaliti jail on the outskirts of Addis Ababa. They had been there since they were rounded up by police following opposition protests (in which 193 people were killed) against flawed presidential elections in 2005. In another promising sign of reconciliation, charges against the 38 remaining defendants were reduced from treason and genocide to “outrage against the constitution” and “incitement to armed rebellion”.

So it was a real shock this week when the state prosecutor called for all 38 to be put to death. Those facing the firing squad include Hailu Shawel, the elderly head of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), the main opposition party, and Berhanu Nega(above), the elected mayor of the capital, Addis Ababa. Read more.....

Former Ethiopian ruler sentenced

Mengistu Haile Mariam is given life imprisonment after his conviction last month for genocide.

An Ethiopian court sentenced former ruler, Mengistu Haile Mariam, in his absence to life in prison for atrocities committed against people during his regime.

But Mengistu remains in exile in Zimbabwe and many Ethiopians feel that justice has not been served.

Reuters television takes a closer look at the situation in Ethiopia.

Ethiopia's democracy on trial

From the BBCAs they turned up in court, expecting to hear their fate, Ethiopia's 38 detained opposition leaders put on a show of bravado.

The CUD leader and principal accused, Hailu Shewal, flaunted a scarf in the colours of the Ethiopian national flag.

One of his colleagues had a ribbon in the national colours tucked into his hatband.
Indeed, the lack of any visible sign of regret for what they had done was one of the reasons cited by the prosecutor for demanding the heaviest possible sentences on those convicted - the death penalty.

In truth, these defendants always seemed like improbable candidates for armed insurrection - elderly professors in tweed or corduroy jackets, earnest young lawyers, a middle aged matron in a suit.

A significant part of Addis Ababa's intelligentsia has spent the past 18 months in jail, facing a hair-raising selection of charges which originally included genocide and treason.

Among them are the president, the vice-president and most of the central council of the opposition CUD coalition, nine elected members of the national parliament, and the man who won the election for mayor of Addis Ababa, Berhanu Negga.

Half a trial
The case goes back to 2005, and that year's elections.
They may have been the fairest held in Ethiopia so far, but the CUD insisted they were still flawed and refused to accept the results or take up the seats they had won in parliament.
The stalemate went on for several months, punctuated by two bouts of violent protest, in which some 193 people were killed, until the government finally seemed to lose patience.

Ethiopians around the world protested at the violence
Although most of the thousands of protesters detained during the demonstrations were eventually freed without charge, the CUD leadership was charged with a whole range of serious offences against the state, as were a number of journalists and publishers, and some other political activists who had no party affiliations.

There were originally nearly 100 defendants, so many that the trial has been held in a public meeting hall in the small town of Kaliti, outside Addis Ababa, near the prison where the defendants were being held.

At every sitting, the prisoners would troop in, filling nearly half the hall, while friends and relatives smiled and waved from the other side of a simple rope barrier.
But for most of the accused it was only half a trial.

The CUD defendants refused to recognise the court, to instruct lawyers or to offer any defence.
Even so the prosecution didn't have everything its own way.

The judges threw out large chunks of prosecution evidence as inadmissible, dropped the charges of treason, genocide, and freed 25 defendants as having no case to answer.

But that still left the opposition politicians facing charges of outrage against the constitution, obstructing the constitution, impairing the defensive power of the state, and inciting armed rebellion.

Since they offered no defence they were found guilty as charged.

Discussions
The official position is that once they have been charged it is a matter for the court, nothing to do with the government, and the law has to take its course.
But at the same time discreet meetings have been going on behind the scenes, looking for a way to resolve the situation.

Now opposition sympathisers are keen to get the trial over and done with, convinced that once the legal process is over, the political process can start, and the way may be open for the possibility of clemency or pardon.

Siye Abraha released day

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Siye Abraha released
(by Ethio-Zagol)The Federal Supreme Court today sentenced former defense minister Siye Abraha to five years imprisonment on charges of corruption. Since Siye has already been in jail for more than five years, he will be released. Siye, who many suspect, was jailed by the Meles administration because of his serious differences with the Prime Minister on the issues of Ethiopian sovereignty, looked happy when the decision was read by the court.The court sentenced the other defendants on the case, Fitsumzeab Asgedom, Beshah Azmete, Assefa Abaha and Tamrat Layne to five years, eight years, nine years, and three months imprisonment respectively. It means Fitsumzeab will also be released.EZ's verdict:I am still unconvinced that Siye deserves the five years sentence. But expecting justice in Ethiopia at the moment is a joke. So I am glad that he is out.