Prof. Mesfin Woldemariam says Woyanne is
not the enemy of Ethiopia
Professor Mesfin Woldemariam, who is currently in Washington DC representing Unity for Democracy and Justice Party (UDJ, said at a meeting today (Sunday afteroon) that “we should not call a ‘political opponent’ like Woyanne an enemy.” It’s like a Jewish professor asking Israelis not to call Hitler or the Nazi party their “enemy.”
In ridiculing those groups that have raised arms against Woyanne, Prof. Mesfin said at the meeting, which was held at the Marriott Hotel in Washington DC, that these organizations are sacrificing young Ethiopians just so that their leaders can come to power, arriving in Addis Ababa by plane.
Prof. Mesfin said that Woyanne will never give up power because 1) it has the blood of many innocent Ethiopians on its hands, and 2) it has amassed a great deal of wealth. Therefore, the professor explained, we must be able to forgive Woyanne for shedding the blood of innocent Ethiopians and that it needs to be allowed to keep the wealth it illegally amassed (plundered) if we want to see change in Ethiopia.
The professor was not done yet. He said we must be considerate to Woyanne. We have to try to understand the fears and concerns of the Meles gang.
Woyanne could not ever have done a better public relations job than what Prof. Mesfin did today to weaken the resolve of Ethiopians in the Diaspora against the fascist regime. He gave DLA Piper lobbysts and those Senators who are blocking H.R. 2003 a tool to use it against us. How is it possible now for the U.S. Senators to pass a law cutting aid to Woyanne when a prominent member of the opposition refuses to say that the Meles crime family is not the enemy of Ethiopia?
This is the very reason why Ethiopian Review wrote two weeks ago that the party Prof. Mesfin represents, UDJ, is a fake opposition party. UDJ is undermining the struggle by portraying Woyanne as a legitimate regime, at the same time campaigning against freedom fighters who are shooting back at Woyanne. UDJ turns out to be even worse than Beyene Petros’s UEDF. At least Dr Beyene never attacks other opposition parties as Prof. Mesfin continues to do in every opportunity he gets.
Prof. Mesfin is a great scholar in the field of geography and a genuine and respected human rights advocate. For that we hold him in high esteem. But it is clear that he has no clue about politics or how to bring about political change in Ethiopia. Even worse, with all due respect, he has unknowingly become a tool for Woyanne. Meles, Azeb and gang can stop paying DLA Piper $50,000 per month since they now have a much more effective lobbyist in the person of Prof. Mesfin who is providing a free service.
In the next several weeks, Prof. Mesfin will visit several cities in the U.S. repeating the same messages to Ethiopians in North America. Those of us who support the brave Ethiopians who are shedding their blood to remove the Woyanne cancer from Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa will just ignore him.
126 thoughts on ““Woyanne is not the enemy” – Prof. Mesfin Woldemariam”
For me, I gave up on the Prof. when I heard him lumping Berhanu and Shawel in same basket on his interview to VOA and blaming the split in kinjit on non-existing power struggle. To put it mildly, I found that to be an insult to my little intelligence. As we know now, it is the stubborn and dictatorial nature of Hailu Shawel, which was the cause of the split than any other thing. By the time the Prof, chose to speak out in such outrageous manner, we have had enough independent information from the prime source himself (Hailu) to decide, what caused the split. And now we have all this again from the professor. I am afraid the Prof. is suffering from a Melese syndrome – hatred for those who outshine him.
The Prof. has every right to say what he wants, but he should stop the his overt and covert negative campaign on G7, he should instead be focused on strategizing on how to get the little breathing space from Weyanes for the UDJ party of which I believe he is a member. The party desperately needs to get that from the merciless rulers of the current Ethiopia so that to start doing the smallest meaningful thing other than lending Weyane a helping hand to prolong its life on power and to consolidate even more political and economic power.
KY
Eliase, Please read between the lines.
This proffesor…..is confused a long time ago….when he say peacefull strugel not started yet…when he sent his chilgren and family in boston they are DR. and educated…while poor Ethiopian children massacerd by WOYANE…now this murderers are not ENEMY..???
GENBOT..7 is the only CHOISE…
Dear Elias,
We are grateful what you are doing to put on light upon darkness. But I am afraid this time around you have started to work against Ethiopia. I think you want to direct the innocent Ethiopians in to your wrong direction. You are living far from Ethiopia and you want to control from remote. The battle field is Ethiopia. We don’t accept what the ruling party is doing right now. But it doesn’t mean they are enemy. Let us be human. No one is right perfect. We should give a room to see a good Ethiopia. Most people in Ethiopia support the idea of the Prof.Mesfin.We don’t want to see blood shed in Ethiopia anymore. Those who think blood shedding from the remote we don’t want to see you in Ethiopia with this mentality. We know you want power and we are not willing to give you. Elias, please stop to pretend like top politician. Everybody knows how the Prof.Mesfin is a great thinker. Don’t speak against him because he is not on your line of thinking. It makes you articles in the question. Let know help each other as an Ethiopians.
Dear Editor,
Would you mind posting a PDF version or a transcribed version of the speech, so that we all can see what he said (or what he did not say) for ourselves. Then only we can interpreate the meanining without the “good” mouth of a middle man.
This is what Ethiopia has .Our intellectuals are destroying our beloved country, their thinking is far from reality and their PHD. Is on paper only .I am sorry to say prof. Mesfine is expected to mediate the CUD members rather he is pushing to go apart and now he is the owner of ANDNET PARTY, but we expect him to be political advisor not POLETICAL LEADER. All Ethiopians are in hunger of power why? A 78 years old man is seeking power why??? please don’t push our youngsters to the next massacre by playing with TPLF….
EPRDF will never give up power even if you forgive them.What is wrong with the honourable Prof. Mesfin?
The Andenet party is a bunch of woyanne loyalists and we should not be surprized over the professor`s speech. Andenet is fast proving to be another arm of Meles Zenawi and serve him to improve his tarnished image.
Don’t take someone’s speech as it is….try to figure out and anlyse it…..
And, u r not in a position to criticise the great Ethiopian professor
If Mesfin says Woyane is not an enemy, he better check a dictionary.
Woyane is a mortal enemy, an enemy that Ethiopians never encountered before including Musoloni, Turks, Arabs.
Meles is the worst enemy Ethiopia ever had.
Shame on the Prof. for prostituting to keep his skin out of jail.
Elias,
Can you pls post the whole report of Prof. Mesfin. I am confused, I want to read the whole story!
Tameru
There is nothing bad as being ignorant of a subject matter. Gullible understanding of what a political process is, or how the process is different from the result in politics, leads people like ER editors to be erratic and arognat like this. Elias, you might be a good journalist with fanatic support to what you believe in, but, believe me, you need to learn a lot about politics.
This is what I have been watching, during the meeting of Dr. Berhanu, Ana Gomez, in Europe, DLA Piper agent said, “why you Dr. Berhanu and the the like,do not oppose the Wayanne inside the country, LIKE Pro. Mesfine?”
I had a big question, that of today what Prof. said is understood by DLA piper agent. If blood is in their hand, justice has no place, people are running away, etc. What is this to Ethiopians and Ethiopia?
If at all the prof. wants to say, I may feel Waynnes are Ethiopians too, but they need to understand and respect other Ethiopians, as well.
The prof. has fundamental confflict of ideas, the power belongs to the PEOPLE, sooner or later, by wish or fish.
Prof. I think politics is not for you as it is not for me.
Good Luck Ethiopia with your truth loving Children.
I have no doubt Prof. loves his country, but,but,….
Prof. mesefen is compeleetely correcte and he is the right way
Would you mind posting a PDF version or a transcribed version of the speech, so that we all can see what he said (or what he did not say) for ourselves. Then only we can interpreate the meanining without the “good” mouth of a middle man.
It is not “Woyane is not enemy ” that i got destructive
rather his comment on armed struggle is purposely designed to divide the leaders from the people he tell us ” they will come by plane to Addis after your sons die for Ethiopia” off course that is logic every body has his own responsibility for the armed struggle may be the one in the front may die or may not. Cool down prof??
Dear Elias,
I am sorry, I don’t think you understand what he is saying. What you wrote here is different from what he said (I listhened from your website). Is there any problem with you regarding UJDP? I am afraid, yes. You are totally biased.
Please others listen before commenting based on Elias’s biased interprition!
Cheers
I think Prof. Mesfin has clearly put the crimes of weyane in diffrent ways, however since prof. mesfin was speaking on behalf of UDJ an oppostion uses peaceful struggle in Ethiopia can not simply generalize weyane as an enemy in terms of words. So I urge everyone to think twice before we simply rush to conclusions. In stead what we should be worried is that what kind of strategy has been planned by UDJ to fight weyane especially in the up coming election 2010 from the major kinijit 8 points perspective and others. Listen action talks than words….so dont worry about the words and start focus on the pre-planned actions….I think let’s keep giving the chance to Prof. Mesfin and other strong memebers of UDJ….
thanks
yetekeberu profin leteketatele(4 the the last 3 yeras)he is not doing well.he should resign from politics.Be ewnet elachihualew yeminagerut neger hulu eyewerede metual.Yeahunu zemecha gilts new G-7 eyagegne yemetawin teseminet lemadakem tasibo new.Any way to see the clear picture of the political situation in ethiopia please see Muluneh Eyoels speech on last saturday meeting arranged G-7
http://www.ethiopiazare.com/images/doc/pdf/speech/2008/080705_muluneh_dc_spech_g7.pdf
ethiopia lezelalem tinir
Betam asazagn huneta!
What is the mission of Prof. Mesfin in the States? Did he come to tell us how Andenet will carry out the peaceful struggle or is he here to lambast other opposition groups who have taken alternative ways to struggle?
He is a typical ‘ashmuregna shimagile’ who is pointing fingers at others and sending poisonous message to supporters of other groups. Endet yaltadeln sewotch nen ebakachiu?
So, far, I haven’t heard the other groups talking ill of the Andenet party other than telling us that everybody could struggle in the way and manner it so wishes so long as the end result is institutionalizing democracy in our country.
We wasted our precious time just to listen to alubalta and ashmur from a supposedly learned geography tutor.
Shame!
That is our problem, we copy but not properly, we compare those that are not comparable. TPLF is not a party it is a liberation front but they are doing business at the expense of poor Tigreans who are victims of Meles tyranny like other brother and sisters all over Ethiopia.
Hitler or Mussoloni were also claiming to do good for their respective countries i.e. Germany and Italy. But one can not build the German or Italian nation by exploiting other nations or killing other people.
Meles and co are claiming that they are building a greater Tigrai and freeing other nationalities and claiming to be a better Master. But how long. It is no secret that the Federal regions are ruled by Tigrean cadres although some hodams (Guletchas) are just sitting claiming to be federal leaders.
It is my great conviction that the Tigreans will allow indefinately that a group of inter-married mafia groups trade in their name. They should fight with other Ethiopians to free from tyranny and poverty. Our brothers and sisters in Somalia (Ogaden), Southern regions, the Ormos, Afars and several nationalities in Ethiopia need freedom not a better master. A killer is a killer whether his name is Mengistu or Meles
In my opinion, most people who write on this website as well as other print and broadcast media covering Ethiopian politics seem to have very little knowledge of Prof Mesfin. I have known the Professor for the last 35 years. To put it mildly he has always been the most controversial person. During his tenure at Haile Selassie University (the current Addis Ababa University) he has always been, one way or another, opposed to the Ethiopian Students Movement or no positive contribution except criticizing everybody. He was simply at odds with many of the then scholars including Drs. Eshetu Chole, Assefa etc. One contemporarey of his told me he is a man with no integrity – his arguments are always very destructive and “Oh yes” very Power Hungry – A critic simply to promote his ego. I don’t know where this “great Professor” label came from…. maybe good enough to satify his insatiable ego but that is far from the truth!
To fill his power thirst the Emperor Haile Selassie gave him a position of District Administrator (Awraja Geji). He was then tested and labeled as a man who can talk but with no substance and he returned to the University. Again during the tenure of the Dergue, he assumed “Mermari Commission” position and got very close to Mengistu – by condemning intellectuals who dwarfed his ego and to win favor from Mengistu. Because of his lack of integrity, Mengistu also denied him a position of power. BTW he was very close to Mengistu and the rest of the Dergue hierarchy!!!
He is a very bitter man whose chauvinistic statements against Oromos, Somalis and all other non-amara ethnic group is well documented.
It is this man who is now trying to put down our heroes who are fighting woyane in the bushes and those inspiring us to do the same.
Could this be his chauvinistic awakening???
Long live the progressive leaders of tomorrow’s Democratic Ethiopia – OLF, ONLF, Ginbot 7, the Ethiopian Patriotic Front etc.
__________________________________________________
According to Encarta dictionary the word ‘Enemy’ is defined as: ‘unfriendly opponent, somebody who hates or seeks to harm somebody or something.’
Given this definition, I understand that Prof. Mesfin has confused between citizenship and unfriendly political opponent. What makes two groups enemies is not their citizenship; instead important is the way they manage their relationship.
What we all know and the professor also explained is that Woyane Agazi Army used military power against peaceful demonstrators and used trained sharp shooters to kill them.
So, in human world would it be possible for the victims to consider the Woyane Agazi Army as friends, and their action just a simple mistake?
Moreover, given all the atrocities committed by ‘Woyane’, I can not understand the moral ground for criticising those who decided to raise arms in self defence against their oppressors.
In a free country where the rule of law is ensured political opposition can be run without hate and without seeking to harm one another. But in Ethiopia the fact is different. There has never been the rule of law. Those in authority have never allowed any meaningful opposition. They are always filled with hate against their opponents and are ready to harm them.
I do understand professor Mesfin’s interest in getting the country out of the trap of this political culture of unfriendly opposition. I do appreciate his desire to see a political culture free of hate being practiced in a united Ethiopia. That is also what I’m dreaming day and night. I do also believe that a forgiving heart and mind is actually what we all Ethiopians need; and ultimately it is the only means to end the crises in Ethiopia. However, I think that achieving all these good objectives requires a genuine process of transition where all stakeholders are treated fairly with truth and understanding. ‘Washito Mastarek’ although it seems possible it can not be sustainable. We can not encourage ‘Woyane’ to accept peace and reconciliation by disregarding the pain of the victims. Justice should be done before the criminals are pardoned.
Hello Friends,
First I want to tell you that I didn’t listen all what he said and I am not fully informed in his explanation. Because of that I am neutral and want to tell you that my opinion is also based on that.
Having said that what is going on here … listen where are you living? Are you guys living in this world or in another planet?
Every body has his own opinion and based on that Professor Mesfin like any citizen explained his belief. That belief could be wrong or right. As such if in this world there is “absolute” right and wrong thing exist.
So what we have to do is open up for dialog not for personal attack(that will help the woyane significantly in their propoganda, we also saw that a lot in the past, please guys try not to repeat the same mistake).
I guss atleast Professor Mesfin in his heart he knew that they are the enamies of ethiopia and ethiopian. But saying that only will not take ethiopia anywhere so he might be creating a new strategy that help us how to avoid enamies without telling them that they are our enamy.
If that strategy is working I won’t have problem by calling them enamy or not, because the main target is avoiding woyane from power, once they destroyed: there is rule and regulation, the people of ethiopia may decide to put them in the war criminal court at Hague – Swizerland or will get justice at home.
Therefore, guys please remember one thing from our old way of saying I will quote ” MUYAA BELEB NEOW”.
Even if his beliveve is unattainable lets respect eachothers’ point of view and be open for dialog and new ideas that you might think better or best.
And lets try to develop this kind of behaviour that this specific opinion is his opinion. I may buy it or not .. period. Everybody is entitled free thinking and opinion, nobody has to take it from anybody … ALLAH/GOD given right. If we believe on that accept the reality!
We saw it in the past and we are seeing it now again and again that I want to assure you personal attack will help and strengthen Woyane more than anybody!!!
“Bertatune Yestenee !”
Toronto
The problem of the ER and most who are wrting against the professor is lack of using a proper language in your day to day activity. Because your problem is on the proper interpretyation of the word “enemy”.
I think most of you have no idea about what Enemy mean. The professor is trying to make it clear. I wouldn’t call enemy someone who have a wrong policy. I wouldn’t call enemy if someone has a different idea than mine.
If you call woyane as enemy, what do you expect the woyane will do. Woyane is far better from Enemy.
To give a good judgement about the vocabularies of prof. Mesfin w.m. one has to listen to his speech carefully and properly.
On my personal understanding he has anylysed the behaviour of the Woyane gangs. He mentioned how they are suffering from anxiety, paranoid and jingoism. The characteristics of Woyane was thoroughly expressed. What do we deduce from his speech depends on how we interpret languages.
In Ethiopian political landscape there appears occasionally misunderstanding and phrase-mongering.
This has hurted the struggle for togetherness.
Eventhough the Woyanes came to power by boasting of crashing the “enemy army” of Ethiopia and sowing the seeds of hatred among the people, Our people did not allow them such stupid thought to take the upper hand.
We have to be proud of our people.
Woyanes are doing against Ethiopian people as equal as any foreign enemies.
They build roads and buildings because they are preparing to pass over the country to different interested foreign nations later. to accomplish this job Milas Zenawi is the appropriate person. If we know that we have to deal with resolving adamantly.
he says there must be a genhine struggle and opposition not show off. That’s all.
Bravo Prof. Mesfin use your wise mind and forget rubbish Criticism
I think it is an excellent presentation.
Probably some of US hate what the Woyane people are doing but we are not willing to sacrifice our five minutes to challenge them. How many of us went to attend any of the anti-woyane meetings held in the last two or three days in DC area? So, who do we have to do that for us? Do we really have the moral to criticize anyone of these people? I don’t have that.
I think this professor is out of his mind. He needs to be sent to a mental asylum institution. What amazed me most is the prayer that he made at the begining of his so called speech.Is he really serious about it or he is trying to get some sympathy? Is Ethiopias problem as simple as that which can be solved by a prayer? or the prayer of the professor is special one that can go to the heaven directly.I strongly belive in God But I am ashamed of what the professor did.
Yes the professor is right. Woyane is not the enemy! So what?
elias;
I was one of your critics about your suggestion udj for the last 2 weeks.
I found out I am wrong atleast about prof. Mesfin.
the problem is his ego is too inflated like he tries to belittle others.
so long.
we gud
I think Proffesor is trying to act like “kirstos samera”, a mediator between GOD and the Devil. He should learn from the first mistake they learned in Kaliti. We better advice him to be couregeous and tell the truth that Meles and his gangs are “the Bandist group” riding the Devil, with an End being consumed by the Devil(Agazi). He should never forget also that Meles in his own words declared himself as a leader of “Interrahamwe = Agazi” during the 2005 election. Proffesor Mesfin I give you a very great respect as one of the great scholars of modern day Ethiopia. Please don’t let yourself to be fooled again….
Well, No. 72 explained evrything about Prof. Mesfin’s character.Those who knows him will agree on this.What he is forgetting is that, this time everbody is ahead of him in politics .Please tell him that people of Ethiopia are not blind anymore. We changed after the massacre of 60 Ethiopian ministers.
please tell this man as we have respect for every thing that he has been doing till this resent day.But now he has come with a very dangerous idea that probably may not be worse than what Hailu Shawel and his gang members have done.Stop it.
Elias,
You are woking against Woyane; Great!!! Please stop working against Ethiopians!!! There is nothing unwise statment from the speech by Professor Mesfin.
Be fair!!!
Don’t underestimate the wisdom of the professor.The wisdom is a product of three things ;experience,experience and experience.In addition you can disagree with the professor but how about the name calling.As for woyanne,if the diaspora wants to cure Ethiopia from this cancer you don’t have to kill the patient,Ethiopia,while doing a major surgery.
Ethiopians, the question is not what enemy means. my problem is if we label weyanne as enemy in our political programme, then we do not need to continue with so called peaceful struggle. If you label someone enemy, you do not want to sit with them to bring about any kind of change. what you want to do with them instead is to eliminate them. So the questiion is are we ready to do that?
i listen the whole speech , what is wrong with him? the messege of unity, forgiveness and freedom.
Elias as much as I like your controvercial approach on reporting,this time I think you completily put your own spin on what the Prof said.The worst part is many of them started bashing the Prof. by just following what you said please be careful!! for you have a very powerful tool(media)in your hands.
Elias,
His messege is for you. Go back and listen to his speech. Maybe you will see his wisdom.
Good luck
I first thought Elias was sensationalizing the story till I heard the poor Professor words in my own ears. It is ridiculous and shocking beyond imagination. What the hell is wrong the guy? I mean, what is he thinking? Does he know what kind of message exactly he is trying to convey? Forgive me for saying this but I have a problem with older political leaders. I find them to be at times a bit rigged and delusional.
I support both peaceful and armed struggles. They both can be functional side by side. You run elections peacefully, you ask the government to step down and if it doesn’t, then you use alternatives means(wage war through the organized forces that you developed while going through the peaceful struggle). If you are so weak and don’t have any military power behind you, it is unlikely that a regime like Weyane will just transfer power to you peacefully.
I think the problem with us(Ethiopians)is very complicated than most people would like to think
We have a twisted culture that had shaped our way of thinking. When I think of Ethiopians, I think of ignorance, rigidness, egocentricity, selfishness and of course emotional. Some of our behaviors that are often reflected on us are I think a part of our DNA structure. I know behaviors are learnt through environments, cultures and/or parents but the trends some what made me to believe our problems are deep rooted to our biological structures – DNA
If you take the poor professor as an example here, He doesn’t really believe in the statements he made. He was just upset and jealous that Genbot 7 got more attention in few weeks than any other movements that are alive. He had to make people believe focusing on armed struggle is a waste of time and convince them to believe the only way to heaven is UDJ and acknowledging the ruthless and illegitimate government. You don’t have to be a genius to figure out which behavioral category he is reflecting himself as being a typical Ethiopian.
We all have problems. You and me and everyone else. I believe it takes probably a generation or two to bring about a true change. For now however, we have to work towards creating that atmosphere for the next generation. There is no one page answer to everything but the first critical and important step is to get rid of our number one enemy – The Weyane Regime. It is the most difficult task at hand but we have to face it, with them in power, we can’t go anywhere. How can we get rid of weyane? Well, you don’t have a choice but to come together with other opposition parties and face weyane through Armed struggle in more organized and dedicated way. How can we accomplish that..? you start from yourself… When you wake up everyday, you have to tell yourself to learn how to compromise and work with people that you don’t necessarily agree with. Tell yourself to be more humble and force yourself to read more and inform your brain with current affairs and global news. If you fail to do that my friend, you must know, you didn’t just fail yourself but you failed your country,her people and the next generation.
By the way, I am a typical Ethiopian who suffer from all those behavioral problems that I just mentioned above. The good news is that, I am working on them. I hope you would do the same as well.
I Would like to hear the proffessor speech again and how much it is painful to accept though it is true.
I think what this so-called professor is trying to tell is this: Woyanne is not a beast unless ‘provoked’. Those young and adult age innocent people who were cowardly gunned down in the streets and alleys of Addis Ababa in 2005 might not have died if they did not ‘provoke’ Meles and his gang. They should have stayed home or rush to the streets and tell Meles and cohorts that they did the right thing in rigging the vote. The professor is telling me and all ‘stupid’ Ethiopian citizens both at home and abroad that the vote may have not been fixed. The opposition is somehow the cause of random killings of hundreds and wanton imprisonment of thousands. This is the mother of all conclusions from a twisted mind!!!!! You see…nobody except him can see that. I hope his daughter will tell him to talk about praying only. In silence is better!!! Haile Selassie had figured him out correctly. He gave him a turf to shine but all what he saw in this ‘educated man’ was talk, talk and talk. Kebero besew ig yamir seeyizut gin yadengir. I respect him as an elderly person as my deep-rooted culture has taught me well. The worst this I can say about him is ‘arege juwaje’ He is losing his marbles. Mobutu Sese Seko had amassed huge wealth. Was he supposed to be left alone and not to be called an enemy? Saddam, South Korean generals, Chiang Kai Shek all were filthy rich. What happened to them politically? Am I being told that wealth in Ethiopia gained through robbery and corruption is not the same as these countries? Being wealthy in such a way is just being wealthy in the same method anywhere. I think Mr. Elias and others must fold down their websites and stop calling Woyanne an enemy. Just kneel down and submit to Meles and his gang. Why? Because ‘he’ said so. The only one Ato Mesfin!!!!
elias kifle .you are always on the point.profeser mesfen is always confusing the public by his eko .i am sick and tired of him being always nice for weyane.17 years ago when ethiopians envaded by weyane he is the first person who stood up and said let us welcome weyane.he knows how to play the game in haileslase,derg,and weyane he does not want to pay the prise but always critsize those strong ethiopians.elias keep up the good job before this old fox damage the real opposition.
I think the good professor is turning senile. I am sorry to say that for I respect him like my father. But he seems confused and tired. I blame those UDJ leaders who sent him to represent the party. I don’t want to remember the professor like him.
I think the Prof. got nut. Am sorry to say so. But so is the reality. He doesn’t even know what he was talking about. This is really sad.
I think the professor is raising good points. We need to hear him first with out being biased and then debate about it.
Please dear Professor, why do you claim to represent a party that stands for justice (Unity for Democracy and Justice) and yet you talk about not holding Woyane leaders responsible for the murder of all those innocent Ethiopians? What is your definition of justice, if you let mass murderers go free without any accountability? I did not expect this from you professor. I am very disappointed.
As always, Professor Mesfin played the odd. I do not understand at all what are in his minds. I knew Professor Mesfin back from my student days at H.S.I.U. He was one of the most reactionary intellectuals at the time who stood against changes and worked in the interest of the existing regime. He knows how to time and take a populist stand. When he realized that the H.S government was on its way to abyss, Professor Mesfin took the historical moment to his opportunistic needs and pretended to play the role of a midwife to the revolution. When the Dergue seized power and was trying to build its base, this same professor has been one of those few intellectuals, which not only gave the Dergue the benefit of doubt but also went beyond that as being a prominent member of the Inquiry Commission, which recommended the physical elimination of the former rulers.
When Mesfin realized that the Dergue days was about to come to an end, he organized the Ghion negotiation forum, where he tried to appear anti-derg and as always provocative. When the Woyannes came to power he realized that they do not need him around and hid himself under the guise of human rights advocate. That also came to an end, where he for a moment thought that Hailu Shawel and co. were about to snatch political power from the Woyanne. He created disunity and mistrust inside the Kinijit by sewing suspicion and fear among the rank and by promoting a highly defeatist position.
I for one think that Professor Mesfin has always been working as an agent for an international intelligence agency and against a popular change in Ethiopia.