EDITOR’S NOTE: The so-called “opposition” Unity for Democracy and Justice Party (UDJ) held a demonstration in Addis Ababa today in which 250 carefully screened individuals participated. The UDJ leaders said that the protest was held to demand the release of their “leader” Birtukan Mideksa, but what they actually did was give legitimacy to the illegitimate regime of Tigrean People Liberation Front (Woyanne) ahead of next year’s general elections. How much political benefit the Woyanne regime has gained by this fake little rally is reflected on the headlines of major international news organizations. Here are some of them:
VOA: “Ethiopia’s Opposition Holds First Rally Since 2005”
AFP: “Ethiopian opposition stages rare protest”
Reuters: “Ethiopians stage first protest since ’05 violence”
BBC: “Ethiopians rally in rare protest”
APA: “Ethiopian opposition demonstrate to demand release of their jailed leader”
CNN and others will no doubt echo the same story. The following is full text of the reports by VOA, BBC and others:
By Peter Heinlein | VOA
Supporters of imprisoned Ethiopian political leader Birtukan Mideksa have marched in the streets of Addis Ababa to demand her release. The march was the first officially sanctioned political demonstration since the violent protests of 2005.
A carefully controlled group of 250 people marched to the offices of Ethiopia’s president and prime minister Thursday to present petitions demanding freedom for opposition leader Birtukan Mideksa.
The 35-year-old former judge was first jailed after the disputed 2005 elections, in which her party claimed victory. She was among dozens of opposition leaders sentenced to life, but later released after a pardon agreement with the government.
Birtukan was re-arrested in December and ordered to serve out her life sentence after rejecting a government demand that she make a public statement acknowledging that she asked for the pardon.
Among those participating in Thursday’s demonstration was former Ethiopian president Negasso Gidada, who left office after a dispute with the ruling party in 2001. Negasso, who is a member of parliament says Birtukan should be freed because her re-arrest was illegal.
“If she was found guilty, she should have been brought in front of a court, they should have accused her and brought her to court and had her sentenced again, but they didn’t do that,” said Gidada. “They just picked her from the street and put her in prison. And that is not the way justice would do.”
Government officials have refused to budge in the face of strong pressure to release Birtukan, who is an unmarried mother of a four-year-old daughter. Communications Minister Bereket Simon told reporters last week the government has no intention of re-opening the case on humanitarian grounds.
“No. Not at all,” said Simon. “It’s a judicially resolved case and the government has no mandate to intervene in implementing the decision.”
A spokesman for the Unity for Democracy and Justice party, Hailu Araya, says opposition leaders plan to make Birtukan’s case a main issue in next year’s national elections. He calls her imprisonment an affront to the rule of law.
“There must be a way out. Just because government officials say there is no way out doesn’t mean there is no way out,” said Hailu. “We have to, through persistence, through pressure, we want the rule of law to be respected. If the rule of law is respected, there is a way of having her released.”
Unity for Democracy and Justice party officials say the permit allowing 250 people to march Thursday was the first of its kind granted by the government since the violent post-2005 election protests that led to Birtukan’s arrest. Those protests claimed the lives of nearly 200 opposition supporters killed in clashes with government forces.
Among those joining this latest demonstration was Birtukan’s 72-year-old mother, Almaz Gebregziabhere, who has been one of the few visitors allowed to see her daughter in prison.
Birtukan served seven years on the federal bench, one of Ethiopia’s youngest judges, before resigning in 2000 to run for parliament. She said at the time she was resigning her judgeship because of government interference in the judiciary.
Reuters: ADDIS ABABA, April 16 (Reuters) – Ethiopians marched on Thursday to demand the release of a jailed opposition leader in the first political protests since a disputed 2005 election ended in street violence that killed 199 people.
Birtukan Mideksa, the 34-year-old leader of the Unity for Democracy and Justice party (UDJ), was first jailed with other opposition leaders after the 2005 poll. She was pardoned in 2007 but then re-arrested last year.
The former judge has been in solitary confinement since December and went on hunger strike for 13 days in January.
“We are marching today to tell the government that the imprisonment of our leader is illegal,” said Debebe Eshetu, a senior UDJ official who was also jailed in 2005.
“She has been put in jail to weaken our party and to warn politicians who are outside the same thing may happen to us.”
Birtukan is seen by regional analysts as the country’s foremost opposition politician and critics of the government say she has been jailed because of the threat she could pose at next year’s parliamentary elections.
Experts expect Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s government to win that poll since the opposition was weakened by the imprisonment of many its top figures in 2005.
Ethiopian opposition parties routinely accuse the government of harassment and say their candidates were intimidated when Ethiopians went to the polls last April for local elections.
The Meles government denies it.
Former Ethiopian President, Negaso Gidada, who is now an independent member of parliament, took part in Thursday’s march. He told Reuters there was no democracy in Ethiopia.
“I am convinced that our democratic rights and human rights are being abused,” he said as the demonstrators marched on the prime minister’s office and the palace of President Girma Woldegiorgis.
Guards barred them from entering the palace, but they were allowed to deliver a protest letter.
The demonstrators were given a letter in return that said Birtukan had broken the law and so could not be released.
The protest, which was approved by the authorities, was limited to 250 participants who all had to wear a government-issued identity badge. Security was low-key with only a small number of plainclothes police mingling with the crowd and almost no uniformed officers present.
Protesters waved placards, played music and shouted slogans but drew little visible support from passers-by.
“The government have killed people who protest so I would not shout like this,” one onlooker who declined to be named told Reuters. “These people are very brave.”
BBC: The main opposition parties in Ethiopia have held a march in Addis Ababa to call for the release of their imprisoned leader, Birtukan Medeksa.
The demonstrators handed in a petition to the authorities about Ms Birtukan.
She is serving a life sentence, after officials revoked a pardon which had previously seen her set free.
Ethiopia has very little tradition of public protest, the BBC’s Elizabeth Blunt in Addis Ababa says, and passers-by stopped and stared in amazement.
Almaz GebreEgziabher, Ms Birtukan’s mother, hopes the demonstration may help her daughter be released in time for the Ethiopian Easter this weekend.
“I am happy. I saw her last Saturday, and she is quite well. But I am praying that, with the help of God, she might be released tomorrow or the day after so that she can spend Easter with me and her daughter,” she said.
Ms Birtukan’s five-year-old daughter and mother are the only people who are being allowed to visit her in jail.
She was among more than 100 people jailed for political offences after Ethiopia’s election in 2005, most of whom have since been pardoned.
At the time of her re-arrest her colleague Berhanu Nega, who was also pardoned and now lives in exile, told the BBC it showed the government “was hell-bent on staying in power”.
Ms Birtukan is a former judge and was one of the younger and more charismatic leaders of the coalition which did well against the ruling party in the 2005 elections.
Our correspondent says that while in jail facing charges of treason, she became even more of a heroine, attracting widespread sympathy as a single mother separated from her baby daughter.
After the opposition leaders were pardoned and released last year, she emerged as the leader of a new coalition, the Union for Democracy and Justice (UDJ), painstakingly stitched together from various opposition groupings to contest elections in 2010.
The government news agency, quoting the ministry of justice, said her pardon had been revoked because she had denied requesting her pardon.
Ms Birtukan’s problems started when she spoke to journalists abroad about the way the opposition leaders were released, our correspondent says.
She talked about negotiations which had taken place between the opposition and government, with the help of a panel of elders, before their pardon was granted.
The government prefers to lay emphasis on a document signed by the prisoners, regretting any mistakes they had committed and asking for pardon.
This implies that their release was part of a normal judicial process, rather than in any way part of a negotiated political deal.
AFP: — Opposition protesters staged a rare demonstration in the Ethiopian capital Thursday, demanding the release of an official jailed for life in January.
Some 300 people massed outside the presidential palace and then marched towards Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s office in Addis Ababa in the first such protests since 2005, when disputed poll results sparked violence.
The group called for the release of Birtukan Midekssa, an opposition leader sentenced to life in prison after she reportedly denied ever expressing remorse to obtain a pardon in 2007 for treason and outrage against the constitution among other offences.
Birtukan, the head of the Unity for Democracy Justice (UDJ) party, had been detained with dozens of opposition figures and supporters following the 2005 elections.
“Our aim is to publicise the illegality of her detention, and to demand her immediate release. We demand the restoration of her pardon,” Yacob Hailemariam, UDJ’s deputy chief, told AFP.
Birtukan was only granted visiting rights by an Ethiopian court on Wednesday, but her release now depends on a government pardon board, which in turn will submit its decision to President Girme Wolde Giorgis.
“It was one big step in the whole process to have her family and lawyer allowed to visit the prison. We will resume our struggle to reach the next stage, which is to have her released,” party spokesman Hailu Araya told AFP.
The UDJ made its most spectacular electoral gains ever in the 2005 polls but cried foul over reported fraud, claiming it was robbed of victory by Meles’ ruling party.
The United States, a staunch Ethiopian ally and the country’s top aid contributor, has expressed concern over the 36-year-old’s re-arrest and called for more political freedom in the Horn of Africa nation.
Ethiopia’s next general elections are to be held in June 2010.
Meles, whose security forces were blamed for using excessive force four years ago, has vowed to prepare law enforcement agencies to avoid bloodshed in time for next year.
18 thoughts on “UDJ holds a fake protest rally in Ethiopia”
so funny kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
Elias do you have pictures of this protest? UDJ is Woyanne after this move.
Woyane is using this demonstration to create havoc among christians and muslims.. read Iga forum( I can assure you that there wasn’t any T-shirt wore by participants saying the alleged slogan)
blatant lies!!!
Woyane is scared to death!!
http://aigaforum.com/news/UDJ_held_a_very_successful_demonstration.htm
UDJ held a very successful demonstration
(Aigaforum 04/17/09):- Leaders, members and supporters of opposition party, Democracy and Justice Party (UDJ) held a successful demonstration on behalf of their convicted leader Birtukan Mideksa.
According to our reports around 2:50 am (local time) there were between 250 to 280 demonstrators chanting “free our leader, “tagay yemotal enji tegel ayferesm” (an activist will die but the struggle lives on), and free Birtukan and stop gender discrimination!
Dr Negasso former president of Ethiopia, Bulcha Demkessa and producers of Addis Neger private paper were some of the notables at the demonstration. While Dr Negasso attended the demonstration from beginning to end, Ato Bulcha was there only at the end of the demonstration for some 10-15 minutes.
The demonstrators were able to march from the president’s office to PM office without any disturbance. Demonstrators were carrying the Ethiopian flag as well as the usual old guard flag which the constitution does not recognize as a legal flag. People were wearing UDJ blue T-shirt chanting Ethiopia is an island of Christians!
Sources informed us Engineer Gizachew and Dr Hailu as well as Asrat Tase was able to present their complaints to PM Meles office. Dr Yacob was seen leaving half way into the demonstration!
.Although the family of Birtukan Mideksa is hoping the demonstration will yield some positive result some of the demonstrators were not that hopeful.
Sources told us many of the participants were happy that the Government allowed them to demonstrate which helped them to highlight their cause to the international audience; they were not that hopeful things will change for Birtukan. They think the demonstration has helped them to relieve the burden off their shoulder.
You know when aigameforum.com discribes the “Demonstration” as “SUCCESSFUL”, the writng is on the wall. That tells you that not only Weyane, but their supporters are dying to claim some “Nice things happening in Ethiopia” LOL!
What UDJ is doing shows how astute they are.I am for armed resistance,but I am beginning to admire UDJ more and more.They would be stupid to call for a mass demonstration at this particular time. Only an insane person would do that. The first thing is to organize themselves fully well to the point of being able to take state power. Then and only then can one sacrifice precious life.
Samuel Borsamo Kolato
Politics as usual!
After he saw the London demonstrations by thousands of Ethiopians during the G20 economic conference, Meles Seitanawi for his political reasons has allowed a handful of people to demonstrate in the streets of Addis Ababa, and he has purposely avoided the presence of the federal police force during this insignificant march by some insignificant people. He has done this to show to the world that Ethiopia is a democratic country that allows its citizens to demonstrate and express their concerns to their government freely without any fear or appraisal.
In other words, Meles is preparing the Ethiopian people that before they get out to demonstrate their cases, they have to get permission from the government; they have to pick up very carefully their slogans; they have to carry a permit badge with them, and their numbers should not be more than 250 people, and the time of the demonstration and the place must be chosen by the government.
A government-sponsored demonstration shows that the country is not yet a democratic country, and that the government does not trust its citizens; therefore, if there is no trust between the government and the citizens, sooner or later, the government will collapse. Such is the dilemma in Ethiopian politics today: the government fears the people, and the people fear the government; in the end, mutual fear brings mutual destruction.
In a democratic country, more than 20 thousand people demonstrate at any time, at any place they want; they choose their own slogans, they wear their own T-shirts and march singing their own songs against their corrupt government if it is, and mostly no harm is done to them.
In Ethiopia, Meles Seitanawi knows that the rules are quite different, and that is why the few selected people while demonstrating have failed to attract other Ethiopian citizens to join them. I hope the whole world will understand Meles’ evil techniques of survival.
I think it is better than nothing since it can at least make Birtukan’s name and case known to the outside world. It also reminds us the responsibility we owe Birtukan and other victims of Woyane. The fact that only 250 people are allowed to march does not tell that Woyane is a democratic government. It is also noted by all media channels that reported the event that demonstration was banned for the last four years and allowed for only a few selected ‘loyal’ opponents today. Therefore, whatever benefit woyane may grasp from this event will be outweighed by its demerits.
This is a fake demo. Why they don’t partcipate other people who are against woyanne.
It is so incomprehensible that the UDJ would let the regime patronize their own party and their followers by compromising for something lesser than the cause that thousands have sacrificed their lives for i.e the right to demonstrate and freedom of expression. This is a brazen window dressing and political expediency in its entirity, in which the regime in power would only politically cash in, with no political kickback to UDJ. The political gains from such pandering for the UDJ would actually be zero, nothing, zilch. Neither the UDJ nor the downtrodden people of Ethiopia would profit from such shenanigans and horse-tradings. This so called demonstration held with such ignominious concessions on the part of UDJ, on the basic, immutable tenets of freedom of expression, through limiting the number of participants, is so spurious in that it only legitimizes the absolute and undisputed power that the regime has on UDJ and other political parties in the country.
If there would really be anything that such fawning and tail-wiggling by the UDJ would show, it is that the basic underpinnings of the party are so flimsy, the leaders are diffident and the party is malleable in that the regime could mould it in any shape of its whim.
It really doesn’t rquire to be an expert in political science to surmise that the regime in power will not be forced to release Birtukan by a two hundred fifty people demonstration. If the regime is going to release Birtukan, it would only be through the persistent arm- twisting by the international community, not by a two hundred fifty selected loyal demonstrators from the UDJ. What the UDJ did is only that it confided and admitted to its own adversary that it is spineless and lacks resolute. If there is also anything that the UDJ have accomplished through such expedient measures, it is that they pretified and covered the blood- stained rusty tooth of the regime by covering them with veneers.
What was the purpose of this demonstration? Why only 250 people allowed? Showing that Weyane is democratic enough!
Elias,
Waht is wrong with that? What is wrong with protesting peacefully. We know you are contributing to the struggle which is great, and they are doing their part. Leave them alone please. In fact you you were expected to encourage them rather than condemning them unfairly. I have never appreciated your bold criticism to people doing things other than what you think is right. You could be wrong too as proved many times in the past. There are many ways of doing things and this is one.
I know UDJ is going to do this “fake” demonstration but indirectly they are helping Meles to be seen as a good leader. they were suppose to call all supporters, instead of only 250 people. i am really tired of all this. i want to see the end TPLF’s regime but our leaders seems not know how to remove it.
Let’s be open minded and positive about what UDJ have done.
It was important to limit the number of participants inorder to have full controll over the peaceful demonstrstion, and prevent unneccessary sacrifice.Woyane wanted UDJ to step on to the mine field;the selected 250 people exactly knew how to avoid that mine field.This plan comes from the deep understanding of Woyane’s behavior of fabricating excuses inorder to arrest the leaders.
This demonstration was not designed to secure Bertukan’s freedom ,but it was a sybol of peaceful resistance and just dramitizing to the world how power is being abused .It never showed the world that Woyane is a democratic government,it rather shows that Woyane takes controll of everthing on his hand illegaly.This demonstration should not be driven by revenge,emotion and hate,but by maturity,peace ,unity and responsibility.
An Observer says
UDJ has to be naive and silly. What an effect can a demonstration of 250 selected people will have on Woyanne? Nothing except legitimising Woyanne. Infact, UDJ and other ‘so called’opposition parties by legitmising Woyanne are prolonging the suffering and agony of the Ethiopian people.
Wake up Ethiopians. It seems that the conspiracy and deception will continue against the will of our people.
Tamiru
BBC’s Report:
“Ethiopia has very little tradition of public protest, the BBC’s Elizabeth Blunt in Addis Ababa says, and passers-by stopped and stared in amazement”.
The tradition of demonstration was very common by High school and HU/now AAU students from late 60s to early 70s; and it did make a difference, at the cost of missing classes and in the end the University closed and Highs school promotion was met by automatic promotion. Tear gases were more common than hitting demonstrators in the head with a handle of a rifle and easy shooting and abuse. This regime belonged to students of that generation. Now that they are in power, they see the other way. They also violate the constitution by discouraging demonstration.
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Aiga Forum’s Report: “Demonstrators were carrying the Ethiopian flag as well as the usual old guard flag which the constitution does not recognize as a legal”.
“The Ethiopian flag” has a long history and even other African countries honor it ,copied the colors and add a distinct change for identification. A seventeen years regime dishonoring and not recognizing Ethiopia’s precious symbol used through wars, victories, glory, in official places/schools and mourning, is one of the most defying violations. Some people had been arrested for using it instead of Woyane’s flag. Nation and nationalities had been recognized during Derg, Haileselassie, Atse Minilik and others; they did not create it, then why betray the classic flag.
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In my opinion, APF’s report is more informative.
is this really the Ethiopia I know? the woyanes are peeing on our face. what happened my people? the woyannes are humiliating the whole Ethiopians
Let us see the positive side, if there is anything positive. Let us appreciate these people for using the small hole of opportunity to try to be heard, though it was humiliating. But, next step we expect from them to make the small hole to a window or a big door. If the Government doesn’t respond to their answer with in days, they should call a general protest including everyone in Addis and out in every city. We know, the Ethiopian people are disciplined and peace loving. Then, we know for sure you are a viable opposition party, we will listen to you, and help you in every way for your next victory.
God help you!
The UDJ leaders started their opposition by VIGL,went on to a demonstration of 250 people.Of all the demonstrators I appreciate Dr.Negasso Gidada.He’s not a member of the UDJ and yet has shown his firm commitment to democracy and the rule of law.In his own words,there’s no democracy in Ethiopia.
I,for one,strongly support the moves made by the UDJ,for something’s better than nothing.Even then I’m highly pessimistic about the dawn of democracy in that poor country where tribalism has strongholds in politics,economy,social and cultural fields.
The entire people are under subjugation by the tribal regime,aren’t yet free from the mass murder and terror of the regime.In such a situation how can we blame the people for not coming out for mass rally?