Ethiopia’s Prime Minister dictator Meles Zenawi has accused the official opposition of collaborating with armed insurgents.
His comments came after an opposition leader complained in parliament about harassment in the Oromia region.
Mr Meles also mocked foreign press coverage of events in the south-east Ogaden region where rebels claim to have battled the army over the weekend.
Some groups have taken up arms in the Oromia and Somali-speaking Ogaden regions in pursuit of greater autonomy.
Arrests threat
In the parliamentary session, broadcast live on Ethiopian television, the prime minister said the opposition were acting as a Trojan horse for armed insurgent movements.
The accusations came after opposition leader Bulcha Demeksa complained about widespread arrests and harassment in the Oromia region in the southern central part of the country.
Mr Meles said the government was aware that some senior leaders of opposition organisations were members of the rebel Oromo Liberation Front (OLF).
He said once the government had enough evidence the culprits would be arrested and put on trial.
Another opposition leader accused the government of ignoring issues in the Ogaden region despite allegations of human rights abuses in the international media.
In response, Mr Meles poked fun at media coverage of recent Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) claims that the rebels had besieged his political adviser.
As he had been with the adviser at the time, Mr Meles inquired why he had not been surrounded too.
However, he said nothing about rebel claims of heavy fighting in the past few days.
The ONLF says up to 250 government troops died in a battle on Sunday.
On Monday, a government spokesman said any skirmishes may have involved local, pro-government militias, not the army.
Beyonce steals Aba Gebremedhin’s heart… so much so that the former Aba Paulos (aka Aba Diabilos) invites her to come back and visit him, according to ENA.
Source: ENA
Addis Ababa , October 21, 2007 – Beyoncé Knowles said she would visit Ethiopian again in the near future. After attending a congregation held at the Trinity Cathedral here on Sunday, Beyonce told the Ethiopian Orthodox Church Patriarch, Abune-Paulos that she would pay visit to Ethiopia, as she considers Ethiopia as her second home. She made the decision to visit Ethiopia again at the request of Abune-Paulos.
“I feel like as a second home. I traveled many places before but I have never been to a place with a spirit like Ethiopia. I am very honored to have been in this beautiful place and I can’t wait to come back here again,” she said.
“I enjoyed myself…how wonderful Ethiopia is and I definitely can’t wait to come back,” said Beyonce, who was attired with Ethiopian tradional dress while attending the congregation.
An Amharic book that depicts the early history of Axum and that of Ethiopia since the last 2,000 years was presented to Beyonce on the occasion.
In an exclusive interview with ENA on Saturday, Beyonce said about the new Ethiopian millennium” The millennium is exciting it is very different. I don’t know I understand how we have two different millenniums. But I know now how it is in the year 2,000, it is very exciting. And I am happy to be a part of it.”
“ This is a beautiful country. This is an overwhelming day, it just makes me feel blessed that I am able to bless other people, “ she said.
The 26-year old artist came to Ethiopia to stage performance here the Millennium Hall that took place on Saturday.
While here, she had held talks with President Girma Wolde-giorgis and visited the national museum, among others.
——————– EDITOR’S NOTE
Beyonce was paid $1 million to go to Ethiopia with an entourage of 72 persons for a one night performance at the Sheraton Hotel last week as a special guest of Woyanne billionaire Al Amoudi.
U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Africa, Global Health and International Operations Subcommittee, today delivered the following remarks at a “Newsmakers” event at that National Press Club:
Human rights in Ethiopia is not a burning question in Washington today. It ought to be. We don’t read, or hear, or talk much about it. That has to change, and I believe most of us here today know that. That’s why we’re here.
I got involved in Ethiopian human rights issues during Ethiopia’s infamous famines—when food was used by the Mengistu dictatorship as a “weapon” to murder countless women, men and children. In the eighties, I joined members on both sides of the aisle in pushing for “corridors of tranquility”—a safe means by which humanitarian aid workers would be permitted to deliver food, medicines, clothing and shelter to hundreds of thousands who were literally starving.
My most recent involvement took off when I visited Ethiopia in August 2005. This was two months after the post-election slaughter in Addis of scores of pro-democracy demonstrators, and the harassment, arrest and detention of thousands of political prisoners.
In Addis I had talks with a broad section of political, civic, religious, diplomatic and political leaders. I met with Mr. Hailu Shawel, the Chairman of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy. I met with the Patriarch. I met with the European diplomats who led the election observer mission and many others.
I also had a lengthy meeting with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. I urged him to investigate the slaughter of the pro-democracy demonstrators, to punish those responsible, and to release all political prisoners. I raised my deep concerns regarding the lack of fairness—especially the intimidation tactics employed by his agents–during the recent national elections. I told him that I believed it wrong and counterproductive to have ousted the International Republican Institute (IRI) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI). By banishing these highly respected organizations, his regime was begging the question: What is it that you don’t want the world to see? What are you hiding? I asked the Prime Minister to invite them back. I also raised concerns regarding the egregiously flawed means by which contested election outcomes where being adjudicated.
I also expressed my deepest disappointment and sorrow over his regimes recent legalization of abortion on demand and argued that Ethiopia’s women and children have suffered enough death. Abortion is violence against children—it dismembers and chemically poisons babies–and it hurts women physically and psychologically. (In a meeting with Ethiopia’s Justice Minister, I was told that the government’s new abortion policy was written by a U.S. pro-abortion non-governmental organization.)
Finally, when I asked the Prime Minister to work with the opposition and show respect and tolerance for those with differing views on the challenges facing Ethiopia he said, “I have a file on all of them; they are all guilty of treason.”
I was struck by his all-knowing tone. Guilty! They’re all guilty simply because Meles says so? No trial? Not even a Kangaroo court?
I urged Prime Minister Meles not to take that route.
I remember thinking, as I got on the plane for the flight home, we need the equivalent of the Belarus Democracy Act and the Vietnam Human Rights Act–for Ethiopia. As you may know, I am the prime author of the Belarus Democracy Act signed into law by President Bush on October 20, 2004 as well as the Vietnam Human Rights Act (HR 3096) which has passed the House of Representatives on three separate occasions (most recently on September 17th). Working off both those country-specific models, I wrote the first outline draft of the Ethiopia Human Rights Bill on the flight back to Washington. Greg Simpkins, my subcommittee’s Africa specialist at that time did a superb job on the draft bill.
Over the course of the next several months, my friend and colleague Don Payne helped shape the legislation. What emerged for House floor consideration was a bipartisan bill, that if enacted would have made a serious difference.
The bill provided financial support to human rights promoters in Ethiopia, and conditioned certain forms of U.S. Government assistance to the Ethiopian Government on that government meeting a very modest list of human rights benchmarks.
When we tried to bring it to the floor after approval by the full International Relations Committee, we were blocked. This year, in the new Congress, Mr. Payne introduced the bill and we worked together again, and this time, despite furious lobbying by the Ethiopian Government and others against the bill, the House of Representatives adopted it.
Now we have to help the bill get through the Senate. I’m afraid voices are already being raised against the bill in the Senate, and in the Administration. One of the things they are saying now is that the bill fails to recognize that the situation in Ethiopia has gotten better.
First, if the situation has improved, which is highly debatable, or if it does improve, the legislation contains a broad waiver of its punitive sections. The bill gives the President complete flexibility to respond to any improvement–or deterioration–on the ground. However, given the recent history of systematic human rights abuse by the Meles regime and the credible reports of rape and slaughter in Ogaden, it is hard for any reasonable person to trust the government or anything it might say without independent verification, fresh accountability, genuine transparency, and systemic reform.
Everything that has happened since 2005 has only made the need for our legislation more compelling. In July 2006 the chairman of the Commission of Inquiry into the slaughter of 2005 fled the country, and his replacement did the same in September. In October one of them said that the government had pressured the Commission into changing its findings, and announced that most of the 193 demonstrators killed had died from shots to the head. Some of Ethiopia’s best and brightest and bravest spent almost two years in prison on trumped up charges and today remain at risk of unjust and capricious incarceration. There are no indications that Meles has embraced the rule of just law or an independent judiciary.
I believe that neither we nor the international community has pushed the Meles government hard enough on human rights issues because we have been satisfied it cooperates with us to some extent in the war on terror. The war on terror is very important, but no regime that terrorizes its own citizens can be a reliable ally in the war on terror. Terrorism isn’t just a military issue. It is also a human rights issue. Terrorists come from countries where their governments fail to respect their human rights. In promoting human rights in Ethiopia, we are attacking terrorism at its roots.
As you know, the Ogaden is a region of eastern Ethiopia of mixed ethnicity where the Ethiopian Government, fighting an insurgency, has carried the war to the innocent civilian population. Many, perhaps most, of the people who live in the Ogaden are Somalis. According to many reports, the Ethiopian National Defense Force is using the most brutal tactics imaginable against them.
Ogadeni villages suspected of supporting ONLF insurgents have been burned down, young women from these villages gang-raped and killed, men beaten to death. Refugees are making their way to Somalia, where, near the port of Bosasso, they have built ramshackle refugee camps. Journalists have been banned from the Ogaden, where the Ethiopian air force has bombed villages, and the Ethiopian army has destroyed crops, and prevented food and medical aid from being brought into the region. During the Summer, Doctors Without Borders and the Red Cross were expelled.
Just a few weeks ago we heard testimony on these atrocities on the Africa Subcommittee. A representative of Human Rights Watch said that, while “the Ogaden is not Darfur yet, it is probably only a few months away from sliding over the edge into a full-blown humanitarian crisis of massive proportions.”
One newspaper, The Independent on October 17th published a story with the headline: Ethiopia’s ‘own Darfur’ as villagers flee government-backed violence. The story, written by Steve Bloomfield described the harrowing abduction by government troops of seven young girls from on village—all aged between 15 and 18. “The following mourning the youngest girl was found. Her body, bloodied and beaten, was hanging from a tree. The next day a second girl was found hanging from the same tree. A third suffered the same fate. The others were never seen again.”
The story goes on: “A former Ethiopian soldier who defected from the army said how he had been ordered to burn villages and kill all their inhabitants. He said the Ethiopian air force would bomb a village before a unit of ground troops followed, firing indiscriminately at civilians. ‘Men, women, children—we killed them all,’ he said.”
There has never been a more auspicious time than now to free the people of Ethiopia from the clutches of the autocratic rule of Zenawi, who is treated as persona non grata even by his once ardent supporters, and has run out of options to revive a dying regime built on lies and crimes.
The only chance of survival for the tyrannical regime appears to rest now in the failure of opposition leaders to refrain from derailing the popular movement. The unfolding events of the past few weeks surrounding Kinijit’s leaders have been of Kafkaesque proportions in their incongruity relative to the people’s aspirations and resolve.
The struggle for freedom of the people of Ethiopia has been compromised many times in the past by factionalism and internal bickering, each time resulting in devastating consequences. It should not be allowed to happen again this time.
The sacrifices paid thus far are too heavy, and the danger of letting Zenawi off the hook too ominous, to stand idly and watch as naïve and petty factionalism adversely impacts the people’s determination to uproot tyranny and build a democratic society.
What are the objective conditions signaling the looming downfall of the dictator?
* In an unprecedented event in the history of the struggle of the people of Ethiopia, the U.S. House of Representatives has unanimously passed H.R. 2003 (Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability Act of 2007).1 The bill, even before its enactment into law, has dealt a fatal blow to the beleaguered dictator by exposing the atrocities of his regime and the vulnerabilities of the tyrant and his associates to face justice for their crimes against humanity. It will also strengthen future efforts to reclaim the people’s wealth that the greedy TPLF leaders have plundered and stashed away in foreign bank accounts and financial institutions under the cover of spurious companies.2,3 Once the bill becomes law, the regime will further be isolated and lose its most deceptive cover as a bulwark of terrorism, and the leaders will have no refuge from international law.
* In a recent visit, Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany and President of the European Union, put Zenawi on notice with a stark warning about his human rights abuses.4 In front of witnessing journalists, she stunned the dictator with her admonition: “We have the interest to see this society more open and the opposition’s rights protected.” Declaring that the dictator could no longer hoodwink donor nations with his usual lies of phantom democracy and fake growth statistics, she asserted: “The respect of human rights is among the factors very conducive for development.” In the United States, lawmakers and other officials have openly condemned him as a “vicious dictator”.5 Even his staunch proponent, Jendayi E. Frazer, Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, was obliged to grudgingly admit: “…political restrictions, including … harassment of or impediments blocking elected officials’ access to their constituencies, and restrictions on independent journalists and media outlets remain issues of concern.”6
* The economy of the country is in shambles,7,8 corruption and nepotism are rampant,9 and illiteracy and diseases are used as stealth instruments of repression10 — all unmistakable markers of a decaying totalitarian regime.
* Investigative reporters, in the likes of the indefatigable Jeffrey Gettleman,11,12 and editors of major newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal, have recognized the degree of oppression and corruption of Zenawi’s regime and are objectively exposing the atrocities committed by his repressive machinery. Most remarkably, a West African paper recently heralded: “… The world must stand up against Zenawi’s conduct. ….International pressure is required to make Ethiopia, where the African Union, with its Human Rights Commission, is ironically still headquartered, to comply with the ideals of the founding fathers of that organisation, ideals rooted in protecting the rights and dignity of our peoples.” It further forewarned: “Ethiopia needs to be saved from Zenawi, now.” 14
* Having rejected Zenawi’s rule in the May 2005 elections, Ethiopians at home continue to express their opposition to the autocratic government. From Tigray to Ogaden, and from Afar to the lands of the Oromo and the Anuaks, Ethiopians are fighting with unprecedented zeal and valor to overthrow the brutal dictator, turning against him the venomous policy of ethnicity that he has mischievously injected to poison the peace and harmony of a peace-loving people. His mercenary army, headed by a tiny ethnically homogenous group, created by the tyrant to deceive the people of Tigrai, is overstretched, with adventurous attacks on a neighboring nation, and incessant campaigns against popular uprisings across the nation. 15,16,17,18
* Ethiopians in the Diaspora have demonstrated a determination and effectiveness unparalleled hitherto to bring freedom to their fellow citizens. Waiving the tri-color that Zenawi denigrated, they have accorded a hero’s welcome to the leaders of Kinijit across Europe and the United States. They received Hailu Shawel with admiration and gratitude, Birtukan Mideksa, Birhanu Nega and the other leaders with songs and ululation, and Yacob Wolde Mariam and his entourage in Europe with the utmost affection and reverence. In city after city, they have opened their hearts and wallets to these leaders who have symbolized the struggle of the people against Zenawi’s tyranny. Undistracted by the relentless efforts of Zenawi to exploit the known trivial disputes among Kinijit’s leadership, genuine Ethiopians in the Diaspora continue to focus on the crimes of the brutal regime that has crushed the aspirations of the people for freedom and democracy, unleashed its killing machinery to massacre peaceful protesters, plundered the resources of the poor nation, and subjected the populace to unimaginable economic hardships, disease and illiteracy. The gruesome pictures of the victims of the 2005 massacre are too fresh in the minds of these Ethiopians to be swayed and sidetracked by the ploy of Zenawi to engage them in petty clashes of personalities. Fully convinced that the future of a nation, the fate of a people, and the survival of a way of life are under ferocious assault by the despot, the true sons and daughters of Ethiopia in the Diaspora have proven to be an indispensable component of the struggle to extricate their fellow citizens from the jaws of a vicious but fading dictatorship.
What are Zenawi’s predictable answers to the omens signaling the crumbling of his authoritarian rule?
Like all ailing dictators in their final hours of life, Zenawi has frantically embarked on a campaign of deception, increased repression, phony patriotism, and war-mongering.
* He is actively engaged in covert and overt actions to foment and/or exploit divisions within and among opposition groups. The hired guns of the regime are at work to weaken the opposition at home and abroad using enormous resources at their disposal. The embassies, consulates and numerous individuals planted in educational and other institutions abroad are waging relentless attacks on opposition groups and their activities.
* Zenawi’s secret police has stepped up its repressive activities to harass, arrest and imprison suspected members of the opposition in thousands. By most accounts, more people are now incarcerated in secret prisons in Ethiopia than anywhere else in the world today.20
* The dictator has re-invented the use of aggression as a tool to divert attention from his economic and political quagmires and to buy time to strengthen his weakening grip on power. Having declared war on a neighboring country that had posed no verifiable threat to the security of Ethiopia, he is now mobilizing the nation for another costly aggression against Eritrea 21,22 — a land he has more affinity to than the one he is ruling.
* Dr. Samuel Johnson, the famed author of Rasselas once wrote: “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.” Faced with formidable foes from every corner, the tyrant has begun to profess patriotism, in a direct assault on the sensibilities of the people, whose flag he has desecrated. Sensing the dawn of the new millennium is also the beginning of his demise, he is now lecturing23 on the history of the very country that he has denigrated, and whose dismemberment he has brazenly advocated and executed.
* Most significantly, the dictator has launched a relentless campaign to block the enactment of HR2003 into law.24 He has intensified his lobbying efforts, and is engaged in personal attacks of Congressional members who supported the bill.25
A Call to Action
Opposition groups, genuine Ethiopians in the Diaspora, and human-rights advocates across the globe have a historic responsibility to seize this opportune moment and to bring deliverance to a people that have been subjected to unimaginable repression, demonstrated exemplary resilience against tyranny, and survived repeated betrayal by its torch bearers. In particular:
* All opposition groups are called upon to set aside their intra and inter-organizational differences and to focus their energy and resources on the struggle to overthrow Zenawi’s brutal dictatorship.
* Without submitting to the whims of vain partisanship, Ethiopians at home and in the Diaspora should demand from opposition leaders their affirmation of the primacy of the collective goal of overthrowing tyranny over individual aspirations.
* In the near term, all genuine Ethiopians and friends of Ethiopia should re-double their efforts and mobilize their resources to protect H.R. 2003 from the onslaught of Zenawi.
Failure to recognize the imminent danger posed by the internal bickering of opposition leaders, and incapacity to take timely measures to prevent the derailment of the popular movement that is on the verge of delivering the people from the shackles of tyranny, would be inexcusable crimes that no genuine Ethiopian would be absolved of in the eyes of future generations.
____________________
Dr Selam Beyene can be reached at [email protected]
Ethiopia’s eminent scholar, human rights advocate, and one of the founding fathers of Kinijit, Professor Mesfin Woldemariam, gave interviews to the DW (German Radio) and VOA on Tuesday from his hospital bed in India. Both interviews focused on the leadership crisis inside Kinijit.
The professor’s interview on VOA, in particular, was a complete rebuke of Hailu Shawel’s failed leadership. It may well have sealed Ato Hailu’s fate as chairman of Kinijit. At the same time, his endorsement of Bertukan Mideksa to lead the party is a big boost to Kinijit’s collective leadership. In that sense, Prof. Mesfin’s VOA interview was beneficial. But many of his other points were uninformed, confusing and off the mark. His interview with the DW was particularly negative and demoralizing. Fortunately, the VOA interview, which followed a few hours later, was much better and some what uplifting.
Let’s start with Prof. Mesfin’s argument that the current leadership crisis inside Kinijit is in large part caused by a power struggle between Ato Hailu Shawel and Dr Berhanu Nega, which is far from reality. The fact is that Dr Berhanu is not going after Ato Hailu’s job. He is not even in line to be the top leader of the party any time soon. Kinijit’s bylaws require that some one has to be an executive committee member to be elected as a chairman. Berhanu Nega is not an executive committee member. Prof. Mesfin’s argument that there is a power struggle between Hailu and Berhanu is therefore baseless.
Even if it is true that Dr Berhanu is going after Ato Hailu’s job, what is wrong with that as long as he does it by trying to get the majority of the central council members on his side? Does that warrant Ato Hailu’s recent divisive comments and his refusal to implement the majority decisions of his colleagues?
In politics it is normal to forge alliances in order to attain power as a means for turning one’s vision into a reality. If it is done within the bounds of the party’s rules and procedure, and without being divisive (undermining the party’s integrity as Hailu Shawel is doing now), there is nothing wrong with vying for power. That is what politicians do.
Having said that, charismatic, domineering leaders like Berhanu Nega must be closely scrutinized and forcefully challenged. Otherwise, their blind supporters usually turn them into demagogues and dictators. If Dr Berhanu falters, it would be because of friends who lie to him and fail to challenge him, not because of his detractors. Look how Hailu Shawel’s corrupt friends brought about his disgrace and political demise. In that context, Prof. Mesfin’s stinging criticism (unfairly) directed at Dr Berhanu does no harm to him, depending on how he takes it. It can only make him a better leader, and a greater asset to Kinijit. The emotional reaction to Prof. Mesfin’s criticism by SOME OF Berhanu Nega’s supporters is disappointing, to say the least. Stop being sycophants.
The other point Prof. Mesfin raised is that the Kinijit delegation should have stayed in Ethiopia to resolve the problems faced by the party instead of going on a worldwide tour. Perhaps Prof. Mesfin was not informed that Kinijit didn’t have a penny when the leaders got out of jail, thanks to Hailu Shawel’s friends who left the party’s treasury empty. Without money Kinijit cannot move an inch.
On top of raising funds, the Kinijit delegations are currently conducting intense diplomatic works in Europe and the U.S., with a great deal of success. The delegates’ presence in the U.S. Congress when H.R. 2003 was voted on last month no doubt had a positive influence. However, raising funds for the party was a top priority and that is what the leadership is currently doing. Even if Ato Hailu disagrees with the majority on this matter, he doesn’t have the right to do what he is doing now. In a democracy, the majority has the right to make mistakes. As a chairman, his responsibility is to chair, not to dictate.
It is also hard to believe that had the delegation delayed its travel to the U.S., as Prof. Mesfin suggested, the leadership crisis would have been resolved. The reason Ato Hailu did not want the delegation to travel to the U.S. is that he doesn’t want them to investigate his corrupt friends in North America — Shaleqa Joseph Yazew and Ato Mogus Brook. That is why he changed his plan to go to Germany and rushed to the U.S.
As expected, the so-called financial report that was presented at Hailu Shawel’s public meeting last Sunday (Oct. 14) in Washington DC attempted to exonerate the Shaleqa group. The report states that only $72,000 was sent to Ethiopia in the past two years. This is out of close to $1.2 million that was collected from Kinijit supporters in North America. Currently, only $12,000 remain in the account, according to the report that was accepted and endorsed by Ato Hailu. Of the $72,000 that was sent to Ethiopia, reportedly to support the families of the jailed Kinijit leaders and members, $0 was given to those who needed the money the most, like the families of Kinijit Central Committee member Wzr. Nigist Gebrehiwot who went through terrible financial hardships. When Wzr. Nigist and others came out of jail, Ato Hailu gave them some money, which some of whom took as a personal favor and started accusing the other Kinijit leaders of ignoring their plight. What Wzr. Nigist and the others who were ignored do not realize is that the money they received from Hailu Shawel as a personal favor was in fact collected in their name. The question remains: if Wzr. Nigist and others did not receive any of the $72,000 that was sent to Ethiopia, who took it? And where is the over $1 million that was collected for Kinijit if only $12,000 remain in the account now? It is because Ato Hailu doesn’t want to answer such questions that he is creating all this mess. Corruption – that is the bottom line here.
What Hailu Shawl got himself in now is the worst financial scandal in the history of Ethiopian opposition parities — for which he is responsible both by commission and omission. And it is this scandal and the attempt by Ato Hailu to cover it up — at any cost — that is the root cause of the leadership crisis — not power struggle, as Prof. Mesfin argued.
Prof. Mesfin has also said that the jailed leaders should have not excluded members of Kinijit Central Council who joined the Woyanne parliament from the decision making process when they got out of jail. Let’s not forget that many of the Council members who were not jailed had failed to respect the party’s majority decision not to join the parliament. It would have been a mistake to bring back those council members to the decision-making process right away without establishing some kind of procedure that would inquire into their failure to adhere to the party’s most important decision that had required total compliance from every one. A political party must be able to enforce its decisions. Otherwise, it will cease to exist as a viable organization. Those council members who joined the parliament disregarding the council’s decision must be held accountable. That doesn’t mean they should be banned from the party permanently. But they have to explain themselves first through a formal proceeding before they are brought back to the decision making process of the party.
The Kinijit leaders, according to Prof. Mesfin, think that just because they were jailed they think of themselves as big heroes and that the accolade they are receiving from Kinijit supporters in Ethiopia and around the world is getting to their heads. There is no evidence of that so far, but this kind of criticism is needed to help keep the leaders humble. We need some one like Prof. Mesfin, a fatherly figure, to keep the Kinijit leaders on their toes. We have had too many bad experiences with popular leaders going astray.
Prof. Mesfin said in his interview with the VOA that Hailu Shawel has failed to provide leadership and has been unable to keep the party united. Ato Hailu not only failed to provide leadership, he is totally immersed in gross corruption. He must be impeached and removed from the chairmanship before he does further damage to the party and the struggle. Make a good case study out of him for future leaders.
Without saying it in so many words, that was the message Prof. Mesfin tried to convey — a message for Ato Hailu to resign.
As Prof. Mesfin said, Wzt. Bertukan is more than qualified to lead Kinijit. She is intelligent, competent and caring. What is even more required from a Kinijit leader at this point is the humble, low-keyed, yet firm personality of Bertukan who is careful not to bruise the egos of Kinijit’s big men.
We wish Prof. Mesfin Woldemariam a speedy recovery.
