If there were any doubters about the viciousness and callousness of Zenawi’s dictatorship, those doubts must now be dispelled by the recent conviction of Tewodros Kassahun (a.k.a. Teddy Afro) in the kangaroo court of the despot [1].
Without regard to the strength of the evidence presented by the defendant [2], Zenawi ordered the excessive punishment of the artist, demonstrating to the world once again his ruthlessness and cruelty in treating innocent civilians that he perceives as a threat to his authoritarian rule.
As has been widely reported[3], there was gross inconsistency between the date the autopsy record showed when the alleged victim had died and the time when the hit and run purportedly took place. Ironically, in the dictator’s premeditated agenda to use the tragic death of the victim for vindictive political purpose, the sham judicial system has turned a blind eye to the investigation and prosecution of the “real” perpetrators of the enigmatic crime.
Behind the travesty of justice is, of course, the sinister motive of the dictator to send a signal of terror to future artists, and to divert attention from the pressing issues of the day – poverty, famine, human rights, war and sectarianism.
However, the bogus proceedings and the ensuing imposition of draconian measures have resulted in unintended consequences. The controversies surrounding the dubious arrest and sentencing of the artist have further damaged the already ugly image of the dictator even among those sections of the population that have been willing to give the tyrant the benefit of the doubt.
The members of the Millennial Generation have hitherto watched the toxic ethnic policies of Zenawi with measured skepticism, and played relatively marginal and passive roles in the fragmented struggles against sectarianism and authoritarian rule. They have now been stunned and rudely awakened by the brutality of the way the dictator has treated their idol, who has only been known to them through his extraordinary music and message of love, harmony and justice.
This is a generation that has its future in jeopardy thanks to the destructive policies of Zenawi that are designed to foment inter-ethnic animosity, to subject the population to perpetual famine, ignorance and diseases, and to promote nepotism and corruption over meritocracy [4]. This is also a cohort that is endowed with the 21st century skill set, and the temperament, drive and energy required to present an effective and credible resistance against tyranny and ethno-centrism.
The vigorous awakening of the Millennial Generation thus marks a watershed moment in the ongoing struggle that has so desperately lacked the active and passionate involvement of the youth. The anger and determination for change aroused now in this generation is a phenomenon that has not been seen since the nascent awakening movements of the 60’s and the 70’s. As the sacrifices of the youth were instrumental three decades ago to weaken Mengistu Haile-Mariam and eventually make him lethally vulnerable to the attacks of the opportunist parasites, Afeworki and Zenawi, there is no alternative to the leadership role that must be assumed by the Millennial Generation to bring to an end the current plague engulfing the country.
To the rest of the population, Zenawi has re-affirmed his trademark insensitivity and disdain for civility, at a time when many are still seeking answers to the numerous crimes and intransigencies of the dictator, including the massacre of innocent civilians [5], the stolen victory of the people in the 2005 elections [6] the genocide against the various ethnic groups [7], the use of famine as a stealth instrument of repression [8], and the adventurous war being waged in Somalia to curry favor from the West [9].
To those in the Diaspora who have guilelessly been transferring hard-currency to the repressive machinery of the dictator in the name of “investing in the homeland”, the plight of Teddy Afro shall serve as a reminder that their actions are not only emboldening the dictator, but are also lending him leverage to extend his spiteful control over their freedom. Every dime that goes for the purchase of a ticket from the TPLF controlled airline, or to acquire real estate at ridiculous prices, or to get other products and services from the network of business enterprises owned by the tyrant and his henchmen, is one more dime spent to perpetuate tyranny and to yield one’s freedom to a ruthless despot. In the current economic downturn, when the tyrant is desperate for hard-currency, uncritical transfer of funds to his coffers is a blatant expression of insensitivity to the plight of the people the money is used to exploit and repress.
To opposition groups, who credulously have been playing the treacherous game of cohabitation with the tyrant, the conviction of Teddy is a signal to refrain from participating in a political process without well-established groundrules that guarantee fairness, and without securing accountability for that tragedy that blemished the 2005 elections. The recent events in Kenya and Zimbabwe have provided a proven template for dealing with dictators that are addicted to manipulation of elections as a means of perpetuating their tyrannical rules. The people of Ethiopia expect and deserve no less in return for their votes, and they will no longer tolerate opposition leaders who will betray their trust and thwart their aspirations for democracy and justice.
To ethnic-based freedom fighters who have fallen to the dictator’s poisonous trap of sectarianism, the plight of Teddy shall serve as a catalyst to re-examine their agenda and to stand in unity against oppression and authoritarianism. Dictatorship can only be crushed with a united front of all the oppressed people – a front founded with the singular goal of establishing a united and democratic Ethiopia that guarantees equality, liberty and social justice to all of its citizens.
To those in the military who are prepared to pay the ultimate price to preserve the sovereignty of their country, the shameless conviction of an innocent artist should be a wake-up call to question their allegiance to a vicious despot. As products of a great people, with a glorious history, they have a momentous responsibility to use their organization, power and discipline to liberate their people and save the country from total destruction and disintegration.
To the sons and daughters of Tigrai, who have thus far paid blind loyalty to a manipulative dictator, let the injustice of Teddy serve as a clarion call to join their brothers and sisters in the fight against tyranny and sectarianism. In the current African reality, no ethnic-based rule can bring lasting peace and prosperity; no minority can advance its interests at the expense of the suffering of the vast majority; and no military might or wealth can protect a privileged few from the wrath and retribution of an oppressed mass.
Napoleon Hill wrote: “Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.” Thus, even through this most evil of acts against the artist have come unintended opportunities – the further alienation and isolation of the despot and the dramatic awakening and determination of the Millennial Generation. It is the responsibility of all those who care for freedom, liberty, and democracy to seize these opportunities, and to bring an end to decades of repression in Ethiopia. The time has indeed never been more auspicious than now to rekindle the fighting spirit of the people of Ethiopia:
Those in the Diaspora should mobilize their immense resources to bring together the fragmented opposition groups, and to re-ignite the drive to pass HR3000 in the US Senate. The incoming US administration and leaders like Senator Russ Feingold, who has a clearly articulated view of the danger of pampering dictators [10], are eager to restore America’s image as a symbol of hope to oppressed people around the world. Without submitting to unrealistic expectations, the Diaspora should present a counterforce against the onslaught of attacks by Zenawi’s lobbyists to trap the Obama administration and maintain control over the career diplomats.
Opposition groups inside and outside of Ethiopia should resist the temptation to participate in any future elections orchestrated by Zenawi in the absence of strict and enforceable preconditions for free and fair elections. They must vigorously oppose any elections that are marred by fraud and violence, and be prepared to boldly apply the recent lessons from the elections in Kenya and Zimbabwe to protect the votes of the people.
The youth should altruistically assume its fundamental responsibility to fight for freedom and social justice, and ferociously protect its future, heritage and history. The passion and anger aroused by the ruthless treatment of Teddy Afro must be harnessed and channeled to a worthy cause of establishing a just Ethiopia where all citizens enjoy liberty, equality and the pursuit of happiness sans ethnicity.
The Ethiopian Woyanne army, which had announced it would pull out of Somalia by the end of the year, is reportedly establishing new bases in central Somalia and has yet to withdraw from key positions in the capital Mogadishu. In recent days, Addis Ababa Woyanne has hinted it would extend the deployment of its forces in response to intensified efforts by militant Islamists to take over key towns.
Somali journalist Abdikarin Bulhan tells VOA that Ethiopian Woyanne troops on Monday took control of the border town of Balanbal in the northern Galgadud region and established a new base on the town’s outskirts.
Bulhan says 10 truckloads of Ethiopian Woyanne troops moved into Balanbal, about 15 kilometers away from the border, following reports that militant Shabab fighters had taken over Galgadud’s provincial capital Dusamareb, the town of Mataban in the Hiran region, and the commercial city of Guri’el within in the past two days.
The journalist says the Ethiopians Woyanne occupation forces shut down businesses and cut communications in Balanbal after they took control of the town.
Further south in the Bay region, residents in the town of Burhakaba report that Ethiopian Woyanne troops, armed with artillery and other heavy weapons, established a new military base there after forcing Islamist fighters to abandon the town on Sunday.
The Ethiopian Woyanne foreign ministry said on Saturday that the government was willing to briefly delay troop withdrawal to allow some 3,000 African Union peacekeepers currently deployed in Somalia to take over security.
The African Union says it does not have enough troops on the ground to take over security from Ethiopia Woyanne and has requested troops from the United Nations.
Shabab at forefront of insurgency
Burhakaba lies 30 kilometers south of the provincial capital of Baidoa, where Somalia’s transitional parliament is based, and is on the road that links Baidoa to the capital Mogadishu.
Several bombings, blamed on the Shabab, have killed and wounded dozens of people in Baidoa in recent weeks. The Shabab, which the United States has labeled a terrorist organization because of its alleged ties to al-Qaida, has been at the forefront of a two-year, Islamist-led insurgency against Ethiopia and the secular U.N.-backed government it has propped up in Somalia since late 2006.
The Islamists have regained control in most parts of southern and central Somalia in recent months. But the movement is divided between moderates and extremists, prompting concerns that if Ethiopia Woyanne pulled out of Somalia, violence among Islamist groups could further deepen the humanitarian crisis in the country.
Fighting between Ethiopian Woyanne and Somali troops and insurgents is estimated to have killed as many as 10,000 people, displaced more than 1 million and plunged 3 million others into dire poverty.
Human Rights Watch report condemns all parties involved in conflict
A new report by the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch group, released on Monday, condemns all sides in the conflict for causing Somalia to descend into the worst chaos it has seen since the fall of the country’s last government in 1991.
The report’s author, Chris Albin-Lackey, tells VOA that major donor nations supporting the Ethiopian– Woyanne-backed government have never properly addressed repeated allegations of human rights abuses and war crimes committed by government and Ethiopian Woyanne troops against thousands of Somali civilians.
Albin-Lackey says in the perceived absence of justice and in the belief that the West continues to support Ethiopia Woyanne and the government unconditionally, Somalis are increasingly turning to radical Islamists, hoping the Shabab and their allies can restore law and order.
“The bottom line is that Ethiopia Woyanne, the transitional federal government, and insurgent forces have all managed to do more damage to the civilian population of Somalia than to one another,” he said. “At the same time, the international community as a whole has completely failed to intervene effectively in Somalia and, in fact, a number of key international actors, including the United States, have in some cases actually made the situation worse through some of their actions. These past two years of violence and brutality are the primary reason why the extremist groups, including al-Shabab, have gained so much power.”
The Shabab functioned as the military wing during the Islamic Courts Union’s brief six-month rule and aims to impose strict Islamic laws in Somalia.
Nairobi, Kenya (HRW) – All parties in the escalating conflict in Somalia have regularly committed war crimes and other serious abuses during the past year that have contributed to the country’s humanitarian catastrophe, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Human Rights Watch urged the United States, the European Union, and other major international actors to rethink their flawed approaches to the crisis and support efforts to ensure accountability.
The 104-page report, “So Much to Fear: War Crimes and the Devastation of Somalia,” describes how the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG), the Ethiopian Woyanne forces that intervened in Somalia to support it and insurgent forces have committed widespread and serious violations of the laws of war. Frequent violations include indiscriminate attacks, killings, rape, use of civilians as human shields, and looting. Since early 2007, the escalating conflict has claimed thousands of civilian lives, displaced more than a million people, and driven out most of the population of Mogadishu, the capital. Increasing attacks on aid workers in the past year have severely limited relief operations and contributed to an emerging humanitarian crisis.
“The combatants in Somalia have inflicted more harm on civilians than on each other,” said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “There are no quick fixes in Somalia, but foreign governments need to stop adding fuel to the fire with misguided policies that empower human rights abusers.”
Somalia has been without a functioning government since 1991, and a UN peacekeeping operation withdrew in failure in 1995. The years since have been violent and chaotic. In December 2006, Ethiopian Woyanne military forces intervened to back Somalia’s weak TFG against a coalition of Islamic courts that had won control of Mogadishu. In the past two years, the conflict has escalated dramatically, and internationally backed peace talks have failed to make any impact on the ground.
The report draws on interviews with more than 80 witnesses and victims of abuses, who described attacks by all the warring parties in stark detail.
Each party to the conflict has indiscriminately fired on civilian neighborhoods in Mogadishu on an almost daily basis, leveling homes without warning and killing civilians in the streets. Insurgent forces have regularly carried out ambushes and roadside bombings in markets and residential areas, and launched mortars from within densely populated neighborhoods. Ethiopian Woyanne forces have reacted to insurgent attacks with indiscriminate heavy rocket and artillery fire, with devastating impact on civilians.
TFG security forces and allied militia have tortured detainees, and killed and raped civilians and looted their homes, sometimes in the context of house-to-house joint security operations with Ethiopian troops. Ethiopian Woyanne forces, who were relatively disciplined in 2007, have been more widely implicated in acts of violent criminality this year. Insurgent forces have threatened and murdered civilians they view as unsympathetic to their cause and have forcibly recruited civilians, including children, into their ranks.
The full horror of these abuses can be captured only through the stories of Somalis who have suffered through them. Human Rights Watch interviewed teenage girls raped by TFG security forces, parents whose children were cut to pieces in their own homes by Ethiopian rockets, and people shot in the streets by insurgent fighters for acts as trivial as working as a low-paid messenger for TFG offices. One young man described watching a group of Ethiopian Woyanne soldiers rape his mother and sisters in their home. “And I was sitting there helpless,” he said. “I could not help my mother or help my sisters.”
For many, the worst of it is being caught between all three sides at once. One young man was given an ultimatum by radical Islamist Al Shabaab fighters in his neighborhood to join them or face retribution. Days later, he came home from school to find that his mother had been killed and his house destroyed in an unrelated artillery bombardment.
“The world has largely ignored the horrors unfolding in Somalia, but Somali families are still left to confront violence that grows with every passing day,” Gagnon said. “Even those who try to flee find that the violent abuses follow them.”
Hundreds of thousands of Mogadishu’s poorest residents, lacking the money to travel further, have congregated in sprawling displaced persons camps along the Mogadishu-Afgooye road, but the indiscriminate fighting they fled has followed them there.
Tens of thousands of Somali refugees have also fled the country this year. Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camps are now the largest concentration of refugees anywhere in the world, with nearly 250,000 inhabitants. But the journey itself is perilous. Human Rights Watch interviewed many refugees who had been robbed, raped, or beaten by freelance militias as they fled Somalia. Kenya’s border with Somalia is closed, leaving refugees at the mercy of abusive smugglers and corrupt Kenyan police.
Hundreds of Somalis have drowned trying to cross the Gulf of Aden to Yemen, often after being forced overboard or abandoned at sea by traffickers.
The United States, the European Union, and governments in the region have taken few positive steps to address the worsening situation in Somalia, and have too often taken actions that have made it worse.
Ethiopia Woyanne is a party to the conflict, but has done nothing to ensure accountability for abuses by its soldiers. The United States, treating Somalia primarily as a battlefield in the “global war on terror,” has pursued a policy of uncritical support for transitional government and Ethiopian Woyanne actions, and the resulting lack of accountability has fueled the worst abuses. The European Commission has advocated direct support for the transitional government’s police force without insisting on any meaningful action to improve the force and combat abuses.
In recent months, the conflict has increasingly spread into neighboring regions and countries in the form of bombings and other attacks – precisely what Ethiopia’s Woyanne’s military intervention in 2006 sought to prevent. During the latter half of 2008, there have been suicide bombings in the previously more stable semi-autonomous regions of Somaliland and Puntland, as well as rampant piracy on the high seas, and kidnappings across the border in Kenya.
“The Somali crisis is not just a nightmare for its people, it is a regional threat and a global problem,” Gagnon said. “The world cannot afford to wait any longer to find more effective ways of addressing it.”
Human Rights Watch called for a fundamental review of policy toward Somalia and the entire Horn of Africa in Washington, where the Obama administration will have an opportunity to break with the failed policies of its predecessor, and in European capitals. It also called for the establishment of a UN-sponsored Commission of Inquiry to investigate violations of international law, map the worst abuses, and lay the groundwork for accountability.
The regime in Ethiopia has imprisoned the renowned artist Tewodros Kasahun (Teddy Afro) on the pretext of a traffic accident that is supposed to have happened some 2 years ago. The vindictive regime had filed a pile of fabricated charges against the artist over a year ago that include causing a fatal accident on a pedestrian, driving without a license and for not assisting the victim at the seen of the accident… Read more
Where justice has lost its meaning, where prosecutors are blunt instruments of a tyrant, where courts are abattoirs of vendetta, where the rule of law means nothing but the rule of a tyrant, trials are too farcical and the judges are too comical to be taken seriously. The star comedians leading the farce, are so-called judges Leul Gebremariam, “Judge” Mohamed Amin, “Judge” Mohammed Umer, “Judge” Adil Ahmed, just to mention a few among many Kangaroo court comedians, who are too busy judging others, clumsily attired in black robes and holding sledgehammers to silence outrage against them and their demigod tyrant.
Unfortunately, their clumsy performance is just a badly scripted melodrama. But they have lost the plot as the public has been tired of their unfunny courtroom comedy. The case of Teddy Afro is not any different from a long litany of unjust courtroom comedies which wrapped up in the usual fashion, sending the victims of injustice to harsh, dirty and crammed jails intently infested with lice, fleas and bedbugs. Falsely accused of incitement against tyranny, I had seen it and tested its harshness. I was just a student protesting against injustice at the Addis Ababa University when Zenawi and Genet Zewdie suddenly decided to illegally fire 42 renowned professors for criticizing the tyrant’s inhuman segregationist and secessionist ethnic policies.
Vengeance for losing elections
The list of the courtroom farce is too long. In the aftermath of his humiliating defeat in the May 2005 elections, the tyrant sent out his ruthless troops, infamously known as Agazi brigade, to shoot, maim and crush kids, the elderly, woman and young men. Their blood still cries out from the grave, but none of the brutal killers and those who detained and tortured over fifty thousand innocent citizens in harsh concentration camps faced justice. On the contrary, the victims and leaders of the ill-fated Kinijit, journalists, VOA broadcasters, civic leaders, ordinary citizens, dissidents in exile were charged with genocide, high treason and outrage against the constitution, which never exists in reality.
There were simple questions that the clown judges failed to raise before the start of the road show. The charges were outrageously laughable. There was no shred evidence of high treason and genocide against Tigrians. It was rather concocted to cause further division and animosity among the suffering children of a poor nation who have zillions of reasons to unite than to divide. But in fact there was an old Tigrian man who was dragged to court by prosecutors to substantiate allegations of the genocide. He was too confused and lost in the dazzling Kangaroo court. He said he was sure genocide was committed as some kids threw rocks on the roof of his house just because he was Tigrian. He was asked to show the perpetrators of this outrageous genocide. He was able to identify none…but finally he found it too much and admitted that the prosecutors had trained him to lie and give such a ludicrous testimony. Suddenly the chief prosecutor, Shimelis Kemal, sprung up from his sit and declared that his key witness was mentally unfit to give testimonies and recite his eye-witness account. Isn’t that outrageously funny?
Judge Adil Ahmed had to give the whole courtroom comedy, which was by then entertaining the whole world, a semblance of justice. After making a long mockery of justice, Adil “dropped” the charges of genocide against 111 people, including some exiled dissidents who could not have exterminated ethnic Tigrians, some of whom were Tigrians themselves, from Europe and America without any long range missiles and weapons of mass destruction. Under mounting pressure from the US government, the charges of genocide and high treason against the five VOA journalists and some exiled dissidents had also been dropped by stand-up comedian judge Adil Ahmed without any convincing explanations.
The high court drama went on and on for nearly two years and at the climax it was time for conviction and sentencing. All of the leaders of Kinijit were found guilty of the concocted crimes and sentenced to life imprisonment and 30 of them were stripped off their right to vote and run for public offices. While Adil’s drama was in full swing, the street smart tyrant was circumventing the courtroom drama by hand wriggling the victims under the guise of “Shimagles”, elderly ‘peacemakers’ led by Prof. Ephrem Yishak, to sign a document that was actually set to release them from jails under a pardon deal. Even that high drama was so unfunny that the move was contradictory to the letters of the “law” and did not even follow the “legal procedures” to be called a pardon or an amnesty
The expensive courtroom drama lost its meaning when Zenawi announced that he found a stroke of humanity in his evil heart and decided to extend mercy to his victims. Despite all the travesties and dramas, even Zenawi knew full well that he and his cohorts were actually the ones who should have faced justice for all the outrageous crimes they have been committing with arrogance and impunity for so long.
Trials and tribulations of a dissident singer
The next high profile courtroom drama in line was the trial and tribulation of Tewodros Kassahun, aka Teddy Afro, who had offended the ruling ethnic junta by calling for change and unity that can ruin Zenawi’s divide and rule agenda. He was too bold to question our trigger happy ruler, whom he referred to in Yasteseryal as a new king but no change. That was actually enough to charge the singer with genocide, high treason and outrage against the non-existent constitution.
The allegation made against Teddy was killing a homeless man in a car accident in November 2006. Again the trial lost credence too soon and was reduced to a mediocre road show with too many memorable dramas, pathetic and unfunny stand-up comedies that have cast doubt on the whole judicial system and fairness of the trial. Like any citizens, Teddy Afro should account to his actions regardless of his superstar status. Nonetheless, immunity from prosecution has never been an issue as the ruling elites and their blind supporters try to assert every now and then.
There are uncomplicated questions that should have been addressed properly to give the whole farce a semblance of legal proceeding. Teddy was arrested in early November 2006 in connection with the alleged crime, but was released on bail after a few days in jail. Nothing happened between his initial arrest and his indictment on April 16, 2008. Between the huge time gap, Teddy was allowed in and out of the country carrying a legal passport and even performed in European and American cities. It seems they wanted him to go in exile. He even rejected offers to entertain the ruling elite during the extravagant millennium party.
Despite the fact that he had enough opportunities to remain abroad, he maintained his faith that the truth would set him free. To his dismay, that never rarely happens in Ethiopia and the trial has been tainted with irregularities and abuse of power from the very start to the very end. Supporters of Teddy who congregated at the court to show their solidarity with the singer were detained and beaten, his lawyer was arrested and subsequently convicted of contempt of court, as if there is one; journalists who published stories related to the drama as well as those who misspelt a judge’s name were thrown in jails.
The presumption of guilt
All the farcical dramas happened during the course of the trial and tribulations of Teddy Afro. On April 21, 2008, Teddy’s supporters came out in full force around the court and demanded a fair trial. The Federal Police surrounded the peaceful protesters and arrested a number of people including two journalists. Negadras, a weekly newspaper, reported that twenty fans of Teddy Afro appeared before the Addis Ababa City First Instance Court on April 30, 2008 and were charged with distributing leaflets, chanting slogans and wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the singer’s image, among other trivia. Within a few weeks, Teddy Afro was guilty before he was even convicted. He was denied bail rights and was sent to the notorious Kaliti prison. He was also put in solitary confinement. Many of his popular songs were banned on radios and TVs. Magazines and newspapers were censored and impounded making the case more of a political drama than a judicial matter. In early May 2008, 10000 copies of Enku, a monthly entertainment magazine was impounded and its publisher and deputy editor, Alemayehu Mahtemework, and three support staff who had no connection with the content of the magazine were detained.
Another interesting twist in the high profile drama emerged amidst all the dramas. Teddy’s defence attorney, Million Assefa, and Mesfin Negash, editor-in-chief of Addis Neger were sensationally arrested in early August over an interview the attorney gave to the newspaper. Even if it was just a case of a boomerang coming back to knock the attorney, as he has been helping to draft bad laws and the genocide charges against leaders of Kinijit, it was still comically outrageous. “Judge” Leol Gebremariam accused Million of contempt of “court” for stating in the newspaper that he was intending to lodge a complaint against the comedian judge with the so-called Judicial Administration Council, quite a misnomer where there is no justice to administer!
“The arrest of our colleague Mesfin Negash is an example of how authorities will find justification to detain journalists who cover sensitive issues, and criminalize independent reporting,” Tom Rhodes, CPJ Africa Program Coordinator protested. Even if Million was released, along with the journalist, after serving a few days in jail with a conviction record in their pockets, the attorney had every right, if at all there is any semblance of a judicial system, to make a complaint as well as publicizing his misgivings. Even more, the journalist had no case to answer as he did his job properly. It was clearly a case of a comical judge behaving badly.
That was not all. Another comical miscarriage of justice occurred. Tsion Girma, editor-in-chief of the private weekly Embilta, was arrested and subsequently “convicted” on a criminal charge for mistakenly identifying one of the comical judges involved in Teddy’s case. Her paper misidentified Muhamed Umer as Muhamed Amin. She has now been locked up in Kaliti jail for making a mistake in writing. This may be the first of its kind in the history of injustice and media repressions. It made the mistrial of Teddy not only a political issue that nobody would be allowed to talk about in any shape or form, but also as one of the most absurd and ludicrous stand up comedies ever performed in a court. That is justice; TPLF style!
Mistrials and pardons
After a series of miserably failed stand-up comedies at Zenawi’s Kangaroo high court, Teddy was declared guilty. The trial was tainted and the judges were too tyrannical and too comical to be taken seriously. Teddy Afro stood up and boldly declared that he had been denied justice and had lost faith in the court infuriating and aggrieving the comical judges. His defiance reduced the Kangaroo judges, who are too proud to sit on the high chairs of injustice, to ashes.
On the 5th December, 2008, comical Leul came back through the backdoor with his unfunny jokes holding his sledgehammer of injustice. “Six years in jail!” he declared. But that hasn’t impressed anyone at a miserably failed court of injustice where stand-up comedians are making a mockery of justice. During the sentencing, Leul gave a lecture looking down at Teddy with red eyes that the courts are not there to please him but to deliver justice. “This is a place for justice,” he said and admonished the singer for expressing his lose of faith in the court. “Can I speak?” asked Teddy politely. “No!” shouted back Leul and threatened that anyone who might dare to raise a voice would be charged with contempt of court. Teddy was then dragged back to jail condemned to spend six years of his life in jail.
According to reports, Zenawi “Shimagles” have been busy pressing Teddy to admit guilt and receive the charitable mercy of his the tyrant. That would make the tyrant the fountain of mercy who can release any “convicted criminals” at his whim. But the fact of the matter is that Teddy Afro, like the so many victims before him, has been denied a fair trial in a highly politically charged circus where clowns masquerading as judges have been committing gross injustice against him and all those who have been jailed and abused as a result of is his trials and tribulations. After all these trials and tribulations, Teddy Afro must be freed unconditionally as he has been punished more than enough. How come a criminal tyrant whose misdeeds have been written all over his forehead grants pardon to those facing mistrials and miscarriages of justice?
All the travesties of justice are clear testimonies to the fact that it is high time for change; a radical and drastic change is overdue that should dismantle and replace the rotten system which Zenawi and his cohorts have been sustaining with their corruption, guns and crimes against humanity.
Let the curtains close and the clumsy stand-up comedians and clowns in Zenawi’s Kangaroo courts of injustice, who collect their salary from the blood tears of people they traumatize, be sent to where they belong, convicted for committing crimes against justice. The road show isn’t funny but boring to death in a country where our celebrity’s popular songs are banned from the airwaves! For six years a great popular voice is to be silenced locked up in Kality to be a toy for rats and lunch for fleas, lice and bedbugs. That must be a bad practical joke gone awry.
It is time to banish stand-up comedians and clowns from courts and reclaim justice as the outrageous comics are gambling on the lives of poor, defenceless and voiceless citizens. The owner of the Kangaroo court clowns and comedians should at least make an effort to improve the poor quality of the outrageous dramas and road shows.
Teddy Afro’s message still echoes from jail. It is simply a call for unity and love. That must put to shame those who have been unable to unite for the holy cause of liberating the suffering people of Ethiopia from a tyrannical regime that has made life unbearable day by day.
(Former editor of Addisvoice.com Abebe Gelaw, is a Knight Fellow and Yahoo International Fellow at Stanford University, California. He can be reached at [email protected].)
Frustrated over the continued injustice of the ruling Tigrean People Liberation Front (Woyanne) against the people of Ethiopia, several Ethiopian groups in the Washington DC area are coming together to take strong actions. The decision to take action, which will involve blocking the Ethiopian embassy in Washington DC, came about after the Woyanne regime’s kangaroo court on Friday sentenced popular Ethiopian artist Tewodros Kassahun (Teddy Afro) to 6 years in jail after conducting a sham trial.
Organizers of the Woyanne embassy blockade and protest include Ethiopian artists, Addis Dimts Radio, EthioLion.com, Ethiopian Review, Ethiopiawinet Radio, Int’l Ethiopian Women Association, Netsanet Le Ethiopia Radio, Moa Anbessa, and Tegbar.
The blockade action will be taken against the Woyanne representatives at the Ethiopian embassy in Washington DC any time between now and Dec 15, 2008. Additionally, there will be a protest rally on Monday, Dec. 15 starting at 11 AM in front of the embassy.
The organizers call on Ethiopians around the world to mobilize and help free Teddy Afro and all the political prisoners in Ethiopia, including Bekele Jirata, the recently jailed secretary general of the Oromo Federal Democratic Movement, from the Woyanne fascist regime’s disease-infested jails. No more injustice.
