The Amnesty Board led by Woyanne Minister of Justice Assefa Kesito visited the jailed leaders of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy Party (Kinijit) yesterday at Qaliti prison.
The purpose of the visit, according to the Board, was to verify that the signatures on the “pardon” letter belong to the prisoners.
The Kinijit leaders in Qaliti prison, who saw the Board’s effort as a further attempt at humiliating them, didn’t welcome the visit.
The state-run Ethiopian TV reported that the Amnesty Board, after verifying that the letter was authentic, has submitted to President Girma Woldegiorgis a recommendation for full amnesty to the 38 opposition leaders and journalists out of the 71 who signed the pardon letter.
The Amnesty Board said that it was unable to review the pardon request from the other prisoners since their case is still going through the court system.
The 300lbs wheelchair-bound president is said to be a puppet of Meles Zenawi, and that the decision has already been made for him.
The “President” is expected to announce the decision today.
This week’s sentencing of 35 Ethiopian activists to life-in-prison has been followed by reports they are accepting blame in exchange for their freedom. The dilemma of signing a government release in exchange for a reprieve invites the question of whether the government is trying to coax the pardons in order to get the dissidents out of the international human rights spotlight. Dr. Stephen Morrison, director of the Africa Program at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) says he does not yet know how officials in Addis Ababa intend to handle the convictions. But he notes that the sentences themselves were harsh, considering the lack of evidence presented in court.
“They seem pretty excessive. They had been threatening executions, so then it looks like they’re stepping down, that it’s still part of a broader sort of repressiveness of opposition after the ’05 elections,” he said.
Ethiopia’s political opposition was strengthened in 2005 elections by winning a record number of seats in parliament. The opposition staged mass protests after the vote, charging that the outcome was rigged to keep Prime Minister Meles Zenawi in power. At least 193 Ethiopians lost their lives in the ensuing government crackdown on demonstrators. Morrison says that facing mass protests, Ethiopian officials viewed the opposition as a strategic threat to the Meles government, not a legitimate form of protest against the electoral outcome. He says although he was relieved that the prosecution’s calls for a death sentence were reduced this week to life-in-prison outcomes, the government did not have a powerful case to present in court against the 35 defendants.
“It would have been completely outrageous if they had gone to death sentences. So that doesn’t eliminate the question around ‘Were these punishments of life sentences proportionate to the crimes that were committed?’ And I remain unconvinced that they were proportionate at all. And I don’t think that the prosecution made a very convincing case,” he said.
Given the close cooperation between Washington and Addis Ababa on restoring a civilian government in Somalia and opposing Al-Qaida in the war against terrorism, Morrison says he does not foresee a high-profile US criticism of this week’s verdicts. But he notes that the diaspora community of Ethiopian immigrants in the United States is becoming increasingly vocal and effective in sounding its disfavor with the treatment of dissenters in their former home.
“There has been a maturation and coalescence of Ethiopian opposition politics within the United States, that is, within the resident population. There’s a sizable Ethiopian population in the United States, many of whom are citizens of the United States who have become quite vocal and well organized. That’s a factor. That’s an interesting development. And that’s something that doesn’t dominate the US policy perspective, but it certainly is a new factor in shaping and particularly in certain constituencies, it gets attention in Congress,” he said.
WASHINGTON: Both the Bush administration and Congress are growing exasperated over Ethiopia’s backsliding from democracy but are wary of applying too much pressure against a country that has become an important anti-terror ally in East Africa.
Members of the Democratic-controlled Congress are under fewer restraints than President George W. Bush’s administration, which has relied on the help of Ethiopian troops in ousting Islamic militants from power in parts of neighboring Somalia.
In the House of Representatives, the Africa subcommittee of the Foreign Affairs Committee is completing work Wednesday on legislation that decries Ethiopia’s recent human rights record and opens the door for sanctions. The subcommittee’s approval would be a first major step, but the bill still would have to be passed by both houses of Congress and signed into law by Bush.
Democratic Rep. Donald Payne, the subcommittee’s chairman, told The Associated Press he has had no response to his bill from White House officials, but “I think they would prefer if we just left it alone.”
“This is not a punitive bill,” he said. Any sanctions would kick in only if Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s government does not return to democracy and restore human rights protections.
On Monday, a court in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa sentenced 35 opposition politicians and activists to life in prison and eight others to lesser terms for inciting violence in an attempt to overthrow the government. Judges threw out charges of treason and attempted genocide and rejected the government’s recommendation for death sentences.
The Federal High Court trial began in December 2005 after the opposition organized protests following elections earlier that year that foreign observers said were badly flawed. The demonstrations were smashed by police, and scores were killed.
The defendants asked for pardons in a letter sent to Meles weeks before the sentences were announced. In testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday, Barry F. Lowenkron, assistant secretary of state for democracy and human rights, said Meles announced Monday that he would recommend clemency. The announcement apparently was not made publicly.
The Bush administration has made spreading democracy a cornerstone of its foreign policy. But the administration has had to violate the principle more than once: refusing to deal with objectionable elected governments, such as that headed by the militant Islamic group Hamas in the Palestinian territories. It also has dealt with clearly undemocratic governments such as those in some former Soviet republics in Central Asia.
In an indication that even the administration has determined not to pull all its punches in Ethiopia, Lowenkron’s testimony before the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee was relatively straightforward and at times harsh.
He spoke of the illegal detention of “opposition leaders and tens of thousands of their supporters” and said: “To this day the crackdown casts a shadow over the Ethiopian government.”
Lowenkron said he had spent 85 minutes of a 90-minute conversation with Meles in March discussing the state of democracy in Ethiopia and Meles said he would make changes “because it’s in the interest of the people of Ethiopia.”
“I told him it should be in the interest of all the people of Ethiopia, including those that are in prison and need to be let out,” Lowenkron said.
Democratic Sen. Russell Feingold, who chaired the hearing, urged strong action to right the Ethiopian situation.
“We cannot tolerate a country like that moving in the wrong direction if they want to have the relationship with us that they want to have and that we want to have with them,” Feingold said.
Lishan Akuma, an Ethiopian lady who had been arrested by the police while protesting in front of the White House yesterday, was released this afternoon after appearing in court.
Two other protesters, Dr Meqdese Fekade and Ms Zelekash, had also been arrested, but released the same day after paying a $25 fine each.
Lishan was forced to stay over night at the police station because she allegedly resisted arrest. The court released her today without bail, but ordered her to come back on August 6 for trial.
Witnesses say that Lishan had been mistreated by the police, and Lishan herself is contemplating a lawsuit against one particular officer who injured her arm. Before being sent to jail, Lishan had to receive treatment at a hospital.
Lishan and hundreds of other Ethiopians were protesting the continued U.S. support to the dictatorial regime in Ethiopia that has jailed all the top leaders of the country’s major opposition party, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy Party (CUDP/Kinijit).
On Monday, the Meles dictatorship’s kangaroo court sentenced the jailed opposition leaders, journalists and human rights advocates to life in prison.
U.S. Representative Thelma Drake (R-Va.) today released the following statement after it was announced that Dr. Yacob Hailemariam, a former Norfolk State University Professor, had been sentenced to life in prison in Ethiopia:
“This is a very disappointing development in what has been a difficult ordeal for Dr. Hailemariam’s family, his supporters locally and everyone that believes in standing up for democracy. By allowing these convictions to stand, the Ethiopian government is demonstrating that it is not serious about moving towards a free and open society. It is important we not give up hope, but continue to remain vigilant. I intend to continue working with the State Department and the Ethiopian government to press for a different outcome.”
The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) strongly condemns the sentencing of the leaders of the Coalition for Unity & Democracy (CUD) member of the Alliance for Freedom & Democracy (AFD)to life imprisonment. Both the arrest and the sentencing of the duly elected leaders of the CUD were illegitimate
and politically motivated.
The Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) regime currently in power in Ethiopia has determined that change, even through the ballot box, is unacceptable as far as it is concerned. The TPLF regime by virtue of this act has sent a clear signal to the international community that it will not tolerate any form of effective opposition.
The ruling by the TPLF controlled court represented a gross miscarriage of justice and coupled with the current war crimes taking place in Ogaden, clearly demonstrates the brutality and desperation of the TPLF regime.
The ONLF calls upon donor nations in particular to recognize that the current political dispensation in Ethiopia is unsustainable and unjust. Only through a comprehensive and all inclusive dialogue called for by the AFD can the aspirations of the people be realized.
The ONLF stands in solidarity with the CUD during this period and with our other alliance partner organizations in the AFD.
