The man who is fondly called by TPLFites (Woyannes) as Abo Sebhat is reportedly spending more of his time in his home region of Tigray after the ruling couple Meles Zenawi and Azeb Mesfin unceremoniously ousted him from the party last month.
More than Meles, according to observers, it was Azeb who orchestrated Sebhat’s humiliating {www:departure} from TPLF, enraging his supporters in Ethiopia and the Diaspora.
Azeb has been amassing {www:enormous} wealth to the point now she is the second most powerful person in Ethiopia next to Meles, who also has consolidated his power in a recent leadership reshuffle. However, by going after Sebhat, who is called the father of TPLF by Woyanne veterans, Meles and Azeb might have overreached.
Sebhat may be a {www:drunkard} old man, but he still commands the loyalty of a significant number of {www:rank-and-file} TPLF members.
Another disgruntled member of the ruling junta is Berhane Gebrekristos, who had hopped to become Minister of Foreign Affairs.
The internal squabbles inside the Woyanne camp is affecting the social life of Woyanne kids as well. Recently Sebhat Nega’s son Tekeste has removed from his Facebook those “friends” whose parents are thought to be Meles loyalists.
Billionaire Al Amoudi is also unhappy these days with the Meles regime. Azeb is taking over the real estate industry, which forced his high rise office buildings to remain vacant. Sheraton Hotel is losing money and could be taken over by the state-owned Commercial Bank of Ethiopia.
When Al Amoudi’s chief assistant, Abinet Gebremeskel, was in Washington DC recently, he was bitterly complaining about Azeb to friends. He confided to friends that he might drop every thing in Ethiopia and move to the U.S.
On the surface, Meles and Azeb may currently seem to be in full control, but there is trouble brewing every where.
TIME magazine writes about opposition leader Birtukan Mideksa’s release and questions whether it is for show. TIME also points about the West’s {www:implicit} approval of Meles Zenawi’s anti-human rights conducts by continuing to give him hundreds of millions of dollars in assistance every year. His regime has received over a billion dollars from the U.S. Gov’t alone in 2009.
Meles has come under little pressure to lead his country any other way — and his {www:semantics} come straight from his allies. A U.S. State Department briefing note on Ethiopia exemplifies Western {www:equivocation} by giving the impression that the country is moving forward. – TIME
The billions of dollars in assistance and military training the Meles brutal regime is receiving from the Obama Administration makes the Ethiopian people’s struggle for freedom extremely difficult.
Ethiopia’s beggar dictator Meles Zenawi thought by forcing opposition leader Birtukan Mideksa to sign an apology letter he can {www:humiliate} her and her supporters. But when you look at the interview she was forced to give today on the Woyanne-controlled ETV and the apology letter itself, it is glaringly clear that she was made to give the apology under extreme {www:duress}, having been subjected to mental torture, including {www:solitary} confinement, for the past 21 months. More than any thing, the forced {www:apology} letter and the ETV interview prove how miserable, cowardly thugs Meles and Woyannes are. Had Birtukan been in their place, she would never do such an inhumane thing against a peaceful, defenseless person. Birtukan’s words in the video below is an indictment against the Meles barbaric regime. — Elias Kifle
The arrest of Birtukan Mideksa was a criminal act in the first place
Ethiopian civic, political, and media groups, as well as activists in the Diaspora held a meeting today and issued the following statement on the release of Birtukan Mideksa:
After holding a sham election in May 2010, and forming a fake parliament and cabinet this week, Ethiopia’s tyrant Meles Zenawi has released Birtukan Mideksa, chairperson of Unity for Democracy and Justice Party (UDJ), today.
It is well known that the regime re-arrested Birtukan Mideksa on December 29, 2008, on the flimsy charge of violating her terms of release by making a public statement that she did not ask for pardon in order to be released from prison in July 2007.
It is also clear that the Meles regime had thrown Birtukan in jail illegally in preparation for the fake election that it planned for May 2010.
Birtukan had languished in jail under inhumane condition from Nov. 2005 – July 2007, and again from Dec. 2008 until this month. Both times her arrest was a criminal act and a violation of the regime’s own constitution, further proving that there is no rule of law in Ethiopia under the Meles regime.
As we prepare to commemorate the 5th anniversary of the massacre of pro-democracy protesters next month, we hold the Meles regime accountable for the illegal detention of Birtukan Mideksa and tens of thousands of other political prisoners in Ethiopia.
We also strongly urge the international community to:
* demand the immediate release of all political prisoners in Ethiopia,
* demand the opening of political space
* urge the regime to respect the rule of law and fully respect human and civil rights, including freedom of association, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press.
We will not rest until freedom and democracy prevails in Ethiopia.
In a cabinet reshuffle that is announced today, Ethiopia’s khat-addicted dictator Meles Zenawi has replaced TPLF veterans Seyoum Mesfin and others with puppets like Hailemariam Desalegn (photo on the right). Dumber than a {www:door knob}, Hailemariam’s only qualification is the speed with which he wags his tail in front of Meles.
The new 21-member cabinet puppet galore looks as follows:
Abdulfeta Abdoulahi Hassen, Minister for Labor and Social Affairs
Abdurahman Sheik Ahmed, SPDP, Ministry of Trade
Alemayehu Tegenu, Ministry of Water and Energy
Amin Abdulkadir, Minister of Culture and Tourism
Bereket Simon, ANDM, Minister of Communications Affairs
DebreTsion GebreMariam, TPLF, Minister of Communications and Information Technology
Demeke Mekonen, ANDM, Minister of Education
Desse Dalke, Minister of Science and Technology
Diriba Kuma, Minister of Transport
Haile-Birhan, ANDM, Minister of Justice
Hailemariam Desalegn, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs
Junedin Sado, OPDO, Minister of Civil Service
Melaku Fenta, Director of Revenue and Customs Authority
Mekuria Haile, Minister of Urban Development and Construction
Manyazewal Mekonnen, Minister of Industry (replacing Girma Biru)
Shiferaw TekleMariam, Minister of Federal Affairs
Sinknesh Ejigu, Minister of Mines
Siraj Fegeta, Minister of Defense
Suffian Ahmed, OPDO, Minister of Finance
Tewodros Adhanom, TPLF, Minister of Health
Zenebu Tadesse, Minister of Women, Youth and Children’s Affairs
The cabinet is a rubber-stamp body as is the parliament. The real power is in the hands of the 9-member TPLF Meles politburo, that has instituted and is in charge of an ethnic apartheid system in Ethiopia.
Hailemariam Dessalegn, Abadula Gemeda and other puppets were summoned to Ethiopia’s fake parliament yesterday to officially “elect” their {www:puppet-master} Meles Zenawi as prime minister for another five years. VOA reports the daytime realty show as follows:
(VOA) — Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has been sworn in to another five year term at the opening of a new session of parliament. Mr. Meles is expected to begin his term with a government {www:reshuffle} .
“Honorable [Ato] Khat-addicted {www:despot} Meles Zenawi has been been appointed as prime minister of the unDemocratic Republic of Ethiopia.”
With those words spoken by Speaker of Parliament Abadulah Gemeda, Mr. Meles officially began his fourth term in office. By the time this five year term is over, the former Marxist guerrilla leader will have been in power nearly a quarter of a century.
His deputy chairman puppet at the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, Hailemariam Dessalegn, hailed the prime minister as an international {www:statesman} and leader of the revolution that overthrew the pro-Soviet dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991. He spoke in Amharic through a translator. “Our country Ethiopia is changing at a very fast rate and in international forums the man has played a critical role to make sure the rights of Africa are ensured,” he said.
[Solomon Tekalign could not make it to the parliament in time to sing “qindibu.”]
Among Mr. Meles’s first acts is expected to be a fundamental reorganization of his government, possibly as early as Tuesday. Deputy EPRDF chairman Hailemariam is said to be in line for a senior post, but there has been little {www:speculation} in the local press about who may be named to which prominent positions.
{www:Lawmaker}s Monday said even government insiders were only informed of the list at the last moment.
The EPRDF Tigray People Liberation Front and its allies control 545 of the 547 seats in this parliament, in sharp contrast to the last parliament, where there were more than 150 opposition members. Of the remaining two seats, one is held by an independent, the other by Girma Seifu, the lone winner from main opposition Medrek front.
When asked what he hoped to accomplish in his role as voice of the opposition, his answer was blunt. “Nothing. If things continue like this, you can do nothing,” he said.
The opening of the new session has given rise to strong speculation about the {www:imminent} release of opposition leader Birtukan Mideksa. Birtukan was among dozens of opposition activists sentenced to life in prison after the disputed 2005 elections, but she is the only one still behind bars.
She has been named a prisoner of conscience by rights groups, and was listed as a {www:political prisoner} in the most recent US State Department human rights report.
Mr. Meles hinted at the possibility of Birtukan’s release last month at a public forum in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
A {www:clergyman} who has been allowed to see Birtukan in prison said Monday he was aware of negotiations for her release. When asked if he knew when it might happen, he said, “call me tomorrow.”
