Ethiopian Review sources reported that Ethiopia’s khat-addicted dictator Meles Zenawi is too weak to receive further medical treatment. Our sources said he is in Belgium, but may return to Ethiopia any time. Several of his body guards have been observed at the hospital on Monday.
Western diplomats today have confirmed Ethiopian Review’s report that Meles is at St. Luc Hospital in Belgium. However, they denied that he is dead, according to the UK Telegraph.
Meles Zenawi’s cause of illness is said to be blood cancer, but there is a growing talk among the ruling party members and supporters that he may have been poisoned. The aggressive treatment he has been receiving has degraded his body and that he is in an almost vegetative condition.
Meanwhile, the dictator’s much hated wife, Azeb Mesfin, has received an Italian visa today, according to our source at Italian embassy. However, she may not be able to leave the country because of a travel ban imposed on her by Woyanne security chief Getachew Assefa.
This afternoon, the Woyanne officials told VOA that the regime will give a press conference regarding Meles Zenawi’s condition.
FREEDOM NOW FILES PETITION TO UNITED NATIONS ON BEHALF OF ESKINDER NEGA TO OBTAIN OPINION THAT HIS ONGOING DETENTION VIOLATES INTERNATIONAL LAW
Washington, D.C.: Today, Freedom Now filed a petition on behalf of jailed Ethiopian journalist and blogger Eskinder Nega with the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. Freedom Now seeks a legal opinion from the Working Group that the Ethiopian government’s detention of Mr. Nega is in violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
“The Ethiopian government’s actions in this case clearly violate international law,” said Freedom Now Executive Director Maran Turner. “The government detained Mr. Nega for exercising his fundamental right to freedom of expression and failed to observe minimum international standards of due process. We call on the Ethiopian government to abide by its international commitments and immediately release Mr. Nega.”
Mr. Nega has worked as an independent journalist in Ethiopia since 1993 and authorities have detained him seven times previously. Mr. Nega’s current detention, beginning with his arrest September 14, 2011, violates both Ethiopian and international law. In prosecuting Mr. Nega under Ethiopia’s widely criticized 2009 Anti-Terrorism Proclamation, the government relied upon Mr. Nega’s public calls for peaceful democratic reform in the country. Such speech is expressly protected under international law.
The government also failed to observe minimum international standards of due process. Authorities held Mr. Nega for nearly a month before he was allowed access to his family and denied him access to legal counsel for nearly two months—during which time the government held two proceedings extending his pretrial detention. Mr. Nega was also denied the right to the presumption of innocence.
A PDF copy of the petition can be found at Freedom Now’s website. Freedom Now represents Mr. Nega as his pro bono international legal counsel.
Due to the pressure that the Ethiopian National Transitional Council exerted on the regime to come out with the truth, within 24 hours, the Deputy Prime Minster came out and admitted that Meles Zenawi has been sick. The regime has been blatantly denying this fact for several weeks and even now it is trying to play down the extent of his sickness.
Even though we are not surprised by these lies that they have so far fed the Ethiopian people for 21 years, we are telling them that era of hiding and lying has come to an end.
Unless the regime disproves this fact by verifiable facts of a third party, ENTC will stand by its reliable sources in its earlier statement that reported dictator Meles Zenawi has passed away. We will continue to demand the truth on behalf of the people. The message we would like to express to the Ethiopian people is that, we have to begin the dialogue on what we should do in preparation at this critical juncture.
ENTC has earlier released a 9 point action plan press release and call upon the Ethiopian people to pay the necessary sacrifice to claim their freedom.
Victory to the Ethiopian People.
God Bless Ethiopia.
Ethiopian National Transitional Council leadership
Ethiopia’s government ruling junta said that Prime Minister khat-addicted dictator Meles Zenawi is ill after he failed to attend an African Union summit, and an opposition group reported he may have died in a European hospital.
“There is no serious illness at all. It’s minor only,” Deputy Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said today in an interview in Addis Ababa, the capital. “As any human being, he has to get medication and he’ll be coming back soon.”
The 57-year-old leader wasn’t at the opening of the African Union summit in Addis Ababa yesterday. He also skipped a meeting of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development in the city on July 14 for “health reasons,” Senegalese President Macky Sall was quoted as saying by the Addis Ababa-based Reporter newspaper.
Meles is head of the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front Woyanne and has held power in Ethiopia for more than two decades, after helping lead allied rebel groups to oust Mengistu HaileMariam’s Marxist military junta in 1991. The EPRDF and its allies in 2010 won all but two of the 547 seats in parliament in an election the European Union said was “heavily” balanced in favor of the ruling party.
The Ethiopian National Transitional Council, a Dallas, Texas-based Washington DC-based opposition group, said in an e-mailed statement yesterday that Meles may have died in a Belgian hospital.
The Ethiopian Review, an anti-government website, reported that Meles was in the Saint-Luc University hospital in Brussels.
Géraldine Fontaine, a spokeswoman for the hospital, wasn’t immediately available for comment when called today.
“ENTC on behalf of the Ethiopian people demands that the government has the responsibility to disclose the truth to its citizens,” the council said.
The Ethiopian Review Intelligence Unit has learned that Meles Zenaw’s daughter Semhal Meles, who was in Washington DC during the Summer, has gone back to Ethiopia yesterday. According to our source, many of Meles Zenawi’s close relatives and friends have been informed on Sunday afternoon that the dictator’s illness is terminal.
We also have been informed that Meles Zenawi’s deteriorating health could be as a result of poisoning, and not just cancer.
Meanwhile, Woyanne security chief Getachew Assefa has reportedly banned Meles Zenawi’s wife Azeb Mesfin — also known as mother of corruption — from leaving Ethiopia today. Azeb has amassed enormous wealth and political influence, which has garnered her a number of enemies. Her fate is very much intertwined with that of Meles.
Several family members of the Woyanne junta have been observed leaving Ethiopia en mass during the past few days fearing possible chaos that could result from the power struggle that could follow the dictator’s death.
The Ethiopian Review Intelligence Unit has learned that Meles Zenaw’s daughter Semhal Meles, who was in Washington DC during the Summer, has gone back to Ethiopia yesterday. According to our source, many of Meles Zenawi’s close relatives and friends have been informed on Sunday afternoon that the dictator’s illness is terminal.
Reliable sources have informed Ethiopian Review that Ethiopia’s long time dictator Meles Zenawi is in a coma and may have died earlier today.