Birtukan Mideksa surrendering ceremony
It is not a new thing for Ethiopian political leaders to betray their supporters, and the people of Ethiopia, in general. Even the great Hailu Shawel had succumbed to that tradition. So it is not with any shock or surprise we learned about the betrayal of Birtukan Mideksa whom just recently we referred to as “lady liberty.”
Birtukan has followed the footstep of her former leader, Hailu Shawel, to the Ethiopian political graveyard so soon after she became a leader on her own right. At least Hailu Shawel lasted several years as a respected leader. Even the now discredited Lidetu Ayalew and Taye Woldesemayat lasted many years as popular leaders. Birtukan’s fall from grace is as sudden as her meteoric rise.
What Birtukan Mideksa did on Wednesday, June 18, 2008, and for several months before that, was a complete surrender of herself, her colleagues, her supporters, and her party to the Meles dictatorship in the most shameless way.
Here is what Birtukan did:
1) In September 2007, she assured her followers that the name of the party, Kinijit, will not be changed no matter what. She explicitly said that keeping the name Kinijit is one of the issues that the party will fight for. But when she returned to Ethiopia, within a few weeks, she changed her mind and abandoned Kinijit as the name of the party just because Woyanne told her so. She did not put up any resistance — be it legal, political, diplomatic… none. We did not say much, wanting to give her the benefit of the doubt.
2) Since September 2007 — for the past 10 months — Birtukan said not a word of criticism against the Meles dictatorship when it burned down villages, engaged in indiscriminate execution of civilians, including women and children, gang rape of women, and committed other horrible crimes against fellow Ethiopians in Ogaden and the people of Somalia. She did not utter a word of concern about Woyanne’s secret land deal with Sudan, or about the millions of starving children… During this period, the only word of complain, concern or criticism that came from Birtukan was against freedom fighters who chose to raise arms to defend themselves and their people from the brutal dictatorship. She called their method of defending themselves “backward.” We did not say much, except grumbling a little, because we really wanted her to succeed.
3) Birtukan had promised her supporters that Kinijitj’s 8-point peace proposal will continue to be the primary rallying point of the party. She even mentioned that when she testified before the U.S. Congress. She said: “The proposals that are currently being deliberated in this House [of Representatives] are vital to the revitalization of human rights in Ethiopia, and in many ways reflect the policy positions of the CUDP, and many stated in our 8-point proposal.” But when she returned to Ethiopia, she arbitrarily set aside the 8-point proposal without any discussion, explanation, reason… We only complained privately. Did not say much in public.
4) For the past 10 months, few or none of the families of Kinijit activists, particularly the young ones, who endured incredible suffering have not received any attention. Those young Kinijit activists were the workhorse of the party. They are now totally abandoned by Birtukan. ER has raised this issue often, but the only answer from Birtukan was, the party lacks the capacity to provide economic assistance to its activists. She was saying this while a quarter of a million dollars was sitting in the bank doing nothing.
Birtukan went on committing one blunder after another with little or no public criticism. Most of the young leaders of the party left quietly, disappointed and frustrated with Birtukan’s lack of leadership, and willful submission to the Woyanne tyranny. Many of the older leaders remain in the party because of yilugnta (ይሉኝታ). They will drop out one by one soon after the current commotion ends.
UDJ’s general meeting on Wednesday was a culmination of all of Birtukan’s blunders. To start with, most of the delegates who attended the meeting cannot really be called delegates. They were handpicked and paid by Birtukan to come to the meeting and crown her. The delegates represent no organized constituency, with the exception of a few. Secondly, the whole party formation process took only one day — including drafting, discussing, and approving the party’s bylaws and political program, nominating and electing the council members and the executives. In short, the so-called general assembly was similar to Meles Zenawi’s rubber stamp parliament. Every thing was decided for the ‘delegates’ in advance of the general assembly.
Birtukan and her UDJ will soon join Beyene, Lidetu and their fake parties as Woyanne decoys.
Oh, she will be glad to know that from now on she will be a regular guest at the American embassy cocktail parties.
On top of all the faking that went on in Addis Ababa, the Diaspora UDJ supporters are making too much noise, pretending to be happy as if something big has happened. But the hard truth some refuse to swallow is that what happened on June 18 was a camouflaged surrender ceremony — Birtukan surrendering to Woyanne.