Friday, April 06, 2007

The "Court Ruling"

The "court ruling" from the political trial of the unjustly imprisoned CUD leaders and others a couple of days ago has sent a chilling message to Ethiopians that Meles Zenawi is not interested in sitting down with his political opponents to address the political crisis in the country. I suppose Meles feels pretty good about his track record of locking up his political opponents since he has experienced little or no erosion to his hold on political power that he has convinced himself he has total control to do what he pleases.

Since 1991, Meles has incarcerated many of his opponents with impunity. Just take a look at a very short list of his political opponents that he has incarcerated since 1991: Abera Yemaneab, Asrat Woldeyes, Mekonnen Dori, Taye Woldesemayat, Seye Abraha, Abate Kisho, etc... What price did he pay for allowing these compatriots to rot in his jails? Practically nothing!

So Meles figures he can do more of the same with marginal threat to his hold on power, and he calculates that the end result of incarcerating the CUD leaders will be more or less the same. Meles may wish to continue to delude himself that he can continue in this reckless path he is on without consequence, but I believe he has miscalculated this time around and he needs to consult history books to figure out why he is overplaying his hand.

I am afraid the "court ruling" of two days ago has pushed the country further towards the road of violent confrontation. I have and will always advocate peaceful and gradual ways of bringing about changes in Ethiopia because that is the right thing to do and it is good for the country. Unfortunately, the actions that the Meles regime is taking are making non-violent forms of resistance to the repressive regime an unlikely method of bringing about change in Ethiopia while on the other hand emboldening groups who are inclined to pursuing armed struggle against the regime.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is this observers hope that Ethiopian legal scholars, lawyers and judges in Ethiopia and abroad create a forum that can help debate the case while educating the public. Then again legal documents and evidence during due process may not be allowed for a reference. Once some one told us, “ every citizen needs to know the law.” Agree if that is possible. Discussion can be based on the established constitution and researched cases, or even the current trial. Ethiopian lawyers are not speaking except Professor Al Mariam, and on the latest, an article on the case on one of kinijit’s web sites which was probably written by a legal expert.

Ethio

Anonymous said...

Correction
"Ethiopian lawyers are not speaking..."

They need to speak more... and may be they are. Some of us must be missing out as limited could be information sources except the most familiar. The jury could be out to the rational public, considering it is fair and balanced.

Ethio