REVISITING THE POLITICAL OPPOSITION:

On the Conviction of CUD Leaders

By Tecola W. Hagos

I. Introduction

This is a time of great pain and suffering for most Ethiopians and in particular for the unnecessarily convicted Leaders of CUD (the Opposition) and journalists,[i] for the members of their families, and for the Members and supporters of Kinijit. This article is brief, but long on goals: I am considering both humanitarian and political (legal) dimensions of the controversy. It would have made my task of writing much easier had we a transparent judicial system in Ethiopia, where members of the public have easy access to the briefs, evidence presented, and the decision of the courts. For almost a week, I tried to get copies of the decision, crucial briefs, evidentiary support et cetera without success except for snippets of items that may be indicative but not illuminating on several issues. For example, I read in some Websites that the detainees were trying to file their defense, when disruptively a judgment was entered against them, which to me would be gross violation of their human rights, but I was unable to find corroborating evidence to that claim; rather what I found was a twisted version of hearsay than such authenticated claims.[ii]

I read in several Websites a number of articles and chat statements full of raw anger, at times expressed in vile language, against the government of Meles Zenawi�s detention and conviction of the leasers of the Opposition. Of course, the Kinijit Organization or its support groups are not responsible for the statements made by every Tom, Dick, and Harry on the recent conviction of some of the Leaders of Kinijit and the political controversy facing the nation in general. Such approach of writing in large brush strokes when precision is really necessary simply would mud the issues and end up confusing people rather than promoting our knowledge and clarity of goals. For example, the Press Release of the Official Kinijit organization is rather very brief more inclined to rhetorical argumentation than simple straight statements. It would have been helpful if the Organization had summarized the case and pointed out the charges clearly, and rendered both legal and political criticisms on the decision. If possible, the Organization should have attached the exact wordings of the decision if not all of the decision.

On November 6, 2005, I wrote an article that was posted in this Website, �In Perspective: the Politics of Opposition,� condemning the arrest of Opposition Leaders. In that article, I stated clearly the type of arrest, and the time of the arrest, and the circumstances of the arrest was highly polarizing and counter productive and a violation of the fundamental rights of those arrested. It is of great concern to me then and now with the judgment of late adding to my anxiety and worry about the health situation of those incarcerated, that I want to restate my concern by quoting my self as follows.

It is a duty that every Ethiopian should be bound by to protect the rights of those with whom we may disagree. If I do not speak out against all forms of dictatorships and allow the murder, detention, and torture of my brothers and sisters, then who would speak out on my behalf when I fell prey to a dictator? May I remind my esteem critiques in the words of a man who survived Nazi prison camps and atrocities as follows? �First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a communist; Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a socialist; Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a trade unionist; Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out - because I was not a Jew; Then they came for me - and there was no one left to speak out for me.�[iii]

The person I quoted in that article was Martin Niemoller,[iv] a victim of Nazi Germany.

I have condemned the arrest and detention (and now conviction) of CUD Leaders from the very beginning. I have done so not because I supported the political program of CUD or the incarcerated Leaders� possible capacity to lead Ethiopia (taking into account their background as a group), but because I considered the action of the Government in arresting them at that point as a violation of their fundamental and political rights. If what the government has alleged for the arrest was true, and if there is no immediate insurrection and breakdown of civil society, there was no reason that investigation of wrong doing of criminal activities would not have been done without arresting and detaining those leaders in Kaliti or elsewhere. I am a believer that a government is a lot stronger than individuals or groups, and should allow some leeway to citizens even in time of civil disturbances.

Because of my humanitarian concern, I insist that the incarcerated opposition leaders, journalists et cetera must be immediately released without any precondition, and the convictions of the detainees should also be expunged or vacated. I have no access to evaluate the evidence presented in court against the detainees and some of them now convicted, but that should not matter at all for my insistence for their freedom is not based on legalism, but on humanitarian consideration. Most of the Leaders are senior citizens; some of them in their seventies and a number of them in their mid sixties. Of course, the economist Dr. Berhanu and Judge Birtukan, the only female Opposition leader, are very young. In principle, the Ethiopian government has all the power, money, and tools to investigate any subversive activities by anybody. However, the political environment created by the Government of Meles Zenawi has contributed to all forms of dissentions, thus the Government itself is partially responsible for the creation of the chaotic political processes in Ethiopia. Arrest, intimidation, illegal detention, and murder are not the answers for the ongoing crises in Ethiopia.

II. Individual Rights and the Judiciary

In 1974-75, just after the Derg announced the removal of Emperor Haile Selassie I and installed itself as the head of state and government, twenty plus representatives of different Departments in the Ministry of Finance (including me) formed a committee and called the employees of the Ministry to stop work in protest against the establishment of the military dictatorship. I was the Chairman of that Committee. Ours was the first direct organized challenge to the Derg. Fifteen of us were arrested and detained first at Menilik Palace, then moved into the Central Prison of Addis Ababa (qetero), and ended up finally at Alembekagn. In 1975, we were charged with similar charges of �subversive� activities as were the Leaders of the Opposition in 2006.  [I am not comparing our local politically minor Committee of dissenters to the detained National Opposition Leaders.]

After seven or eight months in detention, we were finally charged with a whole series of crimes including the serious charge of attempt to overthrow the Transitional Government and other subversive activities. When we were served with our charges, we had a dilemma whether to defend ourselves or reject the authority of the Court, which was in our case a Military Court. We debated whether our cause would be better served with our active participation in our defense. We figured out that it was much more important to use the Military Court process itself that was illegally imposed on us (civilians) for our own purpose in order to expound our opposition to the Military dictatorship rather than leave it to the Military Court to define us and decide without our input our fate. We knew to a moral certainty that we would be convicted, but we wanted our cause to be publicized so that what ever happened to us, the Ethiopian people would know why we acted the way we did mobilizing Ethiopian Government Employees to stop work as a protest against the Military dictatorship at that early stage.

Our great lawyer who mounted a spirited defense on our behalf against the accusations of the Derg Prosecutor in a Derg Military Court was none other than Prof. Yacob Hailemariam, who is now, thirty years later, convicted by the Government of Meles Zenawi for exercising his civil and human rights. Yacob Hailemariam, as a fine defense lawyer, presented our defense not just as mere defense but as an event bearing on history at great risk to his own personal safety. He went to the extent of summoning Major Sisy, one of the leading members of the Executive Committee of the Derg, as witness for questioning. His summation could be ranked as one of the best in similar political trials around the world. All of the hearing was reported including summation statements in Addis Zemen daily newspaper and reported also on Television. Even though we soon were forgotten, due to monumental events taking place in the country where by 1977 with the Red Terror political murder, mayhem, torture, detention having become common place, the fact of the virtue of mounting a vigorous defense is real.    

I believe that the opposition Leaders who are now convicted of very serious crimes made strategically speaking very serious error by not mounting a vigorous defense. They should have shown to the people of Ethiopia and to the world at large the many problems and disasters caused by the government of Meles Zenawi in Ethiopia in the process of their defense. There can be no better forum than Meles�s own court to show to the Ethiopian people and the world the harm Ethiopians suffered for the last fifteen years under the administration of Meles Zenawi. There are several examples in history where great men accused of crimes under unjust laws and often under illegal governments, have mounted great defenses�Gandhi, Mandela, King to name a few. Even though such great men suffered the ignominy and humiliation of being dragged in front of corrupt judges or a mob in frenzy they held their ground with dignity and respect to the judicial institutions.

In jurisprudence and ethics, the trail of Socrates and his death, as amply narrated in three famous Dialogues: the Apology, Crito, and Pheado, is the most significant event in the history and development of political and civil institutions. The importance of these Socratic dialogues is their relevance in guiding us on how an individual ought to handle himself or herself when accused unjustly under an unjust law in a court controlled by the accuser state leader(s). The lesson Socrates is teaching us is the virtue of respecting the institution of the judicial system even if individual judges and/or the government may be corrupt.  Socrates defended himself vigorously, even if he taunted the Athenian jury and his three accusers occasionally. He was respectful of the judicial practice of his city-state and the institution. Even after Socrates was convicted and faced with execution, he refused the pleading of his friend (Crito) to escape from prison for his friends had arranged for him a safe passage out of prison and far from Athens. Socrates found it necessary to obey the judgment of his peers as his civic responsibility.

The Leaders of CUD now convicted of serious crimes should have also learned the lesson given to all of us by Prof. Asrat Woldeyes on the way he handled similar charges leveled at him by the Government of Meles Zenawi. All of us should learn from the exemplary �presence� in Court of Prof. Asrat Woldeyes, how he used polite words, how he honored the dignity of the Court even when the presiding judge acted disrespectfully toward him a few times, and completely looked ridicules and quickly mended his belligerent ways. His deep bow to the Court at the beginning and close of each of his appearances, I am told by friends who actually witnessed the hearings, left a deep mark in their memories of Prof. Asrate�s dignity and statesmanship. He brought honor and dignity to a Court that had lost its own honor and dignity.

When an individual becomes a public figure, the personal life is held at bay. One must think of one�s actions in terms of the impact it may have on the public, and because of that, one may have to sacrifice the private life and all self-interests. It is easy to prescribe different course of actions than the one taken by an individual who is immersed, body and soul, in a struggle, for someone from the comfort of one�s own home. As the saying goes, �Letekematch semai qrbu.� My suggestions here are meant as lessons for future events and not some kind of censor, after the fact, of CUD leaders.

III. The Haunting Legacy of Mengistu Hailemariam

The horrible legacy of Mengistu Hailemariam is still with us, making our lives ever painful as an open wound still hemorrhaging and far more difficult to heal even after seventeen years. I hear some of my fellow Ethiopians saying that we should forgive those who committed such atrocities on the Ethiopian people and move on. I believe in justice, punishing criminals and not appeasing or forgiving them because of political expediency. In fact, because I was so incensed with such unbearable suggestions, I wrote a long essay on the issue of forgiveness and justice, and posted Part One of the essay in this Website on May 20, 2007 titled �The Ethics and Politics of Forgiveness: a challenge to a just society.�

Just to remind us lest we forget, since forgetfulness of the atrocities of our past leaders seems to be our shameful disposition especially in the Diaspora, Mengistu and his associates and collaborators murdered Emperor Haile Selassie I. They murdered sixty High Government Officials including two Prime Ministers Aklilu and Endalktchew, and the then New Head of State General Aman Amdom, during the night of November 23^rd, 1974. Several war heroes and patriots, who fought the Italians with great courage and sacrifices 1935-41, were not even spared in their advanced age from the brutal murderous guns of Mengistu�s liquidators. Even those seriously sick and in their death bed were hauled to the execution ground and brutally murdered.

The atrocities of Mengistu and his associates and collaborators is not limited to individuals in political power, but also included religious fathers whether Orthodox Christians, Protestants, or Moslems. Mengistu�s thugs murdered our religious Fathers Patriarch Tewoflos, Qes Gudina Tumsa, and several other religious leaders, and detained several more around the country. The Red Terror was started in the early part of September 1976. It was the brain child of Meison and the Derg and had nothing to do with the assassination attempt on Mengistu�s life that occurred almost a month later.[v] The Red Terror came to its full genocidal proportions after the execution in a coup on February 3^rd 1977 of President Teferi Benti and five other high Derg members.

The Red Terror�s most destructive and utterly barbaric undertaking took place on March 22, 1977 where it was reported that in Addis Ababa alone over ten thousand people were murdered in one day! Following that in a time span that lasted for less than a week, Mengistu and his collaborators unleashed the bloodiest murderous orgies in Ethiopian history, usually referred to as the first phase of the Red Terror, where over one hundred forty thousand Ethiopians young (as young as fourteen and fifteen year olds) and old, men and women, heroes and bandas alike were murdered, literally butchered by armed thugs under the direction of Mengistu and his supporters mainly in Addis Ababa, Bahr Dar, Deredawa, Dessie, Gondar, Harar, Jimma, Mekelle, and several other towns and villages all over Ethiopia. Even Grazziani the Fascist General did not commit such barbarism on Yekatit 12. By the time the Red Terror was over, well over into the 1980s, half a million innocent Ethiopians were butchered by Mengistu and collaborators that included his Ministers and high officials as well even if they were not directly in the field of operation.[vi]

The harm done to the public image of Ethiopia during the military reign of Mengistu is incalculable. Because of the savagery of Mengistu�s Red Terror, which was of a magnitude like that of Rwanda, Ethiopia lost its prestige and importance in world politics. There is no doubt that Mengistu tarnished the respectability of Ethiopia around the world. Not only we are looked down by the rest of the world, but also despised as a barbaric and violent society. I am convinced the secession of Eritrea became acceptable in the West, even overlooking international law and practices, due to Mengistu�s brutality in the murder of the sixty senior high Government Officials and the Red Terror. It also cemented the resolve of the many freedom fighters in the area including that of EDU. It is difficult for Ethiopians these days to convince people when confronted by demands of secessionism that Ethiopia as a nation has a right to its sovereignty and territorial integrity. For example, Western governments tend to believe the worst of Ethiopia in any crises because of Mengistu�s Red Terror and the murder of sixty high government officials which is still fresh in their memories. This fact may seem trivial to people who do not understand the intricacies of international relations. What Mengistu did amounts to national suicide in terms of our international relations. 

In fact, when I reflect on that brutal Mengistu�s government atrocities during the period from 1974 to 1991, where all in all no less than two million Ethiopians lost their lives and the entire nation was held hostage in a kind of concentration-camp reminiscent of Nazi Germany under the most savage conditions, I believe supporting Kinijit, as it is organized and staffed at this moment, tantamount to supporting the Derg and help its leaders recover what they lost in 1991. Especially those fanatics, who are now all over the Internet, would like to have Hailu Shawel and other former officials and members of the security forces of Mengistu Hailemariam government, takeover as leaders of Kinijit International and lead the Diaspora Ethiopian community. The problem with such fantasy is that were it to succeed, such individuals as the new leaders for Ethiopia will end up driving a wedge of enormous dissatisfaction between the millions of Ethiopian Moslems, Ethiopian Somalis, Afars, Omotic and Southern Ethiopians, and millions of Ethiopia�s female population. I am ashamed of all of us that we don�t seem to learn from past experience. We should all be wearing brown paper bags over our heads and stop making appearances in political gatherings and cyberspace and stop pretending to fighting for the freedom of our brothers and sisters back in Ethiopia.    

IV. The Opposition and its Leaders

A. The Day After

I am of the opinion that had the CUD Leaders come into power as they were constituted in 2005, they would have brought about serious problems if not calamity of biblical proportion to Ethiopia rather than democracy. I know that my view is very unpopular, but that would not change the bitter reality. In my experience, having lived through three governments and involved at the initial stage of the overthrow and takeover of a brutal government by force, I have some solid ground for holding such view. What is tragic is for some people to consider such remarks and analysis by me to be some kind of support to the Government of Meles, and even worse being labeled as narrow Tygrean ethnicist. The most vociferous supporters of CUD are also the ones who are in most denial of the depth of the entrenchment of Mengistu and his representatives and former officials such as Kassa Kebede, the enfant terrible of that regime, Hailu Shawel the  ex-official in Mengistu�s Cabinet et cetera in the forefront and behind the whole Opposition movement. When you add the presence of former Red Terror participants, Negede Gobeze et al as propagandists, strategists, and organizers, and even in leadership positions,  it was clear to me where we were heading.

Negede Gobeze in his book and in discussion has made it abundantly clear that the Opposition�s muscle would come from ex-members of the defunct Workers Party of Ethiopia, Mengistu�s version of the Ton Ton Macoute, the millions of demobilized former military personnel and those who are in active service, and from former security officials and their cell members, the deadliest of them all, some of whom still maintained as part of the security system of the current Government. Without the EPRDF forces making up the core of the current Ethiopian Army and security forces, having disbanding Mengistu�s military and security apparatus, it would not have taken long for Hailu Shawel and his Dergist supporters to reinstate the dreaded butchers of Mengistu back into play.  The repeat of the Red Terror would have played out all over again. It is obvious when campaigning to the Diaspora converts in 2005 he dare say that it might take about ten thousand to a few more thousand lives but he would drive out EPRDF. Mind you at the time he was making such statement, there was no visible sign of any armed group waiting for his command for his context was the underground organization of Dergists. It is both an insult and a disservice to Ethiopia to have such individuals in any political party let alone as leaders. 

I hear in conversations, and I read in articles about the Opposition movement being defined by the characteristics of its most visible leaders who are now in detention and recently convicted. It is totally misleading to base the claim of virtue for the entire Opposition by expounding the greatness of few leaders who are being used as some diabolical camouflage to hide the monster lurking under. Such approach is what logicians refer to as a fallacy by composition. Recently a well intentioned Website, reposting my recent criticism of Sebhat Nega�s interview, used a disclaimer because of my criticism of Kinjit, by writing out only the names of those honorable individuals who are not tainted by the Red Terror or associate of Mengistu.[vii] Nevertheless, except one or two, most Opposition leaders have led in the past questionable political lives. The one individual that does not belong in the group both in terms of age and record of previous political associations is Judge Birtukan. I sincerely believe Judge Birtukan is an exceptional person with great moral integrity as a judge, but I am skeptical she would make the transition to being a politician where flexibility and compromise is most desirable.  

My criticism or questioning is not an endorsement of the detention and now the conviction of those CUD political leaders. I have stated repeatedly that the arrest and detention (and now conviction) is a blatant abuse of power and gross violations of the fundamental and political rights of the detained and convicted Opposition leaders. I see confusion of issues in this regard even by individuals with experience who are overcome by their hate for the current government not because of its crimes but more because of the ethnic identity of Meles Zenawi and his TPLF.

If one hates a snake, there is no compelling reason that one has to kiss the next frog that chanced by. We have several choices of actions. We do not have to be intimidated or blackmailed into supporting Kinijit. We can start a new political party free of the dominant influence of Degrists and ethno-nationalists who are blinded and ready to sacrifice the rest of us due to their hate for Meles Zenawi because of his ethnic background. Most importantly, we should not be used to help launch the political career of ambitious individuals with checkered past. There is no reason why we have to support the formation of a feudal-elitist structure that is being filled by old-comrades from Mengistu�s Cabinet and WPE. The problem screams at us the loudest by the absence of diversity or representative leadership in Kinijit. �No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment...� [Matthew 9: 16]

I have often read challenges against people like me, people who are objecting to the types of manipulation underway to bring to power former Derg officials, maybe even Mengistu the monster, to produce evidence to show that Kinijit is dominated by Dergists, ethno-nationalists, et cetera. Here below is a list of the Kinijit International Leadership (KIL), which list should be one convincing evidence to you how far the Kinijit leadership is stratified with former Mengistu officials, Mengistu�s enforcers and security members, ex-WPE members et cetera along with few na�ve ethno-nationalists. The leadership of KIL is one caldron of recrimination and feud just as the parent organization CUD was. Major Yosef Yazew has challenged both the authenticity and content of Hailu Shawel�s recent letter that nominated additional members for KIL. Yemaiategib enjera kemitadu yastawiqal. 

Elected by President of Kinijit, Hailu Shawel, Mengistu/Derg, Ex- Minister

1. Taye Wolde Semayet (Dr.)    Teachers Association/ethnicist

2. Kifle Mulat                             Journalist/ ethnicist

3. Asefa Deres                            Mengistu/Derg, ex- Minister

4. Mesfin Amha (Dr.)                 ?

5. Aklog Birara (Dr.)                  ? Mengistu/Derg, Sympathizer

6. Merse Ejjigu                            Mengistu/ Derg, ex-Minister

7. Zergabatchew Asfaw               Mengistu/Derg, ex-Minister

8. Taddese Gebrekidan                Moges-Alemayehu/Derg, ex-Bank Governor

9. Samuel Habte                           ? Mengistu/Derg, Sympathizer

10. Woldeyesus Gebremariam (Dr.) ?

12. Seyoum Zenebe                      ?

As you may observe from the above list, Mengistu/Derg is well represented in this group of �leaders� join up with the existing KIL. This is not to say that individuals do not change, but why should we take chances when we could start with fresh, untarnished Ethiopians as leaders. I have serious misgivings about the leadership of CUD/Kinijit from the beginning of its formation because of the past proximity of several of its leaders to Mengistu Hailemariam and the WPE, and also to the disbanded Mengistu�s military and security command structure. Especially the leadership of Hailu Shawel was very troubling to me on several grounds, least of which his high position in Mengistu�s government for few years, and the fact that he never condemned that bloody regime, but lived comfortably even benefited from his previous association with Mengistu and his government to the day Mengistu runaway abandoning his government in 1991.

I also questioned the process of the formation of Kinijit at a time of a crises facing CUD soon after the May 2005 national election. It seems like the political organization of Hailu Shawel had taken over the constitutive coalition of the independent organizations of CUD. More importantly I am worried by the fact that it seems that Kinijit reflects a political ideology that is both elitist and narrow ethnicist. I hear from supporters of Kinijit that it was accepted by the voters in the 2005 election. The problem with that argument is the fact that Kinijit did not exist at that time nor did it participate in any election.

Moreover, my reading of the eighty paged �Manifesto� of Kinijit did not dispel my reservation whether Kinijit really is a viable political organization rather than a vehicle for few individuals to grasp political power. There are serious conceptual gaps at different levels in the Kinijit �Manifesto� between its leftist ideologies and its patronizing almost feudal over all tone. The Manifesto�s �great� innovation is changing the compound word �self-determination� in to �self-administration.� Other than that it uses the terminology of a pseudo revolutionary left leaning party program, such as terms that we have heard adnausium �nations� and �nationalities.� It is obvious the manifesto is a chimera made up of parts of conflicting or discordant economic and political programs. As a strong believer of a unitary state structure, I am strongly critical of the use of terms like �nations� and �nationalities� in defining and categorizing the citizens of a state. As far as I can see, there is only one Ethiopian nation with individual citizens who may have different ethnic and linguistic attributes. I am not making this type of statement to please any ultra nationalist group. It is my considered view, having witnessed in the last thirty years in Ethiopia and elsewhere in the world how such leftist concepts of �nations� and �nationalists� were the main justifications and reasons for atrocities even genocide, that the use of such terms in a constitution or a manifesto in general is unwise. Personally, I am adamant that no political program should ever entertain such concepts under the present condition of conflicted society in Ethiopia or else where.  

This form of political and economic program adopted by Kinijit is an approach that is hopelessly irreconcilable to political development that they are aiming at. This fact of a confused political and economic program that is often overlooked by supporters and critics alike is a symptom of the deep flaw in the Kinijit organization itself. Trying to be everything to everybody, especially to conflicting groups, renders an organization ineffective. When one adds the irreconcilable background of the leaders, there is really nothing left except the raw ambition for power of few individuals that prop up such organization. The composition of the leadership of Kinijit and those who were/are behind the scene pulling the strings like puppet-masters were/are of mixed bag consisting of Mahel Sefaries and Dergist, former close associates of Mengistu such as Kassa Kebede and others leftist Red Terror participants such as Negede Gobeze and very many others.

The fact that I brought these issues in to our discourse tells me there is a fundamental difference in the way I look at Kinijit/CUD leadership than what is claimed by supporters and members of Kinijit/CUD. People seem to be focused on getting rid of Meles Zenawi at any cost; whereas, my concern is not about acquisition of political power ethnicity or nations and nationalities, but the type of leadership that would help promotes democracy in a unitary state of Ethiopia. For example, even accepting the idea of having an opposition political group as a good start to fight the current dictatorial government of Meles Zenawi, I do not see any significant members from EPRP, Meison, ARDUF (from organizations), or Somali, Afar, Tygrean, Omotic (from ethnic groups), or Moslems (religion) or Women (gender) in the leadership of KIL, even as token individuals thrown in here and there in KIL.  

The individuals that are identified as the leaders of CUD/Kinijit were and still are living a political marriage of extreme convenience that will break apart in the first power struggle that will happen for sure. We have already witnessed indications of power struggle within CUD before it was disrupted by the arrest of the Leadership of CUD. The infighting in KIL is raging despite signing some form of accord a couple of weeks ago. Even more so, I am concerned that the political base of CUD/Kinijit is not firm due to the participation of massive support from the former defunct Workers Party of Ethiopia members and Mengistu�s former military and security people carrying with them their structural organization, seemingly disbanded but still intact back in Ethiopia. Such individuals organized in the traditions of totalitarian cells and control structures will disrupt further political development by usurping power from those outsider non-Dergist figure-head CUD/Kinijit Leaders who really do not have any sold military or security base on their own. Those who were connected as high officials or members of the forces during Mengistu�s Government such as Hailu Shawel, Major Getachew Mengiste, Major Yosef Yazew et cetera are the real force behind the current Kinijit organization. Individuals with radical ideas and those with ideas of liberal democracy would have been phased out or purged in a couple of years after the assumption of Power by Kinijit Dergists. Especially individuals like Yacob Hailemariam, Berhanu Nega, Befekadu Degife are most vulnerable and would be the first victims of a power struggle. It will be a repeat of the same type of power game played out in both Mengistu�s Derg and later Meles�s TPLF.

The situation is even grimmer than what I have described above when we consider the fact that most of the leaders in CUD/Kinijit are aging individuals in their mid sixties to late seventies. This means that the people who are now waiting in the wings, who are mostly former Mengistu�s cadres, who were either in school or in low positions in the WPE political apparatus, or in the Regime�s military and security structures, will be the best situated candidates to carry on the legacy of that horrible regime. Do not doubt it a minuet, these people are hungry, well organized, and ready to go. What is needed to counter the reestablishment of the rudiments of Mengistu�s legacy, from usurping political power from the people of Ethiopia through meaningless ritualized elections, is the establishment of a democratic opposition political organization that will not allow any former officials of the Derg or Mengistu�s regime to be part of the organization. The greatest enemy to democracy in Ethiopia is still Mengistu Hailemariam, as well as his ghost that is still haunting Ethiopia in the guise of political opposition organizations.

B. The Political  Maturity of the Opposition Leaders?

�Le hatean yemeta le tsadkan� referring to a form of generalized destruction though aimed at evil doers is now having a new twist in the Ethiopian political environment. Ethiopian political environment may be characterized by its infantile-demagogy, by its either/or false dilemma, feudo-elitism et cetera. Now, what we have in Kinjit�s claim of legitimacy is the distorted version of the earlier quoted saying, �Le tsadkan yemeta Le hatean� meaning what is meant to reward good citizens would end up helping despicable evil doers as well. The leadership of Kinijit is overwhelmingly influenced by former Derg/Mengistu officials, Red Terror participants (directly or indirectly), colorless bureaucrats et cetera, and now such individuals unashamedly make up the majority of the leadership of KIL. Of course, there are few individuals among the ranks who may be considered as �innocent� individuals, and their innocence is a presumption because they are relatively speaking new to Ethiopian politics and not because they do not have mean streaks of narrow ethnicism. It may even include individuals who were either persecuted by Derg/Mengistu, which fact can be easily ascertained as a matter of historical factual record, or too young at that time to have been seriously in the din of things compared to the many who have spent all of their lives in political movements and struggles.

The strategy of this Dergist group is simple, to use honorable people to camouflage the many unsavory individuals in Kinijit organization. When we consider the new list of the leadership of KIL, we see no Moslems, we see one lone woman, no Tygreans, no Somalis or Afars, no Wolloies, no Southern/Omotic Ethiopians except Gurages. For an organization with a manifesto that uses concepts of �nations� and �nationalities,� such exclusion of a large segment of the Ethiopian population is an extremely serious problem. For those who are in denial of the narrow base of the leadership of the Opposition group, this list of names of the KIL is a wakeup call. The roster of the leadership of KIL seems like the list of an alumnae association of former officials in the Government of Mengistu Hailemariam.

It is truly laughable to think this group of individuals, who do not seem to have even a rudimentary understanding of democracy in a multi ethnic societies, who have failed to visualize an Ethiopia beyond their own myopic perception of their immediate surrounding, can lead a great nation like Ethiopia, a nation of mosaic of cultures and people. The group is also highly elitist, and insultingly so. Are these the leaders who would replace the current Ethiopian Government of Meles Zenawi? By comparison, Meles Zenawi, even with his treason and divided loyalty, smells more and more like a rose considering the fact that his Government Members, Ambassadors, Generals and Commanders, are often to a high degree from diverse ethnic groups, a lot more reflective of the mosaic of ethnic groups of the rich tapestry of the Ethiopian people compared to the leadership team of KIL.

When I consider the fury with which Kenijit Members and supporters and several vociferous Website owners blindly support the leaders of Kinijit, irrespective of the checkered past lives of many of the leaders, I am reminded of the biblical saying from Proverbs, �As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.� [Prov. 26:11] I ask what all these hoopla is for. Are Kinijit Members and supporters aware of the fact that they are in fact supporting the come-back of Mengistu or his former officials? Replacing the current Ethiopian Government with former officials of Derg/Mengistu, men and women who were part and parcel of the regime of the Red Terror, a desirable goal? Most of these characters were members of the criminal Workers Party of Ethiopia (WPE) and a few of them were Ministers. Even if we exonerate them from direct participation in the Red Terror, they were close enough to Mengistu when he butchered tens of thousands of Ethiopians that some of the blood of those innocent Ethiopian victims must have splattered on them.  

Transformation of individuals from past destructive roles into constructive roles as members of society is not to be discredited prima facie. However, even in the most forgiving and generous society, there is a maximum degree of atrocity, corruption, and collaboration with a criminal fascist government beyond which no degree of regret or transformation would be accepted by the victims. The brutality and utter evilness of the Government of Mengistu Hailemariam has no comparison in the history of Ethiopia. And those who were directly involved in the policy making process of Mengistu�s government, those who were mere executioners, those who were functionaries of the military regime as Ministers, Directors et cetera are all collectively responsible for the crimes and violence and barbarism committed by Mengistu and his military regime.

�Politics is the art of the possible� through compromise, but not to the extent of allowing such compromise to obliterate one�s individuality and core principles. I appreciate the political necessity to compromise and work together with people from opposing organizations. However, there is a limit how far one compromises core principles for political expediency. In other words, it is only fair to examine the inner structure of any organization that is made up by political groups with drastically opposed political ideologies and past history. It would be tragic to form such a chimera of political diverse groups only to find later oneself in a deadly power struggle/fight for survival.

There is a tendency that I observed in discussions that the supporters and members of the Opposition seem to go beyond decent admiration of their Leaders who are currently in prison. They seem to be engaged in the obsessive deification of the Opposition leaders who are in detention. Let us not forget that those individuals who are now in prison are politicians and not religious leaders. They are seeking power; they are seeking leadership for any number of reasons that we have heard politicians give for running for office�from saving a nation from disaster to building roads and bridges. As politicians often do, the imprisoned Leaders have compromised their individual feelings even principles to form the current Opposition. How else could a former official of Mengistu be a member of a team of leadership that has as members a former EPRP, or Meison, or liberal democrat?  Such compromise may be a sign of political maturity and opportunism, but not of sainthood or ethical purity. Therefore, they need be treated as politicians and not as religious leaders or saints.

At any rate, the coalition of the opposition groups in CUD, whose constitutive organizations were forced or cajoled into becoming Kinijit, is not a mature structure. What is happening is a step toward a repeat of what happened to Meison in its fateful coalition or cooperation with the Derg. The Derg used Meison to purge EPRP, and turned against it once the Derg has mastery of the political situation. The first thing the leaders of Kesta-Damena (Rainbow) organization should do when their Leaders are freed is to break clean from Hailu Shawel and the Dergists, and reinvigorate their party with clarity of goals and the recruitment of new members from the general Ethiopian population, especially the urban young, teachers and their students, and labor union members.

V. Conclusion

I harbor no ill feelings to those Ethiopians who are sincerely struggling to bring about democratic changes to the people of Ethiopia, even when these fellow Ethiopians are making strategic blunders associating themselves with former Derg officials, with criminals who participated directly or indirectly in the Red Terror, colorless bureaucrats et cetera. In fact, I consider myself standing by their side in the trenches in the fight for the salvation of our much abused motherland. I have personal knowledge of many of the Leaders of both Kinijit and the KIL, and a few having been close personal friends. I do not believe any of them would be capable ever leading Ethiopia into a democratic society; they have gone too far in hate politicking.  

The popular saying, �What does not kill you will make you strong,� is wrong for once because what does not kill you might cripple you rather than making you strong as claimed. What I see in most of us, especially Ethiopians of my generation and the one before mine, is the fact that we have lived through great personal and communal suffering, and such suffering has crippled us in many ways. For example, we are the most vicious and hateful generations. We have committed indescribable atrocities on our fellow Ethiopians during the Red Terror and other violent crimes since.

Rather than seeking atonement for our generations� crimes and gross mistakes, we are unashamedly seeking political offices with zeal. Rather than going through genuine contrition for all of our inequities against our fellow Ethiopians, we want to sweep our dirt under the proverbial carpet of pretensions. Rather than showing our gratitude for the great sacrifices of our county in educating us, we turn around and flaunt our education rubbing our diplomas and degrees in the faces of our less fortunate brothers and sisters. We have created an elitist feudal structure of our own, stratified with contemptuous hierarchy. Especially those of us in the Diaspora are the most pathetic Ethiopians of all, with our self-aggrandizement and egotistical indulgence.

Here we are demonstrating and agitating day and night �to liberate� Ethiopia from the grip of Meles Zenawi and �Tygres,� when we are not even capable of liberating ourselves from the obsession we have with the acquisition of power. Our politics is juvenile, and decidedly parochial. When we chat in the Internet, we betray our rustic origin with our extreme vulgarity and cowardice hiding behind fabricated names and throwing poisoned darts of bigotry at each other. When we succeeded in our economic life having some more spare-changes, we try to be politicians spending such money wastefully that could have been magnanimously used by channeling it into charitable programs in Ethiopia or creating endowments, scholarships, even academic chairs for Ethiopians here in the United States. No, not so; we want to be kings even emperors, our wives queens and our children princes and princesses. What a scarecrow caricature we have become!

Let me put it plainly, and do not doubt my words, what is going on in our community in the Diaspora is a fight for the soul of Ethiopia without Ethiopians. It is a fight for a choice between a treasonous political leadership on one side and the former officials of the defunct Mengistu/Derg regime trying to recover the political power they lost in 1991 on the other side. This is a political fight that has been delayed sixteen years and now is catching up with us, for we failed to establish alternate democratic institutions. Ω

Tecola W. Hagos

June 22, 2007, Washington DC,