SEATTLE – Security forces on Monday arrested Ms. Bertukan Mideksa, leader of the fledgling opposition Unity for Democracy and Justice Party (UDJP), sources said.
“Civilian clothed security picked up the opposition leader at 2:00PM Monday, after roughing up 80-year-old human rights activist Professor Mesfin Weldemariam,” according to Ethiomedia sources.
Birtukan, who is entangled in a
bitter controversy with the EPRDF led government over the content of
her release after the infamous treason trial of 2005, refused to
recant statements she made during a working visit to Sweden last
month.
In an open letter released on Friday she maintained that her
release from prison could not be reduced to a plain pardon as is being
disingenuously alleged by the EPRDF led government ,but is rather a
complex outcome of a protracted negotiation between her party and the
government mediated by elders.
The pardon board convened an emergency meeting on Saturday to rubber
stamp EPRDF’s pronouncement, and civilian-clothed security agents
picked her up from Prison Fellowship’s office today, where she and
Professor Mesfin had gone at the behest of elders who are once again
mediating between the EPRDF and the opposition.
Group says ‘arrest Bertukan’
LONDON (Ethiomedia) – Ms. Bertukan Mideksa, an opposition leader Ethiopians regard as a unifying force of their ethnically-fragmented country, may be sent to Kaliti, a notorious prison where the 34-year-old former judge spent nearly two years before her release last year.
A Clemency Board controlled by the ruling party on Saturday decided that the leader of the opposition Unity for Democracy and Justice Party (UDJP – Andinet) should be arrested for allegedly failing to give “adequate response” to police.
The government wants the opposition leader to acknowledge that her release was dependent on taking responsibilities for the violence that followed the 2005 elections, and posting an apology to the government in exchange for clemency.
If the head of state, President Girma Woldegiorgis, approved the Clemency Board’s request for the arrest of the opposition leader, Bertukan would end up behind bars, the report that appeared in Amharic on AbugidaInfo warned. Observers say the symbolic head of state has no executive power, and he would approve whatever the Clemency Board passed as a decision.
Police last week gave Bertukan a three-day ultimatum either to recant her remarks or go to jail for life. She said she had committed no wrongdoing.
“The relentless campaign of fear and intimidation targets not only me but also all law-abiding activists,” Bertukan warned in a statement.
Since the last several days, Ms. Bertukan has been the target of vitriolic attacks by the state-run media, while her daily life has been haunted by government security agents who check her movement in four cars.
Bertukan and her party, UDJP enjoy tremendous support at home and abroad.
Despite the threat of arrest in the spy-infested society, UDJP was able to draw over 5,000 enthusiastic supporters to its first ever meeting in Addis recently.
Following news of the government campaign of intimidation, Bertukan was able to draw a swift show of solidarity from the powerful association of UDJP support groups in North America.
The Zenawi regime, which has deliberately fragmented Ethiopia under an apartheid-look-alike system of misrule since 1991, is often denounced by human rights organizations as one of the most ruthless regimes in Africa.
Activists worry rising leader may face arrest again
SEATTLE – Ethiopia’s leading opposition party supporters on Friday urged human rights groups and democratic governments to pressure the Meles Zenawi regime to desist from threatening the party’s chairperson with arrest – a life term at that.
Ms. Bertukan Mideksa, leader of the Unity for Democracy and Justice Party (UDJP), had told supporters in Sweden in the recent past that the former Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) leaders were set free due to a government clemency mediated by a group of elders called shimagle.
The ruling party has a different reason.
It says CUD leaders, including Ms. Bertukan, were set free from their nearly two-year imprisonment because they admitted that they had committed crimes – one of which is “an attempt to forcefully oust a constitutionally installed government” – and sought clemency after posting public apology.
In the midst of a government propaganda barrage, police interrogated Ms. Bertukan two times this month. Ealier this week, Ms Bertukan was given a three-day ultimatum to recant her statement, or face life imprisonment.
The UDJ chairperson is “being threatened with a life time imprisonment for exercising her constitutional right of conducting an open and free exchange of ideas with her supporters abroad and at home,” a statement distributed by the party’s North America Association of support groups disclosed on Friday.
“This is clearly a calculated move by the Ethiopian regime to kill the legal and peaceful politics of the opposition either through the humiliation of its leaders and/or personal and physical incarceration of its rising and popular female leader,” the statement said.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION (Part of press release)
Ms. Bertukan Mideksa is chairwoman of the UDJP which was re-constituted by most former leaders of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy Party (CUDP). It is to be remembered that CUDP was the main opposition party which, according to most independent observers, won the election of 2005. The government of Meles Zenawideclared a state of emergency even before the counting of votes was closed and threw the leaders of CUDP to prison for more than a year and a half. Government security officers also gunned down over 193 unarmed civilians in the streets of Addis Ababa and jailed thousands of CUDP supporters, human rights activists and free press members. These atrocities of the government are well-documented by independent human rights activists who reported their findings to international organizations like the EU parliament’s human rights committee. This is also confirmed by the findings of the commission that was formed by the Ethiopian government parliament itself. The members of this commission now live in exile, fearing persecution by the Meles Zenawi government.
After more than a year and a half of incarceration of the leaders of CUDP, the intervention of elders – encouraged and supported by the international community – succeeded in securing an agreement between the government and the opposition leaders – for terms of release and the continuation of their political activity. Since their release, the leaders and their supporters have been working hard to reconstitute the party from scratch. Unable to use their former name of CUDP because of an arbitrary ruling that gave their name away to an individual, the leaders were forced to rename their party as UDJP.
The reconstituted party has started to be active again in organizing and reaching the people. The party has been able to re-open 35 of its offices in the several parts of the country and is on schedule to open 90 plus offices before the 2010 election. The party has started organizing public meetings both abroad and at home. The recent tours to Europe by the chairwoman and the large public meeting in Addis and the positive responses by the people in these meetings are examples of such activities. The party has openly announced its plans to continue holding similar meetings with the public through out the country. These initial contacts with the people were done despite repeated interventions and obstructions by local government agencies at several levels. The government shamefully intervenes in the activities of CUDP even at the highest level. Pro-Government News papers routinely report on the minutes of highest level meetings by UDJP. These papers can do such things only through the help of government security forces whom we suspect are planting listening devices in rooms and halls of the party’s meetings.
The action of the government against the chairwoman of UDJP can be explained only as an attempt to obstruct the on-going political activities of UDJP. It is clear now that government agencies like its election board certifies legal parties for appeasing donor governments while its other agencies, like local officials, the police and the pro-government press engage in subverting the legal and peaceful activity of parties like UDJP.
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CONTACT:
Andinet North American Association of support organizations (Anaaso)
1334 9th Street, NW. Suite # 1 Washington DC. 20001.
