Treason charges are baseless

Anonymous

January 2, 2006

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University students have been playing a pivotal role in the nationwide protest against the 15-year-old regime which has resorted to militarism to cling to power.

Not only Ethiopians but people throughout the world should be appalled when charges are manufactured practically made up by a government against opposition political parties, journalists and citizens for the purpose of silencing and repressing dissent. The world should be especially resentful and indignant when the word genocide is used lightly. When the charge of genocide is exploited thoughtlessly, when it is trivialized, it loses its seriousness and it becomes hollow. Genocide is a crime against humanity. It is the systematic elimination of certain groups by egomaniac brutes. It is vicious, it is brutal, it is barbaric, it is inhuman, and it is cowardly.

Does Meles Zenawi and his group really know what genocide means? The charge of genocide against opposition political parties in Ethiopia demeans the suffering and liquidation of millions of human beings by brutal governments. The holocaust, the elimination of six million Jews by the Hitler regime, Stalin gulag over twenty million dead, the killing fields of Cambodia, Pol Pot and his henchmen who slaughtered millions, the persecution of millions during Mao Zedong’s China. Just as recently as 10 years ago, over a million people were exterminated in a Rwanda ethnic conflict. The world acknowledges these crimes as genocide. The memories of those who lost their lives should be honored and respected. Genocide is a grave crime and should be treated as such, however, when the charge of genocide is used as it is being used by the current government in Ethiopia for political expediency, for political domination, when it is used to create fear, when it is utilized to silence dissent, it should be condemned. It is a shameful act.

By what stretch of one’s imagination does any of the political prisoners in Ethiopia deserve the charge of genocide? What proof, what evidence, and what documentation does the Ethiopian court have against these people to make such a grave charge? Where is the crime? Where is the mass grave? If the opposition advocated the elimination of certain ethnic groups in Ethiopia, where is the literature to support this claim? It is preposterous and beyond belief that opposition political parties, journalists and citizens are thrown into prison and charged of treason and genocide without any foundation and an iota of truth. Mere mortals organized as opposition political parties do not commit genocide; genocide is not committed by journalists expressing their viewpoints nor perpetrated by citizens demonstrating against the legitimate displeasure of their government. Brutal governments especially led by people who claim to know the truth have always committed genocide. The heartless, the Godless, the cowards, the ideologues, the social engineers, those with inferiority complex, the power hungry,

The brutes commit genocide

It is an insult to ones intelligence when Meles Zenawi accuses the opposition political leaders in Ethiopia of treason. The Webster Dictionary defines treason as the betrayal of trust or faith, treachery violation of the allegiance owed to one’s sovereign or state, betrayal of one’s country. In the United States constitution treason consists only in levying war against the U.S. or in giving aid and comfort to its enemies. Which external enemy did the opposition leaders aid and comfort? When and how did they betray the trust or faith of their country? Again where is the crime, where is the evidence to support the charge?

It is an insult to hear Meles talk about the values of democracy and constitutional government when he does not have the slightest respect for democracy or for the rule of law. If the court drama in Ethiopia is indeed about the search of truth, enough evidence can be collected and assembled to charge Meles Zenawi and a few of his accomplices with treason. Meles Zenawi to cover his own treachery accuses others of treason. Ethnic division, ethnic separation, ethnic political parties, ethnic federalism is the creation of this government. This man is duplicitous and untrustworthy of being a leader. Unlike any other, this government is responsible for fanning the flames of ethnic division in Ethiopia; yet, it turns around and accuses others of creating ethnic accord when the government itself is fundamentally based on ethnocentric ideology.

In a real democracy nobody is above the law. In Ethiopia Meles has become the law. He is the judge, the jury and the prosecutor. Even before official charges were made against those in prison, Meles condemned the opposition political leaders of treason. In a real democracy one is presumed innocent before found guilty in a court of law. In Ethiopia one is presumed guilty before going to court. How can one have a fair trial if the executive and the judiciary act as one and the same? When bail is denied out of hand, when those charged are not allowed to discuss their case with defense lawyers, when draconian charges such as treason and genocide are brought superficially against opposition political parties and journalists, when innocent civilians are hoarded into prison for no apparent reason any self-respecting independent court would have been offended by these egregious transgressions. Yet in Ethiopia, the court is shamefully being used as a stooge of the present government. Despite the effort to show openness and transparency, despite the effort to show the court as being independent, it is all hoax, the fact of the matter is these people should not have been sent to prison, do not deserve to be in prison and the charge of genocide and treason should not have been brought at all. It is a mockery of justice; it is an insult to one’s senses to hear such grave charges without any substantiation.