The only Fair trial is acquittal !

By Ephrem Madebo


In the last 15 years, the TPLF regime has used the media, force, and the decrying power of donor nations to pour water on the popular movement. When he is challenged by the Western media, the Prime Minister has always been a compulsive liar who feeds western diplomats with his daily fabricated lies. Recently Prime Minister Meles pledged that Ethiopia would give charged journalists a fair trial, I have two messages to a man who always promises, but never delivers.


Mr. PM Meles, you have imprisoned the most loved sons and daughters of Ethiopia. All the people you jailed are innocent, since you are the PM of Ethiopia; you need to listen to your own people, not foreigners. Please release our leaders! Court trials are held for suspected criminals, not for people who oppose you.

The men and women you imprisoned are people of principle who prefer the prison life than the comfort of the outside world. You may promise a fair trial, but to them fairness is always associated with freedom and justice to the people. You may think that you have alienated our leaders from us, but most Ethiopians believe that they are moral prisoners of your regime, therefore; morally, the people outside and the heroes in your jail are together.


In the last one hundred years, many dictators and racist regimes have made an attempt to muffle popular upheavals by killing, jailing, harassing, and expelling [from their country] leaders of the popular movement; however, no dictator has survived the wrath of the people by silencing leaders. Here the extraordinarily amazing fact is, regardless of their political origin, succeeding dictators never learn from the mistake of their predecessors. White South Africans tried to kill ANC and its vision by jailing Mandela, today the ruling party in South Africa is ANC. The now rambling Colonel Mengistu once thought no force would dare to challenge him, today; Mengistu is a refugee in a country of another dictator. Mengistus’s successor seems to have got no lesson, currently; he is doing what Mengistu has been doing. Time will not be that far before he faces what Mengistu faced.

In my opinion, Meles’s promise for a fair trial is his customary manner of diverting attention; his recent flawed promise shouldn’t make us lift our eyes from our target. In Ethiopia, there is no judicial transparency and the court system is not free from the executive body. All of the opposition leaders and journalists were charged by Meles, and Meles is a man who likes to deep his dirty hands in the functional process of the three branches of the government. How do we expect a fair trial? Didn’t Meles promise democracy, free election, independent election board, equal sharing of media and many more? What did he deliver nothing…zilch! We should not trust Meles based on his own record of the last fifteen years.


Currently, we Ethiopians face dual challenges: First we have the responsibility of fighting a bitter fight for the unconditional release of all political prisoners, especially leaders of the popular movement. Secondly, we need to get closer and carry the popular movement to its inevitable victory. Evidently, as we move from one stage to the next, Meles and his puppies would give us a bump in every path; they may imprison or kill some of us, but they can never kill all of us. As we all remember, some of the political prisoners were here in North America weeks before they were rounded by Meles, they could have stayed here and avoided the brutal hands of Meles. These heroes and unwavering Ethiopians preferred to go to jail than bending to TPLF. By going to jail, they demonstrated their love, responsibility, and trust to the people that trusted them and voted for them.

To all people that pine at the hands of dictators, and to all territories and nations that suffer from economic mismanagement, I believe, the 21st century is the era that should flicker the sparks of democracy and bring an end to all types of totalitarian regimes. Meles promises good things to the consumption of the international community because he knows his existence as a “democratic” leader depends on the transparency of the EPRDF system. Prime Minister Meles knows his survival as a leader depends on the legitimacy of his actions and how donor countries trust him as a lawful leader, therefore he always washes his hard-to-clean face. As we heard him recently he has promised a fair trial, if he listens, a fair trial is nothing, but acquittal!