Sources close to the Woyanne-Qaliti mediation team in Addis Ababa have informed Ethiopian Review today that Meles Zenawi has decided to release the Kinijit leaders, but he wants to do it in his own terms, and at the time of his choosing.
Meles has informed the mediators, including the American ambassador in Ethiopia, that he will pardon the prisoners after the court sentences them next month on July 9. This is contrary to the agreement signed last week, according to the sources. Reportedly, the mediators are gravely concerned that he may not keep his word after the sentencing, too.
Meles is definetly feeling the heat. The U.S. State Department, which itself is under fire from the Congress, is putting a great deal of pressure on him. Europeans are doing the same. Meles seems to resents that, and said so yesterday at his rubber-stamp parliament. He described the pressure on him by Western diplomats as “shameful.” But he knows that not complying to the West’s demands will cause him to lose their alms. The Europeans are also considering imposing travel ban on Meles and other Woyanne regime officials. So Meles, who now feels cornered and humiliated by his Western backers, is in turn trying to humiliate Kinijit leaders by using their own words to have his court sentence them to long prison terms. If the pressure continues to mount, he will release them. Before that he will use what ever tactics he can muster to divert the West’s attention. If he succeeds, the prisoners will remain in jail indefinitely.
Meles and his Woyanne junta do not stop at just arresting or killing their enemies. Humiliation is part of the punishment they met out against their political opponents. Meles, after calling former prime minister Tamrat Layne to his office and persuading him to publicly admit mistakes if he wants to be free, threw him back to jail with long prison sentence by his kangaroo court. Former defense minister Seye Abraha is another victim of Meles and his crime family — Sebehat Nega, Bereket Simon, et al. Meles had repeatedly humiliated and frustrated the OLF leaders in the early 1990s by signing an agreement with them, to only change his mind before the ink is dry.
The Woyanne junta will continue to humiliate the people of Ethiopia and their leaders as long as they can do it with impunity. To believe that negotiation and diplomacy will work with Woyanne without the backing of a strong stick is to fool oneself. It is for this reason that if Kinijit International Leadership is serious about rescuing its leaders, it must mobilize the people of Ethiopia and start bleeding Woyanne’s nose.