The acting chairman of Kinijit International Leadership (K.I.L.), Dr Moges Gebremariam, and the Secretary General, Ato Berhane Mewa, held a press conference with several Ethiopian media representatives on Saturday.
The questions to the Kinijit top representatives evolved around the recent bungled mediation between the K.I.L. and the splinter group of four individuals led by former chairman Shaleqa (Major) Yoseph Yazew.
Dr Moges told the journalists, publishers, and radio hosts who participated in the press conference that the mediation with the shaleqa group has turned out to be a fraud. The shaleqa had used the mediation as a sinister ploy to destroy the K.I.L. and create a new structure. The two mediators — whose trip to the Unites States was financed by the shaleqa group — have been used for this ploy. According to Dr Moges, his repeated request to meet face to face with members of the splinter group was not accepted, indicating that there was no genuine interest on the part of the shaleqa group for dispute resolution. The only time Dr Moges met with the shaleqa was to sign the agreement. He said that he signed the agreement on behalf of K.I.L. to give the mediators the benefit of the doubt despite the shaleqa group’s demonstrated lack of goodwill.
Ato Berhane on his part said that neither the shaleqa nor the mediators had said any thing about adding 11 individuals before they signed the agreement that require them to rejoin K.I.L. Ato Berhane added that the plan to add 11 individuals was not the issue; it is the way it was presented — i.e., without consulting any of the existing K.I.L. members. It has also been confirmed that the plan was not sanctioned by the top leaders in Qaliti, and that they are deeply disappointed by the shaleqa’s and the mediator’s extremely disruptive act.
Dr Moges and Ato Berhane took turns to explain that K.I.L. is operating under the directive sent by Qaliti in May last year and a subsequent letter signed by Ato Hailu Shawel with the unanimous agreement of all the top leaders. Even the shaleqa and the “mediators” could not deny this fact. One of the fundamental aspects of the directive is that K.I.L. must carry out its responsibilities and handle internal and external affairs by establishing its own rules and procedures. The Qaliti directive instructs the K.I.L. not to come back to the jailed leaders any more and that if disagreements arise, they must be resolved by votes of the majority.
Previously, the illiterate shaleqa had tried to disband the K.I.L. on his own. When that didn’t work, he is now trying to pack it with his friends. It is not known who told the shaleqa that he has dictatorial powers. Apparently, rules and procedures mean nothing for this person. The K.I.L. was created to speak and act on behalf of the jailed leaders until they are released. If Additional 11 individuals are needed, it should have been discussed and approved by the K.I.L. members.
Both Dr Moges and Ato Berhane have emphasized the point that the so-called “plan” to create a 23-member council and a communist party-like structure with a politburo is the work of the shaleqa group. Such an outdated organizational structure was not designed by Qaliti. The jailed leaders were not aware of it and do not support it.
Ethiopian Review has learned that the “plan to restructure” K.I.L. was in fact presented to Ato Hailu by Shaleqa Yoseph’s wife while he was receiving treatment for his eye condition in a hospital last month. It was read to him and falsely told that it was agreed upon by all the K.I.L. members and the “mediators.” Ato Hailu’s response was that, as he and his colleagues had indicated in the past, the K.I.L. has the mandate to carry out any plan as long as it was in accordance with its own rules and procedures and in line with Kinijit’s political platform.
Dr Moges and others have informed the eleven individuals who were invited by the shaleqa group to join their new anti-K.I.L. outfit about its fraudulent nature. Out of the eleven, only four have decided to go ahead and accept the invitation, disregarding the information they have received. The rest have understood the motive behind the plan and declined. Ato Kifle Mulat, president of the Ethiopian Free Press Journalists Association, consulted members of his association who gave him a unanimous advise to stay away from the shaleqa group. The EFJA members recommended to Ato Kifle Mulat that if he wants to help the jailed leaders, he can use his position as a prominent civic leader to serve as a mediator and advisor. Ato Kifle has demonstrated what an integrity and organizational discipline means by consulting with and heeding the advise of members of his association.
To the surprise and shock of many, one of the four individuals who decided to join the shaleqa is the president of Ethiopian Teachers Association, Dr Taye Woldesemayat. Dr Taye has been a persistent critic of Kinijit, including the jailed leaders, for the past 2 years. On top of that, Dr Taye’s dislike for Ato Hailu Shawel is not a secret. It is said that this is the main reason for his declining an invitation to join Kinijit before the 2005 elections. The commonly held assumption is that Dr Taye was invited by the shaleqa group to give political cover for their plot against K.I.L. As to why he accepted their invitation is anybody’s guess. But no body believes that it is because he wants to help the jailed leaders, whom he referred to as “gim le gim abro yazgim” a few months after they were thrown in jail.
Appeals are currently pouring from Kinijit supporters around the world to Dr Taye to stop serving the shaleqa’s destructive mission. Instead, he needs to return to representing the interest of the Ethiopian teachers as president of their association. A petition drive is also being organized to request Dr Taye to disassociate himself from the shaleqa’s ploy before further damage is done. Dr Taye is being advised that if he wishes to help Kinijit, he can do it effectively as an independent mediator, such as the role being played by renowned artist Tamagn Beyene and Prof. Alemayehu Gebremariam.
The other three who accepted the invitation are not well known individuals. It seems that the only known qualification they meet is their personal friendship to the shaleqa.
The shaleqa group has previously tried a similar tactic to destroy or neutralize K.I.L. Last September, after walking out of the K.I.L., they had created a group called Kinijit Global Council. They had also launched a radio broadcast to Ethiopia which was primarily used to attack K.I.L. Since they are a discredited bunch accused, among other things, of embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from Kinijit, they could not mobilize popular support for their anti-K.I.L. creation. After realizing that their effort couldn’t bring result, they brought the so-called mediators from Ethiopia, paid for all their travel expenses and have carried out this latest anti-K.I.L. plot. At one point, when the two mediators, Dr Bezabeh Demissie and Shaleqa Admasu Melaku, tried to act independent, the shaleqa group cut off their expenses and had the hotel kick them out. For a while they were stranded until Ato Solomon Bekele rented an apartment for them and put them on salary. By any definition the two individuals cannot be called independent mediators. They are nothing more than the shaleqa group’s employees working to provide cover for the group’s insidious scheme against K.I.L.
Regarding what steps to take in response to the creation of the sham Kinijit International Council, Ato Berhane said that the K.I.L. is sending a letter to the gang of four — Shaleqa Yoseph Yazew, Ato Solomon Bekele, Dr Seyoum Solomon and Dr Almaz Zewdie — asking them to rejoin K.I.L based on the memorandum of understanding they signed. If they fail to attend the K.I.L. meeting this week, Ato Berhane said that they will be replaced by other individuals without further delay.
Ato Berhane also said that the shaleqa group must return all the Kinijit assets they have placed under their personal possession to the appropriate authorities under the K.I.L. in compliance with the agreement they signed.
In a related news, Ethiopian Review has discovered that out of the $250,000 the shaleqa diverted to his personal account last September, less than $100,000 remain. If Dr Taye decides to ignore appeals for him to disassociate himself from the shaleqa group, one of the first things he will try to get his hands on is that left over money, not to mention Kinijit’s web site and other properties to which the shaleqa and his friend in Los Angles, Ato Moges Brook, claim personal ownership. Dr Taye is said to be a man of integrity and high morals. If that’s true, he will not allow the shaleqa group to continue holding Kinijit’s property as their personal possession. We will wait to see what justification they will give not to hand over the Kinijit properties in their possession to Dr Taye and members of the sham group’s “politburo.” That’s if they last more than a couple of weeks.
In the mean time, K.I.L. seems finally to have decided to take strong measures that will help end the debilitating internal crisis caused by the shaleqa group. Dr Moges has acknowledged that he and his colleagues had made a mistake in that they should have implemented the K.I.L.’s rules and procedures to handle the crisis, instead of allowing the shaleqa group to paralyze Kinijit for this long. The lesson to be learned here is that when you make a deal with thieves and scoundrels, you will get burned every time.