Comments on: Ethiopia’s Birtukan free: Why now? What now?

By: Christian7000

Christian7000 — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 07:15:05 +0000

The following are the reasons why Meles released Birtukan now:

1. First of all, Meles imprisoned Birtukan in prison just to win the election without any possible threat from the opposition parties. Birtukan was the one who could easily mobilize Ethiopians against Meles for she has the full trust of Ethiopians. So Meles was able to pass the election season peacefully. The election was over and he did not need her in prison.
2. Birtukan was nominated for the Sakharov prize. She had the possibility of winning this prize. This would have meant a popularity buildup for Birtukan which Meles does not want. It would have also brought unwanted attention to Meles since it would reveal the true dictatorial nature of his.

In general, by the time time he sent her to prison, her being in prison was far more advantageous to Meles than her being free and able to mobilize the opposition camp. After he won the election, the disadvantages of her imprisonment outweighed the advantages. He was faced with fierce opposition demonstrations asking for her release wherever he went for a visit. That was damaging his image.

By: Eliz

Eliz — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 12:59:24 +0000

The deafening silence in the (international) media about the conditions of her imprisonment is surprising. Sure, neither the government (obviously, they wouldn’t incriminate themselves) nor Birtukan (obviously, she doesn’t want to go straight back to Kaliti) offered the media on a silver platter information about what was being done to her during the two years. But what happened to investigative journalism on such a critical issue relating to Ethiopia’s No. 1 pro-democracy political leader? Well, the online paper Addis Neger provides some clues in their piece “Forget Abuse; Birtukan was Tortured” at http://addisnegeronline.com/2010/10/forg et-abuse-birtukan-was-tortured/ So for those who only speak of mere “imprisonment”, being cut off from information, and wanting to be with family, as reasons that forced Birtukan to sign Meles’ letter–think again. And for the media: Please do your homework above and beyond what’s offered you up on press conferences.

By: 3000Hope

3000Hope — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 05:52:48 +0000

I will what I think is true.

1. Zenawi thought by imprisoning her well until past the election, he can avoid a real challenger.
2. By releasing her after the election, he can lesson uproar from diaspora Ethiopians and growing anger at home(I believe he believes the west is never serious about the prospect of Ethiopia becoming democratic(at least by other African country standard…he has said this time and again).) and Ethiopians deserving basic human rights
3. By releasing her after signing her the most ridiculous so called apology letter, he thinks he can break her moral and send a message to others who dare rare their head.

The by product of all this.
1. Zenawi once more showed to the world that he is just another bully of new breed.
2. Bertukan is a leader with humility who takes flak for the moment to advance her goal of moving the struggle forward. We all know she signed the paper under duress. So the so called apology letter doesn’t register with us.
3. He unwittingly made her famous internationally. This really counts. She can bring a lot of international support from people who in earnest believe Ethiopians are not less of a human to deserve a chance to have a shot at democracy and peace.

Every body knows the release of her term. She hopefully will return soon to game with a new vigor and a huge international fame.

Go Bertukan….you are the hope of the nation!!!!

By: Menelik

Menelik — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 17:07:57 +0000

It was embarrasingly clear to all Ethiopians as the content of the ‘pardon letter’ was put in to her mouth by Meles. Every word was uttered by Meles repeatedly when he was answering for journalists in one of his famous ‘press conference parties’. It was very dishonorable act in view of the traditional reconcillation process (the mediators claimed to follow the traditional way). As Meles was bent on breaking her spirit and her supporters stamina(particularly the youth inspired by her determination) he went as far as keeping her in seclusion incommunicado for five months. He also deprived her of getting any information from the outside world for the rest of her imprisonment time. He even made sure that her chat with her aging mother was monitored so that she will not have any information concerning the activities undertaken by her supporters and human rights activists concerning her imprisonment. Literally, Meles buried her alive (in my opinion imprisonment is understatement). The most interesting part was Meles was try to communicate to her in all his interviews about his stand through the broadcasts of government owned TV as that was the only information access she had (obviously, the TV did say nothing to let her know that the eyes of all Ethiopians were on her through out her imprisonment time).She was made to feel abandoned and at the mercy of Meles (you can imagine what kind of person he is). She was such a great personality to persevere all this time. I would understand if she takes sometime to adjust to the new environment as she lagged two years behind.

By: Robel

Robel — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 11:52:58 +0000

What about this ridiculous phrase in her letter, “I made this mistake on the assumption that the Ethiopian gov’t would budge to the west pressure. Even if the gov’t dared to put me in jail, they would be forced to release me sooner or later”. For Ethiopians it is clear that the letter is written by meles and signed by Mideksa, ofcourse under duress.
One more important thing that the author didn’t see is the fact that Mideksa has been completely cut off from the world. She had no clue that people were crying for her release outside, she had no clue that the gov’t had threatened, harassed and killed all her party members. She had no clue that her party had apparently ceased to exist due to gov’t harassment, she had no clue about what is going on outside. She was knocked into surprise when people went out in masses to welcome her during her release. Yes she needs a lot of time to figure out what has been happening and what she should do in the future. My advice for her, as far as the west stands on Meles side, is to fled the country.