A Negotiated Settlement?

The offer of "peace" by the dictator Zenawi through negotiations with the Ethiopian democratic opposition is, of course, disingenuous. What his regime is doing in practice is diametrically opposite to what he says in public. For a start, the violence his regime has continued to unleash on the people should be ended if he wants to negotiate. The violence could be ended immediately by the dictator himself, if only he would stop waging war on the people and remove his Agazee ethnic militia from the streets in the towns and cities across the country. There is no need to negotiate with any body on this. He could do this at his own initiative without any bargaining and also,

- Restore respect for human dignity and rights, stop the intimidation, detention and harassment of ordinary people, opposition party supporters and others
- Order a free and independent investigation of the vote rigging and fraud allegations,
- Free political prisoners without any preconditions and end torture,
- Halt military operations/siege on towns and cities and rural areas across the country,
- Return the public media to the tax paying Ethiopian public,
- Take the responsibility for the massacre of June 8th 2005, and apologize to the people and bring the killers to justice.

These are basic pre-conditions that should be fulfilled to create a conducive environment that allows negotiations to take place. The Ethiopian people are held at gun point and live in fear under which no negotiation can take place and the regime has shown no good will to ease the tension that exists in the country.

At the same time, the hands of the opposition are tied up, by numerous restrictions imposed by the regime and are expected to negotiate from a position in which they are at a disadvantage. Members of the opposition remain under the surveillance of security agents day and night, they are restricted in what the can or can not do e.g to have meetings and to consult with their supporters and members and to move freely wherever they choose, they have been denied access to the mass media and are unable to communicate to the Ethiopian public. On the other hand, the regime uses all the state judiciary, the treasury and the security apparatus and the mass media, as its won property, to persecute the population and the opposition parties.

The dictator Zenawi, relying on his police and security apparatus, believes that he is in the driving seat to dictate his terms on the Ethiopian people and their political representatives. All he is attempting to do is to negotiate the opposition in to surrender under the guise of making ‘peace’. It is very well for the dictator to say one thing in public but we do not have to travel far to realize the grave danger lurking within the appealing call for this so called negotiation. Zenawi is well versed in the art of treachery and deceit and this is one of his evil designs to neutralise the opposition once they are in his fold. The opposition should not put themselves in a situation that will only help Zenawi to strangle the democratic process and to achieve his goal of plundering Ethiopia.

Zenawi’s call for negotiation, is to induce the opposition parties to surrender peacefully, to abandon their demands for the investigations into the vote rigging and fraud scandal and to give up the victory of the people for a few seat that the regime has conceded to them. It is a negotiation to authorize the state sponsored terrorism, the injustice and the violence against the people.
Where is the democracy, if the verdict of the people is not respected? Where is the democracy, if in the end, the peoples’ will and aspirations for a free and democratic society is compromised by threats and armed violence and the perpetrators of these crimes do not abide by the rules of democracy ? What is the sacrifice of the people for, if it means continuation of the repression of the last 14 years?

The only negotiation Zenawi should have with the opposition is a safe passage to the Bole international airport.

Friends,

You do not seem to understand politics in its complexity and subtlety. Meles can not compromise at this stage. You never see dictators compromise at the time of their weakness until it is too late. The reason is simple, any sign of compromise would send the wrong message. That is the opposition will be emboldened and ask even for more. This is a natural process. The fact that Meles is not showing a sign of readiness to compormise is a sign of weakness not strength. Trust me he would have done so if he believed the opposition would allow him to stay and keep the loot he has accumulated in the Name of TDA and other bogus Organizations. The political system is used to protect his loot. And any compromise would negate the essence of this objective. Do you now understand? Why do you think Gebreselassie is sweating over the internet? Why do you think the poor soul is hyperventilating to a point that he is dehydrating himself every hour? This is no time to compromise to TPLF. The moment of truth is staring them in the eyes.

Mamo Qilo

Qilo

You said Nice

Email: agegnehub@yahoo.com

City: A.A