Do the right thing!  Stop Playing Politics with Birtukan.

Mekonnen Kassa  01/05/10

As one proponent of passing the political leadership to young Ethiopians, I would love to see politically savvy young leaders with a skill to make compromises and build consensus lead a political party and help build a democratic political system in Ethiopia. 

Some in the opposition portray Birtukan Mideksa as one such young leader.  And they are engaged in a misdirected political calculation to use her situation as a cause to rally the opposition supporters and to defame the Ethiopian government instead of genuinely using the legal system to try to get her released from jail where she is now serving a life sentence. 

I respectfully disagree on Birtukan’s assumed leadership qualification and denounce opposition leaders and her supporters for playing politics with her current situation. 

It is an open knowledge that Birtukan is inexperienced, not politically savvy, and inflexible to lead a political party let alone a complex nation like Ethiopia.  Birtukan never held any public office nor has she been a member of a political party for long before she was catapulted to the national political stage.  The only public service related to Birtukan’s experience is her brief judgeship at the 3rd District Federal Court.  Soon after she resigned from her judiciary position, out of nowhere, she was nominated in 2005 to be the vice-chairperson of a coalition of opposition parties that was put together to defeat the incumbent Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF).  Her ascendance to this position was a result of a political maneuver concocted by Hailu Shawl and Birhanu Nega to deny the position from a well-qualified and much experienced MP Lidetu Ayalew.

Birtukan did not serve long as a vice-chairperson nor did she do anything worth mentioning during the contentious 2005 Federal election before she was jailed for two years along with the rest of the opposition coalition leaders.  They were all found guilty and sentenced to life but were granted a conditional pardon by President of Ethiopia and released with their full citizenship right restored. 

About a year ago Birtukan was arrested again and her life sentence was reinstated as the result of the governments charge that she violated a condition of her pardon.  Some in the know tell us that her former comrade-in-arms turned foe, Birhanu Nega, set her up using his intimate knowledge about her take on the pardon process that secured their release from prison.  While Birtukan was on a political tour in Europe, Birhanu designed a conning question with the intention to solicit a response from her that could be interpreted by the Ethiopian government as a direct violation of her condition of pardon.  Birhanu dispatched his party members to attend a meeting that was organized by Birtukan supporters and instructed his agents to pose the question to her.  The naïve Birtukan who is not adept at the Ethiopian political intrigues and machination fell right in. 

Not only Birtukan failed to exercise caution while answering the question but also dealt unwisely with the situation after the fact.  Ample evidence coming out from the Ethiopian government shows that Birtukan was given many opportunities to recant her pardon condition violation statement and avoid the reinstatement of her life sentence.  We are told she was unreasonably stubborn and sounded invincible.  She did not appear to show concern for her family or to worry on how her political party would deal with her absence.  A grave mistake on her part as her family is now suffering and her party is disintegrating.

While the right thing to do now for genuinely concerned person is to work through the legal process and try to secure her release, in what can only be understood as insanity, opposition political leaders are making inflammatory speeches and her supporters are holding candlelight vigils, person of the year nominations, and letter writing campaigns to appear to be making an effort to get her released.   Even an elementary politician knows that they are playing politics and using the situation to rally the tired and docile opposition supporters at the expense of her situation.

Unless granting Birtukan a pardon is prohibited by law, which I am sure is not the case, Birtukan herself, her family members, or her lawyer are legally authorized to petition for a pardon again.  I have read “The Proclamation to Provide for the Procedure of Granting a Pardon” and nowhere in Proclamation No. 395/2004 is Birtukan prohibited from petitioning for Pardon again and again.  To the contrary, Article 14, sub Article 1 and 2 stipulate that she has the right to petition for a pardon any time after her sentence became effective, and if her petition is rejected, she can apply again every six month.

I have also copied here what I think are applicable articles from Proclamation No. 395/2004:

· Article 12, Sub Article 1:  The convicted person or lawyer or relative can petition for pardon

· Articles 8, Sub Article 2(a): All petitions for pardon should be addressed to the Office of the Board of Pardon.

· Article 4, sub article 1: The Board examines the petition and forwards a recommendation to the President of Ethiopia

· Article 10, Sub article 1:  The President can grant or deny pardon based on Board recommendation or can override the recommendation on his own appreciation of the facts

In point of fact, as shown above, the law unambiguously authorizes the Board of Pardon and the President of Ethiopia to look in to her release, but new opposition leaders like Siye Abraha are pleading with the Prime Minister of Ethiopia to release Birtukan.  This is clearly playing politics and a frivolous attempt by them to hint that the Prime Minister of Ethiopia is the one who controls the judiciary and circumvents the law.

If all who claim to care for Birtukan are genuine and as they claim miss her and desperately need her leadership, then the right thing to do is to advise her to petition for pardon and follow through the legal process.  And if Birtukan were sincere about her first plea for pardon but believed it did not follow the legal process properly; herein lays her chance to do it the right way.  Birtukan herself is the only “master of her fate.”

Peace and prosperity for Ethiopians.