The sudden change in the weather tells us this verdict has even disappointed the gods.

I expected this to happen because this is a titanic battle between right and wrong.

The Ethiopian government has been hell bent on winning this election by any means necessary. It was clear that they used the anger of the people to convict the rightful Ethiopian Heros.

History will not forget the sacrifice of these Hero's.

Nobody in the current parliment will be remembered as a Hero.. But these Ethiopians will be remembered forever for the principles that they laid down.

Ethiopia has to transition from one government without any violence and with honoring the one man one vote.

Meles will leave office on that principle whether he likes it or not.

Well nobody is above the law. Every human is responsible for its action. So when given the chance, they should have had to diffend it.

However it was a slamdunk, case from its onset, as the deffendant was fully in trouble to their neck.

After all they had a date at court.

(imagine if these was during the colonell era)

Oh Andrew,

Stop exaggerating.

Funny how Andrew re-appeared on the blogosphere after a long time of silence, just to bring us this great news!!

LOL at mentioning the weather. What are you trying to say even God/nature was angry. You must think all Ethiopians are gullible like the hate filled die-hard oppositions, by the way Addis is known for its thunderous rains. So stop the BS.

The verdict :( What a way to roll into 2000 ...

mamo-kilo, you need to change your nick ... maybe to mamo-tenkolu? did u read the Somali article?

Another hallmark of CUD leaders is their indecisiveness and playing the victim. Many, many times at crucial junction they SIT and wait to the last possible moment before making a decision or even trying to attempt to make a decision. We have seen this in the past.. this is nothing new. They have been in jail for many months now, they had enough time to write a book, to issue decrees of forming AFD or not, to appoint Diaspora leaders or not, and yet claim they didn’t think about the issue of “defending themselves”? This is just outrages. Again all sort of excuses are flying for their failure to really capitalize on their gain or to make harsh decision. Each time when an opportunity is presented to them they avoid it in the hope of making the Government look “BAD”. What kind of leaders are these people. Time and time again, they forced themselves into a corner by avoiding important issues and waiting for some miracles. Even when miracles happen they want a divine sign telling them it is a miracle. Just a few months ago Prof Ephreme Issiac presented an agreement that the Government agreed to accept responsibility for the aftermath of the election, and equally asked that CUD leaders be held accountable too, which they squarely declined to do so. This feeling comes from the fact “They” think they are above and beyond the Law of the land. Somehow the White man in the Suite going to free them from the Law. So they sit and wait and let the moment pass, hoping for a miracle. When the moment passes we are always told the CUD people had actually not yet decided Argggghhgh..

Just watch this video to see what I am talking about… This discussion of merging all the political parties inside CUD was taking place WELL AFTER THE ELECTION. Talk about leadership and forth sight…

http://www.cudp.se/MUSIC01.avi

i expect the hardcore wing of the opposition to angelize the convicts more and say that democracy is dead because the convicts were the ONLY way thru democracy. the same old same old. we have been thru this for hundreds of years, only one way it the path forward for those who are stuck in the ancient mentality.

anyway i am happy with the verdict and i am happy that 90% of the opposition groups already took their seats in the parliament ( which happens to be ethiopia's most diverse & opposition represented multi-party parliament in our 2000 years of history.)

Oops sorry for telling the truth about the huge progress we have made, i am sure Andrew and all supporters of the sub-party convicts will try to paint the picture that ALL opposition parties and groups are banned in ethiopia. oops, sorry for being brutally honest on andrew.

The Ethiopian Government did not convict the CUD defendants. The CUD defendants knowingly and willingly convicted themselves. The Judge had no choice but to enter a guilty plea. In an arrogant and selfish manner the nearly octogenarian members of the CUD defendants pressured the younger members to give up their right to defend themselves in the court system. These old men who desire so much to be remembered in the spirit of Belai Zeleke do not have much to lose. These men are old and have lived a full life. Therefore, knowing full well that they will never occupy the office in Menelik Palace, they have decided that the only way to ensure their legacies are ever lasting is to go down fighting. It is their hopes that they will be remembered as heroes who said no to "Woyane." They want so much for their names to be associated with those such as Belai Zeleke. They want so badly to leave behind a legacy which will raise them higher in death than they ever reached in life.

Unfortunately for the younger defendants who were bullied into making the unwise decision not to defend; they may have committed not only political but real life suicide. The decision which is wholly their own has implications way beyond getting headlines on BBC and other news outlets for a few days. The headlines and the general Paltalk madness will no doubt calm down and all but disappear in a few days. However the decision not to defend imposed on the younger folks from those with less at risk has long lasting implications. The decision not to defend is not only arrogant but foolish. It is arrogant because they are thumbing their noses at a power they neither control nor can defeat. It is foolish because the price they pay will be greater than what they expected and were willing to pay. To reject and not accept the constitutional order is at the least naïve and at the worst suicidal. The constitutional order is a force which has powers way beyond the office of the PM and the courts. It is the blueprint that holds the nation together. If you refuse to abide by its rules and principles, it will eat you up like Mother Nature hits back at us with Hurricanes and tornados when she feels we are not abiding by her principles. These individuals are not greater than the state. They are not rejecting Meles Zenawi when they refuse to recognize the constitutional order . They are striking at Emie Etyopia when they so arrogantly and foolishly convict themselves and sentence themselves to prison. By declaring their unwillingness to recognize the constitution, they effectively denationalize themselves by forgoing the protection they are entitled to under the constitution. If they refuse to recognize the constitution, the constitution will refuse to recognize them. In Ethiopia today, you cannot be a free man if you reject the constitution. The only place for a rebel in Ethiopia is in the gated community known as Kaliti. Kaliti has its own rules and regulations. Kaliti is the haven for those who violate the constitution. It is home to those who refuse to accept the rules that ensure that our society will continue to exist where all people are equal and one.

The terrorist leader Meles Zenawi is showing his desparation by finding these great Patriotic leaders guilty.

Imagine a country sentencing its brightest and best to jail simply cause the participated in the election and won?

Meles has become worse than Mengistu and his days in power are, literally, numbered.

The Great Patriots will win in the end.

Meles has made a monumental mistake by giving his verdic. I expected him to be much smarter. I know in the end, he will let the accused ask for appeal and his puppet president will give them amnesty.

Meles script has already been written and every sane person can see it as an open secret.

Andrew, how can you remain neutral on the issue of right and wrong when you see the largest receipent of Western aid: Meles, who uses your tax money to kill, sentence and torture innocent civilians?

My advise is please learned from the respected Journalist Anthony Mitchell who was kicked out of Ethiopia by crime minister Meles.

It should be a time to think about the consequence of this verdict not a time to gloat. These people who are languishing in jail are the best and the brightest the country have, shame on tplf and epdrf supporters.
What I am worried is the oppositions (including myself) or the whole Ethiopian will not be open for peaceful struggle anymore. I am sure, all of us know what that will bring us.

dear andrew,
Deep down inside we know you are true journalist who doesn't want to censor one part of a story to write an unbalanced article and statements. deep down we ethiopians know you stand for the truth. But for a long time, you have not shown us the values you have deep down in you.
Dear andrew, why don't you report the dirt and the crime that has placed the minority AEUP in jail?? why are you ignoring that under the AEUP of CUD, addis ababa ethnic tigrayans were being cursed at, spit at and dehumanized??(here is a note by anti-EPRDF reporter about Kinijit values, http://www.ethioobserver.net/kinigit_versus.htm) why do you continue to disregard the police officers killed by the rioters, the hundreds of officers injured, the cars burned and the millions in property damage by the unemployed supporters of AEUP part of CUD/Kinijit???
dear andrew, do you remember the All-ethiopian games where states were competing against eachother? so did you see how pro-AEUP racist monsters cursed at the basketball team from Tigray state?? how can you Andrew live with yourself by keeping this sides of the stories hidden to the international community??

is it because the minority but vocal part of Diaspora is influencing you?? Guess what my friend andrew, those ethiopians that seeked political asylum during the 1980s government used lies & propaganda to criminalize the DERG 80s government. that government already killed a million via systematic famine that prompted the LIVE AID and executed 150,000 ethiopia via RED Terror, but the Diaspora during 1980s found it necessary to over-criminalize DERG by adding false information. can you imagine that??
Dear andrew, go to the Human Right Watch website and look at the 1980 folder. almost every single accusations pointed out by the diaspora ethiopians have been proved false. only the real accusation against DERG-mengistu have been the only evidence against mengistu.

so why do diaspora do these lies??

because most that left country via political asylum CONTROL ALL diaspora politics!!!!!!!! guess what, if they want to go back to ethiopia ever again, the government they left MUST BE REMOVED!!! if there is a peaceful change of government, that means these diaspora politicians are refugees and asylum for LIFE!!
Dear andrew,
all the vocal and pro-violence websites and blogs who see are not journalists, they are the politicians. their goal is revenge, bloodshed and hate to take down a government along with the constitution.

so if you are afraid of the minority diaspora backlash, please don't be afraid and stand up for the truth!!!! follow your heart. report the truth about the AEUP. report that the CUD has already split in more than 5 small parts because they can't even government their party or get along.
when you report about government censorship of few blogs and websites, report the FULL truth by including how violent websites have asked for massacres and murder. report how the exposed Ethio-Zagol website once provoked addis ababa university to start that famous riot. report how some websites have asked for tigrayan companies to be bombed. report the daily ethnic-hate against Tigrayans and even in some cases against Oromos, somalis and sidamos. (i am sure you know which one ethnic group runs & dictates the diaspora politics) Dear Andrew please stand for the truth.report the numerous assisination calls against ethiopian authorities not just in ethiopia but even when they come to america. remember the assisination call against DPM addisu?? remember the assisination call against President Girma?? so why are you hiding all this facts andrew? please keep your journalism values and STAND FOR THE TRUTH!!!!

You will be remembered as an Ethiopian hero when you stand for the TRUTH!!! not when you stand for any sides, any party or other matter than THE TRUTH!!!!

Please look deep down inside. our country faces many problems especially militant attacks from outside that influence poltiics and even provoke violence. if you are a peacekeeping security officer, how would you feel if for example, after trying to curb the violence of rioting students 2 years ago in amhara state, if Andrew heavens just reported the injured rioters and not the injured police men?? how would you feel if andrew heavens ignored how the riots started by the provocation of numerous foreign based rebel sponsored radios and rebel incitings? how would you feel if Andrew always says "the ethiopian government again blamed eritrea" but Andrew disregards the fact that U.N. documents and various files show Eritrean government has been arming rebels?? itis not just ethiopia that blames the rogue eritrean government, it is the FACTS, the EVIDENCE that also blames the eritrean government. but so many things are excluded when reporting. it is getting depressing just to read any of your reportings.
Dear Andrew, please in all of this, STAND FOR THE TRUTH!!! STAND FOR THE VALUE YOU KEEP DEEP DOWN INSIDE YOU.
the media is the most important part of a democratization of a nation. but if the media is not reporting the truth, democracy will be just a dream.
Please Andrew, report the TRUTH.

thank you in advance.

Millions of people are WATCHING.I do not want to be Meles and Co when the killed,the maimed,the imprisoned,the tortched,the harrased,the destituted,...say enough is enough.Millions are watching their leaders being inhumanely treated.THEIR ELECTED LEADERS.

One can not have his cake and it as well. The calculated methodology implemented by the opposition to discredit the Ethiopian government since its inception has not and will never bear fruit. The occasional hiccups and obstacles they have managed to setup have all been overrun with ferocious might and skilful adroit political maneuvering.

The election 2005 and its aftermath were supposed to sink the final nail on the “Woyane “coffin”. The Doctors, PhD’s and great economist had a master plan to discredit PM Meles in the international diplomatic and media platforms. This was done by creating relationships with editors of newspapers, Congressmen and Parliamentarians throughout the world. Over the years they painstakingly harped on every real and false incident which occurred within the Ethiopian political landscape. They updated these people via phone calls, emails, and political events. They formed strategies and formulated plans which would act as engines of misinformation and confusion. The above mentioned foreign elements became wholly dependent on these groups to feed them information on Ethiopia. The naïve Ethiopian Government personnel failed to understand the importance of countering the misinformation with facts. Absent of any counter information these congressmen, editors and Parliamentarians were forced to accept the biased and malicious version handed to them in the form of the hatemonger objectives. Furthermore, these groups donated to the campaign funds of the said politicians. Some hired Ethiopian and Eritrean pro CUD and Shabia people as aides in their offices. Therefore, one should not be surprised at the brazen confidence exhibited by the same CUD supporters’ pre 2005 election. We all recall the guarantees of change in government via violent methods after the 2005 elections. These sentiments did not come out of thin air. They came from a presupposition that the fruits of their labor would harbor a bountiful harvest. They assumed that all their hard work and efforts cultivating relationships and brain washing editors, congressmen and Parliamentarians would pay off. They assumed that the monies they doled out would pay back returns like an investment in the US Stock Market. They were confident that they covered all their bases, crossed all their T’s and dotted all there I’s. Confident that their well planned strategies would be executed without flaw, enabled them to express their confidence in a manner of bravado and guarantees. Little did they know that their dreams would be full of bugs (Bugs a computer programming terminology for a software that does not perform as planned due to flaws in the code and poor testing plans) and that everything they planned for and assumed would come crashing down like a deck of cards.

Today they act as if all they did, guarantee and promised never happened. Instead they try like chameleons to blend into a new set of realties which ignores all their failures. Unable to learn from their past mistake, they repeat them over and over producing the bugs described above. True to their failed natures the latest ploy is to convince the world that the conviction of the defendants was a travesty of justice. They are working in overdrive getting certain congressmen and parliamentarians from New Jersey and Portugal to issue statements of condemnation. These efforts like everything they have done will not bear any fruit. It will excite for a short minute folks who think anything written in a PDF format is earth shaking and revolutionary. However like everything they have done before this effort will end up in a dust bin of history. In truth the CUD’ites and a certain ineffective congressman from New Jersey tried to have their cake and eat it to. On the one hand they argued that Justice delayed was not Justice served. They complained that the CUD defendants were denied a quick trial which deprived them of their rights to have a quick resolution. All the while the CUD defendants were doing all they could do to delay a quick resolution. They waffled, wobbled and failed to provide a defense. The Court awaiting their response was simultaneously accused by the same defendants and their supporters of unduly extending the trial further denying them of a quick resolution. At the end the Court exercised its only option when the defendants refused to put up a defense. Now one can interpret why they refused to have a trial. Maybe the evidence was so overwhelming and incriminating that had a trial been conducted, the whole world would have seen how guilty they were in forming and directing an attempted insurrection. Such a scenario would no doubt destroy them beyond repair. In the USA a defendant faced with overwhelming evidence pointing to his guilt will often accept a plea deal with the prosecution in order to receive a less harsh sentence. Just maybe the CUD defendants chose to not mount a defense because their guilt was so overwhelming. Finding themselves in a, lose-lose scenario, they just may have decided to defy the constitution so that a guilty plea would be entered and their guilt not exposed. At the same time the engine that drives the buggy CUD formula quickly shouted that Justice was denied because the Court acted in haste making a decision. Folks they can not have it both ways. They can not scream at the top of their lungs that Justice delayed is Justice denied and then flip flop and shout Justice is not Justice because it was done in haste.

I did not want to write any comment about the people who were incarcerated for fear that I might fan the fire of revenge that is already burning in the minds of those people who are hell bent in punishing the elected opposition leaders for the love they have for country and their fellow country men. But I felt compelled to write to know if the people that are shouting kill them, kill them, … really stand by what they are writing. Do they really believe that the current stance that the government has taken is going to bring about peace and prosperity? Or do they even realize that it will drive even a bigger wedge between the privileged Ethnic group (Tigrians) and the rest of Ethiopians? What kind of a place would they love to leave for their children? Or are they sure that the current government is going to be able to sustain itself indefinitely? If they think that the current government will be there forever, I would like them to look at Ethiopia’s history for them to realize that nepotism favoritism and annihilating a group of people of any sort will eventually bring any government crumbling down like a ton of bricks.

I hope they will be able to look at the future more than a couple of years at a time. I know for sure that people of non-Ethiopian origin are scratching their heads trying to figure the decision out or rolling out laughing at the total ridiculousness of the situation if it didn’t involve the lives of human beings who could potentially be very valuable for their country. It is certainly doesn't make economic sense that a country that has less than 0.5% of it's population with higher education would choose to do this to 38 highly educated citizens whose only crime is loving their country and wanting to serve it to the best of their capacity.

Andrew,

Thanks for reporting; thanks for the blog. :)

Ato Melese I know u are reading this blog...I saw it open on your computer when I went to your office last time, I just want you know this

“You can fool some people some time, but you can’t fool all the people all the time."

Actually we ahould be celebrating our third millenium culminating with the extraordinarly mediocrity of the TPLF/Meles era, and not the second.

The Ethiopian people will be relieved to see the advocators of genocide on Tigrayans held accountable. the ethnic hatred of exiled politicians have made the Diaspora divided while the Non-Addis ababa parts of Ethiopia are all united in diversity.
the Derg chauvinists, like Hailu shawel and Diaspora politicians, who are surviving in the diaspora should not be allowed to influence patriotic ethiopians. unity in diversity. long live EPRDF and God bless all the peaceful opposition parties in the parliament.
especially Lidetu Ayalewu, the opposition leader that was sent to jail the most number of times is the real hero, the Mandela of Ethiopia. God bless his soul.

May justice continue to punish the violent, chauvinist and genocidal AEUP-Derg.

why do I feel like that you have started to sound biased against the government of Eth since the death of anthony mitchell.

Andrew you have become so biased.