Tuesday, July 31

Rated 'D' for Dictatorial

Movie poster with apologies to Tony Montana who certainly caused a far lower toll of human suffering than the Meles we are comparing him to.

We are delighted to hear that some of Ethiopia's most prominent political prisoners have been released from detention. Release without their political rights assured along with those of the people who voted for them and for whom they went to jail - means only that they have exchanged a small cage for a larger one.

We must not forget that they are only alive because the foreign financiers of Ethiopia's dictatorship successfully begged, threatened, and on occasion coached Meles all the way through a blizzard of bloody threats and propaganda about courts, pardons, and civilized government. The aim was to pretend to treat just a few of his own people known abroad with a minimal appearance of decency.

Tens of thousands known only to their voiceless families remain in prison camps while tens of millions are serfs, sharecroppers and subjects in their own country. A small permanent revolutionary feudal aristocracy representing only itself with more absolute power more confidently wielded than ever before in the nation's history runs Ethiopia as a private bank account.

Like his heir Meles, Mengistu also used food as a weapon of war. Meles Inc. still runs the world's largest prison nation. How about the other 70 million Ethiopian prisoners? Remember to go beyond the headlines and the ashattir - above all - "DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE!"

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I always tell the truth. Even when I lie.
Tony Montana or Meles Zenawi?



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