SW Radio Africa (London)
Lance Guma
27 May 2008
analysis
Ethiopia's former dictator, Mengistu Haile Mariam, faces an uneasy 31 days while he still enjoys the protection of Robert Mugabe.
The regime has vowed to continue protecting Mengistu, despite an Ethiopian Supreme Court sentencing him to death on Monday for a genocide that claimed the lives of 2000 people and the torture of 2400 others. But MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa has said if party leader Morgan Tsvangirai wins the June 27 presidential run-off, Mengistu will be extradited to face justice in Ethiopia.
Mengistu was initially sentenced to life in prison in January 2007 but prosecutors appealed saying the sentence did not match his crimes. Over a 17-year rule Mengistu eliminated his opponents using a combination of famine and the so-called 'Red Terror' purges. He was ousted in 1991 and fled to Zimbabwe where he has lived in great comfort under Mugabe's protection. He was tried in absentia over a 12-year period, which saw the conviction of dozens of other senior officials directly responsible for the murders, torture and starvation of thousands. On Monday the Supreme Court granted the request from prosecutors and sentenced him to death.
Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga said Tuesday: 'Our position has not changed. He remains our guest in Zimbabwe. He will remain in Zimbabwe and we will protect him as we've always done.' Matonga added that even a formal extradition request from the Ethiopian government would not be granted. However speaking for the MDC Chamisa said, 'It only takes a dictator to hang around fellow dictators. They are birds of the same feather. This is why ZANU-PF is clinging on to Mengistu. We don't want dictators on our land. The people of Ethiopia suffered for such a long time.' He added that all they wanted was for justice to be delivered for the victims, and the perpetrators as well.
Similarities between Mengistu and Mugabe could not be more obvious. Human rights groups, including the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, have documented the murder of over 20 000 ethnic Ndebele speakers in Matabeleland during the Gukurahundi Massacres in the eighties. Mugabe has also sanctioned the murder of MDC activists in the 2000, 2002, 2005 and 2008 elections. After the March 29 elections, which handed control of parliament to the MDC and a first round win for Tsvangirai, over 50 MDC officials and activists, have been assassinated.
Newsreel spoke to Elliot Pfebve, who along with Adella Chiminya, Efridah Pfebve, Maria Stevens and Evelyn Masaiti, took their search for justice to the United States Court of Appeal in August 2000. All 5 lost their loved ones to senseless state sponsored violence. On Tuesday Elliot Pfebve reiterated just how determined Mugabe is to hang on to power and avoid facing families seeking justice. He said the 2000 case before the US courts had still not been concluded.
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How many murderers can Mr Tsvangirai put up with? It is bad enough he will have Mugabe to deal with. If Mengistu cannot be extradited then he will have to find himself elsewhere to live.
"Somehow he has to communicate words of assurance that he will not engage in vindictive behavour once he gets to be President." Is that another of your prophecies Phiri? *LMAO*
Generals? Generals can countermand their elected commander in chief if they dont agree with him in Zimbabwe? Anyone would think it was a dictatorship!
I think you may be confusing vindictivness as justice Phiri, the two are totally different.
Glyph, Ohhhh you wisecracker..I know what I'm talking about..Justice or vindictness are two separate words and do mean different things to different people in different culture or even racial groups. As most people in the USA now accept. Especially when a whole white race in the USA can use race for vindictiveness reasons to sentence blackpeople to death, in the name of justice!! Please, thank GOD you are a whiteman. I see that You work hard on this website to confuse facts.
I hope you also participate on the BBC Africa survey questions because I don't see any published comments… [Read Full Text]
Phiri did you not say, "once he gets to be president"? You obviously think he's going to be president, but the generals wont allow it if he takes them to task over their attrocities.
You said it not me.
Facts are facts Phiri, they are what they are, facts cannot be confused thats the very nature of a fact. I love facts they leave no room for maneuver or weasel words , whether they are pleasant facts or not, fact = truth and the truth is the enemy of the lie.
I'm also against the death penalty Phiri, too many… [Read Full Text]
Glyph, you are trying to sugar coat racial statistics on the death penalty in the USA. Black people handly serve on jury panels in the USA. Prosecutors can and do strike black people out of the juries..FACT. The death penalty is disproporionately minted out to non-whites in the USA, mostly black. Thank your lack stars you are white and living in Europe. White people do get excuted too, but not because they killed a black person. Research this topic with human rights and amnsty international. USA has one of the worst judicial systems in the world, despite it's enormous wealth… [Read Full Text]
You're a graduate of a US university? Wow which one? It obviously isnt in law. I am a law graduate. You fail to mention the fact that the defence can also strike out jurors.
Ahh now you want to talk about proportinality, that I agree with. You may find some favourable statistics in deathpenalty dot org. Don't try and paint a picture of thousands of innocent black people sentenced to death under all white juries because it simply isn't so.
Now you're telling me to look at amnesty international? I thought you hated amnesty international?
LOL, Phiri, you don't deserve to use the word facts! When have you ever produced facts in your arguments? :-D
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This same article has be written under 2 different names. One of the writers is a fake or a pseudyoname. What the two articles lack is the international perspective on extraditing somebody to face the death penalty. International law bars such extraditions. The EU will not extradite anyone to face the death penalty. Canada, Mexico regulary denies extraditions to the USA if the death penalty is involved. Either the two journalists who wrote the same article do not know or it is just the usual hype on Zimbabwe one cannot tell.
That said, it would be wrong for Tsvangirai to… [Read Full Text]