Kangaroo Truth
By TPLF Pictures
Starring:
Adil Ahmed
Shimeles kemal
Seid Ahmed
(Part one)
By a contributor to seminawork

An amorphous kebele hall in kaliti was converted to a scene for the show of the century pursuant to the decision of Meles's ad hoc tribunal. The prosecutor had started introducing its video evidences on Monday.

When on Monday morning vans and buses carrying the defendants parked in the compound of the Kebele hall, camera man hiding behind the trees started filming. Filming was prohibited for the media and everybody guessed who this man could be. He continued what he was doing while they disembarked from the vehicles and walked to the entrance of the room. The defendants did not even notice, walking regally and with confidence. The place was infested with EPRDF Intelligence people. They were so busy watching other people’s moves that it takes a minute to identify them. These people were assigned with different tasks. Some of them had already taken their seats in advance among the family members of the detainees, giving the impression to the person sitting next to them that one or the other defendant was their beloved one. They would start a discussion of some sort to enable them gather information, opinion, reaction or to generally measure the temperature about the proceedings from the attendants. Others were busy checking and writing down number plates of people who came to attend the” trial”.

Attendants of the court were searched thoroughly at the gate and would face a second search at the entrance. It looked like EPRDF was caught in a dilemma as to whether or not to allow as many people as possible to attend the show trial. This was made clear from the beginning when the authorities distributed a pass only to about 200 people while the room was big enough to accommodate more than 500 people. On the one hand, EPRDF wanted the world to believe that this show trial was public and; therefore, people were allowed to attend and on the other, it wanted to keep the number of attendants as minimum as possible since the main purpose of moving the venue 20 Ks out of Addis was to distance the leaders from public view. EPRDF seriously believed that the public had very short memory and was trying very hard to keep low the defendants' profile.

Unfortunately it was witnessed otherwise. The harder EPRDF tried to dissociate the detainees from their followers and supporters, the more they became magnificent and heroes.

The hall was wide and was partitioned into two across the room leaving just enough entrance on both edges of the partition. Attendants would access the side which was designated as a “court room” on the extreme left side and the detainees on the right side immediately at the entrance of the hall.

Seats were arranged in three rows facing the stage. The one on the right side where the defendants sat was separated from the other two rows by a chain ring hooked on the bars along the row. A number of police men, were gathered, carrying their arms in the other side of the hall behind the partition. These were additional to the ones deployed all the way from the main road and those who loiter just outside the compound. There was another room, a third one, partitioned by a long curtain drawn from the ceiling to floor. This was where the prosecutors and the court’s staff stayed before the court opened its session and while in recess.

Another long curtain dividing the stage into two parts was drawn to the floor. The one behind the curtain was an office for the judges This was a clear case of shameless “Judges” who did not even care to have a dissent office. But surely they must have been right they did not need one since this was not a serious court but rather a case of chop, chop show trial.

“Court” staff mobilized for the show trial was running around to arrange the stage for the show. They did not bother themselves to do their homework before the date set for the show. The attendants could not believe what they were observing. Two of the staff members were hurrying to put the EPRDF flag on both sides of the bench. The scene was not different from a mock trial where students try to imitate a real court session.

A white screen where the prosecutor's video was to be projected on was hung on the extreme right of the judges. Everyone was anxious to watch who was featuring in the alleged coup on Meles and his co. Low quality radio cassette player was placed under the screen. I think it was for the audio part. Two technicians running the gadgets sat near the table assigned for the defense lawyers. There was also a TV set behind the screen which might be intended to be used as a back up in case tech failed them.

There is booth for the interpreters on the extreme left side opposite the technicians. Two young non professional, non qualified interpreters were assigned to do the job.

The table for the prosecutors was arranged just near the booth facing the defense table.

End of Part one

Part two of the story will focus on the show itself.