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Wednesday, June 14, 2006

The facts about Kinijit International Committee; and how the imprisoned leaders are being sidelined

Many readers have e-mailed me asking for a factual explanation to the comment I made regarding the issue of Kinijit International Leadership. I have done a bit of a research on the issue; talking with people here who have been following the story; trying to get the letters of correspondence from my sources. The following is a good account of the correspondence between Kinjit kaliti and Kinijit NA. I have all the documents supporting this account and if the stalemate continues, I am willing to share it with the readers of this blog and other media.

14 May:

The imprisoned leaders in Kaliti sent a letter giving a power of attorney (enderasenet) to form and lead an international committee to six individuals.
I quote the exact wording of the first two paragraphs of the letter.
Inspite of imprisonment of most of the top leadership of the CUDP in early November 2005 and subsequent massive repression throughout the country by the EPRDF, the Ethiopian peoples struggle for freedom and self government has continued. But this struggle will lose its life if the present state of leadership vacuum is not addressed.

After consultation with each other, we, the jailed leaders of the party have recognized that the formation of an International Committee to fill the leadership gap is imperative.

We have decided that this designated Committee will be an overarching body whose responsibility is to direct and lead CUDP organs, Continental Chapters and Support Groups.

I couldn't quote the exact wordings of the other paragraphs for known reasons. In the letter, the six individual to lead the organ were named.
They were:
1. Shaleka Yoseph Yazew
2.Ato Andargachew Tsige
3.Dr. Moges Gebremariam
4.Ato Berhane Mewa
5.Ato Daniel Assefa
6.Dr. Gebriye Wolderufael
One of the sentences in the last paragraph reads:
We ask this information to be communicated to all Chapters of CUDP organs and Support Groups.
The letter was communicated to the six persons through a usual and trusted line. The e-mail addresses of the six were clearly stated on the letter. There was also evidence that all the six read it the same day it was sent. Yet a very surprising article was posted on Kinijit.org. The article entitled "Call for Assertive Action" begins with:
Assertive action ought to be taken to effectively and decisively dismiss the May 14, 2006 e-mail that purportedly assigned leadership of Kinijit via postings on websites even before the Chairman of Kinijit of the North American Branch (KNAB) knew of it.
This was entirely false. The chairman had received the letter the same day.
After this letter was sent to the six persons and then announced to the public, some people started asking questions. Here are some of them:
-The authenticity of the letter
-Whether the designation means the kaliti leadership is going to be substituted
-The wordings of the letter doesn't reflect Kinijitian spirit
-Some people who were working hard in the support groups weren't included
This concerns and questions were sent to the leadership in kaliti; and a second letter was sent by the leaders.

26 May:

This letter addresses the concerns. Part of the letter states:
This political leadership committee is by no means a replacement of the Ethiopian leadership. It is a delegation of authority to fill the leadership void which has been created locally and internationally. It is no more than a power of attorney which can, at any time, be revoked.
There has been a serious misinformation and disinformation regarding this matter. Therefore, we plead the above individuals rectify the divisive and damaging campaign immediately. Any dispute in the designated committee should be resolved internally and based on democratic ideals of Kinijit.

The letter has gone further and asks the six persons to broaden the group and add other six persons in the spirit of equity and inclusiveness. The way of adding the other six persons was also suggested.
A day after this letter was sent; Kinijit NA deliberated upon it and sent another clarification request. The request focuses on:
-specific responsibilities of the committee
-accountability
-and the committee's institutional relationship with Kinijit NA
Two days letter an immediate hand-written message was sent by the leaders to NA.

29 may:

This was one of the two letters which address the second clarification request. To avoid the issue of authenticity, the leaders sent a hand-written letter. I can't go to the details of the letter for the reasons known to my readers. But the issues it carried were:
-The method of selecting the chairman of the committee
-quorum rules
-number of members of the committee (again)

6 June:

A second clarification letter (hand written and in Amharic) which literally begged the NA people to look at the bigger picture and work together was sent. The first paragraph clearly shows the frustration of the prisoners.
The letter also states the very clearly the powers and duties of the committee. It says the rules, objectives and tasks relating to the Kinijit executive committee apply to the international leadership. It states two limitations to this mandate which I can't state here. It also suggests the international committee to establish an office which liaisons it with the chapters and support groups it leads.

It has been more than a week since this last and final letter was sent. On almost all of the letters they stated that the international committee should start working immediately. Yet we don't see anything moving.
Knowing this information, is there any reason for me to lay low when people fail to execute a clearly defined will?

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Was the Alliance the will of Kinjit leaders in Ethiopia?

ethio-Zagol said...

To the anonymous above:
I have no idea.

Anonymous said...

EZ,

Thanks a million and God bless!
Now, can you find out if this alliance has the blessings of Kaliti?

Anonymous said...

thanks for the update ethio zagol

Anonymous said...

Dear EZ
I got a problem now!As every body I am just following the only internet media to know what is going on......Now the media is challenging me again.....and confusing me....
This time I cannot make lines and make the circuit complete between the following 4 parts.
* Kinijit Kaliti
* Kinijit NA
* Kinijit International LS
* Kinijit-AFD
It is a challenge and it is high time to know the relationship between them.
Though I feel that the Kinijit NA is responsible to elaborate this, what if I ask you deer EZ to say something for God sake.
Don’t ignore my question please.
Thank you.

Anonymous said...

Ethio Zagol, currently, you are one of those true Ethiopians, who is clearly doing his/her share of higher duties. God Bless. I can not stress enough how important it is to start the new leadership. We have such a monumental task in front of us and it is impossible to win without an effective leadership. This is a decision made by our elected officials of Kinijit, who are suffering in jail right now. How can we even question their decision? Please, let us all unite in the name of saving our people, our country and respect this decision and start working towards the process of the democratization of Ethiopia. If there is anyone that may be responsible for the delay of the execution of this decision, I ask you to please, please, please NOT lose sight of why you are where you are; to please, please, please be dedicated to the true cause, to NOT forget your promise to our people and our country.

Anonymous said...

You are great EZ, I love u.

I am losing hope on these diaspora leaders. They are not good enough to serve the missions of Kinjit. They are very selfish. They fight for power while our leaders are suffering in prison.

Many people have started to marginlize themselves from these people for the reasons you mentioned above. I think they are conspiring againt the Kinjit leaders.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the update. The people of Ethiopia are pleading to the Kinijit (International) to act fast to fill the gap of leadership in the true spirit of kinijit so that the current confusion purporated by the tyranny will be trashed down to earth. This is the call and the belief of kinijit leadership and don't help others to divide the spirit of freedom by saying that kinijt kaliti, kinijit internationl, knijit so and so forth. This is a divisive approach targered to cool down the struggle.
So don't give a helping hand for such downgraded classification and stand firmly and act energetically to flame the struggle.
God bless Ethiopia and the spirit of freedom.

Anonymous said...

EZ,

Please help us clarify a few more points.

Do you think there is an active communication channel between Kaliti and Washington?

Waht if all of this drama is orchestrated by Melles and Bereket?

Anonymous said...

Zagol,

I would think the International Committee (IC) is not acting because it and leadership within Kinijit North America (KNAB) are not yet fully comfortable with four questions you brought up.

They are not comfortable for two reasons - they genuinely don't know how to proceed and there is a great deal of typically Ethiopian mistrust and suspicion among them. The first problem can and is being dealt with - it's a matter of sitting down and getting to work.

The second problem is one we must first acknowledge and accept so that we can work on it. No matter how explicit the instructions from Kaliti, without mutual trust and understanding, there can be no progress. It is not a problem with a few individuals, but a group characteristic that must be dealt with as a group.

In my view, constructive intervention here requires patience, as people do not change overnight, and OPEN dialogue that peels away the layers and mistrust and suspicion. I think this is slowly happening now, and there should be significant progress in the coming weeks.

Anonymous said...

dessalegn,

your observations are well taken.
but, my brother/ sister we ain't got time. If we brought Haile Kenenisa, Meseret and the whole
crew, we can't run fast enough
to catch up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lost Time and Lost Opportunity
means just that... LOST!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

I share dessalegn's frustration ... we are just about to lose what these courageous people have invisioned becuase of indecisiveness or confusion in Kinijit NA.Let us give them some benefit of a doubt and see what they have to say. They can be quite for too long. there are some many things too do and we are just relaxing .... it is ***n sad story.
EZ: Please do not give out too much concrete detials you have there. It is just hurting the struggle of the people more and helping the tugs ...
thank you for the info.

Anonymous said...

Anybody who questions the Kaliti’s leadership decisions and directives is neither good to the organization nor to himself. The new appointees (Kinijit Intl) should know that and must be decisive to get things moving. Appeasing or bending over to power-mongers won’t get them anywhere. We nknow what it has done to us before. It is regrettable if the new leadership is spending time negotiating with these jerks. It ain’t good to the organization and the struggle as a whole. I think it is time to clean house. These destructive NA guys should be expelled as the Kalitis did to Lidetu and his group. No one is indispensable EXCEPT for the Kaliti’s leadership at this time.

Anonymous said...

anonymous above,

AMEN!

Anonymous said...

Thank you Ethio Zagol. The incompetence of NA kinijit leadership is an open secret. Let us hope that there are enough sensible people elected to the international leadership to dilute their effect. Kinijit kaliti has lead in an exemplary fashion giving their life and liberty for the love of the people. It is hard to see their names trashed by the power hungry NA leadership team which is up to no good

Anonymous said...

Ethio Zagol,
I am your regular reader and admire all the work you are doing but please be careful on not exposing too much detail on Kinijit to Meles and Co. That could be negative as well as expose yourself. We don't want to lose you
Takecare

Anonymous said...

Cool-Z, According to your testmony there has been a serieses of letter writing to NA in regarding the international leadership - call it clarification, begging , appointing , delegation to feel the void, etc.
It has been almost a month since the table of AFD formed. I didn't hear nothing about the leaders in prison making statment about this table.

Anonymous said...

"I didn't hear nothing from the leaders in prison making statment about the formation of AFD" what I meant to say

Anonymous said...

Why was it important to have KNAB when there is kinijit International? I don't see the demarcation. Smells like a bureocratic process.