Who killed the six policemen? </i>

Ethiomedia | February 11, 2007

SEATTLE – The government in Ethiopia has often blamed "armed" protesters for the deaths of six policemen during anti-government demonstrations in 2005. But now an Inquiry Commission says a thorough investigation that lasted half a year found no protester was armed with any type of weapon and the government was the prime suspect in the murder of the men in uniform.

“Unlike the 193 civilians killed by the government and from whom the Inquiry Commission gathered photos and finger-prints, the bodies of the policemen were whisked away from the streets and buried swiftly,” Frehiwot Samuel, chairman of the 10-man Inquiry Commission has said.

There was no single record as to how the policemen were killed, said Judge Frehiwot, who fled the country after receiving death threats. “All the six were from the remote southwestern parts of the country.”

At that time, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi told BBC the police may have panicked when they were confronted by armed protesters.

Meles said, "I don't want to justify it when policemen get in a panic, but I can understand it when there are people throwing hand grenades and using guns."

However, Judge Wolde-Michael Meshesha, deputy chair of the Inquiry Commission, who also fled for his life, told the Associated Press:

“The police fired, definitely, as a kind of massacre of the demonstrators – especially in Addis, where more than 160 civilians were shot, beaten and strangled [to death].”

Many human rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, condemned the killings that made headline news around the world. In fact, the London-based Telegraph compared the Addis Ababa killings with the onslaught in the black townships of apartheid South Africa of the '80s.

Protesters as Hooligans

Now advisor to Meles, then Information Minister Bereket Simon told the media that the government had the responsibility to stop looting in the city. "The protesters were hooligans and unemployed youths who tried to rob banks."

Based on Bereket's accusation, the Inquiry Commission summoned managers of all banks to a general meeting in Addis and found out there was no single incident of crime, Frehiwot said. "We knew the government was making up crimes."

Attorney Alemayehu Zemedkun

In 2002 when street protests erupted in Awassa and Tepi, said Alemayehu Zemedkun, former deputy attorney of Ethiopia's Justice Ministry, regional officials who asked Bereket how to contain the street demonstrations got the answer that no law and order would be respected without taking down some of the protesters. In response, 128 protesters were gunned down.

Attorney Alemayehu had received the prime minister's order to sue and confiscate the property of Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD-Kinijit) leaders to make up for what the government said property damages worth over 2.5 billion Birr. He said the prime minister's order was illegal as it was bent on destroying ones political opponents both by fabricated civil and criminal cases. He declined to carry out the order and left the country for safety.

The Inquiry Commission estimated the damage - which the premier wanted to tie to the CUD leaders - at around 4 million Birr, a far cry from what the government put out as an official report, Frehiwot added.

Two days prior to submitting our report to parliament, news leaked from our temporary office in Awassa that an 8-2 vote was holding the government responsible for using “excessive force,” said Mitiku Teshome, another Inquiry Commission official who also left the country for fear of government retribution.

"Security agents had already swarmed our office in Awassa, and death threats were flying all around us before we were summoned to Addis and met Meles in his office," said Mitiku, one of the youngest investigators along with Judge Frehiwot who commended Mitiku for his role in concealing important documents away from the prowling eyes of the security.

"There was a tense moment and a long silence among the commissioners once it was known the result had reached the prime minister," said Judge Frehiwot, and it was clear early on that the two commissioners - Dr. Mekonnen Dissassa and Sheik Elias Redman - the latter being vice president of the Ethiopian Islamic Affairs Council, had made up their minds of clearing the government of any wrongdoing.

Mitiku Teshome

"I had expected at least the deaths of 10,000 protesters but that didn't happen and there is no reason to hold the government of any wrongdoing," Sheik Elias shocked the investigators. Likewise, Dr. Mekonen Dissassa, despite a pile of evidence - backed up the government so sheepishly that he angered Judge Wolde-Michael Meshesha who stood up to tell him, "I'm spared of the burden if holding a PhD would turn me into the political zombie that you are."

Back in Addis, where the parliament was suddenly sent into a two-month recess, we met Meles who took two solid hours before he sent us home with a few strings.

"You have to emulate the example set by the Gambella Inquiry Commission," Meles said.

The Gambella Inquiry Commission is what the Meles' parliament formed by decree to stave off scathing international criticism about the massacre carried out against the Anuak ethnic minority in and around Gambella region in 2003. The political drama successfully played out by the Commission saved Mr. Meles from being the manager of a Second Darfur.

So when he told us to pick a lesson from the Gambella Inquiry Commission, Frehiwot said, he was for all practical reasons telling us to turn ourselves into another Gambella Inquiry Commission. "Reverse the decision," a serious Meles grawled, before adding, "anything less my draw the sword out of the sheath."

February 19: Turning Point

The Court will try CUD leaders on February 19. Asking what would be the development, Alemayehu G. Mariam, a professor of political science at St. Bernardino College and an attorney in Los Angeles said, "I expect Zenawi and his regime will have a huge political and public relations problem on February 19. If the so-called judges let the prisoners of conscience go, the verdict will be against Zenawi for political persecuting them on the basis of bogus evidence. There will be calls to hold him accountable."

If they don't let them go, then for all intents and purposes, conviction of the prisoners is a foregone conclusion. The reason is that by finding any credibility in the prosecution's case, which is entirely based on lies, distortions, fabrications and fraud, the judges are in effect saying to the prisoners: "We fully believe the prosecution's case, now it's up to you to disprove the government's case."

Though the real option is to set the prisoners free, Meles may order his judges to dismiss some of the charges against some of the defendants, and release some of them, hoping this will leave the once powerful opposition group in fragments, Prof. Alemayehu said.