Police used a "Federal Supreme Court" order to shut down ETA, whose president is Dr. Taye Wolde-Semayat. The measure was directed at saving a phoney ETA, which the government had created to discredit the veteran ETA, long known for its firm opposition to disastrous government policies on education, as well as highly restrctive laws on teachers rights and academic freedom in the country.

In a country beset by government-fueled ethnic clashes, government attack on the civil society of Ethiopia continues unabated, despite widespread condemnations from international professional associations. Two weeks ago, the goverment banned the Ethiopian Free Press Journalists Association (EFJA), and unashamedly went on setting up a puppet executive committee of the independent press.

The Mockery of Justice - TPLF-style!

One day, when justice prevails in the land of the Ethiopians, judge Hagos and his associates have a lot to answer. He and his accomplices outrageously pervert justice to fulfil their partisan motives. He particularly had swapped professionalism for narrow nationalistic barbarism. He twisted justice to incarcerate and mysteriously murder Prof. Asrat Woldeyes. He bent the law to unjustly imprison Dr Taye Woldesemiate, the Ethiopian Teachers Association President. Who will ever forget his sadistic murder of Ato Kebede Desta's (the President of Ethiopian Retired Teachers Association)? At the order of Judge Hagos, Ato Kebede Desta's eyes were brutally gouged out, and he was beaten to death while in captivity. Ethiopians cannot wait to see Judge Hagos standing trial for unjustly destroying the lives of irreplaceable children of Ethiopia, who stood up against the treacherous dictatorial regime of Meles Zenawi.

Judge Hagos is one of a kind. The TPLF dictators would like to clone and have him in every court throughout the country. He is probably born devoid of moral or humanitarian ethics. The term "fairness" does not seem to appear in his dictionary. He is a tool happy to be used to promote ethnic politics, the lowest form of racism. Please note that this man was initially a teacher by profession. Ironically, he is now number one ruthless persecutor of Ethiopian teachers and their professional organisation, ETA, abusing his position as a judge at Federal High Court and to everyone's' dismay now the Supreme Court.

It is to be recalled that on 28 November 2003, brave judges chaired by Hirut Melese, the Federal High Court judge yielded to their conscience and ruled in favour of the legitimate ETA on litigation that was unlawfully brought upon the Association and dragged over 7 years. They declared a verdict stating that the legitimate ETA leaders were the one led by Dr Taye and colleagues. The ruling actually suggested the legitimate ETA leaders could open litigation against the impostors for wasting their resources and time by unlawfully dragging the Association into a defence of unlawful litigation. After 10 days of the deliverance of the verdict, ETA was able to receive the copy of the court letter that stated the ruling. In accordance with the law, the ETA waited for 15 more days after the verdict was delivered and applied on 18/12/03 for court order to release the frozen assets of the Association. The application was accepted and the court told ETA office bearers that they would issue a court warrant that would ensure the implementation of the Federal High Court decision. However, this did not come through. The mysterious hand of the unlawful must have started working. ETA was told the delay was due to the fact that they were unable to locate such an important file because it was taken somewhere for some purpose they wouldn't dare to disclose. Then they finally obliterated their sign of affirmation stamp on the ETA's application letter before giving it back to ETA leaders.