The Month of May (Genbot) and Berhanu Nega

1) Twenty six million Ethiopians went to the voting booths and overwhelmingly elected the CUD (Kinijit) on May 15, 2005 , (Genbot 7) thereby repudiating the ethnic-apartheid politics of the TPLF/EPRDF. Dr. Brehanu had infiltrated the non-violent and non-ethnic-centered Kinijit movement weeks before the elections.

2) May 7, 2008 was a day when the TPLF/EPRDF regime dropped the charge of armed struggle against Dr. Brehanu and Professor Mesfin Woldemariam (http://www.ethiopiazare.com/the-news/1-latest-news/185-prof-mesfin). The TPLF/EPRDF had wrongfully accused them of armed struggle against the TPLF. Dr. Brehanu, who now lives in the USA and who claimed that he has resigned from the non-violent Kinijit movement, has openly formed in April 2008 a struggle that envisages violence as a way of bringing change in Ethiopia . Some may ask how is it that Brehanu, who was accused by the TPLF for having been engaged in armed struggle when he was not, was acquitted of the charge particularly when he has openly declared a struggle that envisages violence. Would Brehanu’s talk of "Hulegeb " (armed struggle) help the TPLF cling to power by imprisoning and killing persons that it does not like as being those who are members of an armed struggle? Or was the acquittal a reward by the TPLF to Berhanu because in his April 19, 2008 speech at Toronto Berhanu had maligning President Hailu of CUD

(http://aboutethiopia.com/c16-Berhanu's%20stuff%20of%20April%202008.htm).

3) Berhanu Nega has given the name Genbot 7 to his “hulegeb” struggle (armed struggle) (http://www.ethiopiazare.com/the-news/1-latest-news/189-dr-berehanu-party). Moreover, Brehanu is expected to announce the formation of his Genbot 7 movement on May 15, 2008. Obviously, naming his struggle Genbot 7 (May 15) will desecrate the revered May 15, 2005 day in which Ethiopians elected a non-violent movement CUD (Kinijit) to power, a movement from which Berhanu has officially declared his resignation in April 2008. The effect of his effort is to dissuade people from participating in the commemoration of May 15 as the day when millions elected the CUD, for fear that such effort will compete with the infamous effort of Brehanu’s Genbot 7 movement. Otherwise, it is well known that Brehanu was incongruous to the armed struggle at Assimba when he was a young man and had to be shepherded to the Sudan by the boys who could fight. That being the case, and while those in Ethiopia have the right to wage any struggle that they deem necessary, for old Brehanu to sit in the USA and declare a “hulegeb” struggle adds insult to the injury and belittles the genuine aspirations and struggles of Ethiopians in Ethiopia and across the world.

Shame to the shameless!

HG: 5/12/2008