On European parliamentary “hearing” organised by Ms. Ana Gomes to let Dr. Berhanu Nega Speak.

(Reportage by Abebe T,meeting participant, Brussels, Belgium )

(Aigaforum 07/01/08):_I am writing to you about the so called “European parliamentary hearing” organised by Ms. Ana Gomes to let Dr. Berhanu Nega to talk on his current stances and activities out side Ethiopia, and the subsequent unfounded reporting by the Ethiomedia Forum, to put the record straight and let the reader to know the truth of the matter. The facts are as follows.

As per her announcement on different websites, Ms. Ana Gomes was organizing an informal meeting in the European Parliament where Dr. Berhanu Nega was reporting on “political and human rights situation in Ethiopia”, and she invited all interested to attend. In addition Ms. Gomes circulated an informal invitation to selected members of the European Parliament to attend the meeting.

On 25 June 2008, it was only Ms. Gomes herself – a Portuguese member of the Socialist Group of the European Parliament, Mrs. Glenys Kinnock – a British member of the socialist Group of the European Parliament and a staunch supporter of the Issayas Afewerki, and their three assistants were at the meeting from the European Parliament. Not even assistants of other Parliamentarians let alone members of the parliament attended the meeting. From outside the Parliament there were only 12 Ethiopian Diasporas who attended the meeting.

After all those exercises to secure the attendance of as many members of the parliament and their assistants as well as others from outside as possible, it was a shame and humiliating for Ms. Gomes and Mrs. Kinnock to have failed to have a single parliamentarian or a single assistant of other parliamentarian attended the meeting. This shows how much members of the European Parliament including members of her own political group, the Socialist, are getting fade up of her obsession and continued campaign against Ethiopia and the Government of Ethiopia.

At the meeting, two persons who identified themselves as from DLA Piper, asked Dr. Berhanu Nega a challenging question on why he promotes the use of force and why he wants to fight the Government from out side while opposition parties and their members including his ex-colleagues in of the CUD are all struggling in Ethiopia in a peaceful and legal way. Dr. Berhanu didn’t have any answer except saying that “the use of force to unseat the Government is morally legitimate and that he doesn’t want to play by the rule of the game prepared by the Government while those in Ethiopia do”. This situation exposed Dr. Berhanu’s inherent violent and undemocratic stances and his non-seriousness for democracy and civilized democratic culture.

The people from the DLA Piper asked also Ms. Gomes the reason why she is very much obsessed about the Ethiopian Government and unbalanced activities in the European parliament and outside, and whether future debates would be balanced and involve all the stakeholders. Ms. Gomes didn’t have an answer except saying that she is driven by “principle not by money”.

However, she was exposed that she is not for principle but personal relations with Dr. Berhanu Nega. Simply because, all ex-leadership of the CUD are in Ethiopia trying to play in the country’s legal and political platform none of who has been approached, supported or invited to the European Parliament. She rather has been in close collaboration with DR. Berhanu Nega who is promoting the use of force as opposed to legal, peaceful and democratic way of pursuing political objectives to bring the changes he wants in the country. All she does and doing is literally against the principles and values for which the European Parliament is standing and fighting. What a shame!

Both Dr. Berhanu and Ms. Gomes asked the two people from the DLA Piper where they are from and what they do. The DLA Piper people responded telling them that they are from DLA Piper and work with the Government of Ethiopia in promoting and facilitating trade, investment and tourism to contribute to the development of Ethiopia, a task which every one who claims to be a friend of Ethiopia and caring for Ethiopians should perform let alone the Diaspora Ethiopians. Dr. Berhanu and Ms. Gomes, however, were not comfortable with the answer of the two DLA Piper people because they wanted these people to act against promoting trade, investment and tourism of Ethiopia. That is a shame upon them.

While this was the truth of the matter, the Ethiomedia Forum reported that European parliament’s committees of the Human rights; Development, ACP-EU and the International crisis group Representatives as well as several Ethiopians have attended the hearing. This is completely not true.

 There was no a single person from the Committees of the European Parliament, the ACP-EU and the International Crisis Group. The attendants were only those I mentioned herein above. This is a complete lie and cheap propaganda by the web editor to mislead the public/the reader.