MDC pledge to extradite Mengistu if they win election

MDC pledge to extradite Mengistu if they win election



By Lance Guma
27 May 2008

Ethiopia’s former dictator, Mengistu Haile Mariam, faces an uneasy 31 days
while he still enjoys the protection of Robert Mugabe. The regime has vowed
to continue protecting Mengistu, despite an Ethiopian Supreme Court
sentencing him to death on Monday for a genocide that claimed the lives of
2000 people and the torture of 2400 others. But MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa
has said if party leader Morgan Tsvangirai wins the June 27 presidential
run-off, Mengistu will be extradited to face justice in Ethiopia.

Mengistu was initially sentenced to life in prison in January 2007 but
prosecutors appealed saying the sentence did not match his crimes. Over a
17-year rule Mengistu eliminated his opponents using a combination of famine
and the so-called ‘Red Terror’ purges. He was ousted in 1991 and fled to
Zimbabwe where he has lived in great comfort under Mugabe’s protection. He
was tried in absentia over a 12-year period, which saw the conviction of
dozens of other senior officials directly responsible for the murders,
torture and starvation of thousands. On Monday the Supreme Court granted the
request from prosecutors and sentenced him to death.

Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga said Tuesday: ‘Our position has
not changed. He remains our guest in Zimbabwe. He will remain in Zimbabwe
and we will protect him as we've always done.’ Matonga added that even a
formal extradition request from the Ethiopian government would not be
granted. However speaking for the MDC Chamisa said, ‘It only takes a
dictator to hang around fellow dictators. They are birds of the same
feather. This is why ZANU-PF is clinging on to Mengistu. We don't want
dictators on our land. The people of Ethiopia suffered for such a long time.’
He added that all they wanted was for justice to be delivered for the
victims, and the perpetrators as well.

Similarities between Mengistu and Mugabe could not be more obvious. Human
rights groups, including the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, have
documented the murder of over 20 000 ethnic Ndebele speakers in Matabeleland
during the Gukurahundi Massacres in the eighties. Mugabe has also sanctioned
the murder of MDC activists in the 2000, 2002, 2005 and 2008 elections.
After the March 29 elections, which handed control of parliament to the MDC
and a first round win for Tsvangirai, over 50 MDC officials and activists,
have been assassinated.

Newsreel spoke to Elliot Pfebve, who along with Adella Chiminya, Efridah
Pfebve, Maria Stevens and Evelyn Masaiti, took their search for justice to
the United States Court of Appeal in August 2000. All 5 lost their loved
ones to senseless state sponsored violence. On Tuesday Elliot Pfebve
reiterated just how determined Mugabe is to hang on to power and avoid
facing families seeking justice. He said the 2000 case before the US courts
had still not been concluded.

SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
.