Last week, CUD opposition leaders called for people to take to the streets against Prime Minister Meles, who has become ever more authoritarian following fraudulent parliamentary elections. When they did, the police descended on the demonstrators and killed hundreds, injuring thousands more. They then rounded up the CUD opposition leaders and threw them all in jail. Now, it appears that they will be charged with treason for encouraging people to speak out a regime that surpresses self-evident human rights.

Ethiopian prime minister Meles Zenawi yesterday said that leaders of the main opposition party would be charged with treason, accusing them of seeking to overthrow his government.

The leadership of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) was detained last week during clashes bet-ween security forces and protesters that killed more than 40

But in an interview with the Financial Times and the BBC, Mr Meles arguedthat the CUD leaders were not political prisoners.

Perhaps the most ironic statement by Meles is what follows, because for all that he talks about Ethiopia’s flourishing democracy, he makes it entirely clear that he is in control of everything.

“What we have detained is people who have tried to overthrow the duly constituted government and that in my view is treason under the laws of the country,” he said.

So, in essense, they are being charged with treason because he believes that they have committed treason. Not because an independent judiciary has found evidence to implicate them of such a crime, but because he personally feels that they are traitors. What does this tell you about the man in charge?

But wait, there’s more. Paranoid rambling about velvet revolutions doesn’t stop in Eastern Europe and Central Asia… it reaches as far as Africa!

“The agenda of the ÄCUDÅ leadership was not kept a secret from anyone; they have made many public statements saying they were going to have what they called a rose revolution here in Ethiopia. In other words, what they said is street action to change government.”

He’s reaching fever pitch; a bonanza of barking lunacy.