时间:2019-02-04 作者:英语课 分类:2007年VOA标准英语(一月)


英语课

By Alisha Ryu
Nairobi
11 January 2007



In Ethiopia, former communist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam has been sentenced to life in prison on genocide charges and other crimes committed during his brutal 1 17-year-long rule. But as VOA Correspondent Alisha Ryu reports from our East Africa Bureau in Nairobi, it is unlikely he will ever serve a day of his sentence.


 
Mengistu Haile Mariam (file photo) 
The sentencing of Mengistu Haile Mariam marked the end of a 12-year struggle for government prosecutors 2 to seek the death penalty for the dictator known widely in Ethiopia as "the butcher of Addis Ababa."


The lesser 3 sentence of life imprisonment 4 surprised prosecutors and relatives of genocide victims in the courtroom, who had expected Mengistu to receive the death sentence because of the serious nature of his crimes.


But freelance journalist Les Neuhaus, who was in court in Addis Ababa, says there was little visible outrage 5 when the sentence was handed down.


"There were a lot of people, who were not happy with the situation, but I think these folks are resigned to the fact that they are not going to see any tangible 6 justice done," he said.


That is because the former Ethiopian dictator has been in exile in Zimbabwe since 1991, when he was overthrown 7 by rebels led by the current Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.


Meles' government was able to convict Mengistu in absentia last month. But Neuhaus says it has been unable to get him back to Ethiopia to face justice.


"There have been requests for the extradition 8 of Mengistu to Ethiopia. But that has been completely ignored by Robert Mugabe, the leader of Zimbabwe," Les Neuhaus said.


The New York-based Human Rights Watch organization criticized Mugabe's protection of Mengistu, saying it was a clear case of one dictator protecting another.


 
Former members of the Marxist regime, who were sentenced along with former leader and Ethiopian dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam, 11 Jan 2007
Seventy-two other people had been put on trial, but only 33 defendants 9 were in court for sentencing.


The majority received life-in-prison and four others received sentences of up to 25 years in prison for their role in one of the bloodiest 10 chapters in Ethiopian history.


Mengistu led a pro-Soviet Marxist-Leninist military junta 11, known as the Derg, which deposed 12 Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974.


From 1977 to early 1978, Mengistu launched a campaign, widely referred to as the Red Terror, to wipe out an anti-government rebellion. Thousands of suspected opponents were rounded up and executed without trial.


Another deadly side effect of the Red Terror was that severe famines crippling the country were kept secret from the international community.



adj.残忍的,野蛮的,不讲理的
  • She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
  • They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼,骨子里却是野蛮残忍。
检举人( prosecutor的名词复数 ); 告发人; 起诉人; 公诉人
  • In some places,public prosecutors are elected rather than appointed. 在有些地方,检察官是经选举而非任命产生的。 来自口语例句
  • You've been summoned to the Prosecutors' Office, 2 days later. 你在两天以后被宣到了检察官的办公室。
adj.次要的,较小的;adv.较小地,较少地
  • Kept some of the lesser players out.不让那些次要的球员参加联赛。
  • She has also been affected,but to a lesser degree.她也受到波及,但程度较轻。
n.关押,监禁,坐牢
  • His sentence was commuted from death to life imprisonment.他的判决由死刑减为无期徒刑。
  • He was sentenced to one year's imprisonment for committing bigamy.他因为犯重婚罪被判入狱一年。
n.暴行,侮辱,愤怒;vt.凌辱,激怒
  • When he heard the news he reacted with a sense of outrage.他得悉此事时义愤填膺。
  • We should never forget the outrage committed by the Japanese invaders.我们永远都不应该忘记日本侵略者犯下的暴行。
adj.有形的,可触摸的,确凿的,实际的
  • The policy has not yet brought any tangible benefits.这项政策还没有带来任何实质性的好处。
  • There is no tangible proof.没有确凿的证据。
n.引渡(逃犯)
  • The smuggler is in prison tonight,awaiting extradition to Britain.这名走私犯今晚在监狱,等待引渡到英国。
  • He began to trouble concerning the extradition laws.他开始费尽心思地去想关于引渡法的问题。
被告( defendant的名词复数 )
  • The courts heard that the six defendants had been coerced into making a confession. 法官审判时发现6位被告人曾被迫承认罪行。
  • As in courts, the defendants are represented by legal counsel. 与法院相同,被告有辩护律师作为代表。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
adj.血污的( bloody的最高级 );流血的;屠杀的;残忍的
  • The Russians were going to suffer their bloodiest defeat of all before Berlin. 俄国人在柏林城下要遭到他们的最惨重的失败。 来自辞典例句
  • It was perhaps the bloodiest hour in the history of warfare. 这也许是战争史上血腥味最浓的1个小时。 来自互联网
n.团体;政务审议会
  • The junta reacted violently to the perceived threat to its authority.军政府感到自身权力受威胁而进行了激烈反击。
  • A military junta took control of the country.一个军政权控制了国家。
v.罢免( depose的过去式和过去分词 );(在法庭上)宣誓作证
  • The president was deposed in a military coup. 总统在军事政变中被废黜。
  • The head of state was deposed by the army. 国家元首被军队罢免了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
学英语单词
a man of high standing
abbrev.
all-knowings
anacanthus barbatus
anomala mizusawai
antonio amaro
associate(d)
astringer
bemoiling
besplashing
black dogwood
Bowmont
budget and accounting act
cancer nadaensis
cast iron standard parts
cave formation
Commercial Credit Conference Form
cresotinic acid
crogball
dark green
Delo
description point
dimcontinue
distance formulae
duration of heat release
eastern plane
ecophilosophy
entraining
examine and verify
fuel fission
gas-cooled breeder reactor
genodermatosis
give oneself up to despair
Greenwich Time-Zone
herring-cob
high speed vessel
histolytically
hospital beds
imidophosphonic acid
inventory systems
isobrightness
it was said
jump-ball
kamarck
Kuril'skiye Ostrova
Kāveripatnam
latter part
Lysholm type compressor
mable
meliosma platypoda rehd. et wils
military government
milk bottles
negotiable amount
Nether Alderley
no hurry
nrd
oxaloacetic acid-enolphosphate
paleontological species
panegyrise
parabranchium
parallel drum winding
penancing
player-piano
plod along
pollutant interaction
positive causal link
principal axis of a quadric
pyknodysostosis
Quercus virginiana
quipp
radius rod
ramble over
rattlesome
ribozymology
Richmond, Mt.
rockys
roumm
same-day
sanl
schistocormus fissiventralis
self-propelled crust breaker
skeeziness
smoothing constant
spamless
Stephan
story-tellings
streaming factor
superior pelvic aperture
sustain damage
technophobe
time-integrated neutron flux
tips in
tks
toy store
upsodown
vat water disinfection
velum palatinum
water measure
wedge type snubber
white-friars
winegrapes
Yoshikuni