party that threw them in jail.

*****

To political analyst Hallelujah Lulie, this process was a long time coming.

Five decades ago, a Marxist student movement posed a challenge to Ethiopia's absolute monarchy and feudal system, saying the country should be democratic and treat all its people equally. In 1974, the movement ended Selassie's reign in a bloody coup. The Soviet-backed Derg regime ruled until it was itself overthrown in 1991 by the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, which formed a federal system that — on paper — afforded ethnic groups in the country equality, giving them the right to education and justice in their own languages.

"The federalism has empowered groups that were marginalized from the political sphere in the past, so you can no more push these people around," Lulieto that Complaint.
Other litigation was pending between these parties. Several months previously, Zokaites had initiated two proceedings of his own, one in ejectment on which he confessed judgment, and one to confess judgment in the amount of $405,693.80 which he contended was the accelerated rent due under Amendment No. 1. He then garnished Debtors' bank accounts. The confessed judgments have been opened but remain unsatisfied. In September of 2005, Zokaites also posted a large four-by-four foot sign in the parking lot in front of Debtors' childcare center that announced, "Forever Young Daycare is behind on their rent and I am evicting them. /s/ Frank Zokaites, Landlord.[16] He took this action despite a court order in the confession of judgment proceeding that stayed all judicial and extrajudicial actions respecting