By Kevin J. Kelley
NAIROBI (The East African) — The government’s emphasis on ethnic identity could trigger a “violent eruption” in the run-up to Ethiopia’s scheduled elections in June, an international conflict-prevention group warned in a report last week.
“Paranoia” on the part of the former guerrilla fighters who now lead the country is cited as an impediment to a democratic system.
The ruling party’s “obsession with controlling political processes from the federal to the local level” is inciting opposition groups to consider taking up arms, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group says.
“Without genuine multiparty democracy,” the report suggests, “the tensions and pressures in Ethiopia’s polities will only grow, greatly increasing the possibility of a violent eruption that would destabilize the country and region.”
The report is intended to pressure Ethiopia’s leading benefactors to tie development aid more closely to political reform.
“Some donors appear to consider food security more important than democracy in Ethiopia, but they neglect the increased ethnic awareness and tensions created by the regionalisation policy and their potentially explosive consequences,” the Crisis Group says.
Ethiopia ranks as one of the United States’ chief allies in Africa. Washington annually provides Addis Ababa with hundreds of millions of dollars in aid while defending the ruling Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front from charges such as those levelled by the Crisis Group.
The Crisis Group’s report acknowledges that Ethiopia has made economic progress under the rule of the party that overthrew a repressive Marxist-Leninist regime 18 years ago. The report also refrains from questioning the government’s motives in promoting a system of ethnic federalism.
“But while the ruling EPRDF Tigrean People Liberation Front promises democracy,” the 40-page analysis continues, “it has not accepted that the opposition is qualified to take power via the ballot box and tends to regard the expression of differing views and interests as a form of betrayal.”
Feeling threatened by the emergence of a significant opposition, the ruling party resorted to repressive measures prior to the 2005 national elections.One paradoxical aspect of the report is its finding that the ruling party’s authoritarian actions have not prevented opposition groups from proliferating in recent years.
This broadening of the political spectrum, coupled with the promotion of ethnic awareness and the government’s unwillingness to share power, are identified by the Crisis Group as the factors that could push Ethiopia to a break point.
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FORUM | 6 Comments
The Crisis Group’s report is welcome.
I think both its analysis of the current political situation and its conclusions are right.
I sincerely hope that the donor countries,to whom this report is mainly addressed to,will give it the necessary attention it deserves and help rather than hinder the development of democratic resistance in the country.
So far their record sadly speaks otherwise.
The roles played by the Donor countries in promoting democracy in Ethiopia have been almost nonexistent.
Apart from mere lip service in the form of ocassional public prounoucements about the respect of human rights and the rule of law in the country,they have not thrown their heavy weight behind the popular pro-democracy movement there.
In fact they have consistently supported the regme which has ruled the country with iron fist for the last eighteen years.
The military,economic and diplomatic aid that it has been receiving from the donor countries particularly U.S.A and the United Kingdom has therefore icreased the dictatorship’s longevity and lent it much needed external recognition.
Indeed,the regime has misused its benefactors’ support in posing as a lawful and democractic government while violently repressing dissent,corrupting institutions and imposing wild ethnic divisions that have now resulted in sporadic ethnic strife with more possibly more dire and lethal future conseqences.
Make no mistake about this.
The Meles regime,save this outside support,is a regime that is extremely alienated from its own people and if they were given their way,the people would not allow it to stay in power even for one extra day.
The domestic dislike and rejection of its rule has been so much intense (May 2005 election is one ample demonstration)and yet it has been so much contradicted by the external assistance extended to the regime by the donor nations.
However,donor countries canot afford to ignore this contradiction.They must,if they want to lead by example and avoid the resentment caued by such ‘hypocracy’,
not ignore it.
Their humanitarian concern for our people should be broad enough to include the rights and the freedoms our people.They aught to be genuinely and truly sympathetic to our peoples’democractic aspirations as manifested by their pro-democratic movement.
It is no good to preach what you don’t practise.
The foregn policy statements of both the U.S administration and the British government when it comes to the issue of human rights in Ethiopia leave nothing to be desired.They read and sound perfect.They are,as custom have it, beautifully crafted and extremely believable advocacies.
But in practice?
In practice,these principled stances are anaemic and pale.
They,to the delight of those who violet them,are strange and weak creatures that bark but not bite.
Meles has learned,for some time now,that if you play on the fears or interests of those powerful donor nations,you can render them more vulnerable and sufficiently tame them that everytime they see you doing some mischief,they bark but not bite.
For the sake of not losing a self seeking and an eager ally in fighting against terrorism,they seem to be paralysed from backing their words with actions and they prefer to look to the other way when a brutal dictator in Ethiopia brutalises and terrorises his own people.
When is it then their claim to respect the democracic rights of our people come in agreement with their practice of supporting the tyranny in Ethiopia?
How long will the donor nations continue to cast their lot with the vile regime rather than our people?
[Reply]
September 15th, 2009 at 8:33 AM
meles must leve our cuntry and go to your homeland. why we lost our freedom and our Ethiopia. we become the second citizen in our homeland becuse of weyane junta. pls save our ppl and mama Ethiopia.
[Reply]
September 15th, 2009 at 3:42 PM
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable” ~John F. Kennedy,1962 :)
[Reply]
September 15th, 2009 at 6:10 PM
Why not? Alamudi is taking over the farm and hiring the farmers on their own land.The amazing thing is he is calling the project Saudi ‘star’,listen to the fool talking about the Arabs, i agree we don’t know what is coming. The country was protected by her patriots from Arab,Turk,Portuguese,Italian and more invaders but now sale out gangsters are giving the land ,at the result our people have nothing to eat but the Saudi camels will eat Ethiopian alfalfa…
.http://www.voanews.com/mp3/voa/africa/amha/amha1800a.mp3
[Reply]
September 16th, 2009 at 10:43 AM
Was all that fighting over Badme to get Ethiopian lands sold out? The ruling party is only concerned with HOW TO GET CASH AND RUN. The future generation of Ethiopians will have no other choice but to be slaves in their own coutry’s land unless we fight for what we belive individually now.Too many cash worshiping sell outs exist throughout Ethiopia in all ethnicity or surroundings.In times like this my right hand don’t thrust my left.
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September 16th, 2009 at 4:40 PM
There is only one way. I would rather live in disintegrated small proud Ethiopia then being slave. G7 is the only way.
[Reply]
September 17th, 2009 at 11:47 AM