Two senior leaders of the Ethiopian People Revolutionary Party (EPRP), Ato Iyasu Alemayehu and Ato Mersha Yoseph, were guests on the Voice of America Amharic program Saturday. Mersha Yoseph is one of the leaders of the faction that split from EPRP and named itself EPRP-Democratic about two years ago.
In explaining the main reason why his faction left EPRP, Ato Mersha said that he and his comrades had opposed the dialogue that Iyasu Alemayehu initiated with the Government of Eritrea. He accused Ato Iyasu of taking it upon himself, without the leadership committee’s knowledge and approval, to establish contact with Eritrean officials. EPRP insiders argue otherwise, and are expressing outrage at Ato Mersha’s claim. They say that Ato Mersha was on board when the leadership committee decided to send Ato Iyasu Alemayehu and Ato Mohammed Ahmed (EPRP’s head of foreign affairs) to Asmara. On the second trip, Ato Tegegn Moges had joined them.
It seems that after some 40 years in politics, Ato Mersha has yet to learn the ABCs of politics: In politics there is no permanent enemy, only permanent interest. EPRP and EPLF (the current ruling party in Eritrea) were once enemies. But that was then. Today, these two forces have a common interest — the removal of Woyanne that is currently pillaging Ethiopia and preparing to invade Eritrea. The irony in Ato Mersha’s position is that he favors dialogue with Woyanne, which was and continues to be a deadly enemy of EPRP.
On the interview, Ato Mersha was incoherent, self-contradictory, and ideologically bankrupt. He opposes cooperating with Eritrea, but says that his party wants to work with those who cooperate with Eritrea. Ethiopian Review is not a big fan of Iyasu Alemayehu, but we need to give credit where it’s due. He explained himself well, he was articulate, consistent, and intelligent. Whereas Mersha exposed his weak stand toward Woyanne, Iyasu was clear about what he believes needs to be done. From what we heard on the VOA interview, the Mersha faction is more like EPRP-Hypocritic, not -Democratic. Click below to listen the interview:
[podcast]http://www.ethiopianreview.info/audio/Iyasu-vs-Mersha-VOA-06132009a.mp3[/podcast]
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