Ethiopia:

[Thinkerman]

Ethiopia: US Says Government is Oppressing the Opposition

 

 

February 27, 2004

Posted to the web February 27, 2004

 

Addis Ababa

 

Ethiopia's political opposition groups are still being oppressed with little over a year before the next national elections in 2005, according to the US State Department.

 

A report released on Wednesday by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor said government militia and cadres were committing "numerous abuses" against political opponents. Opposition officials were subjected to beatings and often jailed on spurious charges, said the annual human rights report for 2003.

 

 

Ethiopian government officials were not immediately available to comment on the report's findings.

 

The report said that in some cases officials of opposition parties such as the All Ethiopian Union Party (AEUP) had been tortured by police. It cited "credible reports" that local government officials were manipulating food aid and land distribution to gain support for the ruling party.

 

Merera Gudina, the leader of the opposition Oromo National Congress (ONC), told IRIN that intimidation and arrests of his members were still rife. "The election is approaching, but we don't think the situation is improving," he said.

 

Merera, the current chairman of the country's largest political opposition coalition group, the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces (UEDF), called for electoral reform. He said the UEDF, comprising 15 groups including the ONC, were threatening to boycott the election, which is expected in May next year, and without major electoral changes.

 

International observers described the national elections of 2000 as generally "free and fair" in most areas, but they had nonetheless been marred by "serious irregularities". The US report cited "killings, disappearances, voter intimidation and harassment", which resulted in the the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and its coalition partners retaining power by winning just under 90 percent of the seats in the parliament.

 

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who is also chairman of the coalition's most powerful party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front, heads the four-party EPRDF coalition.

 

But the voting system also drew concerns, with "great disparities" affecting regional representation in terms of members of parliament, said the report. It pointed out that in western Ethiopia, one MP represented 17,496 voters, while in eastern Ethiopia one MP represented 99,761 registered voters. Merera, a political affairs don at the University of Addis Ababa, said this indicated that in certain regions - such as his own - voters did not have equal representation.

 

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The US report has appeared shortly after Meles met his country's opposition groups for the first time during his tenure. "We think this was a positive step, but so far he has given us very little and will not overhaul the election process and reform," Merera noted.

 

Among key issues the opposition groups are trying to address is the independence of the National Election Board, which, they assert, is biased in favour of the ruling. Meles, however, has insisted that reform of the election board is unnecessary.

[Nationalist]

**** THE AMXAARO