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By JASON McLURE
March 2, 2010
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — An opposition candidate for Ethiopia’s Parliament was stabbed to death early Tuesday in what opposition leaders said was part of a widening campaign of repression ahead of May elections.
The candidate, Aregawi Gebre-Yohannes, was killed at a restaurant he owned near the town of Shire in the Tigray region by a group of six men who had shadowed his movements for the previous two days, said Gebru Asrat, a leader of the Arena party, a member of an alliance of opposition parties.
“They cut him, they stabbed him in the stomach, and he died,” Mr. Gebru said. “It’s becoming very difficult to run” a political campaign, he added.
Bereket Simon, the government’s communications minister, dismissed political motives for the attack and said the opposition was trying to tarnish the government’s image.
“In a row with a certain individual, the individual killed him,” Mr. Bereket said. “What they are trying to do is search for casualties and label them Arena. They are not into constructive engagement.”
A different opposition parliamentary candidate was beaten in Tigray on Sunday by members of the Ethiopian Army, and he was hospitalized, said Negasso Gidada, a former president of Ethiopia who has now joined the opposition. Like the man who was killed, the beating victim, Ayalew Beyene, had previously been arrested for attending opposition meetings or distributing literature during the campaign, he added. “It is very bad news,” Mr. Negasso said. “My fear is such incidents may be intensifying.”
Government security forces killed at least 193 demonstrators during unrest after the country’s 2005 federal elections, which the opposition said were rigged. Birtukan Mideksa, widely considered to be the country’s most charismatic opposition figure, remains in prison, serving a life sentence issued in the aftermath of the disputed elections. Both the ruling party and the opposition have accused each other of seeking to foment violence around this year’s vote.
In local elections in 2008, opposition parties won just 3 of 3.6 million seats — virtually none of the huge number of local and by-election seats being contested — after two of the major groups boycotted the elections, citing intimidation and harassment, according to the State Department’s human rights report on Ethiopia.
Mr. Bereket, the government minister, who is also a senior official in Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, said that the candidate beaten on Sunday had been pressuring a student who was not aligned with the ruling party to read opposition campaign literature and that the two had fought as a result.
Ethiopia’s opposition has sharply criticized the Obama administration for what it views as Washington’s failure to speak out on human rights abuses by Mr. Meles’s government, which has been a major American ally in pursuing Islamic militants in Somalia.
“They are partners in development with the Ethiopian government, but I don’t think they are partners in freedom and democracy,” said Andualem Aragie, an official with Mr. Birtukan’s Unity for Democracy and Justice party, in a Jan. 29 news conference.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/03/world/africa/03ethiopia.html?pagewanted=print
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Election candidate murdered - Ethiopian opposition
Tue Mar 2, 2010
* Opposition says candidate stabbed, another beaten
* Suspect arrested - govt spokesman
By Barry Malone
ADDIS ABABA, March 2 (Reuters) - Six men stabbed to death an Ethiopian opposition election candidate on Tuesday and the murder may have been provoked by his anti-government campaign, the main opposition coalition said.
The eight-party coalition, Medrek, said another of its candidates was beaten on Monday by armed men believed by locals to be from the Ethiopian army.
"Our candidate Aregawi Gebre-Yohannes was attacked this morning by six people and he was stabbed to death," former Ethiopian president Negaso Gidada, who joined the opposition after falling out with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, said.
Aregawi was a parliamentary candidate for Medrek member party, Arena Tigray. He was arrested twice while campaigning, the opposition said.
Government spokesman Shimeles Kemal said both incidents were personal and a suspect had been arrested for Aregawi's murder.
"He was killed in a personal row outside his constituency," Shimeles said. "The beating was also a personal brawl. But Medrek are free to lodge their complaint with the electoral board for investigation."
The Horn of Africa country's election will be the first since a government victory in 2005 was disputed by the opposition. About 200 street protesters were killed by security forces and the main opposition leaders imprisoned.
Analysts say Medrek -- or the Forum -- is the main threat to the 19-year-old government of Meles, but his ruling Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) coalition is expected to win the May 23 poll.
The opposition says this is because they are harassed and jailed. The government says the opposition is trying to discredit a poll it has no chance of winning.
Both incidents happened in the northern Tigray province, the stronghold of Meles and his Tigrayan Peoples' Liberation Front (TPLF), part of the ruling EPRDF.
The Tigryan ethnic group makes up 6 percent of the population but analysts say they dominate the political elite.
"There are attacks and harassment in Tigray because the Arena Tigray party is challenging the TPLF," Negaso said. "Without the TPLF, there is no Meles."
The government has agreed to an electoral code of conduct with three opposition parties -- two of which are dismissed by opponents as EPRDF aligned. Medrek did not sign the code, saying issues such as electoral board reform were left out.
Arena Tigray leader, Gebru Asrat, said the party would ask police and the electoral board to establish whether the murder was political. "But I don't expect any justice," he said.
Meles was hailed as part of a new generation of democratic African leaders in the 1990s but rights groups have increasingly criticised him for cracking down on opposition in sub-Saharan Africa's second most populous nation. (Editing by Janet Lawrence)
© Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved
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Ethiopia’s Opposition Rethinks Election Campaign After Candidate Killed (VOA News)
March 2, 2010
Ethiopia’s main opposition bloc is reconsidering whether to contest the May parliamentary elections following brutal attacks on two candidates, one of them fatal. Opposition leaders are blaming Ethiopia’s ruling party for inflaming passions in the tense Tigray region, where the attacks occurred.
Arena-Tigray Party leader Gebru Asrat says candidate for parliament Aregawi Gebreyohannes was stabbed to death by intruders in his home in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Gebru says another Arena-Tigray candidate was badly beaten Monday by armed men in another part of the northern Ethiopian region. He says both men had recently been arrested in connection with their political activities.
Arena-Tigray is part of an eight-party coalition known as Medrek, considered the main opposition challenging the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front in the May 23rd elections. Tigray, in northern Ethiopia, is the home ground of the EPRDF, whose forerunner, the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF, seized power in Addis Ababa in a 1991 coup.
In a telephone interview, Gebru called the attacks part of an EPRDF campaign of intimidation. He says politically-motivated violence and intimidation could make it impossible for Medrek to complete in the elections.
“We have to consider seriously whether we are going to participate,” Gebru said. “Because this is not an election. This is just war. War against us.”
Ruling party spokesman Hailemariam Dessalegn, however, categorically rejected suggestions the attacks were politically motivated. He says police have determined the murdered opposition politician was killed in a bar room fight.
“He has got a bar and when they were drinking, they quarreled,” Hailemariam said. “That’s a personal case. The guy killed him. He has nothing to do with the EPRDF. And that guy the police has arrested him… and it’s nothing to do with politics.”
Hailemariam says the other injured Arena-Tigray candidate had been involved in a political disagreement, but denied the culprit had been an EPRDF member.
Tigrayans, an ethnic minority in the north, make up about six percent of Ethiopia’s population, but comprise the majority of the EPRDF’s decision-making inner circle. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who is seeking re-election from his Tigrayan birthplace, celebrated the TPLF’s anniversary last month with a speech in which he was reported to have urged supporters to “fight the enemy”.
Siye Abraha, a former senior TPLF leader who served as EPRDF’s first defense minister, is now a Medrek leader and a opposition candidate for parliament in Tigray. He called the prime minister’s speech “inflammatory.”
“As head of the ruling party, and head of the government, he’s supposed to give a clear constructive guidance,” Siye said. “But instead he’s trying to portray the opposition as people out for insurrection, or enemies of peace. No, we are not enemies of peace, we are responsible citizens who care about peace and stability in our country.”
Ruling party spokesman Hailemariam disputed Siye’s characterization of the prime minister’s speech. He described Mr. Meles’s remarks as simply an attempt to rally the ruling party’s base.
The spokesman accused the opposition of making wild allegations to get international attention.
More than 29 million people are registered for the election. It will be the first since the disputed 2005 poll, which ended in violent demonstrations that led to the deaths of hundreds of demonstrators and several police officers.
The European Union is considering sending an observer team to monitor the vote, but none of the four main U.S. election observer groups is coming.
VOA News
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Ethiopia’s Pre-Election Frenzy: Crackdown on Opposition Continues
By J. Sirak, Opride Contributor
Ethiopia – With Ethiopia’s Parliamentary election just months away, pre-election frenzy heats up. The ruling party is waging an all-out intimidation campaign against the opposition. In a grim tale of things to come, Jason McClure of Bloomberg News reports, “an opposition candidate was stabbed to death by six unidentified men”.
The last three weeks of the election campaign has particularly been very hectic for Meles and his ruling cliques.
Last week, Opride reported, the announcement of the opposition to unseat top TPLF bureaucrats, including Meles Zenawi, has created a major sensation forcing the regime to be on the defensive. Now it is clear that the defensive campaign strategy has backfired very badly. On the celebration of the 35th anniversary of the founding of TPLF in Mekele, Meles made a speech aimed at obliterating the image and credibility of his Tigrean opponents.
During the speech, reportedly he made two major and apparent mistakes.
a) In an attempt to appeal to Tigrean nationalism, he made the outdated claim that he has brought democracy not only to the "golden" people, but also the rest of the country whom he compared to "chaffs"—a reference to non Tigrayans. This ultra-chauvinistic and un-statesmanlike statement shocked the "chaffs" within his party.
b) The worst backslash came from Meles Zenawi’s childish attack on Seeye and other former TPLF cadres whom he called "leftovers". Even those who sided with Meles to oust Seeye have tremendous respect for their former gallant commander, and Meles’s assault on their character was immediately denounced by the majority of the Tigrean media with Yemane Negash of The Reporter taking the lead.
Mr. Meles made that speech with a clear intent to foment hostility and violence against the opposition. He was successful in that regard. The report of six pro-government militias stabbing to death of a Tigrean opposition MP candidate yesterday might be directly attributed to this speech.. This will undoubtedly make the backlash worse for the ruling party. A well connected Tigrean journalist told this reporter that, the Tigrean people are very nervous about the heightened intra-Tigray tension. Unless Meles restrains himself, another split within TPLF ranks and the larger Tigrean intelligentsia might be coming.
Meles Zenawi’s Diversionary Tactics
In attempt to divert attention from the formidable challenge he is facing at his political base, Meles has been taking several steps.
1) He recently made an abrupt announcement that Mr. Abbadula Gemeda, President of Oromia Region, will move to the federal government. The decision was presented as controversial and the Oromo People Democratic Organization (OPDO's) Executive Committee in its emergency meeting rejected the decision.
The Central Committee was forced to reconvene and debate, whereby Meles infiltrators trade allegations and accusation about certain factions conspiracy to unseat the president. The irony is that Mr. Abbadula has in recent months been seen as a liability to the ruling party after he was forced to give up his mansion and was publicly humiliated by younger OPDO's. It is said that there is a consensus among top TPLF leaders to get rid of Abadula others with bad public image. Yet, since Meles does not like to replace such a loyal surrogate, he had to create a justification. Apparently in anticipation of the vacant seat, there has an intense backdoor dealing and completion between OPDO factions as who should replace the departing president. Yet there was no consensus. Hence a popular demand was created for Mr. Abbadula to remain as President allegedly to prevent a factional fight that broke out among reformists within OPDO.
2) Another diversionary tactic is the abrupt decision of two Forum member parties pulling out of the coalition.
Sources with inside information say this could be either because the leaders of the two parties were pressured and co-opted or were infiltrators from the start. This is evident because the two parties (The Ethiopian Democratic Unity Movement (EDUM) and the Somali Democratic Forces Coalition (SDFC)) did not file any formal complaint with the coalition prior to this week.
Furthermore, their decision to blame a single member party (UDJ) which is seen as a stronger element in the coalition is yet another sign of foul play by the dictatorial regime.
They squarely put the blame on the UDJ party for refusing to allow them to compete in Addis Ababa. The accusation seem to be baseless given the fact that UDJ is the only party with strong support and institutional infrastructure to win the capital, and the two parties, particularly the (SDFC), has a very small constituency in the city. The central agreement between Medrek coalition members was to increase collective aggregate gains of the opposition. As such, their complaint seems unreasonable. The ruling party might be using its assets within Medrek to foment crisis in order to force UDJ/ ARENA to back off from their aggressive campaigning in Tigray in order to concentrate in preventing Medrek from falling apart. That will buy the ruling party time to wage an intimidation campaign. For instance, following the announcement of withdrawal by the two parties, Mr. Seeye Abraha, the Chief strategist of Medrek, was forced to return to Addis from Tembein where he was campaigning door to door.
3) The supposedly independent and impartial electoral commission has become an embarrassment to the regime.
The commission claimed to have investigated the complaint by the Oromo People Congress that 153 of its members were arrested. Yesterday, the commissioned dismissed the complaint. Although the decision was anticipated, what shocked observers was that the representative of the commission presented an exactly the same report, word for word, as that was presented by the police three weeks. The announcer, former secret service personnel seem to have confused his new role with the old one.
In related news, TPLF is increasingly under pressure to hold onto important seats in the parliament.
a) Tsegaye Berhe, President of Tigray Region, decided not to contest in the upcoming election as he was facing a formidable opponent from Arena.
b) All Top officials of the Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM) except Addisu Legesse seem to have been discarded by Meles. Tefera Walwa, Bereket Simon and Hilawi Yoseph, the three top veterans of EPDM/ANDM, are not contesting in 2010 election. It was to be remembered that, after top Amhara generals were accused of Coup D’état, ANDM is practically dismantled and its leaders are closely watched.
As things heat up, the opposition needs to remain on the offensive. They must increase their pressure particularly by targeting incumbent seats of key TPLF leaders. This will have a major psychological impact by making the rulers nervous and shaking their foundation.
* Oromsis Adula Edited this Report.
Related Stories :
Ethiopia Opposition Rethinks Election Campaign After Candidate Killed Voice of America
Ethiopian opposition candidate stabbed to death The Associated Press
Ethiopian Opposition Parliamentary Candidate Killed BusinessWeek
http://www.opride.com/oromsis/oromo/589-ethiopias-pre-election-frenzy-crackdown-on-opposition-continues.html
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