July 20, 2005
EthiopianReview.com

Ato Andargachew Tsige, a member of the Kestedemena Party who had been arrested and tortured by the Meles regime last month, arrived in London today.

Kestedemena is one of the four parties that make up the Coalition for Unity & Democracy (CUD).

Ato Andargachew’s family told Tensae Radio and Ethiopian Review today that Ato Andargachew was able to elude the security personnel who were following him day and night long enough to escape.

Ato Andargachew is the first major opposition figure who found it necessary to go into exile since the May 15 elections.

While in Addis Ababa, Ato Andargachew was being followed day and night by security personnel.

He also had been arrested and severely tortured by the Meles regime after he and thousands of other opposition supporters and students were rounded up and sent to Ziway prison camp last month.

When the EPRDF came to power in 1991, Ato Andargachew was the first mayor of Addis Ababa for a brief period of time. He resigned over policy disagreements with the TPLF leaders, the main party in the EPRDF coalition. He was a member of Tamrat Layne’s Ethiopian People’s Democratic Movement (EPDM), which later changed its name to Amhara People Democratic Movement (APDM), to go along with Meles Zenawi’s ethnic apartheid agenda.