DATELINE

Only a few months ago Ethiopia was being touted as the great hope of Africa. Not only was it one of a handful of African nations earmarked for G8 debt relief, it was being applauded for its apparent willingness to embrace democracy. That said Ethiopia’s first multi-party ballot was anything but free and fair. In fact, it turned out to be what many cynics have come to expect from African elections – vote-rigging, intimidation and even murder – name your electoral poison. And the aftermath of the election has been no better. Olivia Rousset reports on why things have gone so sadly wrong in Ethiopia.

REPORTER: Olivia Rousset

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For decades Ethiopians have endured civil war and dictatorship. They have never been given the chance to choose their own government. A few months ago, they had the opportunity to vote in what was promoted as Ethiopia’s first multiparty democratic election. Here in the town of Arsi Negele, the opposition won a huge victory, with over 39,000 votes to the ruling party’s 5,000. This man knows the price of that victory. Kuma Kabe was crippled by a bullet which is still lodged in his pelvis. His best friend – the winning candidate – paid with his life. Kuma says for weeks before the election Tesfaye Adana got several death threats from local government officials.

KUMA KABE (Translation): I never advised him to quit. I was working with him. We were both involved in the election. Many people advised us to stop being involved, but we felt we couldn’t quit.

Tesfaye was murdered by local policemen a month after the election. Kuma was with him, and knows those policemen by name. KUMA KABE (Translation): There were six of them, but these three shot us. Tamiru Baysa shot Tesfaye and he fell down. I was standing next to him then Bekele shot him again. I grabbed him and Gemedo shot me. After Gemedo shot me, he ran to Tesfaye and tore open his stomach with a bayonet. Tesfaye’s father, Adana, took the wounded men to the local hospital but they were refused treatment. They then started driving to Addis Ababa. KUMA KABE (Translation): Those police told the traffic police to stop us because we had killed people and were trying to escape. The traffic police stopped us, and then the six police followed us and gave us a hard time. They hassled us, saying we couldn’t go to Addis Ababa. They kept us there for about 6 hours.

While they were arguing, Tesfaye died surrounded by police on the side of the road. This is his corpse.

FATHER (Translation): One innocent child is shot by a gang of six policemen. After shooting him they gutted him like an animal and kicked him and kicked him until his guts fell out. How can one be punished for participating in an election?

This is a story about African democracy gone wrong, about a government that promised free elections, but took it back when it didn’t like the result.

Ethiopia’s historic ballot was marred by widespread fraud, political assassination, and the killing of more than 40 unarmed demonstrators.

AMBASSADOR TIM CLARK, EUROPEAN UNION: I think it is a tinderbox. This potentially could explode at any moment. It is a very, very dangerous situation.

Tim Clark is a veteran of conflict resolution in Africa, and is the European Union’s special representative in Ethiopia.

TIM CLARK: Ethiopia is in a potentially dangerous situation because if the opposition feel that they have lost credibility, they have lost a sense of ownership of the results, if people’s voting has been taken away from them, and there is despair and distrust and tension, hostility, then you’ve got a recipe for a civil war. And under no circumstances can that be allowed to happen.

It’s not that long since Ethiopia’s last civil war. In 1991 a guerilla movement from the bush rolled into Addis Ababa on tanks, overthrowing the murderous dictatorship of Colonel Mengistu. The fighters transformed themselves into politicians, and have ruled the country ever since.

PRIME MINISTER MELES ZENAWI: The priority of the interim EPRDF Administration will be to ensure law and order.

Meles Zenawi – the leader of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, or EPRDF, announced that this year his government was ready for multiparty democracy.

MELES ZENAWI IN INTERVIEW (Translation): To carry this election through peacefully..is what we hope for from the Ethiopian people.

For the international community, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has long been the poster boy of emerging democracy in Africa. Before the election, in a bold and positive move, Meles allowed the opposition access to the state-run media for the first time. It was just one of many reforms which suggested the Prime Minister was serious about democracy.
This was another. Just a week before the election, in an unprecedented display of political freedom, over a million opposition supporters filled the streets of the capital. Not surprisingly on election day, 90% of the eligible population cast its ballot.

The opposition had only a handful of seats in the last parliament, now for the first time it seemed they would be a serious challenge to the ruling EPRDF.

DR BERHANU NEGA, COALITION FOR UNITY AND DEMOCRACY: Once people have the taste of freedom, once people see what it means to live without fear, to live in freedom no government can impose its will on them.

Berhanu Nega is the deputy leader of the main opposition party, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy, or CUD. He strongly believes the opposition won the election.

DR BERHANU NEGA: We started to get results by Monday morning. The opposition in general was winning handsomely in urban, rural, constituencies, everywhere. OK? That’s one. Two, what was interesting actually, is that the magnitude of victory was really quite wide, and this is across the board – almost all urban areas, but many, many rural areas. But then by Monday night, when that trend is becoming very, very clear and we are waiting for the results of the remaining, the government declared victory.

NEWSREADER (Translation): Voting so far has given EPRDF control of the federal parliament.

Both the government and the opposition declared victory. While there is no evidence the opposition should have won, it claims many of its supporters weren’t allowed to vote, its observers were shut out, ballot boxes were stuffed or lost, and in some cases results were forged. Suddenly the election appeared far less credible than everyone had expected.

TIM CLARK: You can’t put your finger on the reason why it went wrong. But what did happen was that there was a massive, landslide swing away from the ruling party to the opposition parties, particularly in the urban areas but also to some extent in the rural areas.
And there were rumours going around that the counting process… ..that there was a move to try and stop the process because there were fears that the outcome wouldn’t be exactly what the ruling party wanted.

Voting was barely over when the Prime Minister wound back the newly declared democratic freedoms.

MELES ZENAWI (Translation): From tomorrow, for one month, public gatherings and demonstrations are banned. Opposition supporters refused to accept the results and their frustration would not be contained. Stories of harassment of opposition supporters in the countryside inspired the students at Addis Ababa University to protest.

In order to get around the ban on public demonstrations, they decide to boycott classes for a day. The next morning riot police entered the campus and began to beat students with batons and load them onto trucks.

Between 4,000-5,000 students and opposition supporters were jailed. Two days later in a show of solidarity with the students, taxi drivers and shop owners stopped work and the people took to the streets in protest against the ruling party.

PEOPLE CHANT (Translation): Thief! Thief! EPRDF thieves!

Demonstrators burned cars and threw stones at police.

JOURNALIST (Translation): Police brought in to quell the riots were met by stone-throwing rioters who attempted to overcome them and take their guns.

Military police then arrived and started firing into the crowd.

WITNESS: When I arrived there the military force have been already arrived, and they have snipers on their cars.

This man helped to give first aid to many of those wounded.

WITNESS: Well the first man I saw had been shot on his head with two bullets. But after that I saw maybe more than 15, because I had been going here and there to help.

This was the scene at a city hospital during the riots. The government says that there were only 26 killed that day but a local human rights group said that more than 40 were killed and hundreds wounded.

WOMAN (Translation): She went out to look for her child and she was shot. He is just a little boy.

Many of the dead and injured had gunshot wounds to the head.

WITNESS: They had snipers, so why they use heads? Why three bullets on one person? Why? One bullet is enough to stop functioning anybody.

One bullet at close range was all it took to kill this couple’s eldest son – 14-year-old Neby Alemaheyu. According to witnesses, Neby was nowhere near the protests. He was trying to get home from school when he was shot in the chest by a military policeman.

MOTHER (Translation): My son was walking peacefully, and he was blown apart. He wasn’t even holding a stone. He was just a scared little boy who they killed. As he was being shot he even begged for mercy. He said “Please don’t do it. Have mercy on me.” He was pleading desperately when he was shot. They won’t tell me everything he said. I really regret it. I wish I’d never let him go out. If I’d known there was a protest I would have kept him in.

Wubalem Alemaheyu sent the schoolbook her son was carrying to the Prime Minister with a question attached. It was printed in a local newspaper.

MOTHER (Translation): “If your school-age son was shot, how would you feel?”

Wubalem got no response from the Prime Minister, and she remains defiant.

MOTHER (Translation): They could come for us and kill us too because they don’t like us to speak out. They can shoot us if they want to.

The only explanation she received for her son’s killing was in the state media. Newspaper and radio reports claimed Neby Alemahayu was a 20-year-old man and he’d been looting when he was shot.

MOTHER (Translation): At the least, they should admit they killed him by mistake. He was too young to be mistaken for a rioter. He was younger than anyone else and he was killed away from the others. They said he was going to loot a bank. That he tried take a police gun. Just a skinny little boy!

Bereket Simon is Information Minister in the current government. REPORTER: Is it appropriate to use live bullets against women and children, in that situation?BEREKET SIMON, INFORMATION MINISTER: Well, I don’t think it’s appropriate to use live bullets to disperse demonstrations, but I believe it is also unacceptable to overthrow a government by the use of force while you have conducted a free and fair election. REPORTER: So you really think these demonstrators were trying to overthrow the government that day? BEREKET SIMON: Absolutely. Absolutely. The government has long claimed that it was the opposition that wasn’t serious about democracy. It accused the opposition CUD party of using the June 8 demonstration to try to foment a coup.

Although there is no evidence of an attempted coup, there is wide speculation that the CUD did organise the demonstration as it had called for protests days before. DR BERHANU NEGA: We did not call for people to come out and protest. We said, “If your votes are cheated, if the democratic process is circumvented, you have the right to do that, and you have to be psychologically prepared to do that.” That is not calling for protest or violence. That is saying you have this right. It is sending a warning to the government that you better follow the democratic rules, the democratic procedures, because otherwise people have alternative ways of peacefully showing their protest.

The international community was outraged at the killing of unarmed protesters. The British declared they were suspending £20 million of aid until the deaths were investigated, but the government is yet to launch an inquiry.

Democracy is in tatters in Ethiopia. The opposition has lodged hundreds of official complaints of vote rigging and fraud. In an attempt to keep up democratic appearances, the government has begun investigations into less than half of these complaints.

I am on my way to the country town of Ziway where one of these investigations is about to start.

ASNAKA ABEBE NATIONAL ELECTION BOARD (Translation): This is the complaint from CUD against EPRDF as provided by the provisional election board.

Asnaka Abebe of the National Election Board is chairing this panel. On his right is the opposition CUD, and on his left the ruling EPRDF. Asnaka has the final call if the parties disagree.

ASNAKA (Translation): The first complaint is the party observers were not allowed to observe the election.
Secondly, the party observers were thrown out.
The third complaint is that people were coerced when marking their ballot.

Nebro Legesse is the complainant. He stood as the local candidate for the opposition and claims the ruling party bribed people to vote against him.

NEBRO LEGESSE (Translation): They organized a group to get people to vote for them. Not just that, they also provided material and financial incentives.

The official results were close – Nebro lost by only 2,000 votes. Every vote that he can prove was stolen is a step closer to the victory. Nebro is convinced is his.

NEBRO (Translation): They told urban dwellers if they didn’t vote their way, they’d lose all social benefits, all social welfare. They threaten business people into voting.

Clearly shaken, Nebro is trying to be brave in the face of the people he is accusing.

NEBRO (Translation): There is another sad story on the elections shortcomings. Blocking observers is one thing, but bashing them, hurting them is the saddest thing of all.

While Nebro lays out his case, one of his witnesses, who had been waiting outside, got scared and left. He sent a friend to try to find him.

MAN (Translation): We followed him in the car. He left his friend and disappeared. FASIKA (Translation): He has been beaten before. Maybe he thought it would happen again.TRANSLATOR (Translation): Can we talk over there?FASIKA (Translation): Okay.

My translator asks Fasika – the only witness left who can vouch for Nebro – to move away from the investigation room to talk. She is keenly aware she is taking a risk.

FASIKA (Translation): Most of them are their cadres. They warn us by staring at us. Anyway, you’re an Ethiopian so you know the story. We know what will happen to us after this.

Fasika was working at a polling station where she claims an election board official – Mr Tsegaye – stole a pile of unmarked ballot papers.

FASIKA (Translation): He arrived and took away no less than 200 ballot papers without consultation or notification. He took them to another district. I asked, “Why are you taking them away? What if they’re used for illegal or other purposes?” You have no voice, powerless and alone. They are many. I heard from other places, from other observers like me. The papers were used improperly. What I wanted to explain TRANSLATOR (Translation): Where’s this Tsegaye from?FASIKA (Translation): The National Election Board.

The National Election Board or NEB, was appointed by the government. Many of the complaints being investigated are against the NEB – a body the opposition describes as being a tool of the ruling party.

The head of the African Union observer mission, the Honourable Aman Kabourou, is philosophical about the close ties between the ruling party and the National Election Board.

HONOURABLE AMAN KABOUROU, AFRICAN UNION: Independence, independent investigators, where do you find them? Usually, in most places these would be lawyers. And in most African countries these lawyers would have gone to the same schools as the rulers of the time. REPORTER: Do you think Ethiopia is not ready for democracy perhaps? HONOURABLE AMAN KABOUROU: No, I wouldn’t jump to that conclusion at all. One might have a desire for something, but not the wherewithal. That really shouldn’t be held against that person. I might want to have a car and I just don’t have a car because I cannot muster the necessary finances to get it. That doesn’t make me a fool does it?

Despite the many obstacles, with about a third of the seats in parliament the opposition is now a significant political force, or should be. The government has recently taken steps to muzzle the opposition. A bill was passed making it impossible to debate an issue in parliament without a 51% majority.

DR BERHANU NEGA: Now they just amended it because there is going to be a lot of parliamentarians from the opposition. They said in order for any agenda to be discussed we need 51% of parliamentarians.

REPORTER: In order to discuss an issue in parliament?

DR BERHANU NEGA: Yes.

REPORTER: So that means it would be impossible for the CUD…?

DR BERHANU NEGA: It means it is absolutely meaningless for any opposition. You know, what does it even mean to be a parliamentarian? NEWSREADER: The National Electoral Board of Ethiopia, the NEB, today released official results for 128 federal parliament seats, bringing the total number of official results announced so far to 435.

The ruling EPRDF has won all but a handful of the investigations. No-one knows what the next step will be. The opposition refuses to accept the decision of the election board, saying it will take its grievances to the courts.

When this election was announced, the international community had the highest expectations for democracy here. But when things turned sour, the champions of reform told the Ethiopian people that for now, they should accept whatever they can get.

The result for Kuma is hard to accept. With a bullet still lodged in his pelvis, he’s unable to sit or walk. He’s been refused treatment at several hospitals, and at 18 his life is virtually over.

KUMA KABE (Translation): I was in less pain when the weather was warm but now I feel terribly, terribly sick. When the bullet moves in my body I feel like my feet are burning. I can’t move or lift my legs. I can’t even go to the toilet. Adana, whose son Tesfaye was murdered for winning an election, has had to flee his home to escape harassment. His attempts to bring Tesfaye’s killers to justice have led nowhere.

FATHER (Translation): Because of the inhuman way they killed my son, I have pursued them and taken them to court. I accused six policemen. Although they’re prisoners, they are allowed to enjoy a normal life. TRANSLATOR (Translation): Has anyone been charged?

I made several attempts to find out what had happened to the police accused of shooting Kuma and Tesfaye.

TRANSLATOR (Translation): They said that they are with you. Is that true? POLICE (Translation): No. They have them.

I found no evidence that they were in custody. Many opposition supporters, along with journalists and newspaper editors, spent weeks in jail. But the Ethiopian Government says it doesn’t deserve to be criticised. It rejects the idea that these human rights violations undermine its democratic credentials.

BEREKET SIMON: I think countries need to be judged especially emerging democracies need to be judged based on the process. And if you look into the process that has taken place in Ethiopia, I don’t think, nobody will disagree on the nature of the process, that this process is democratic.Kuma Kabe Appeal: Please see the “Updates on Stories” section of the Dateline website if you are interested in helping Kuma.