Shocked by the opposition parties’ landslide victory in Addis Ababa and every other constituency where international observers were present, EPRDF is fighting hard to make sure that it decisively wins the upcoming elections in the Somali Region.
The elections are scheduled for next month, August 21.
Elections in the Somali region could not be held at the same time on May 15 with the rest of Ethiopia due to security problems.
At stake are 23 parliamentary seats. Because of lack of finance, CUD is able to line up only 17 candidates. According to CUD spokesperson Dr Hailu Araya, their candidates are aggressively campaigning to win all the 17 seats. He said it’s tool late to line up more candidates.
CUD’s campaign in the Somali region is becoming highly successful because it is campaigning on a message of hope and harmony among ethnic groups and clans. CUD’s message includes peace, economic development and democratic rights.
EPRDF is sending a different message. It is resorting to the basest instincts of people: fear and hate. The EPRDF cadres tell the voters that CUD will bring “Amhara domination” to the region, but if EPRDF is elected, it is willing to allow the region to secede.
This time it seems that most of the voters are not buying the tired old EPRDF message of ethnic division and Amhara hating.
The most recent tactic EPRDF using is trying to disqualify CUD candidates claiming that they are not natives of the region. So far, EPRDF succeeded in having the Election Board to reconsider the status of 5 of the 17 candidates.
The rules written by the EPRDF itself allows candidates to run in any constituency. One of the well-known beneficiaries of this rule is EPRDF Minister of Information Bereket Simon who registered as a candidate in Wollo, a place he never lived in.
CUD is not challenging the EPRDF candidates’ qualifications, because of lack of resources.
Another tactic EPRDF using is that it doesn’t campaign under it’s own name. It created other groups bearing the region’s name, but tightly controlled by EPRDF officials in Addis Ababa.
Most of CUD’s candidates are from the Somali ethnic groups. CUD was able to successfully recruit strong candidates locally. It’s difficult for EPRDF cadres to go to Jijiga from Addis Ababa and tell a voter that his neighbor is going to “dominate” him.
The local people want to live in peace. For the past 14 years there was never peace in the region, as EPRDF turned one clan against the other by arming and giving money to the clans it favors.
EPRDF is spending a great deal of money for its campaign in the Somali region. Some of the money is being used to try to bribe CUD candidates to change their party affiliation. EPRDF is also giving a lot of money to clan leaders.
CUD is financially weak. It’s candidates do not even have sufficient money to print fliers and pay for travel expenses. Had CUD been financially strong, it could win all the parliamentary seats allocated for the region. The people are angry at the EPRDF and want change.
One of the CUD representatives in the region ER talked with today expressed his frustration that the top leadership is preoccupied with other matters and is giving little attention to the election campaign in the region. He is not blaming the leadership. He says that he knows the kind of pressure they are under. One way to solve such a problem is to decentralize CUD’s operations, which is currently highly centralized. It seems that without orders or directions from Addis Ababa nothing is done any where in the country.
CUD’s strength in the Somali region is originating from the people’s desire for change. Could this alone be enough to win?
The Ethiopian Government arrested:
1. Befekadu Moreda, Tomar newspaper
2. Zelalem Gebre, Menilik newspaper
3. Dawit Fassil, Asqual newspaper
4. Tamrat Serbesa, Satenaw newspaper
today, 28 June 2005 at 11:00 local time.
The Ethiopian Free press Journalists’ Association (EFJA) has been
quite worried about these recent unwelcome development.
We call on all the Ethiopian people, International press institutions
and International friends of the free press to closely follow the great danger hovering over the free press and the measures that could be taken to challenge its very existence.
The Ethiopian Free Press Journalists’ Association (EFJA)
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Ato Aschalew’s friends told ER associate in Addis Ababa today that the EPRDF cadres kidnapped him on June 24. His body was found three days later outside the town of Debre Sina, Wollo. He was killed with a gun shot to the head.
The EPRDF cadres have also burned the homes of several people in Debre Sina, Ambassel, and other rural towns whom they suspect as CUD supporters. As a result, thousands of people from these areas are now taking refuge in Dessie. The refugees say that they were chased out of their homes by angry EPRDF cadres.
Addis Ababa – Police say three lions rescued a 12-year-old girl kidnapped by men who wanted to force her into marriage, chasing off her abductors and guarding her until police and relatives tracked her down in a remote corner of Ethiopia.
The men had held the girl for seven days, repeatedly beating her, before the lions chased them away and guarded her for half a day before her family and police found her, sergeant Wondimu Wedajo said on Tuesday via telephone from the provincial capital of Bita Genet, some 560km west of the capital, Addis Ababa.
“They stood guard until we found her and then they just left her like a gift and went back into the forest,” Wondimu said, adding he did not know whether the lions were male or female.
News of the rescue on June 9 was slow to filter out from Kefa Zone in southwestern Ethiopia.
Fate could have been much worse
“If the lions had not come to her rescue then it could have been much worse. Often these young girls are raped and severely beaten to force them to accept the marriage,” he said.
“Everyone in thinks this is some kind of miracle, because normally the lions would attack people,” Wondimu said.
Stuart Williams, a wildlife expert with the rural development ministry, said it was likely the young girl was saved because she was crying from the trauma of her attack.
“A young girl whimpering could be mistaken for the mewing sound from a lion cub, which in turn could explain why they (the lions) didn’t eat her,” Williams said. “Otherwise they probably would have done.”
The girl, the youngest of four brothers and sisters, was “shocked and terrified” and had to be treated for the cuts from her beatings, Wondimu said.
He said police had caught four of the men, but were still looking for three others.
In Ethiopia, kidnapping has long been part of the marriage custom, a tradition of sorrow and violence whose origins are murky.
The United Nations (UN) estimates more than 70% of marriages in Ethiopia are by abduction, practiced in rural areas where the majority of the country’s 71 million people live.
Lions are a dying breed
Ethiopia’s lions, famous for their large black manes, are the country’s national symbol and adorn statues and the local currency. Former emperor Haile Selassie kept a pride in the royal palace in Addis Ababa.
Despite their integral place in Ethiopia culture, their numbers have been falling, according to experts, as farmers encroach on bush land.
Hunters also kill the animals for their skins, which can fetch $1 000, despite a recent crackdown against illegal animal trading across the country. Williams said at most only 1 000 Ethiopian lions remain in the wild.
Students at Gonder University’s main campus have been on hunger strike since Friday. The students decided to go on a hunger strike to protest the arrest of six of the student association’s leaders and members.
Eyewitnesses told ER that the chairman of the student association, Ato Temesgen, and two of his deputies, Ato Berhanu and Ato Abraham are in jail accused of organizing students protests.
Meanwhile, the local EPRDF office gave AK-47s and handguns to some students at the university who are EPRDF cadres and members, violating the university’s rules, and further aggravating the tension. The cadre-students are carrying their guns from class to class.
The university students said they will continue to protest and refuse to take exams until EPRDF troops leave the university campus and the cadre-students are disarmed.
Right now, the university is surrounded by heavily armed troops and police.
Fearing that other schools will join the protest, EPRDF security forces are rounding up students in the Gonder area schools. Prisons are now crowded with students, the local people told ER.
The administrator of Lay Armacho, Ato Getnet, in particular, has become notorious in arresting and abusing students.
This is a story about the murder of Ato Yihenew Hunegnaw and the disappearance of six of his friends in the City of Bahr Dar.
Yihenew was a student at St. Mary College in Bahr Dar. He also attended Pedagogic College previously. He was looking forward to graduating with a degree in management and supporting himself and his extended family. Yihenew was a conscientious young man who cared about the people around him and the community
On June 4, students at Bahr Dar schools were deciding to join the protest that was planned by Addis Ababa University. Later in the afternoon, Yihenew and six of his friends sat at a hotel and engaged in a long conversation. Across the street, a pick up truck with some individuals inside was parked. According to eyewitnesses, the truck looked similar to other pick up trucks that EPRDF cadres normally drive.
After the sun set, the unidentified individuals from the pick up truck approached Yihenew and his friends. Some exchange of words took place. The individuals then led Yihenew and friends to the truck and drove off.
Around 1 AM (local time) Yihenew called home to tell his family that he will not be home until later on. Arguments can be heard in the background.
Just before dawn, security guards who were guarding construction equipments at a road construction site hear gun shots nearby. At dawn, the guards went towards the direction where they heard shots. After some search of the area, they found Yihenew’s body at the side of a road. It seems that Yihenew was shot as he tried to escape.
The guards called the police, who came and took pictures. They also video taped Yihenew’s body. Since Yihenew’s identity cards are taken by his captors, the police could not identify him and notify his family.
Fifteen days later, words reached Yihenew’s family that construction site security guards at the outskirt of the city had found a dead person who fits Yihenew’s profile. There may also be some who saw the actual shooting.
With this information, the family went to the police. Some time later, the police were able to confirm Yihenew’s death to the family. The police also showed the family the pictures they took, which indicate that Yihenew died of gun shot wounds.
The police are not willing to discuss or give any information about Yihenew’s friends. But when asked to take Yihenew’s body, the police told the family that he is buried with other people, and cannot identify which one is his body.
ER spoke with Yihenew’s sisters who reside in Arlington, Virginia. They are, of course, devastated by their brother’s death.
Hearing the news of Yihenew’s death and the disappearance of his friends, several families in Bahr Dar whose sons have also disappeared are now expecting the worse. The news reaching ER is that there are several young men in Bahr Dar who have disappeared without a trace. Many of these young men are from poor families who do not have the means to search the whereabouts of their missing sons, except to just agonize and wait for them to come back some day. Yihenew would also have disappeared without a trace had he not tried to escape and his body found by a construction site security guards.
How many times such terrible incidents are repeated through out the country? What’s the justification for the police to burry bodies of a bunch of young people in a mass grave without any serious attempt to find out their identities and notify their families?!?
While talking with different people in the course of reporting on Yihenew’s case, one story that keeps coming is about individuals with pick up trucks. We are told about similar cases where unknown individuals with government issued trucks approach young men and take them away, never to be seen again.
