ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA (Bloomberg) — Ethiopia’s ruling party (Woyanne) has increased harassment of opposition supporters before a May 23 election in the Horn of Africa country, opposition coalition leader Prof. Merara Gudina said.
Activists loyal to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front have thrown stones at his car, breaking its windows and puncturing its tires over various occasions while campaigning in the Oromiya region in the past two weeks, said Merara, who is a parliamentary candidate.
“It looks like sort of a war, not an election,” Merara said in a phone interview from the capital, Addis Ababa, today.
Public meetings for Medrek, an alliance of opposition parties, are often blocked by local officials in Oromiya, Merara said. Medrek leaders have been barred from hotels and from buying fuel in some areas of the region, he said. The ruling alliance is defending a majority of 400 seats in the 537-seat parliament.
A video camera was stolen that had been used to document what activists described as abuses, Merara said.
Government spokesman Shimeles Kemal could not immediately comment on the allegations when reached on his mobile phone. Seikuture Getachew and Hailemariam Desalegn, spokesmen for the ruling party, did not answer calls to their mobile phones.
Two Medrek activists have been killed since March. The government has denied the two deaths were connected to the campaign.
The opposition is planning to use violence to topple the government, Tedros Hagos, head of the political bureau of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front which rules the country in a coalition with Meles’ party, said on April 28.
Security forces loyal to Meles killed 193 demonstrators in the aftermath of the country’s disputed 2005 poll. Opposition leader Birtukan Mideksa is in jail on a life sentence for treason given after the election.
Latest interview with Col. Alebel Amare, a senior leader of the newly formed armed Amhara resistance group — Amhara Democratic Force Movement. Watch below:
JEDDAH, SAUDI ARABIA (ARAB NEWS) — Police here arrested one Somali and eight Ethiopians, all men between the ages of 20 and 30, who are accused of being members of a gang that would monitor banks and rob people coming out of them. The arrest stems from one incident in which a Yemeni exited a bank in Jeddah’s Al-Aziziyah district in the north of the city with SR55,000.
The men followed him and broke into his vehicle as he stopped for lunch.
It is unclear how the police came to arrest the nine men. Police did say they knew the men had been monitoring banks for some time.
United States Ambassador to Ethiopia Donald Booth presented his credentials to President Woaynne puppet Girma Woldegiorgis on Monday at the Presidential Palace. Ambassador Booth, who was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on March 10, arrived in Ethiopia on April 21.
Ambassador Booth told President Girma that the United States considers Ethiopia to be an important partner and pledged to strengthen and expand the U.S.-Ethiopian partnership during his tenure as Ambassador.
Ambassador Booth noted that the United States is interested in establishing a constructive dialogue with the Ethiopian government genocidal junta on a broad range of issues, including economic growth and development, governance and human rights, and peace and security.
The Voice of America (VOA) is expressing deep concern about the jamming of VOA broadcasts into Ethiopia and the blocking of VOA websites. In an open letter to Ethiopian listeners issued on World Press Freedom Day [3 May], VOA Director Danforth Austin said, “we are opposed to all efforts to interfere with the free flow of news and information.”
In addition to the jamming of shortwave broadcasts into Ethiopia, in recent weeks VOA websites have also been blocked. Mr Austins’s statement says VOA hopes to work with the Ethiopian Government to resolve the issues behind the jamming. At the same time he said “VOA has taken new steps to ensure the delivery of balanced and timely news reports to Ethiopia,” including an electronic newsletter and “new and very clear” satellite audio transmissions at VOA 24 on Arabsat, and new shortwave frequencies.
“We are addressing our audience in new ways that did not exist when we began our shortwave radio broadcasts to Ethiopia 29 years ago,” Mr Austin said.
The following is VOA Director’s letter to Ethiopian listners:
An Open Letter to Ethiopian Listeners on World Press Freedom Day
The Voice of America is deeply concerned about the actions taken in late February to jam the shortwave broadcasts of VOA news in Afaan Oromoo, Amharic, and Tigrigna and to block access to VOA web sites in these languages. We have stated publicly that we are opposed to all efforts to interfere with the free flow of news and information.
While we hope to work with the Ethiopian Government to resolve the issues behind the jamming, our broadcasters in Washington and in Ethiopia continue to work diligently to bring you balanced reports, timely news, and major events in Amharic, Afaan Oromoo, and Tigrigna. And, we will bring you full coverage of Ethiopia’s national elections.
We are addressing our audience in new ways that did not exist when we began our shortwave radio broadcasts to Ethiopia 29 years ago. We have begun sending e-mails to thousands of people who have written to us in recent months, inviting them to subscribe to our electronic newsletter. Ask someone you know who has access to our web site to enter your e-mail to receive news about Ethiopia Monday through Friday.
You can also now hear our daily radio programs on your TV set. I invite you to tune in to our new and very clear audio transmissions at VOA 24 on Arabsat in Ethiopia during our regular shortwave broadcast hours in all three languages. We have added a morning radio program show in Amharic at 6 a.m. and we have increased the number of shortwave frequencies on which you can receive our morning show. The evening shows are Afaan Oromoo at 8:30 p.m., Amharic at 9 p.m., and Tigrigna at 10 p.m.
Write to us at [email protected] or make a collect call to 202 205 4447. When you hear our VOA musical greeting, press 13 for Afaan Oromoo, 14 for Amharic, or 15 for Tigrigna.
The Voice of America values its audience in Ethiopia. On behalf of our Horn of Africa reporters in the region and all of our writers, editors and technicians in Washington, D.C., I assure you we will do all we can to bring you news you can trust, news you have relied on for almost 30 years.