They speak of democracy, but act
violently to suppress dissenting voices and control the people through the
inculcation of fear: they ignore human rights and trample on the people, they
are a tyrannical wolf in democratic sheep’s clothing, causing suffering and
misery to thousands of people throughout Ethiopia.
The Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary
Democratic Front (EPRDF) government repeatedly scoffs at international law and
consistently acts in violation of their own Federal constitution – a liberal
document written by the regime to please and deceive their foreign supporters.
They have enacted laws of repression: the widely condemned Charities and
Societies (ATD) law (CSO law) and the Anti Terrorism Declaration, which is the
main tool of political control, together with the ‘Mass Media and Freedom of
Information Proclamation’ they form a formidable unjust arsenal of government
control. Freedom of the media (which is largely ‘state-owned’) is denied and
political dissent is all but outlawed.
Against this repressive backdrop,
the Semayawi (Blue) party, a new opposition group, organized peaceful protests
on the 2nd June in Addis Ababa. Ten thousand or so people marched through the
capital demanding the release of political prisoners, “respect for the
constitution” and Justice! Justice! Justice! It was (Reuters 2/06/2013
reported), an “anti-Government procession…. the first large-scale protest since
a disputed 2005 election ended in street violence that killed 200 people”, a
‘disputed election’ result that was discredited totally by European Union
observers and denounced by opposition groups and large swathes of the
population.
The Chairman of the Semayawi Party,
Yilekal Getachew, told Reuters, “We have repeatedly asked the government to
release political leaders, journalists and those who asked the government not
to intervene in religious affairs”. In keeping with the recent worldwide
movement for freedom and social justice, he stated that, “if these questions
are not resolved and no progress is made in the next three months, we will
organize more protests. It is the beginning of our struggle”. To the
disappointment of many and the surprise of nobody, the government has made no
attempt to ‘resolve’ the questions raised, and true to their word a second
demonstration was planned for 1st September in Addis Ababa. In the event, as
the BBC report, around “100 members of Ethiopia’s opposition Semayawi (Blue)
party were arrested and some badly beaten”, and “equipment such as sound
systems were confiscated”, ahead of the planned rally, which was banned by the
EPRDF. Government justification formed, and a cock and bull story was duly
constructed with Communication Minister Shimeles Kemal stating “the venue [for
Semayawi’s event) had already been booked by a pro-government group condemning
religious extremism”.
Non-interference in religious
affairs is one of the key demands of the Semayawi party, a demand based upon
the constitutional commitment of religious independence from the State, which
Muslim groups claim the government has violated. Enraged by government
interference in all matters religious, the Muslim community have organised
regular small-scale protests and sit-ins in the capital for the last two years.
In early August, Reuters 8/08/2013 reported “Demonstrators chanted "Allahu
Akbar" and hoisted banners that read "respect the constitution",
referring to allegations that the government has tried to influence the highest
Muslim affairs body, the Ethiopia Islamic Affairs Supreme Council”. Around 40%
of Ethiopia’s population (around 85 million) are Muslim, for generations they
have lived amicably with their Orthodox Christians neighbours, who make up the
majority in the country; they are moderate in their beliefs and peaceful in
their ways. The EPRDF in contrast are violent, intolerant and ideologically
driven; ‘Revolutionary Democracy’ being the particular tune to which the
democratic dictatorship hums and drums its partisan rule.
“Name-Calling”
The government’s response to the
peaceful demonstrations, has unsurprisingly been intolerant and dismissive;
their comments inflammatory and predictable, stating Mail@Guardian 14/07/2013
record, "most of these demonstrators are Islamic extremists”, and showing
their own ‘extreme’ tendencies, authoritively declaring that “the protesters
aimed to set up an Islamic state in the country and were bankrolled and guided
by "extremists" [this time] overseas”. Duplicitous nonsense, which
serves to distract attention from the underlying issues being raised and the
imperative (and legal requirement) for the government to act in accordance with
its own constitution.
Along with such disingenuous
comments the regime has responded to the protests in a repressive manner;
imprisoning Muslims calling for justice, causing Amnesty International
8/08/2013 to be “extremely concerned at reports coming out of Ethiopia… of
further widespread arrests of Muslim protesters”, Amnesty demand that the
“on-going repressive crackdown on freedom of speech and the right to peacefully
protest has to end now”. Despite the fact that the protests have been peaceful
and good-natured the regime has consistently described the protesters as
violent terrorists, in February the ‘Holy War Movement’ was shown on State
Television, it presented protestors and those arrested (including journalists),
as terrorists. And in a clear violation of people’s constitutional right to
protest, the regime has threatened to take firm action against further
protests.
Whilst the majority of actions
during the last two years have been without incident, protests in Kofele in the
Oromia region on 8th August ended in “the deaths of an unconfirmed number”,
there have also been reports of large numbers of people being arrested in
Kofele and Addis Ababa, including two journalists. Following the Kofele deaths
Amnesty called for “an immediate, independent and impartial investigation into
the events in Kofele, as well as into the four incidents last year which
resulted in the deaths and injuries of protestors”. Legitimate demands which
the regime has duly ignored.
The EPRDF does not tolerate any
independent media coverage within the country and indeed does all it can to
control the flow of information out of Ethiopia and restrict totally dissenting
voices. And they don’t care who the journalist is working for, key allies or
diaspora media; In October 2012 a reporter from the Voice of America (VOA)
covering a protest in Anwar Mosque in Addis was arrested and told to erase her
recorded interviews, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) report. This
was not the first time a VOA journalist had been detained. “They are
criminalizing journalism,” said Martin Schibbye a Swedish freelance journalist
who was jailed [in 2011] along with a colleague for more than 14 months in
Ethiopia”, for entering the Ogaden region. A heavily militarized area where
wide ranging human rights violations constituting crimes against humanity are
taking place, which has been hidden from the International media and aid
organisations since 2007. Fearing imprisonment, many journalists have left
Ethiopia, CPJ report that in 2012, along with Eritrea, it was were Africa’s
‘top jailer’ of journalists”, coming in eighth worldwide.
Unjust Laws of Control
In July last year, hundreds of
protesting Muslims peacefully demanding that the government stop interfering in
their religious affairs and allow them to vote freely for representatives on
the Ethiopian Islamic Affairs Supreme Council (EIASC). Most were released, but
29 members of the protest committee were charged on 29th October under the
universally criticized Anti Terrorist Declaration (ATD), accused of “intending
to advance a political, religious or ideological cause” by force, and the
“planning, preparation, conspiracy, incitement and attempt of terrorist acts.”
Their arrest has been slammed by human rights groups as well as the United
States Commission on religious Freedom, who “are deeply concerned that
Ethiopia’s government is seeking to silence peaceful religious freedom
proponents by detaining and trying them in secret under trumped-up terrorism
charges. They should be released now and their trials halted”. The men claim to
have been “tortured and experienced other ill-treatment in detention”.
The ambiguous ATD was introduced in
2009 and has been used by the Ethiopian government, “to severely restrict basic
rights of freedom of expression, association, and assembly”, Human Rights Watch
(HRW) state. It violates dues process, which like a raft of other
internationally recognized and legally binding rights, is enshrined in the
Ethiopian constitution. The legislation cause outrage amongst human rights
groups and the right minded when it was proposed. HRW (30/06/2009) said of the
draft law, (which un-amended found its way onto the statute books) that it
would “permit the government to repress a wide range of internationally
protected freedoms”, – precisely the reason for it’s introduction, and it
provides “the Ethiopian government with a potent instrument to crack down on
political dissent, including peaceful political demonstrations and public
criticisms of government policy”.
The unjust law allows for long-tem
imprisonment and the death penalty for so called crimes that meet some EPRDF
definition of terrorism, and denies in some cases a defendants right to be
presumed innocent – the bedrock of the international judicial system. Torture
is used without restraint by the military and police, under the ATD evidence
obtained whilst a prisoner is being beaten, hanged, whipped or drowned is
admissible in court, this criminal act contravenes Article 15 of the United
Nations Convention against Torture (ratified by Ethiopia in 1994), which
‘requires that any statement made as a result of torture is inadmissible as
evidence’. Terrorism is indeed an issue of grave concern in Ethiopia, it is not
rooted in the Muslim community, the media, the Blue Party or the Universities,
it is State Terrorism that stalks this land, that kills and falsely imprisons,
tortures and rapes the innocent, it is the EPRDF; the rebel group that ousted a
communist dictator in 1991 only to take up his tyrannical mantle, who
manipulate the law to serve their repressive rule and who violates a plethora
of human rights, consistently and with impunity. Ethiopia’s donors and
international friends, (primarily America and Britain) have other, larger fish
on their minds, and even though they give the country over a third of its
federal budget they seem unconcerned by the criminality being committed, much
of which is taking place under the cloak of development. Violent rule however
is a storm that is imploding throughout the world, the people, who have
suffered long enough, sense their collective strength and are awakening.
Need for Unity
Although completely contrary to the
EPRDF’s pledge of Ethnic Federalism, divide and rule is the effective
methodology of division employed by the regime. In a country with dozens of
tribal groups, various ethnicities and different religious beliefs (Islam and
Christianity), unity is the key to any popular social revolution, much needed
and ardently longed for by millions throughout the land. We are witnessing a
worldwide protest movement for change; age-old values of freedom, equality and
social justice, brotherhood and peace are the clarion call of many marching and
protesting. And so it is in Ethiopia, the Blue party and other opposition
groups, the Muslim community and the students on the streets demanding Justice!
Justice! Jusitce! are in harmony with the rhythm of the times. Out of step and
blind to the needs of the people and their rightful demands, the ruling party
acts with violence to drown out their voices and suppress their rights: in Addis
Ababa, where thousands marched in June, in Oromia and the Ogaden, where the
people seek autonomy, in Amhara, where thousands have been displaced, in
Gambella and the Lower Omo Valley, where native people are being driven off
their ancestral land into state created villages, women raped and men beaten.
Unity is the song of the day, rich
with diversity united in intent, the collective will of the people of Ethiopia
and indeed throughout the world is an unstoppable force for change. All steps
need to be taken to remove the obstacle to the realization of unity throughout
the country, ethnic prejudices and tribal differences; all need to be laid
aside. The Ethiopian regime may succeed in subduing the movement for change
that is simmering throughout the country, however with sustained unified
action, peacefully undertaken and relentlessly expressed, freedom and social
justice, longed for by millions throughout the country, will surely come.
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