Ethiopia

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E T H I O P I A

ACRONYMS:

AAPO - All Amhamra People's Organisation
ALF - Afar Liberation Front
ARDU - Afar Revolutionary Democratic Union
BPLM - Benishangul People's Liberation Movement
CAFPDE - Council of the Alternative Forces for Peace and Democracy inEthiopia
COEDF - Coalition of Ethiopian Democratic Forces
CRDA - Christian Relief and Development Association
ECS - Ethiopian Catholic Secretariat
EDC - Ethiopian Democratic Organization Coalition
EDUP - Ethiopian Democratic Unionist Party
EECMY - Eth. Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus
ENDP - Ethiopian National Democratic Party
EPDA - Ethiopian Peoples' Democratic Alliance
EPDM - Ethiopian People's Democratic Movement
EPRDF - Ethiopian People's Rev. Democratic Front
ESDL - Ethiopian Somali Democratic League
ESDM - Ethiopian Somali Democratic Movement
GDU - Gamo Democratic Union
GPDF - Gurage People's Democratic Front
HPDO - Hadia People's Democratic Organisation
IFLO - Islamic Front for the Liberation of Oromia
IGLF - Issa Gurgura Liberation Front
KPC - Kembata People's Congress
OLF - Oromo Liberation Front
ONLF - Ogaden National Liberation Front
OPDO - Oromo People's Democratic Organisation
ORA - Oromo Relief Association
SEPDC - Southern Ethiopian Peoples Democratic Coalition
SPDO - Sidama People's Democratic Organisation
TPLF - Tigray People's Liberation Front
WSLF - Western Somali Liberation Front

ELECTION NEWS

GOVERNMENT TALKS WITH CAFPD
(ION 25 Mar 95, p.4)
Ethiopia's Council of Alternative Forces for Peace and Democracy (CAFPD, opposition) nominated five members on March 15 to negotiate with the Transitional Government of Ethiopia, following discussions in Washington at the beginning of February between members of opposition movements and a government delegation led by Dawit Yohannes (ION No 658 and 659). Each of the nominees (Teshome Gebremariam, Nigussie Gizaw, Kifle Abate, Anteneh Merid an Teha Hussein) represents one of the organizations which belong to CAFPD.

According to one CAFPD delegate, the negotiations have begun and "the objective of the discussion is to be able to remove some of the hindrances on the democratization process". He said that it is only after these barriers have been lifted that "the question of the forthcoming elections can be discussed". However, this approach to the discussions has not yet been approved by CAFPD member organizations which are in exile or abroad. The All Amhara People's Organization (AAPO) opposition movement which was also invited to the negotiations has not yet sent a delegate.

Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) chairman Shimber Abdel Kadir and his vice chairman Mohamed Hussein have disclaimed the value of an announcement made on March 16 by an alleged member of the movement's central committee, Mohamed Sarahaye Hidding, that ONLF would participate in the May elections; they said that Hidding was not qualified to represent their movement. ONLF leader Shimber Abdel Kadir said that negotiations were going on "both within and outside Ethiopia" between ONLF and the Transitional Government of Ethiopia, but added that "If the TGE lets this illegitimate group participate in the coming election in ONLF's name it will threaten the peace and reconciliation negotiations".

[ION editorial comment:] Yet another Ethiopian opposition movement made its appearance in Washington last month: the Tigrean Alliance for National Democracy (TAND). It is reported to be grouping together several Tigrean organizations such as Multi National Congress Party of Ethiopia (MNCPE), Tigray People's Democratic Movement (TPDM), and Ethiopian Democratic Coalition (EDC), as well as individuals who were formerly members of Tigrean People's Liberation Front (a coalition member of he ruling EPRDF government in Addis Ababa). TAND is denouncing the "anti-democratic" character of the Ethiopian government whilst at the same time calling for the use of "peaceful methods of protest."

THREE PARTIES IN AFAR REGION SEEK NEUTRAL ELECTORAL SUPERVISORY BODY
(SWB 23 Mar 95 [REE in English, 21 Mar 95])
Three political organizations have demanded for the setting up of a neutral body that will oversee the election process in Afar region, eastern Ethiopia. The demand was made by the Afar People's Democratic Organization, the Afar National Liberation Front and the Afar National Democratic Movement at a joint meeting in Asayita.

They said the electoral board, heads and section executives deployed at all levels have been mischievous, and biased in favour of and against some parties throughout their registration process and collection of endorsement signatures. The three parties said the election executives have been engaged in hindering the registration process by hiding and changing addresses. They said it was paradoxical to see at work individuals who had been caught red-handed while committing acts of treachery during the election of the Constituent Assembly...

INDEPENDENT ELECTION CANDIDATES ACCUSE OFFICIAL TV STATION OF BIAS
(SWB 3 Apr 95 [RE in English, 31 Mar 95])
Independent candidates here in the capital [Addis Ababa] have sharply criticized the Ethiopian Television Enterprise [ETE] which, they said, had allocated less airtime to them than to party candidates. They said the fact that the ETE has allocated 15 minutes to party and only five [minutes] to private candidate is a clear testimony to ETE' s partnership to candidates fielded by political parties. The independent contestants added [that] what they described as the biased airtime allocations by the ETE was a direct violation of government's decision on equal use of the state media.

OLF

MORE THAN 280 OLF MEMBERS ON TRIAL
(Reuter 28 Feb 95)
ADDIS ABABA - More than 280 members of the outlawed Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) are on trial in central Ethiopia, accused of waging war against its interim government.

The state-run Ethiopian News Agency said on Monday the OLF members had been on trial in the central high court at Zeway town, 200 km (120 miles) south of Addis Ababa, since January 17.

The OLF withdrew from the transitional government set up after the overthrow of dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991 and tried to revive a guerrilla war in Oromo region in southern Ethiopia.

The Oromo are the largest single ethnic group in Ethiopia with about one third of the country's 50 million people...

CONFLICTS BETWEEN OLF AND IFLO
(ION 25 Mar 95, p.5)
Armed conflict between elements of the Oromo Liberation Front and Islamic Front for the Liberation of Oromo (IFLO) resulted in many dead and wounded between February 7 to 9 at Julcha, in Garamuleta Province east of Hararghe and about 40 km from Grawa, where local farmers are reported to be led by IFLO.

VOICE OF OROMO LIBERATION HEARD AGAIN
(SWB 1 Mar 95)
Voice of Oromo Liberation (VOL), which broadcasts on behalf of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and in opposition to the Ethiopian government, has been heard again for the first time in over two and a half years. It now appears to be broadcasting via a private shortwave station in the USA.

VOL's previous series of broadcasts, which were last heard on 29th June 1992, were believed to emanate from a transmitter in Sudan and the cessation of these broadcasts was linked at the time to an improvement in relations between the Sudanese and Ethiopian governments...

DERG TRIAL

ZIMBABWE DENIES MENGISTU RECEIVED CITIZENSHIP
(Reuter 7 Mar 95, by Emelia Sithole)
HARARE - Zimbabwe denied on Tuesday press reports that former Ethiopian dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam and his family had been granted Zimbabwean citizenship and passports.

"He (Mengistu) has not been given Zimbabwean citizenship and a passport, neither has his wife and family," Home Affairs Minister Dumiso Dabengwa told Reuters.

Zimbabwe's independent Sunday Gazette had reported the exiled Mengistus had been granted citizenship although they had not stayed in the country for a required minimum five years...

The Zimbabwean government has repeatedly refused Ethiopian requests to extradite Mengistu, arguing he was a refugee entitled to asylum...

Thousands of black guerrillas fighting white rule in Rhodesia, which became independent Zimbabwe in 1980, were trained in Ethiopia during the 1970s.

ETHIOPIAN LAWYER SAYS EMPEROR'S MURDER NOT PROVED
(Reuter 14 Mar 95, by Tsegaye Tadesse)
ADDIS ABABA - A defense lawyer for two soldiers accused of strangling Emperor Haile Selassie to death nearly 20 years ago said on Tuesday his murder was not proved.

The lawyer spoke at the resumed trial of former members of the "dergue" military junta under dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam charged with genocide and crimes against humanity during 17 years in power.

"Unless it was aimed at creating public resentment against members of the dergue, the prosecution has not proved that the emperor was strangled to death by a person," the lawyer said.

Speaking for defendants Major Nadew Zekaria and Sergeant Getahun Aboyi, he also told Addis Ababa central high court that they rejected the charges of murder brought against them and called for their cases to be dismissed as unsubstantiated.

The 269 pages of charges against the former dergue members say Selassie was held at a palace for a year after being deposed by the military and was strangled to death on August 26, 1975, in his bed...

Defence lawyers argued on Tuesday that the cases against the defendants should be referred to an international tribunal.

"The U.N. Security Council has resolved that those accused of genocide in Rwanda and former Yugoslavia should be tried by an international tribunal," a defence lawyer told the court...

The trial is one of the largest of its kind since leaders of Nazi Germnay faced justice at Nuremberg after World War Two.

/HAB/ On March 16, the trial was adjourned for 2 months to give time to the prosecution to prepare its arguments.

DOMESTIC NEWS

FIGHTS AROUND MOSQUE
(ION 4 Mar 95, p.4)
Nine persons were reported killed and 130 others injured when violence flared up in Addis Ababa on February 21 around the Anwar mosque, the capital's largest mosque situated in the teeming Mercato district, which also has the capital's largest open market. Several sources claimed that an unidentified person opened up with automatic fire over the mosque's minaret, during prayers. Muslims at prayer tried to capture the gunman whilst police tried to calm the furious crowd by claiming that several persons suspected of being the attackers had been arrested. The crowds retaliated by calling on the police to hand over the suspects and violence broke out which lasted another four hours. Two different Islamic factions dispute control of Ethiopia's Muslim community: the old Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs whose vice chairman is a Tigrean, Mohamed Awel Raja, and the Provisional Organizing Committee of Ethiopian Islamic Affairs headed by Grazmatch Hadis Nur Hussein. The latter has accused his rivals of corrupt practices and reproaches the Ethiopian authorities and in particular the mayor of Addis Ababa, Tefera Walwa, of backing them. The provisional committee laid on a large Islamic demonstration in Addis on November 28 (ION No 650) to call for the dismissal of Mohamed Awel Raja.

Ethiopian police arrested about fifty leaders and members of the two rival groups, including Mohamed Awel Raja and Fuad Mohamed Mussa for the old Islamic council, and Grazmatch Hadis Nur Hussein, Mohamed Amadi and Abd al-Rahman Sharif for the rival group...

ARAB SOURCE ON FUNDING
(SWB 24 Feb 95 [MENA news agency, Cairo, in Arabic 22 Feb 95])
Addis Ababa, 22nd February: An Arab diplomatic source in Addis Ababa today stated that the two disputing Islamic groups in the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs in Ethiopia, which yesterday exchanged fire inside the Anwar Mosque - the largest mosque in Addis Ababa - receive financial aid and support from two foreign Islamic organizations. In an exclusive statement to MENA on the implications of yesterday's massacre in which dozens in the congregation were killed or injured inside the mosque, the source, who refused to reveal his name, added that one of the groups, represented by the old dissolved Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, enjoys the support of the more intransigent Sudanese Islamic Aid Organization. The other, newly formed, provisional council, which represents the other group, receives the support and backing of the pro-Saudi Arabia Islamic World League...

HUMANITARIAN ISSUES

ETHIOPIA SEEKS SUPPORT FOR FAMINE PREVENTION
(Reuter 24 Feb 95)
ADDIS ABABA - Ethiopia's president has urged his people to back a campaign to avoid a repeat of the famine and drought that killed an estimated one million people a decade ago.

In a nationwide address to mark the 10th anniversary of the famine, President Meles Zenawi said peace and development were vital to prevent any similar drought and famine and called for the people's support for a government disaster prevention plan.

"Peace and development are matters of life and death and the instruments for the prevention of a...similar drought," said Meles...

Speaking on Thursday night, he said a programme of disaster prevention, preparedness and mitigation implemented since last year had good results fighting the effects of recurrent drought.

Among the programme measures are a plan to lessen the country's dependence on rainwater by utilising rivers, which an official report has said could be harnessed to develop 2.4 million hectares (5.9 million acres) of land through irrigation...

FAMINE LOOMING IN SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA, SAYS GOAL
(Irish Times via RBB 27 Feb 95)
A warning that famine might again be imminent in a southern Ethiopian province has come from the Irish relief agency GOAL.

On his return from Ethiopia, GOAL's director, Mr John O'Shea, said that acute food shortages, caused by drought and a failed harvest, have put at risk some 80,000 people in the Sodo region.

"Hopefully nothing on the scale of the 1984 famine will occur here again, but the signs are ominous," said Mr O'Shea. He added that the bulk of the population was subsistence farmers and when the crop fails as it had, it suffered. "Substantial quantities of food will have to be provided quickly."...

ETHIOPIAN REFUGEES TO COME HOME IN 1995
(Reuter 24 Mar 95)
ADDIS ABABA - More than 93,000 Ethiopian refugees living in three neighbouring countries since 1991 will be repatriated this year, a United Nations official said on Friday.

Marawn Pierre Khoury, spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Addis Ababa said that $8.2 million had been earmarked for the repatriation of refugees currently in Sudan, Djibouti and Kenya.

UNHCR will spend $6.6 million of that to repatriate and reintegrate the 60,000 Ethiopian refugees in Sudan who will be brought to their original homes in the north of the country in an operation beginning next month, he said...

Khoury said the repatriation of 30,000 Ethiopian refugees in Djibouti was in progress with 17,165 of them already back home. The remaining refugees are also expected to be repatriated within the next 15 weeks.

Khoury said repatriation of some 3,000 Ethiopians sheltered at Dabaab Camp in north-eastern Kenya is expected to start next month. UNHCR has no plan to repatriate the 360,000 refugees from Somalia, Sudan, Djibouti and Kenya who are living in Ethiopia.

Khoury said Sudanese refugees were mostly young men and women who fled their country to escape forced recruitments into the military both by the government and rebels.

US STATE DEPARTMENT HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT
(NN/hrnet.africa 28 Mar 95 [Feb 95])
...The Government was consistent and forceful in its verbal commitment to respect human rights, but serious problems remain. The judicial system remains weak, understaffed, and at times subject to political influence. There were credible reports that members of the security forces committed a number of extrajudicial killings and beat or otherwise physically abused criminal suspects and detainees, although these practices do not appear to be widespread. The Government seldom tried, convicted, and appropriately punished security force members and police who committed such abuses. The Government harassed and detained without charge numerous journalists and a number of opposition party members, holding some for as long as several months. In September the authorities arrested approximately 500 members of the All-Amhara People's Organization (AAPO) on charges of unlawful assembly. Numerous reports alleged that EPRDF forces, opposition separatists, and Islamic militias all committed humanitarian violations, including the summary execution of civilians, in continued clashes in the eastern parts of the country. The TGE's sometimes heavyhanded tactics and an opposition boycott ensured an EPRDF victory in the June Constituent Assembly elections. Discrimination and violence against women and abuse of children continued to be serious problems...

FOREIGN RELATIONS

ANTI-US TREND
(ION 11 Mar 95, p.3)
Two grenades were thrown at the downtown premises of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Addis Ababa on February 26, on the eve of resuming the trial of dozens of high officials of the previous Ethiopian regime... The grenade attack caused no victims but some damage to property, the US embassy said. It came the same week that the Ethiopian defence ministry announced that a joint Ethiopian-US peace-keeping exercise code-named "Nectar Band" would start soon. The exercise will include the use of combat engineers to remove mines, of ordinance experts to make safe and dispose of ammunition, and of medical units for orthopaedic reconstructive surgery. The objective of the peace-keeping operation is to reinforce the capability of the Ethiopian armed forces when working under a United Nations peace-keeping umbrella.

HIJACK OF ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES AIRCRAFT ENDS IN SUDAN
(SWB 20 Mar 95 [RE in Amharic, 18 Mar 95])
The five hijackers who had hijacked and forced the Ethiopian Airlines' aircraft to land in western Sudan with its 92 passengers on board have surrendered today to Sudanese officials, Ethiopian Airlines stated this evening... The identity of the hijackers is not yet known but their plan was to go to Sweden. The plane is expected to arrive here in Addis Ababa with all its passengers soon, the airline stated.

SUDAN REAFFIRMS COMMITMENT TO EXTRADITION TREATY WITH ETHIOPIA
(SWB 24 Mar 95 [RNU in Arabic, 22 Mar 95])
State Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Ghazi Salah al-Din reaffirmed Sudan's commitment to the bilateral agreement concluded with Ethiopia in 1966 on extradition of criminals as well as its commitment to the national law on extradition of criminals issued in (?1967)...

ECONOMIC NEWS

ONCE-MARXIST ETHIOPIA TO START PRIVATISATION
(Reuter 16 Feb 95)
ADDIS ABABA - Ethiopia says it will soon start to sell off state-owned businesses including three hotels in the capital, drinks factories, restaurants and supermarkets.

Privatisation Agency Board chairman Assefa Abraha said state-owned enterprises and factories with assets not exceeding $8 million each would be sold at auction to local investors.

They would include the Ras, Ethiopia and Harambee hotels in Addis Ababa, the main mineral water producer, five soft drinks factories, 11 cooking oil and food processing plants, 20 restaurants, scores of retail centres and supermarkets and several agricultural businesses and dairy farms, Assefa added.

Speaking on state-run television on Wednesday night, he said employees of government-owned businesses would have the choice of organising themselves to buy up their firms or working for the new owner...

IMF ON IMPLEMENTATION OF ETHIOPIAN REFORM PROGRAM
(ION 25 Feb 95, p.7)
The International Monetary Fund, in a recent issue of its publication, encourages the Ethiopian government to remain "firmly attached to the implementation of its reform programme" in order to hit the targets fixed for 1994/1995. For that, says IMF, the government must "broaden the field already open to private investors and simplify the rules of the game" whilst at the same time cutting back on the total number of public enterprises and stepping up the efficiency of the remainder...

ETHIOPIA GETS $32.7 MILLION JAPANESE GRANT
(Reuter 20 Mar 95)
ADDIS ABABA - Japan has given Ethiopia up to $32.7 million for development projects, the state news agency reported on Monday.

The agency said part of the grant would be used for buying machinery for road maintenance.

Japan has taken an active interest in Ethiopia since dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam was overthrown in 1991...

Japanese assistance to the Horn of Africa nation was $66 million in 1994, the agency added.

SAUDI ARABIA SEES SCOPE FOR INVESTMENTS IN ETHIOPIA
(Moneyclips via RBB 4 Apr 95 [Riyadh Daily, by Furqan Ahmed])
RIYADH-The Leader of a 40-member Ethiopian trade mission currently in the Kingdom has said that the Saudi private sector is evincing keen interest in investing in Ethiopia's agro-industrial projects.

Ezra Worku, general manager, Investment Office of Ethiopia, said that his country offers tremendous investment opportunities due to the environment created by the transitional government. It encourages and facilitates the participation of foreign investors in the development effort of Ethiopia's national economy...

He said the delegation which arrived here Saturday held talks with the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry's members and other industrialists and potential investors. They have shown their interests in agriculture, textile, hide and skin industry, tourism and mining sector. Ethiopia is rich in mineral wealth. Hence this sector offers splendid opportunities for closer cooperation between the Kingdom and Ethiopia, he noted.

Gold exploration is a field of common interest because both Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia have rich deposits of gold and their experiences could be exchanged for their mutual benefit, Worku added...

DISCOVERY OF LARGE NATURAL GAS FIELD
(SWB 14 Feb 95 [REE in English, 9 Feb 95])
The Kalu gas share company says it would begin actual production after 30 months [from now] with an annual output of 65,000 tonnes of benzine, butane, kerosene and naphtha.

Mr Jihad Aba Koya [last element of name phonetic], the general manager of the company, said yesterday [8th February] that a deposit of 68bn cu.m. of natural gas was discovered at the Kalu locality of Region Five [eastern Ethiopia]. He said that the quantity was comparable with the deposit of countries of great potential like the USA...