Ethiopia is threatened with new conflicts

The Society for Threatened Peoples issued a warning on Friday that new ethnic conflicts are likely in the multi-ethnic state of Ethiopia, should the protest movement of the political opposition parties gain the upper hand.

"This protest movement is not concerned with the democratisation of Ethiopia, but for a return to the old hegemony of the well-to-do Amharic minority.” said the GfbV Africa expert Ulrich Delius. Should they be successful at the polls the "Coalition for Unity and Democracy” (CUD) has announced that they would abolish the federal constitutional system, reintroduce Amharic as the only official language, abolish the right to self-determination of all nationalities which is anchored in the constitution and privatise land ownership.

"Instead of responding to the problems of the multi-ethnic state of Ethiopia of today, the CUD is producing the concepts of yesterday which will make violence escalate further” criticised Delius. Most of their support comes from the well-to-do citizens of the capital Addis Abebaba. Many CUD politicians have only returned to Ethiopia in recent years. Many had escaped from the dicatatorship of Mengistu Haile Mariam (/1977-1990), mostly to the USA and Canada.

It is however quite intolerable that the Ethiopian government countered the CUD supporters with violence and are systematically suppressing the freedom of the press and of demonstration. Since last Monday over 600 CUD supporters have been arrested. The GfbV made an express appeal to the Prime Minister Meles Zanawi to release the detained students immediately and no longer to suppress the freedom of the press. Under the pretext of the "dissemination of false information” concerning the demonstrations the authorities had withdrawn the licence of five Ethiopian journalists who had also worked for the radio stations "Deutsch Welle” and "Voice of America”. The photo-chips of photographers had also been confiscated.

More than 70 ethnic groups live in Ethiopia, in which 286 languages are spoken. The Amhars, who under Emperor Haile Selassie (1939 – 1974) and dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam form the governing elite, make up only 25% of the 70 million inhabitants of the multi-ethnic state. The other nationalities, especially the Oromo, the largest group with 40% of the population, demand the end of the discrimination and marginalisation. Although the Ethiopian constitution officially recognizes a federal system with extensive rights for the ethnic groups, in effect most of the nationalities are dominated by the people of Tigray and their ruling party the EPRDF. The organisations and political movements of other nationalities have been eliminated by the EPRDF.

Those who suffer the most from infringements of human rights are the Oromo majority, who are suspected in general of supporting the freedom movement of the Oromo Liberation Front. Following protests against the infringement of human rights against the Oromo in the year 2004 more than 300 Oromo students were forced to leave Ethiopian universities. Four of the leaders of the Oromo charity organisation Macha Tulama who were arrested on 18th May 2004 are still in custody although the Supreme Court ordered that they be set free.