The Society for Threatened Peoples STP (Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker GfbV) has accused the government of Ethiopia of massively obstructing the work of human rights organisations and opposition parties for the parliamentary elections planned for this coming Sunday. "The authorities are also intimidating systematically regime critics by arresting dozens of Oromo and Somali people", reported the STP Africa consultant, Ulrich Delius, on Wednesday in Göttingen. "Free and independent elections look very different. The presence of election observers from the European Union has not done anything so far to encourage fairness in the election campaign."

In many Ethiopian towns members of the opposition parties have been arbitrarily excluded from any electoral observation while members of the government party EPRDF are represented at all election offices. Telephone and internet connections of opposition politicians are systematically monitored with computer technology from China and critical foreign radio stations are jammed by the government.

"It is scandalous that the Oromo politician Birtukan Mideksa is still being kept in custody", said Delius. The former judge and most notable Ethiopian opposition politician was sentenced to life-long imprisonment following protests against the parliamentary election of 2005. Since the beginning of the year 2010 many Oromo journalists and opposition politicians and students have been arrested or sentenced to terms of imprisonment. The renowned "Ethiopian Human Right Council", a partner-organisation of the STP, has had to close nine of its twelve offices in the country. Many of the people working there have had to free abroad. A new law passed in 2009 stipulates that NGOs may not finance more than ten percent of their their work with funds from abroad. Many NGOs have had as a result to make severe reductions in their activities.

"Instead of pressure being exercised on the head of state, Meles Zenawi, to show more respect for human rights he is held up as a "figurehead of democracy in Africa", was the criticism of Delius for Europe's silence on the breaches of human rights. "The Prime Minister has two faces. While he allowed himself to be hailed at the climate summit in Copenhagen as the saviour of Africa, in his own country he rules with an iron hand. Anyone condemning Sudan's dictator Omar al-Bashir cannot make cooing noises at the autocrat Zenawi. Europe's double standard of morality damages the reputation and the credibility of the European Union."

Ulrich Delius can be reached at asien@gfbv.de