G8: Deaglán de Bréadún, Foreign Affairs Correspondent, talks to Ethiopian opposition activist Dr Berhanu Nega in DublinDemocratic change
World leaders assembled at the G8 summit in Scotland next week should send a clear message to Ethiopia's prime minister Meles Zenawi that the conduct of his regime is not acceptable to the international community, a senior member of the Ethiopian opposition told The Irish Times in Dublin this week.
"It is up to the international community to send a very, very clear message that Meles and his government cannot circumvent the democratic process," said Dr Berhanu Nega (47), campaign manager for the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), Ethiopia's main opposition grouping.
An economist by profession, Nega says he would prefer if the world leaders did not even wait for the G8, but spoke out with "a unified voice" beforehand. "Time is of the essence." Zenawi is a member of British prime minister Tony Blair's Commission for Africa, which is meant to be promoting human rights and better governance.
Likewise Nega says Ireland, which gives substantial aid to Ethiopia (the latest figure available is €28 million in 2003), should reconsider its relationship with the Zenawi government. "We want Ireland and the rest of the donor community to be committed to Ethiopian democracy, not to any particular regime." He does not want any cuts in food relief, but "the message has to be clear".
Nega acknowledges that the election campaign to the Federal Parliament in his country last May was "OK in many ways". The opposition had access to the media and live television debates were screened between representatives of the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and opposition figures. But it "turned a little bit nasty" towards the end of the campaign.
The election took place on May 15th and with count results coming in for almost half the country's 547 parliamentary seats, Nega says the CUD was getting 60-65 per cent of the vote. But the night of the election, Zenawi announced a state of emergency and a ban on demonstrations in Addis Ababa and surrounding areas to counter "havoc" and "fear" created by the opposition, even though the country was peaceful and calm at the time. That declaration, says Nega, was the "first shock".
The following night the EPRDF announced it had won the election. The CUD's election observers were "kicked out" of count-centres. Media access was also denied to CUD representatives. "Then the media started announcing, constituency by constituency, that the EPRDF had won." The election board, a nominally independent body staffed by civil service appointees of the prime minister, started issuing provisional results which generally favoured the incumbent administration. But there were almost 300 complaints about electoral irregularities so the board launched an investigation. The CUD demanded that party representatives and international observers be involved.
Trouble was developing on the streets. Students called for a boycott of classes to force "a credible investigation". Government forces began arresting students in the middle of the night.
"They were beating and arresting masses and masses of students." Leaflets were circulated calling for strike action to secure the release of the students.
Taxi-drivers in Addis Ababa went on strike. The security forces, Dr Nega said, killed at least 36 people.