Travel Guide |
July 15, 2006


Ethiopia: National politics and the future

After 15 years in the shadows, the global media is throwing Meles Zenawi into the ranks of ruthless African tyrants like Robert Mugabe. After he lost a May 2005 election, the tyrant in control of government power in Ethiopia, unleashed his security forces and killed scores of proteters, while arresting the entire opposition leaders, journalists, and civil rights activists whom Amnesty International has declared
prisoners of conscience. (Photo: AFP)


The subject of this paper is the Ethiopian national politics and the future of the country. It is not directed against any ethnic group or society. We are stakeholders on matters that concern Ethiopia. For us, to strive for the well being and freedom of the Ethiopian people is a sacred mission to which we have dedicated our lives. We simply consider it our duty to the country of our birth, to be apprehensive of any development that impinges and negatively affects the welfare of the people, and the independence and sovereignty of the nation.

First of all we would like to state emphatically that we support any dialogue or setup without pre-conditions, amongst all Ethiopian political and civic factions, to discuss ways to solve peacefully the present crisis, and establish peace, freedom and democracy in Ethiopia. We object to the pre-conditions contained in the Memorandum of Understanding and the Statutes that establish the Alliance For Democracy within the framework of the present TPLF/OLF constitution.

Some people see in the ADF a new opening and a new hope for peace and freedom in Ethiopia. But unfortunately, hopes and good intentions are not marketable commodities in politics. Moreover, when terms and conditions are set in advance by a signed agreement, stage managed behind the scene, such as the Memorandum of Understanding and the Statutes of the ADF. In which instance Kinijit, with the overwhelming popular support in Ethiopia, has been reduced to a single minority voice, while the Liberation Fronts are the deciding majority.

We are talking here about the survival and political future of the seventy-seven million people of Ethiopia. To speculate and gamble on such serious matter, as dismantling and restructuring Ethiopia at the whim of Liberation Fronts is simply unthinkable. We believe that the people of Ethiopia will never accept the braking up of their country into ethnic morsels. We also believe that no political party or group has the right or the mandate to do so, without the free deliberation of the people of Ethiopia.