Arena opposition members attacked while campaigning in Adigrat

January 25, 2014

ADIGRAT – TPLF mobsters in the norther town of Adigrat on Friday attacked opposition members who were campaigning publicly ahead of a Sunday public gathering.

Abraha Desta, an instructor at Mekelle University widely known to Ethiopians via his dissenting views on FaceBook as well as veteran opposition figure Asgede Gebreselassie and Amdom Gebreselassie were attacked by TPLF gangsters.

Earlier, two Arena opposition party members, Amdom and Gebrecherkos, were detained by police for about two hours before they were released with a warning to cancel the meeting.

The opposition members continued to campaign despite attacks by TPLF-sent youths as young as 12.

“The mobsters were following us everywhere, throwing stones at us, pestering us with all sorts of nuisance, and often trying to hit us and they were doing it in front of the police and TPLF officials,” said Asgede, who was veteran of the war TPLF waged for 17 tears to topple the Derg in 1991.

He said government agents were following them everywhere, and when they retired to their bedroom as night fell, police came in and searched their rooms.

The officials have also called for parallel and mandatory public meetings on Sunday for various TPLF-affiliated associations like youth, women’s, workers’, teachers’, farmers’, etc in order to deter anyone going to the Arena opposition meeting, Asgede said.

Observers say the people of Tigrai, as the rest of the Ethiopian people, are fed up of TPLF misrule, and support for the opposition has been gaining momentum. Wary of political change, TPLF heavily relies on fostering violence, such as deploying spies whose round-the-clock job is to hound members of the opposition and anyone suspected of harboring anti-TPLF views.

“The climate in Adigrat is dismal,” the usually bold Asgede said with an air of sadness. “They rule by the threat of force.”