CUDP seeks dialogue despite prison ordeal: NPR

Ethiomedia | September 12, 2007

The visiting CUDP officials and accompanying hosts are pictured above with The Honorable Donald Payne, member of the US Congress and a leading human rights campaigner seeking a legislation that would ascertain the respect of human rights and the rule of law in Ethiopia (Photo: Kinijit-DC).

WASHINGTON DC – Ethiopia’s top opposition party was ready for reconciliation and national dialogue with the government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi despite a tormenting ordeal while in prison that lasted 21 months, a top opposition figure told the National Public Radio (NPR) on Tuesday.

Bertukan Mideksa, vice chair of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy Party (CUDP-Kinijit), told NPR that her party would like to leave behind a painful ordeal her colleagues and she bore while they were in prison following a government crackdown after the May 2005 elections.

The CUDP officials were thrown into jail under the cover of “trying to overthrow the government,” a charge the opposition figures discard as baseless and cruel. Independent observers cite “unprecedented opposition victory” at the polls that prompted the incumbent government to launch a state of emergency and keep itself in power by force.

Meanwhile, Dr. Hailu Araya, spokesperson of CUDP, said he was baffled by the indifference the US showed to what was going on the country. “There is aleady a disappointment,” he added.

NPR said the State Department did criticize Ethiopia for the crackdown, saying it will cast a shadow over the government but Araya believes the imprisonment of opposition figures did not get the kind of attention it deserved in Washington because of America’s security relationship with Ethiopia.

The following is a transcribed version of the what the two CUDP officials told NPR:

Some Ethiopian dissidents want the US to support change in their own country. They are lobbying for democratic reforms when they spoke with NPR’s Michell Kallmann:

Members of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy Party (CUDP) in Ethiopia saw the 2005 elections as a major breakthrough, the opposition party did well and 71-year-old Hailu Araya won a seat in parliament. But in months, he and many others found themselves in jail, the target of a government crackdown on opposition figures.

“It’s a mystery for us too,” says Hailu. “Really it’s very difficult for us to explain. This is why we didn’t even choose to contest the charges. We didn’t know how to go about it because we didn’t do anything [wrong].”

The father of two was convicted to life in prison for trying to overthrow the government. But he was pardoned after he was 21 months in jail.

The same is true for Bertukan Mideksa, a 33-year-old lawyer and top party official who described the crowded conditions in which she and other political prisoners were held for several months.

“People who are charged with so many different types of crimes are put together. It really was a hard time for us. But more than that, what was tormenting and a cause of suffering for us was that we didn’t commit any crime.”

The two opposition party members who came to NPR yesterday afternoon are here in the U.S. meeting with the Ethiopian diaspora, trying to talk about their next steps.

“After terrible things happened to our lives, we are still ready for reconciliation; we are still ready for political dialogue,” says Bertukan.

But what kind of political lives they can have remains an open question.

Araya says when they were convicted, they lost all their political rights.

“When the pardon came, we were told our rights were restored. So on paper, theoretically, yes, we are free. In practice, we are not sure; we haven’t had enough time.”

The State Department did criticize Ethiopia for the crackdown, saying it will cast a shadow over the government but Araya believes the imprisonment of opposition figures did not get the kind of attention it deserved in Washington because of America’s security relationship with Ethiopia.

If our pleas are ignored, or if the [US] government turns a blind eye to what’s going on in the country because of the alliance, then there will be a disappointment, and in fact, there is already a disappointment.”

New Jersey Congressman Donald Payne, who visited the opposition figures when they were in jail, has been trying to push through legislation that would tie U.S. aid to Ethiopia’s record on human rights.

Ethiopian officials have lobbied against it, saying Ethiopia is a vital partner of the US in the war on terrorism. As Prime Minister Meles Zenawi was quoted, “it should be treated by Capitol Hill like a banana republic.”