LEWISBURG, Pa. – An economics professor at a Pennsylvania university said Saturday he supports efforts to spread democracy in his native Ethiopia, but denied backing an alleged coup attempt there that led to the arrests of 35 people by the government.
“I’m very suspicious that there was an attempt at all,” said Berhanu Nega during an interview at his home outside of Lewisburg in north-central Pennsylvania. “This is not a government that has any credibility whatsoever in terms of telling the truth.”
He said he did not know who may have been arrested, and said it could have easily been some sort of overreaction.
“The government, every time, it panics,” he said. “It’s always treason, always acting against the government.”
Berhanu, 51, said he came to the U.S. as a young man in 1980, is married to an American citizen and has two sons. He is an associate professor of economics at nearby Bucknell University, a private liberal-arts school that enrolls about 3,400 undergraduates.
He previously taught at the university from 1990 until 1994, when he returned to Ethiopia to work at Addis Ababa University, according to a profile on the university’s Web site.
In 2005, he became the country’s first elected mayor when he won the mayoral race in Addis Ababa, the nation’s capital. But post-election violence over the election results led the Ethiopian government to shoot 193 protesters and to later jail Berhanu, other opposition leaders and thousands of supporters. Berhanu said the party was not responsible for the violent demonstrations.
The opposition leaders stood trial for nearly two years on charges of challenging the constitutional order — the charge was lessened from treason. The main clique of 38 opposition leaders pleaded guilty and were pardoned in 2007 after appealing to the government.
Berhanu and several other party leaders then left for the U.S., returning to the country in August 2007. He rejoined Bucknell as a visiting international scholar in economics in Spring 2008.
“It became very clear immediately after our release that they will not at all tolerate any opposition, meaningful opposition,” he said.
Berhanu also urged President Obama‘s administration to “carefully revisit its policy toward Ethiopia.”
“It is just unseemly for any democratic government such as the United States to have any relationship with it,” he said.
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Associated Press writer Anita Powell in Nairobi, Kenya, contributed to this report.
NAIROBI, Kenya (Apr 25) – The Ethiopian government has arrested 35 people suspected of a coup attempt allegedly backed by an Ethiopian-American economist now teaching at a Pennsylvania university, an Ethiopian government spokesman said Saturday.
Government spokesman Ermias Legesse said the group, which calls itself “May 15” after the date of controversial 2005 elections in Ethiopia, was led from the U.S. by former opposition leader Berhanu Nega, who teaches economics at Bucknell University. He is an assistant professor of economics, according to the Web site of the university in Lewisburg, Pa.
“It is the party led by Berhanu Nega,” said Ermias. “If he comes to Ethiopia, we’ll arrest him.”
He said the alleged coup plotters were arrested Friday.
Berhanu, an economist, was elected mayor of Addis Ababa in 2005 but was arrested afterward along with more than 100 other opposition politicians and stood trial for treason. He and the others were freed in 2007 in a pardon deal. He left Ethiopia after the trial.
The group of suspects was comprised of two cliques, one of former soldiers, another of civilians, Ermias said.
“They were caught with weapons, uniforms, even plans,” he said. “I don’t want to give details about the plans; it’s for the court case.”
Ermias said the charges have not been set and court proceedings will begin soon.
“They decided to change the government in an unconstitutional way,” he said.
Berhanu could not be reached at his Bucknell University office Saturday and his home number is unlisted. University officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
According to his profile on the university’s Web site, Berhanu has urged the U.S. to back democratic movements in Ethiopia — the nation is controlled by one dominant political party — and to withdraw support for Ethiopia’s government.
The opposition won an unprecedented number of parliamentary seats in the 2005 vote, but not enough to topple Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. The opposition claimed the voting was rigged, and European Union observers said it was marred by irregularities. The election was followed by violent protests in which Ethiopia acknowledged its security forces killed 193 civilians protesting alleged election fraud.
Since 2005, there has been only one opposition-led political protest in Ethiopia, held this month in Addis Ababa.
Ginbot 7 rejects government claim
ADDIS ABABA (Ethiomedia) – Police on Friday said they have arrested 35 suspected members of a movement that has vowed to overthrow the government by “any means possible,” state-run Walta news agency reported on Saturday.
The news agency said police and security forces carried out the clampdown on Friday on the alleged members of the “terrorist” Ginbot 7 group.
When the regime comes under enormous public pressure either from the civilian population or within the army, it resorts to diversionary tactics of making such baseless statements that enable it to kill, arrest, expel or even diplace civilians populations from their abode, the report said.
Ginbot 7 warned the latest statement was no different from what the regime has been churning out in the last 18 years of its stay in power.
Ginbot 7 warned that such desperate government measures would not deter the movement of the Ethiopian people from striving to acheive a democratic order by removing a tribalist dictatorial regime.
Exiled leaders of Ginbot 7 include Dr. Berhanu Nega, one of the opposition leaders who was elected mayor of Addis Ababa following his party’s victory at the 2005 polls.
Election results were later reversed, and a nationwide government crackdown was launched that threw leaders of the opposition into prison. The government was condemned for the bloody crackdown in which at least 193 civilians were killed.
Released after nearly two years in prison, Berhanu and colleagues launched Ginbot 7, declaring a peaceful transition in Ethiopia was a wishful thinking, and every possible means should be used to topple the regime that has ruled Ethiopia since 1991.
No attack has ever been launched by Ginbot 7, and this is the first major news report involving the fledgling movement.
Police said they have seized arms, explosives, satelliate communication tools, computers and documents. Those detained were civilians and army members.
Independent observers remain suspicious of the motive of the arrest.
“The government has years of experience in staging clampdowns on innocent people that are pictured with piles of guns, bombs and binoculars,” one observer who asked anonymity said. “The double-edged sword serves the government to conduct a pre-emptive strike [on would-be dissidents] on the one hand, and of striking fear into the heart of the civilian population on the other.”
The government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi is often the target of Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the State Department over its dismal human rights record.
The eight years of the Bush Administration were the ‘golden period’ for Mr. Zenawi, who committed gruesome crimes like the 2003 Gambella Genocide, Awassa Massacre but remained beyond reproach because he was seen as a partner on the “war on terror.”
Recently, the US-based Genocide Watch called on the United Nations to initiate prosecuting Mr. Zenawi on war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.
