Ethiopia’s opposition leader suspends five colleagues

Ethiomedia | December 16, 2007

Dr. Hailu Araya appeals to Engineer Hailu Shawel to rather join the efforts to re-build CUD in Addis (Ethiomedia photo)

SEATTLE, Washington – Hailu Shawel, leader of Ethiopia’s leading opposition group CUD on Friday suspended five senior members but the party’s spokesman, Dr. Hailu Araya, dismissed the measure as baseless and irrelevant.

The five suspended are CUD Vice President Ms. Bertukan Mideksa, CUD spokesperson Dr Hailu Araya, party executives Dr. Berhanu Nega, Engineer Gizachew Shiferaw and Brook Kebede.

The five leaders now at odds with the 73-year-old Engineer Hailu have in the last few months had a highly successful working visit to the Ethiopian Diaspora in the United States. Boycott calls made by groups loyal to Engineer Hailu Shawel in the US were largely ignored, signifying the five CUD officials command a huge respect among Ethiopians in their commitments to a democratic rule.

In a statement posted on a website run by Hailu Shawel’s group, 20 charges were levelled against the five leaders, a few of which read as “sidelining former members both at home and abroad, and trying to replace them with new recruits along with new structural set-ups; spreading malicious innuendos against the chairman, and attempts to replace him with Dr. Berhanu Nega.”

Hailu Shawel accused his former colleagues also of conducting
‘activities that threatened the existence of CUD-Kinijit.”

In an interview with the Voice of America (VOA) Amharic program over the weekend, Dr. Hailu Araya said Engineer Hailu Shawel had no power to suspend the five leaders of the opposition party, who are, with the exception of Dr. Berhanu Nega, in Addis Ababa trying to re-claim legal recognition from the government because they were incarcerated for nearly two years and their party had ceased to exist as a legal entity.

“We still consider Hailu Shawel as our president, as the president of CUD, and I personally appeal to him to join the rest of the CUD officials in Addis and try to put the party back on its feet,” Dr. Hailu Araya told VOA on Saturday. One of the questions that raised the eyebrows of listeners was when VOA journalist Addisu Abebe asked Hailu Shawel what could be transpired as, “The public perception is that you a dictator trying to place yourself above the party?”

Engineer Hailu, who is recuperating from his illeness in his Minnesota home, chuckled, and said, ” absolutely not.”

Meanwhile, Ms. Bertukan Mideksa and her colleagues who tried to convene a meeting in Addis were denied entry to CUD offices by guards they said were loyal to Hailu Shawel. Fearing a government reprisal, four hotels that at first okayed to rent out their conference rooms to CUD officials also declined to make the offer.

Bertukan and friends later handed out press releases to the media.

Despite worsening differences between Hailu Shawel and the other opposition leaders,
CUD continues to command a huge respect among the population. In a recently held Ethiopian Great Run in which 30,000 athlete competed in Addis, activists seized the rare moment and chanted slogans that call for the resignation of the dictator, Meles Zenawi, while flashing a “V” for CUD.