Prof. Berhanu Berhe

Ambassador Addis Alem Balema

MEKELLE, Ethiopia – A
college law professor campaigning independently among the people of Tigray region in the run-up to the May elections said Friday poverty was the reflection of a failed government, and his campaign goals were to bring about the rule of law, the respect of human and democratic rights in the country, and the abolition of the Algiers Agreement, and the rejection of the so-called Boundary Commission ruling altogether.

In an interview with journalist Betre Siltan of the Voice of America (VOA) Tigrinya Program, Berhanu Berhe, Dean of the Law Department of Hashenge College in southern Tigrai, said government policies in Ethiopia were flawed and he believed measures were needed to bring about a change for the better. “I am not talking at regional level, that I would campaign only for a change in Mekelle,” said Berhanu, adding, “my goals are at national level, at the level of bringing about change in Ethiopia.”

Berhanu, who was a former TPLF combatant but had abandoned the group over political differences, said it is when there is a change at the national level that injustices at the local level could be corrected. He said the government was above the law, and addressed as illegal that the regional administration in Mekelle had to dissolve the council of, for instance, of the people of Tembien Abiy Adi, because he said the people were fighting for their fundamental rights.

In the about 20-minute interview, Berhanu raced to cover injustices committed from the local to the national level, including what he said founding the Algiers Agreement on defunct colonial treaties that suited Eritrean interests.

Countering his arguments was Addis Alem Balema, a longtime ambassador to China, and a close confidant of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

Ambassador Addis Alem, who vowed to work closely with the regional government in Mekelle as opposed to his opponent’s, said the Algiers Agreement was worked out in accordance with the spirit of international law, and was flawless in its content. He said it was a document aimed at avoiding war, and establishing lasting peace with Eritrea. A Central Committee member of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), one of the groups in the coalition of the ruling EPRDF party, Addis Alem commended his government’s policy toward solving disputes with Eritrea peacefully, though Berhanu accused the ambassador’s side of ceding Ethiopian territories to Eritrea, while opposing the Boundary Commission which ruled areas known as Tsorena and Forto Carduna as Ethiopian territories.

“Something has seriously gone wrong when the (TPLF) government pushes to hand over Ethiopian territories to Eritrea, but resists territorial offers to Ethiopia,” the independent campaigner remarked. Berhanu added his campaign goals include above all, for the respect of law in the country, that every government or party official, including the prime minister, or his spokesman, or their parliament, would not reign over law of the land.

Ambassador Addis Alem, who said he had a PhD in international development and an MA in law, and several years of experience in international affairs, regretted that his political opponent had failed to utilize his expertise in law, and said it was a lie that TPLF had turned down a Boundary Commission ruling which favored Ethiopia.

The Boundary Commission which Meles and Eritrean President Isayas Afewerki set up following the Algiers Agreement in 2000, ruled and made public in April 2003 a decision Tserona and Forto Carduna were Ethiopia’s, but the delegation which Meles sent to represent Ethiopia in The Hague argued the areas were undisputed Eritrean territories.

But much more than debating the peripheral areas, the debate betwen the two heated up further, until it sounded the election campaign was between an Ethiopian and an Eritrean. The 44-year-old Berhanu questioned the legitimacy of the 1991 Referendum on Eritrea, which was spearheaded by the government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who called on the UN and other regional and international organizations to recognize the independence of Eritrea as a sovereign nation, and the fall of Ethiopia into the ditch as landlocked.

Rebuffing Berhanu’s arguments, Addis Alem cited a 1964 Organization of African Unity (OAU) resolution on borders and colonial treaties, and justified Eritrea’s Referendum was conducted in compliance with the OAU Resolution. But the ambassador’s response was, once again, rejected by Berhanu, who asserted the 1964 OAU resolution was irrelevant to Ethiopia, because Ethiopia was an independent nation, and Eritrea an integral part of Ethiopia.

In fourteen years since Meles came to power, this is the first time that an independent candidate is running for a seat in the House of Representatives from Tigray region, and an independent campaigner has directly challenged the policies of TPLF, which has long been accused by the Ethiopian people and mainstream opposition such as the UEDF and CUD of working for Eritrean interests while masquerading as Ethiopian.

Though many election frauds have already been reported in Ethiopia, observers believe the ruling group would have no chance of winning the elections provided they are conducted with intimidations, and any other form of government retribution against the people.

Ethiopian opposition parties have called on international observers to monitor the conduct of the elections.
The United States government, which has played a significant role in helping build democracy in Ethiopia, suffered a minor diplomatic hiccup last week when Prime Minister Meles Zenawi expelled three U.S. election monitoring groups from the country.

The government expulsion orders against the U.S. democracy groups under the pretext of “failing to register as NGOs,” and an ongoing government propaganda that the group members were CIA agents, has already brewed anger among the people and opposition parties that the regime was resorting to nasty, outdated “Cold War” politics to cover up its pre-emptive strike at independent groups it feared would expose its crimes in the forthcoming elections. Observers fear such unwarranted actions may entail serious repercussions.