It has been a daily invocation of the EPRDF that the upcoming election would be “free, fair and democratic”. It sometimes says it will also be peaceful. However the practices on the ground are quite the contrary. The ruling party has intensified its harassments and intimidations on the genuine opposition parties throughout the country. Several opposition parties had been airing their concern on the gross abuse of human and political rights perpetrated on their members; though the ruling party dismissed their claims as baseless and mere fabrications. The prime minister himself, in his recent interview, has reiterated that the accusations of the opposition are baseless. Our party Arena Tigray for Democracy and Sovereignty (Arena) had been silent in exposing the harassments and intimidations perpetrated on our rank and file party members and the leadership hoping that there would be improvements on the side of the ruling party. As the situation is deteriorating day in day out we have been forced to make the harassments and intimidations public on case by case basis.
It was exciting news for the public that Arena had opened offices in two important centers of Tigray i.e. Shire Endassellasie and Tembien Abi Adi. These areas are known for their strong resistance against the rule of the Derg. Shire is, in the meantime, the birth place of the TPLF. These areas are known not only for their strong resistance against the Derg but also against the unjust rule of the TPLF. It was a recent history that the people of Abi Adi defiantly demonstrated against the TPLF’s rule demanding several economic and political rights. Their strong resistance ended with the disbandment of the local council and several harassments on the inhabitants. Despite all these harassments and intimidations the inhabitants of Tembien are continuing to show their grievances and resistances against the misrule of the TPLF. Shire has also been the center of resistance to the misrule of the TPLF. The desire by the ruling party to cede Badme and its environs to Shabea was strongly resisted by the people of Shire and hence the plan of handing over the sovereign territory was frustrated. The public in general and the youth in particular have been resisting the unjust rule of the TPLF and had expressed their dismay in public meetings blatantly. Since then these areas have been labeled as potential hotbeds of the opposition by the TPLF. They had been identified with the opposition even before the formation of Arena; and as such the ruling party was suspicious of them.
The worst features of the ruling party are being revealed after the formation and opening of the offices of Arena in these vicinities. In a very short moment harassments and intimidations have become rampant. These cases have been strongly evident in particular in our office in Shire. The following are the harassments and intimidations perpetrated on our party in Shire.
Right after the opening of the Arena office in Shire Enda Sellassie a meeting of the civil servants was conducted by the TPLF cadres and they were incited to oppose our party. They were told that a Tigrigna speaking anti-Tigrean Kinijit have opened an office in the cradle of the TPLF and it was shame on them. We take this as a recipe for incitement to harass our members and to attack our office there. Despite TPLF’s agitations some civil servants strongly opposed the view and outspokenly told them it was the constitutional right of every political party to organize and mobilize the public. They also rightfully told them that it is up to the public to judge whether a certain party is anti-Tigrean or not. The plan of the TPLF to incite the civil servants was foiled right at the meeting; but later those who spoke their minds were labeled agents of Arena.. They are now telling us in secret that they are being harassed and intimidated.
Last week the lock of our office was broken and there was an attempt to break into our office. In the meantime our posters were damaged. It is incumbent upon the government to protect the security of our office and our members but we are witnessing the contrary.
The land lord who rented his house to Arena’s office is being pressurized to breach his contract. And we have been informed that it has become very difficult for him to resist the pressure and have to breach his contract though we had agreed to rent it for a longer period.
The head of the office, who is working voluntarily, has been lured several times that if he were to quit his service he will be rewarded employment with a fat salary. His parents and relatives have also been harassed and were ordered to put pressure on him to quit his service.
Successive meetings of the public and civil servants conducted by the cadres are underway in the town. The themes of the meetings are quite offensive and unconstitutional. They try to blackmail individual members of Arena and the party as whole as anti-peace, anti-development and anti-Tigrean.
Those are some of the harassments and intimidations perpetrated on our party in Shire Endassellasie. Similar smear campaigns and harassments against us are undertaken in other parts of Tigray, too. An intimidated land lord in Mekele who has rented his building for our office has asked us to move out for fear of pressure from the ruling party and three land lords in Abi Adi had broken their contracts of renting buildings after they had been told to do so by the local cadres. The stories are endless.
Despite the rhetoric of the ruling party that there is enough political space for free and fair elections in the upcoming elections things are deteriorating on the ground. Panicked ruling party and its cadres are resolved to stay in power for the next generation by denying free and fair elections that are stipulated in the constitution and are the standards of any democratic system. Bedsides, they seem resolved to grossly deny the fundamental human and democratic rights of citizens. Time shall tell how the process is going to wind up.
