MARCH 11/2004

The ethnic politics that violates the rights of the people continues to wreak havoc all over Ethiopia. Examples abound:

In the Karati district of Konso a month long clash has left scores of people dead and many more wounded. The EPRDF is held responsible for the violence that cost many lives as a consequence of its repressive actions against the Konso People's Democratic Union Yekonso Hizb Democrasiawi Hibret). Numerous KPDU leaders and members have been jailed and others arbitrarily deprived of their jobs in the administration.

In Gambella, the violence that cost the lives of more than a 1000 people is still continuing. The EPRDF has tried to wriggle out of its culprit status by "apologizing", an apology that is self serving and has the EPRDF "blaming" itself for not taking a "proactive" and preemptive action to hinder the massacre. While evidence shows that the police and cadres of the regime were initially responsible for the massacre there is an ongoing attempt to shift the responsibility from the EPRDF as a whole and from Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, Federal Affairs minister Abai Tsehaye and his deputy Dr, Gebreab Barnabas, unto the shoulders of ordinary policemen and cadres. An opposition front in Gambella has accused the EPRDF of digging out corpses to hide the number of the dead before local or international investigators appear on the scene.

Reliable reports now attest that one third of peasants who had been forced to buy fertilizers from the EPRDF owned firms and who had not been able to pay have been thrown into jail and of these the majority come from the Amara, Oromo and Southern regions where people officially considered as "enemies" of the ruling Tigrean front live.

SOCEPP