Ethiopia opposition says nearly
450 members jailed

3 November, 2009 | By Barry Malone, Daniel Wallis
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

* Parties say arrests are politically motivated

* One party says seven members murdered in a year

* Government says it will investigate names

ADDIS ABABA, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Ethiopian opposition parties say
nearly 450 of their members have been jailed to stop them running as
candidates in national elections in May next year.

    Documents given to Reuters
    by four opposition parties
    listed the prisoners' names,
    the dates on which they were
    arrested and the jails in which
    they were being held.

    One party, the All Ethiopia
    Unity Organisation (AEUO),
    has recorded seven murders
of members over the last 12 months that it says were politically
motivated.

"These jailings are to stop our members running in elections," Gizachew
Shiferaw, deputy leader of the Unity for Democracy and Justice (UDJ)
party, told Reuters. "It has become a strategy for the ruling party.
Ethiopia is a one-party state."

Most analysts say the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary
Democratic Front (EPRDF) will easily win the 2010 elections -- but
opposition parties say that is because government harassment will stop
their members contesting.

The authorities strongly deny the claims and say only criminals have
been arrested.

"Nobody has been imprisoned or killed for political activity, to my
knowledge," Bereket Simon, the Ethiopian government's head of
information, told Reuters, adding that the authorities would further
investigate the documented names.

"Our preliminary investigation indicates that these people are engaged in
real crime," he said. "We can't release criminals because they are
opposition members."

NO CHANCE OF WINNING

Bereket said the opposition was trying to discredit the electoral process
because they realised they had no chance of winning in 2010. This
week, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and three opposition parties agreed
a set of rules for the elections.

Police and soldiers shot dead about 200 protesters after the opposition
accused the government of rigging elections in 2005.

Along with the AEUO and the UDJ, the other two parties who gave
Reuters lists of detainees were the Oromo Federalist Democratic
Movement (OFDM) and the Oromo Peoples' Congress, who have been
refused permission to form an alliance.

Most of those listed are ethnic Oromos who, despite being Ethiopia's
largest group, have not held power in modern times.

Meles comes from the Tigryan ethnic group, who make up only 6
percent of the population but dominate the political elite.

Another three parties told Reuters members were regularly arrested and
held briefly to scare them off registering for the polls. Those parties
have not yet begun documenting the cases.

Photographs seen by Reuters show vandalised buildings in small towns
outside the capital Addis Ababa that the opposition says are their
regional offices.

Ethiopia has never had a peaceful transition of power. Meles took over
in 1991 after a rebel group led by him and others overthrew a
communist regime.

                                    Courtesy
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