[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 103 (Tuesday, July 26, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Page S8933]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         DEMOCRACY IN ETHIOPIA

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I want to bring to the attention of my 
colleagues an op-ed in today's edition of the Taipei Times by Berhanu 
Nega, the chairman of Ethiopia's main opposition political party.
  While the op-ed sheds light on the opposition's viewpoint throughout 
the controversial elections, I want to second the author's call for 
everyone in Ethiopia to commit themselves to a peaceful resolution of 
this crisis. Simply put, such a commitment is in the national interests 
of that country.
  Let me close by indicating that the Senate continues to follow events 
in Ethiopia. I ask that a copy of the op-ed be printed in the Record 
following my remarks.

                 [From the Taipei Times, July 22, 2005]

                  Ethiopia Is Struggling for Democracy

                           (By Berhanu Nega)

       When we in Ethiopia's political opposition agreed to 
     participate in the election that the government called in 
     June, we were under no illusion that the process would be 
     faultless. After all, Ethiopia has never known democracy. The 
     dictatorship of Mengistu Haile Mariam was Africa's most 
     blood-curdling Marxist regime, and was replaced by today's 
     ruling EPRDF, whose ``Revolutionary Democracy'' is but a more 
     subtle variation on the same theme.
       So we knew that there would be problems with the election, 
     that voting would not be clean in the way Western countries 
     take for granted. Yet we nonetheless believed that the 
     opposition, led by the Coalition for Unity and Democracy 
     (CUD), would have room to maneuver and campaign, owing to the 
     government's desire for international legitimacy. So we 
     decided to test the waters and push for a real political 
     opening and a genuinely competitive vote. Many Ethiopians 
     appear to have agreed with this strategy.
       The government did make some media available and engaged in 
     more than 10 live televised debates. So, at least at first, 
     there seemed to have been some intention on the government's 
     part to open up the process--if not completely, then 
     somewhat.
       Now, however, it appears that the authorities wanted only a 
     small, managed opening, on the assumption that they could 
     control the outcome.
       About a month before the election, the government began to 
     shut down the political space it had opened. Its election 
     campaign took on a vilifying tone, charging that the 
     opposition was bent on destroying ethnic groups 
     through genocide. Indeed, it called the opposition 
     ``interahamwe,'' invoking the memory of the Hutu militia 
     that slaughtered 800,000 Rwandan Tutsis in 1994. The 
     government also began to harass opposition parties, 
     especially in rural areas.
       This was unpleasant, but tolerable. So we continued 
     campaigning. But things became nastier a week before the 
     vote. Attendance at an official pro-government rally in the 
     capital, Addis Ababa, was dwarfed by our rally the following 
     day, when millions of demonstrators peacefully demanded 
     change and showed their support for us. At that point, the 
     government realized that its democratic opening was slipping 
     out of its control.
       Two days before the vote, our poll watchers and supporters 
     were searched, arrested, and given one-day trials, with most 
     sentenced to one or two months in jail. We feared that the 
     voting would take place without the presence of our poll 
     watchers. So we gave a press conference--all the opposition 
     parties together--the day before the vote, demanding that the 
     government release our party workers and allow people to vote 
     freely.
       Although the government met neither of these demands, the 
     early results clearly showed that the opposition was gaining 
     a large number of seats. It became obvious that we were 
     winning in many constituencies and that we had won in Addis 
     Ababa, as well as in most of the major cities and the rural 
     areas.
       What was surprising was the magnitude of the victory. In 
     Addis Ababa, top government officials, including the 
     ministers of education and capacity building, lost, as did 
     the speaker of the House of People's Representatives. In 
     rural constituencies, opposition candidates defeated such 
     EPRDF heavyweights as the ministers of defense, information, 
     and infrastructure, along with the presidents of the two 
     largest regions, Oromia and Amhara.
       The government wasted little time in responding: the next 
     day, it declared itself the winner, with not even half of the 
     constituencies reporting their results.
       No surprise, then, that the public erupted in anger. When 
     university students protested, the police moved in, killing 
     one. In demonstrations the following day, 36 more people were 
     killed. Soon after, our office workers were detained, and 
     Hailu Shawel, Chairman of the CUD, and senior CUD official 
     Lidetu Ayalew were put under house arrest. One hundred staff 
     members were taken from our head office in Addis Ababa alone, 
     and many more from regional offices. Up to 6,000 people were 
     jailed--CUD members and even ordinary citizens.
       My fear is that the will of Ethiopia's people will be 
     stifled by government hard-liners. Doubts about the 
     authenticity of the final results will create a danger of 
     instability. Everyone--the government, the opposition, and 
     the public--must commit themselves to a peaceful resolution.
       To restore calm before a recount can be held, confidence-
     building measures are needed. The military must be taken off 
     the streets. The ban on public demonstrations must be lifted. 
     Those in jail must be released or given a fair trial. Those 
     held simply because they do not support the government must 
     be freed and allowed to participate in the democratic 
     process. The government-controlled media must be open to 
     diverse opinions; in particular, opposition access must be 
     guaranteed.
       Equally important, the international community must send 
     observers--and thus a clear signal to the government that any 
     attempt to maintain power by force or intimidation is 
     unacceptable. The world must keep watching, just as it 
     watched in Georgia, Ukraine, Lebanon, and Palestine.
       For the first time in our ancient history, we Ethiopians 
     have voted our conscience. Our people have played their part 
     with courage and discipline. They deserve the opportunity to 
     build a genuine democratic political system. That is their 
     only guarantee to live in peace and to achieve prosperity.

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