http://www.thestar.com.my/news/world/2016/10/11/ethiopia-blames-foreign-hands-for-stoking-unrest/
Tuesday, 11 October 2016 | MYT 12:57 AM
Ethiopia blames foreign hands for stoking unrest
by aaron maasho
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopia accused "elements" in Eritrea, Egypt
and elsewhere on Monday of being behind a wave of violent protests
over land grabs and human rights that have prompted the government to
declare a state of emergency in the Horn of Africa nation.
The unrest has cast a shadow over Ethiopia, whose state-led industrial
drive has created one of Africa's fastest growing economies but whose
government also faces criticism at home and abroad over its
authoritarian approach to development.
Ethiopia declared a state of emergency on Sunday after more than a
year of unrest in its Oromiya and Amhara regions, near the capital
Addis Ababa, where protesters say the government has violated their
land and other political rights.
"There are countries which are directly involved in arming, financing
and training these elements," government spokesman Getachew Reda said,
referring to the protesters, although he added that those responsible
might not have state approval.
Getachew told a news conference the six-month nationwide state of
emergency had been declared to better coordinate security forces
against "elements" intent on targeting civilians, infrastructure and
private investments.
A panel of seven United Nations experts called on Monday for an
international investigation into the violence in Ethiopia, which
rights groups say has killed about 500 people, a figure the government
says is exaggerated.
"The scale of this violence and the shocking number of deaths make it
clear that this is a calculated campaign to eliminate opposition
movements and silence dissenting voices,” Maina Kiai, a U.N. rights
rapporteur, said in a statement.
Last week, protesters damaged around a dozen factories and equipment
mostly belonging to foreign firms, accused by the demonstrators of
buying property leases on their seized land.
That flare-up followed a stampede on Oct. 2 in which at least 55
people were killed after police fired teargas and shots into the air
to disperse protesters during a crowded annual festival in the town of
Bishoftu in Oromiya.
Protesters had chanted anti-government slogans and made arm gestures
to symbolise repression, while some had waved flags of an outlawed
rebel group, the Oromo Liberation Front.
FOREIGN MEDDLING?
Getachew named Eritrea, which has a long-running border dispute with
Ethiopia, and Egypt, embroiled in a row with Addis Ababa over sharing
Nile waters, as sources of backing for "armed gangs", although he said
it might not come from "state actors".
"We have to be very careful not to necessarily blame one government or
another," Getachew said, saying some "elements" in Egypt fanning
unrest might not have direct links to government.
The Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman dismissed accusations of
meddling and said Egypt had "absolute respect for Ethiopia’s
sovereignty". Eritrea routinely denies charges it wants to destabilise
its neighbour.
Many people from Oromiya, a region at the heart of Ethiopia's
industrialisation drive, accuse the state of seizing their land and
offering meagre compensation before selling it on to companies, often
foreign investors, at inflated prices.
They also say they struggle to find work, even when a new factory is
sited on property they or their families once owned.
Frustrations about mistreatment by central government have long
festered in Oromiya and Amhara, where new industries and foreign
flower farms have sprung up. The two regions are home to more than
half Ethiopia's total population of 99 million people.
Opponents of the government say a parliamentary election last year, in
which the opposition won no seats, was rigged against them.
In an apparent olive branch to the protesters, President Mulatu
Teshome Wirtu told parliament on Monday Ethiopia should "widen
democratic platforms to ensure alternative views are expressed" before
the next vote in 2020.
The president is a largely ceremonial figure but has previously served
in the ruling party, giving his voice weight.
However Merera Gudina, leader of the Oromo Federalist Congress,
swiftly dismissed his suggestion as "too little, too late", saying
protesters wanted new elections immediately.
The ruling coalition, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic
Front, which has been in power for a quarter of a century, is made up
of four parties representing the main ethnic groups. But opponents say
Tigrayans, a smaller ethnic group whose powerbase is in the north, are
pulling the strings.
The government denies this.
Though praised for transforming an economy that Ethiopia's former
Marxist rulers drove towards a devastating famine in 1984, the
government has come under fire from domestic critics and rights groups
for offering little political reform.
U.S. President Barack Obama told his Ethiopian hosts in Addis Ababa
last year that greater political openness would "strengthen rather
than inhibit" their development agenda.
The government, which presided over economic growth of 10 percent in
2015, said it ensured political freedoms but differed over the pace of
any reforms demanded by Washington.
(Additional reporting by Lin Noueihed in Cairo and Tom Miles in
Geneva; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Gareth Jones)
Received on Mon Oct 10 2016 - 14:47:36 EDT