[dehai-news] (Nation, Nairobi) Rights group tells of abuse in Sudan and Ethiopia polls


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From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Wed Mar 24 2010 - 14:41:38 EST


http://www.nation.co.ke/News/africa/Rights%20group%20tells%20of%20abuse%20in%20Sudan%20and%20Ethiopia%20polls%20/-/1066/886078/-/j5e7jvz/-/Rights
group tells of abuse in Sudan and Ethiopia polls

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. Photo/FILE
 By EMEKA-MAYAKA GEKARA, NATION Writer
Posted Wednesday, March 24 2010 at 20:00

An international human rights watchdog has warned that Sudan and Ethiopia
are unlikely to hold free and fair elections planned for April and May
respectively due to political repression by government forces.

In reports released in Nairobi on Wednesday clearly timed to send a
statement ahead of the polls, Human Rights Watch accused the two governments
of gross violation of human rights.

The agency said studies conducted between November 2009 to March 2010 in
Sudan found that both the Government of National Unity and the Government of
South Sudan have been restricting freedoms critical to a fair poll,
including freedoms of expression, assembly press, and equal access to the
media.

“Conditions in Sudan are not yet conducive for a free, fair, and credible
election,” said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
“Unless there is a dramatic improvement in the situation it is unlikely that
the Sudanese people will be able to vote freely for leaders of their
choice.”

On its part, Ethiopian government was accused of waging sustained attack on
political opponents, journalists and rights activists.

The agency says the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic has
been suppressing opposition supporters by withholding services such as
agricultural inputs, loans and job opportunities. The government has also
enacted laws that gag the media.

“Expressing dissent is very dangerous in Ethiopia,” said Gagnon.

But the Ethiopian embassy in Nairobi denied the claims and accused the
agency of being used to discredit the polls.

Mr Yelibu Lijalem, the media man at the embassy said the agency released a
similar report two weeks before the 2005 elections. “The reports are being
written deliberately to blackmail and tarnish Ethiopia’s human rights
record.”

Ethiopian government of Melese Zenawi is holding parliamentary elections on
May 23.

And, across the border, Sudan is scheduled to hold a general election in
both north and south from April 11 to 18. The election is a milestone in the
implementation of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that brought an end
to Sudan’s civil war.

But the watchdog declared that President Omar-Al-Bashir was unfit to run for
re-election because the International Criminal Court wants him arrested over
war crimes committed in Darfur.

“He is a fugitive from justice,” Gagnon said. “He should be in The Hague
answering to charges of heinous crimes.”

In the north, the authorities have been accused of detaining opposition
supporters and breaking up gatherings.

The watchdog claimed that in one incident on March 14, two armed men
arrested Abdallah Badawi, an activist with the group Girfina (“We Are Fed
Up”) in Khartoum and severely assaulted him.

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