From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Fri May 07 2010 - 09:23:35 EDT
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601116&sid=aSZh3_b5pcXUEthiopian
Campaign Has Become ‘War’ on Opposition, Leader Says
May 7 (Bloomberg) -- Ethiopia’s ruling party has increased harassment of
opposition supporters before a May 23 election in the Horn of Africa
country, opposition coalition leader Merara Gudina said.
Activists loyal to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s Ethiopian People’s
Revolutionary Democratic Front have thrown stones at his car, breaking its
windows and puncturing its tires over various occasions while campaigning in
the Oromiya region in the past two weeks, said Merara, who is a
parliamentary candidate.
“It looks like sort of a war, not an election,” Merara said in a phone
interview from the capital, Addis Ababa, today.
Public meetings for Medrek, an alliance of opposition parties, are often
blocked by local officials in Oromiya, Merara said. Medrek leaders have been
barred from hotels and from buying fuel in some areas of the region, he
said. The ruling alliance is defending a majority of 400 seats in the
537-seat parliament.
A video camera was stolen that had been used to document what activists
described as abuses, Merara said.
Government spokesman Shimeles Kemal could not immediately comment on the
allegations when reached on his mobile phone. Seikuture Getachew and
Hailemariam Desalegn, spokesmen for the ruling party, did not answer calls
to their mobile phones.
Two Medrek activists have been killed since March. The government has denied
the two deaths were connected to the campaign.
The opposition is planning to use violence to topple the government, Tedros
Hagos, head of the political bureau of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front
which rules the country in a coalition with Meles’ party, said on April 28.
Security forces loyal to Meles killed 193 demonstrators in the aftermath of
the country’s disputed 2005 poll. Opposition leader Birtukan Mideksa is in
jail on a life sentence for treason given after the election.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jason McLure in Addis Ababa via
Johannesburg at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.
*Last Updated: May 7, 2010 07:46 EDT*
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