Ethiopian Premier vows to crackdown on the growing demand by ethnic groups for self-administration and identity recognition

ESAT News (March 11, 2016)

Ethiopian Prime Minister, Hailemariam Desalegn vowed to crash demands by several ethnic groups in the country for self-administration and assertion of their identity, what the people believe was their constitutional rights.

The premier, presenting his six month report to the rubber stamp parliament with all its seats taken by the ruling coalition EPRDF, admitted that the increasing demand for recognition of identity and self-administration had become a headache to his government.

The premier’s statement was seen as incongruous to the federal system and the constitution of the land that gives autonomy to ethnic groups in the administration of their affairs and respect to their identity and culture.

The premier told the parliament, which has no member from an opposition party, that the demand by the people of Qimant to be recognized as separate from Amhara was legitimate while on the other hand the demand by the people of Wolkait, Konso, Kuncha and Sidama, to name a few, for assertion of their identity and self-administration was not justifiable.

His latest statement, like his usual hocus-pocus, was puzzling to many who see the prime minister as a stooge whose task was just parroting the words of the TPLF oligarchs who wield real political power.

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A former MP says crime against the Surma people had links to land grab and land taken by South Sudan

ESAT News (March 11, 2016)

A former Member of Parliament and deputy administrator of the Bench Maji zone in south Ethiopia said the crimes perpetrated against the people of Surma in the lower Omo Valley had direct links to the unbridled land grab by officials of the minority regime as well as the 100km land given to South Sudan.

The former MP, Mr. Bodi Baykeda, who spoke to ESAT in connection with the recent photos released on the social media showing the Surma people of South Ethiopia in a chain gang, which caused an uproar among Ethiopians and rights groups, said that was not the first time the people of Surma were treated inhumanely. He said the Surma were forced out of their land and have been wandering in neighboring localities which became a source of conflict.

Mr. Bodi said 100km of land that belonged to the Surma was given to South Sudan by the Ethiopian regime and a vast tract of fertile land was also taken by officials of the minority regime, leaving no option to the Surma but to wander from place to place.

He said he brought the issue to the attention of the parliament when he was an MP but it fell on deaf ears. He recalled that the response from the powers that be was that of threat.

He called on the international community and Ethiopians to help stop the human rights violations against the Surma people and the rampant land grab by members and cronies of the oligarchy in Ethiopia.
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People in Dabat, north Gondar joining armed resistance groups in big numbers

ESAT News (March 11, 2016)

A considerable number of people are leaving Dabat, north Gondar, to join the armed resistance groups in northern Ethiopia following a brutal crackdown by the Ethiopian security forces against the residents of Dabat who revolted against the minority government, according to a source who spoke on the phone with ESAT Radio on Tuesday.

The people of Dabat last week staged a protest blocking major roads leading to Debark, Shire and Mekelle. Residents of this north Gondar town are demanding for the TPLF, the clique ruling the country, to be removed from power.

The source said following last week protest, regime’s forces imprisoned dozens of people and those who dodged the arrest have left the town to join Patriotic Ginbot 7, an armed resistance group operating in northern Ethiopia.

The source said the people of Dabat had gallantly fought the TPLF during its days as a guerilla group in northern Ethiopia, and once it assumed power in Addis Ababa, operatives of the regime have been taking what the source said was retaliatory measures for the last 25 years.

He said the people in Dabat have also been resisting the annex of Wolkait-Tegede-Telemt to Tigray, an area which he said have always been part of Gondar and a sub region within Dabat.

Representatives of Dabat last week went to a meeting in Gondar and expressed their solidarity with the people of Wolkait-Tegede-Telemt in their struggle to assert their identity and return the land forcefully annexed to Tigray when TPLF took power 25 years ago.