During a meeting with ethnic Amhara and ethic Oromo opposition parties, Ethiopian PM Abiy Ahmed says “Those who play and those who watch the game do not seem to know the rule of the game.”
borkena
November 14, 2019
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government is engaging opposition parties operating in Oromo and Amhara regional states of Ethiopia. The meeting took place on Thursday in the afternoon.
” …The meeting is organized following events that have increasingly led to the loss of lives and destruction of property in both regions. It is aimed at facilitating dialogue among political parties active in the two regions towards developing a common agenda in service to the needs and aspirations of the people,” office of the Prime Minister announced on Thursday.
Brief video shared on the office of the Prime Minister’s social media page shows Abiy Ahmed making an introductory speech as a chairperson of the meeting.
He said that members of the ruling coalition governing the two regions held a meeting regarding worsening security problems in those regions which is leading to loss of life and destruction of property.
The meeting with opposition parties operating in Oromo and Amhara regions of Ethiopia, important to note that they are all ethnic-based parties, was necessitated for the same reason, according to Abiy Ahmed: worsening situation in the regions.
It is worsening because of, in the words of PM Abiy, “themselves” and because of “other forces” as well.
In Ethiopia, he said, “The rules of the game are not known very well. Neither those who play nor those who watch the games do not know the rules.”
For that reason, situations that emerge in these regions are claiming lives and destroying properties.
Abiy Ahmed also seem to have seen the meeting with opposition parties from the two regions as something in line with the principle of broadening the democratic space in the country to ensure the participation of the opposition groups.
He described the issue as “common agenda.” Given the fact that the Abiy’s administration is engaging only ethnic based parties in two selected regions only although it is mentioned that similar meetings are necessary with other parties from other regions of the country, the meeting is mostly about crisis management in Oromo and Amhara region.
The views of the opposition parties who attended the meeting with the prime minister are not highlighted. State and affiliated media outlets did not report about it either.
The assessment that situations in Oromo and Amhara regions of Ethiopia are worsening seems to make sense. In a matter of less than three weeks, a security crisis that affected residents and university students has transpired.
76 people were barbarously massacred and 10 law enforcement bodies killed in Oromo region of Ethiopia in two days in late October after a prominent radical ethnic nationalist activist, Jawar Mohammed, wrote a facebook message in the middle of the night claiming that his life is in danger because the government is withdrawing security details from his residents. That particular violence took an ethnic and religious form. Churches were burned and personal properties of a number of non-ethnic Oromo Ethiopians who lived in the region for generations were destroyed.
Last week, two students were killed at Woldia University in Amhara region which led to another round of violence across several universities in Oromo region of Ethiopia.
Ethiopians have long been blaming ethnic politics for radicalizing ethnic nationalism trend. For many, the latest rounds of killings in Oromo region and Amhara are alarming signs that the situation could get worse unless the government is taking measures in the direction of ending ethnic politics.
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Hopefully now METEC will.cough up the $70 Billions of Birrs it owes the Ethiopian public.
ethiopianreporter.com/index.php/article/17274
The plague or black death be upon all of them for bringing us to this level of human indecency and in morality to all Ethiopian society. All just for them to cling to power or the get to power. I personally would spare only a few of them and even those should have deep reflexión on their subtile toxic messages they contributed by indifference. Not only all of them are selfish but also cowards. Back in time people who wanted to cling in power or uspur power would go out the ways and fight it out to avoid ordinary citizens loss of life . Not these ones without any morality or sense of rules of engagement and not these days . They started 50 years ago hidding behind people and hurting innocent people and they still do the same today even after ammassing great leverage and power. Today the only guarantor of peace and stability in the country is the ordinary people stand not to be thrown over the cliff. That is the only force that is firefighting the fire started by those in the meeting today. The meeting is just PR and damage control by the PM and interested parties like Jawar to save their faces nothing else
Why you lie. Which church? Where? When? was burned in Oromia. It is Neftegna’s propaganda.
A leader true to his principle —Medemer. He resisted every effort by some or all the parties to exercise force but refused, and seeking solution only through dialogue.
Let ethnicity stay. But remove it from politics. It’s that simple.
The reformed institutions of Ethiopia are securing the people . The only need for Ethiopians to organize is so they start contributing to their country in an organized manner rather than in a separated manner, each diaspora sending the remittances one by one to their family members is not lifting the country out of poverty, now it is time using EDTF to start sending all together . Recent protest gathering in USA opposing Jawar shows the much needed possibility of organized remittance fund raising that can be held in diaspora for example Seattle , WASHINGTON , USA.