Ethiopian opposition cancels strike, set to begin talks with Zenawi
Oct 2, 2005 (ADDIS ABABA) — Ethiopia’s two main opposition groups on Sunday called off a three-day general strike they had planned to protest the parliamentary election results and arrests of opposition members and to press for the formation of a national unity government.
The Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) and the United Ethiopian Democratic Force (UEDF) made the announcement after a late-night meeting with six diplomats, including European Commission delegation head Tim Clarke and U.S. embassy Charge D’Affaires Vicky Huddleston, during which they agreed to hold talks with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi Sunday.
“We have been in contacts with several ambassadors and they have also been in contact with the prime minister. As a result of the discussion, we have canceled our stay-home announced hours ago,” said Beyene Petros, chairman of the UEDF.
Beyene said that when the diplomats met separately with Meles the prime minister said he would hold talks with the opposition so long as they called off their strike, which was set to begin Monday.
“We believe this (the talks) advances the democratic process in a peaceful and constructive manner,” Beyene told journalists, speaking on behalf of the two parties and refusing to take any questions.
Clarke, who was at the news conference, told The Associated Press Meles will meet Sunday with Beyene; Vice Chairwoman of the UEDF, Birtukan Mideksa; and senior CUD leader Berhanu Nega.
On Saturday, the two opposition groups had asked people to stay home starting Monday to show their discontent with the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front party that was declared the winner of troubled May polls.
Earlier the two parties had planned to hold a major rally in Addis Ababa on Sunday, but postponed it when the government demanded they unconditionally accept the results of the parliamentary elections that they still contest.
Police killed dozens of people in June during demonstrations in Addis Ababa to protest alleged election fraud.
On Thursday, the two parties said that since Sept. 19 authorities had arrested 859 opposition members across the country and security forces had killed one opposition member in the Amhara region, 400 kilometers (250 miles) south of the capital, Addis Ababa.
Final results released by the National Electoral Board gave Meles’s Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front 327 seats in the 547-seat parliament, enough to form the next government. Opposition parties got 174 seats _ a substantial improvement over the 12 that they won in the previous elections in 2000.
European Union observers and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter have expressed serious concerns about the elections, but also said that, overall, the experience would encourage democracy. It was the first Ethiopian election that foreign experts were allowed to observe.
(AP/ST)