Ethiopia’s ONC rivals still bickering over a alleged letter

Dec 24, 2005 (ADDIS ABABA) — Following the denial by Tolessa Tesfaye, the head of the faction claiming leadership of the Oromo National Congress (ONC), of report in a local tabloid which alleged that he had written a letter to the head of the Oromia Region seeking support to accept him as leader, Merera Gudina told The Reporter that he had personally handed the purported letter to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

Merera said he handed the letter to the Prime Minister on December 12 when the leaders of the opposition, excluding the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), met Prime Minister Meles to resume dialogue over the current political stalemate.

“I presented the letter to PM Meles as evidence of Tolessa’s treacherous act to dismantle the ONC with his false political wing,” Merera said.

According to Merera, the letter shown to Meles bears “the original seal and signature of Tolessa.”

Asked to comment on this state of affairs, Tolesa said neither the seal nor the signature on the letter was original. Tolessa pointed out that the heading and file number that appeared on the purported letter were different from those his party used on letters.

In a letter he wrote to Meles on Wednesday, Tolessa denied writing the letter, adding that the Merera wing used a fake seal and signature to deliberately smear the names of independent Oromo parties.

Tolessa added that he had filed charges against both the Merera wing and the Amharic tabloid Seife Nebelbal.

(The Reporter)