Ethiopia: Government admits arresting opposition members

By Tesfa-Alem Tekle

April 5, 2010 (ADDIS ABABA) – The Ethiopian government on Tuesday admitted it has carried out a mass arrest of Oromo opposition members and supporters.

Ethiopia say that those arrested are also members of the outlawed rebel group, the Oromo Liberation Front.

“They are OLF terrorists operating under the cover of a legal opposition party” Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi told parliament today while presenting government’s performance report.

He accused opposition parties in general and particularly Ethiopia’s biggest opposition group, Medrek, for being a platform to ‘anti-peace elements’, warning the group’s members to refrain from such acts or they would “pay the price”

Last month, Ethiopia’s biggest opposition party, Medrek, said at least 200 of its supporters and members have been jailed in days of crackdown.

“Over 200 Medrek party members and supporters are arrested during the past ten days in Oromya region mainly in Wollega Zone” Gebru Asrat, a former Tigray regional president who was formerly a close ally of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi told Sudan Tribune on March 19.

Since 2008, Ethiopia’s ruling party led by Zenawi has been accused of arbitrarily arresting hundreds of members of the Oromo ethnic group accusing them of helping the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) rebel group, labeled by Addis Ababa as a terrorist organization.

The OLF has for decades been fighting for the self-determination of Ethiopia’s Oromia region alleging the government discriminates the Oromos, the largest ethnic group of the nation.

The Ethiopian government accuses neighboring Eritrea of arming, training and supplying them with weapons. An allegation Asmara denies.

(ST)