By Omaeyr Rado - IPSRepublished permission Inter Press Service (IPS ) copyright Inter Press Service (IPS) www.ipsnewsasia.net and www.ipsnews.net
ADDIS ABABA, Jul 23 (IPS) - A little over 18 years ago, when the ruling Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) came to power, people were so eager to exercise democracy that even children started to challenge their parents saying "this is my democratic right". Perhaps it was too good to last.
Earlier this month a new anti-terror law was passed, granting sweeping powers to the state to detain people it deems threatening. It follows closely on the heels of legislation that severely restricted the operations of NGOs working human rights issues.
When 17 years of armed struggle finally ended the dictatorial rule of Mengistu Haile Mariam (photo) and the Derg in 1991, the EPRDF started preaching democracy, equality and human rights. The party soon proved impatient with opposition of any kind.
In January 1993, the government carried out a brutal crackdown on students at the Addis Ababa University (AAU) who were demonstrating against the referendum on Eritrea's independence. The incident led to the death of at least one student and 85 injuries when live ammunition fired into a crowd of unarmed students by security forces. In April of the same year, the government dismissed 40 professors from the AAU, reportedly because they were deemed too critical.
There followed the harassment of the Ethiopian Teacher's Association (ETA), its top leaders imprisoned. Human Rights Watch accuses the police of gunning down the ETA's acting director, Assefa Maru, in 1997.
More recently, the 2005 election campaign - preceded by a loosening of controls that saw opposition political parties able to freely debate issues live on even state media - was followed by violent repression, despite the EPRDF scoring a resounding victory.
The opposition won a record number of seats, but in limited parts of the country; elsewhere, they alleged, government repression and intimidation had prevented them from winning even more. Street protests in the capital, Addis Ababa, led the deaths of nearly 200 at the hands of security forces.
Hundreds more were wounded and thousands arbitrarily detained, including many leading opposition politicians. A number of prominent private newspapers were closed, their owners and editors charged with genocide and treason. Several were sentenced to lengthy jail terms.
Over almost two decades in power, the ruling party has maintained a tight grip on power. Its latest moves suggest this is not about to change.
Several months ago, the Civil Society Organisations (CSO) law was approved despite an uproar from local activists and the international community. This law expressly limits "foreign" and "Ethiopian resident" CSOs - the latter defined as any Ethiopian CSO that obtains more than ten percent of its funding from sources outside the country - from doing any work related to human rights, governance, and a range of other issues. The law makes it easy for the state to refuse to register organisations.
The Ethiopian government this week suspended 42 NGOs for "exceeding their mandate" in the southern part of the country.
Kenyan newspaper The Daily Nation reported that the organisations had their licence revoked because, according to the local officials, they had supplied information to the United States State Department about human rights abuses in the area.
The names of the organisations were not released, but are understood to include two local gender rights organisations and international humanitarian agency Médécins Sans Frontières.
Anti-terrorism law
With the ink barely dry on the CSO law, parliament has now approved the Anti-Terrorism Law, first crafted by the National Intelligence and Security Agency and experts from the Ministry of Justice and the Federal Police four years ago, and approved by the Council of Ministers in early June.
The law is premised on an extremely broad and ambiguous definition of terrorist activity that could permit government to repress wide range of internationally-protected freedoms, and contains provisions that undermine fundamental due process rights, according to Human Rights Watch.
The United Nations special rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights has stated that the concept of terrorism should be limited to acts committed with the intention of causing death or serious bodily injury, or the taking of hostages.
Ethiopia's new law defines terrorism in such a way that it includes acts that do not involve violence or injury to people, such as property crimes and disruption of public services. The penalties range from 15 years to life imprisonment or even a death sentence.
The law also gives police powers of arrest, search and seizure without guarantees of due process.
The law also contains ambiguous language against material support for terrorism. An analysis by HRW suggests that who even offered water or food to a political protester might find themselves charged with aiding terrorism under the new legislation.
"This [law] is a legal cover for every unlawful action the government has been and is taking against political dissent and free press," said Beyene Petros, chairman of the opposition United Ethiopian Democratic Forces (UEDF) party, which voted against the legislation.
But, Beyene argues, even without this law, the "security forces have been above the law. They already make arbitrary arrests and stifle freedom of expression; yet the law intensifies this practice.
"We objected to the fact that the law is against the country's constitution and the issues it is planned to address are under the jurisdiction of the existing criminal codes of the country," he said. "The country does not need this law."
Though his Ethiopian Democratic Party also voted against the law, Lidetu Ayalew, another opposition leader, believes Ethiopia needs some kind of anti-terror law because it has been a victim of various terrorist acts.
In 2007, the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) took responsibility for an attack on Chinese run oil exploration field in Ogaden killing 74 people. Numerous people have been killed in other bombings and grenade attacks in Addis Ababa, Dire Dawa, and elsewhere in the country in recent years. The Ethiopian government has alleged that these attacks were carried out by armed opposition groups like the ONLF, the Oromo Liberation Front - both fighting for autonomy of various regions - as well as groups like Al-Itihad, which springs from Ehtiopia's volatile neighbour Somalia.
The government alleges all these groups are terrorist. However, aside from the ONLF's attack on the oil installation, the popular view is that the government itself orchestrates these attacks to incriminate its oppositions; a charge government officials of course deny.
Shimeles Kemal, deputy head of the Government Communication Affairs Office, told IPS that in the current globalised world, no country is insulated from the threat of terrorism.
"The normal court procedures will take the police more time than they have to put terrorist threats under control," said Kemal.
"By the time the police seek a court warrant, the damage might have taken place. This law is preventive and the police need the legal provision to effectively do their job. Besides, terrorist acts are very different and highly sophisticated from other crimes," he said.
The concerns of the EDP and the most of the rest of the opposition centre on the very broad definition of terrorism at the heart of the bill, which Lidetu says could serve to incarcerate opposition.
"This means the police can simply arrest opposition members for choosing their preferred way to express their dissent including armed struggle or demonstration," Lidetu told IPS.
