By IPS Correspondents
PRETORIA, May 27 1998 (IPS)

The Ethiopian Community in South Africa has appealed to President Nelson Mandela to exert pressure on the government of President Meles Zenawi to institute democratic reforms in Ethiopia.

The protesters who marched to Mandela’s Union Building offices in Pretoria on the eve of Ethiopia’s National Day, May 28, also called on the South African government to grant them refugee status.

Out of an estimated 5000 Ethiopian asylum seekers, only one person has so far been granted refugee status in South Africa.

“We would like to draw your attention to our ordeal in South Africa, and also on the other hand, as concerned Ethiopians, to humbly call upon you to exert your influence to help redress an evolving tragedy,” said the memorandum handed over to President Mandela on Wednesday.

“We respectfully ask you to give priority to your usual concern for human rights, freedom and social justice by calling upon the regime to ensure the respect for the inherent rights of all Ethiopians, including human rights, democratic governance and the rule of law,” it added.

The government of Zenawi, who was once an avowed Marxist, came to power in 1991 after he overthrew the military dictatorship of Mengistu Haile Mariam, who fled to Zimbabwe where he still lives.

Zenawi’s Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) won the first multi-party legislative elections held in May 1995, taking 484 of the 547 seats.

But his government continues to maintain a tight grip on private, political and economic life in Ethiopia. For example, for an Ethiopian to leave the country for a foreign destination, he or she first has to obtain government clearance.

“Over the past seven years, the government has suppressed genuine opposition political parties, and gained absolute control of administrative, judicial, civic institutions and trade unions,” said Alemayehu Bizuayehu, the only Ethiopian recognised as a refugee in South Africa. He served as a cabinet minister in Mengistu’s government.

Ethiopian asylum seekers in South Africa complain of summary executions in their country, unlawful arrests, suppression of the media and growing poverty.

Occupied by Italy, but never really colonised by a western power, Ethiopia has been a symbol of freedom and independence for many Africans. Yet it is one of two African countries that has not ratified the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights.

In its 1997 report, Amnesty International revealed that: “Hundreds of critics and opponents of the government were arrested, including prisoners of conscience. Most political prisoners were detained without charge or trial. There were further reports of torture of government opponents and disappearances and extra-judicial executions.”

The Ethiopian government’s record with the press also is one of the worst in the world. On May 20, Reporters Sans Frontieres issued a statement in which it condemned “the arrest of four journalists since the start of May 1998. With these arrests bringing to 21 the number of journalists now in prison, Ethiopia now holds in this field not only the record for Africa, but for the whole world.”

Zenawi has reportedly jailed thousands of political, labour, civic and religious leaders and shut down most of their offices without due process of law.

“I was arrested twice by the government and when they looked for me the third time, I fled with my wife and baby,” says Melaku Haile a former lieutenant in the Mengistu government. “It is too dangerous for me to return.”

Foreign aid however continues to prop up Zenawi’s government, despite growing international recognition of human rights abuses. Ethiopia is one of the biggest recipients of international assistance on the continent. The World Bank, alone, has set aside 700 million U.S. dollars this year for Addis Ababa, more than any other African country.

Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, is also headquarters of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and many other international organisations, making it the hub of African economic and political development activities.

But Ethiopia is one of the world’s poorest countries and more than half of its population of 57 million people live in abject poverty. More than 80 percent of its citizens eke out a living from agriculture, yet land cannot be owned privately, and there is uncertainty over the status of rural land holdings.

“Widespread chronic hunger, high unemployment, very poor health conditions, minimal infrastructure, wretched housing and the absence of basic services for four-fifths of the population are a daily reality,” says the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in a report.

More and more Ethiopian refugees are being seen on the streets of South Africa as they flee first countries of asylum, such as neighbouring Kenya and Djibouti, due to allegations of persecutions by agents of Zenawi’s government.

Ethiopia is a member of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a grouping of Eastern and Central African countries, with a mandate to cover issues of economic cooperation, regional integration and other political and social concerns, including conflict resolution.

The grouping, founded in 1986 as the Intergovernmental Authority on Drought and Development, changed its name to IGAD in 1996. Under the chairmanship of Kenyan leader Daniel Arap Moi, IGAD has been working on an initiative to end the 14-year civil war in Sudan.

Ethiopian refugees say that the interpretation of an extradition treaty among IGAD members, allowing expulsion of foreign nationals seen as threats to national security, means Ethiopians refugees are no longer safe in that region.

IGAD’s members include Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan and Uganda.

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