Author defends ICG report from Meles Zenawi's attacks

(Posted by Ethiomedia)By Tizita Belachew, Voice of America (VOA) September 18, 2009
WASHINGTON - Daniela Kroslak replied to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's recent dismissal of the International Conflict Group's "Ethiopia: Ethnic Federalism and Its Discontents," by pointing out that he thought it was important enough to read it.
In a press conference last week, the prime minister cited an Ethiopian proverb that suggested the report was not worthy of his time. In the press conference for Ethiopia's Amharic media, Meles questioned the motives of the funders of ICG and said the report, which was written by ICG's Nairobi office staff, was biased because it was written by an Eritrean.
Kroslak told VOA's Tizita Belachew for the Amharic service's Democracy feature that the Eritrean left the staff a year ago and was not an author of the report. She denied the Eritrean had any involvement in the report and said the organizations who fund ICG's work are listed on the ICG web site.
ICG's funders include the foreign ministries or foreign aid agencies of Australia, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Holland, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States; and 10 major private foundations including the Open Society, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
The report analyzes the transformation of Ethiopia's political system, which is dominated by the Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front and led by Meles, the party's chairman and the nation's president or prime minister for the past 18 years. ICG says the government tried to create a more prosperous, just and representative state for all its people by doing away with a centralized state of the 1980s and redefining citizenship, politics and identity on ethnic grounds.
Driven by fear of continued ethnic conflict, however, the government has fostered domestic political discontent, the report says. The authors conclude that without "a genuine multi-party democracy, the tensions will only grow, greatly increasing the possibility of a violent eruption that would destabilize the country and region."
Meles says ethnic violence claim is contemptible
By Barry Malone
ADDIS ABABA, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Ethiopia's prime minister has denounced a think-tank report that warned his country could descend into ethnic violence ahead of its first national election since a 2005 poll triggered deadly street clashes.
In a study last week, the International Crisis Group (ICG) said there was a risk of conflict ahead of the ballot scheduled for May 2010 because of rising ethnic tensions and dissent.
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi rejected that.
"Some people have too many billions of dollars to spend and they feel that dictating how developing countries manage their affairs is their God-given right," he said late on Wednesday.
"We have only contempt for the ICG."
The Horn of Africa nation's last elections four years ago were touted as its first truly democratic polls. But they ended in protests and bloodshed after the government declared victory and the opposition accused it of rigging the result.
Police and soldiers killed about 200 people who had taken to the streets to demonstrate. At the time, Meles accused the protesters of trying to topple his government.
CRITICISES OPPOSITION
Rights groups regularly accuse Ethiopia's government of cracking down on political opponents. One party leader has been jailed and several former and serving military officers have been charged in recent months with plotting a coup.
In a news conference on Wednesday, Meles defended the country's system of "ethnic federalism", under which major ethnic groups control the regions where they are the majority. He said it had saved the giant nation from splitting apart.
"The country was on the brink of total disintegration," the prime minister said. "Every analyst worth his salt was suggesting that Ethiopia will go the way of Yugoslavia or the Soviet Union. What we have now is a going-concern."
Meles has started talks with the opposition about a code of conduct for the next poll. But the main coalition of opposition parties said last week it had walked out of the discussions and that its potential candidates were being jailed and harassed.
"Those parties that apparently are concerned about harassment are not concerned enough to participate in the devising of a code of conduct that is designed to put an end to it, if it exists, or to prevent it if it doesn't," Meles said.
"The intent of these individuals is to discredit the election process from day one, not to participate in it." (Editing by Daniel Wallis)