Opposition accused of poll violence
2005-05-06 14:25
Addis Ababa - Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi late on Thursday accused the opposition of promoting ethnic hatred and risking an outbreak of violence in the impoverished Horn of Africa nation ahead of next week's general elections.
Meles said the government would not spare the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), an opposition umbrella group, for intending to "create havoc and hate" ahead of the May 15 polls, the first to be monitored by international observers.
"As the opposition knows they cannot win the elections, they are now preaching anti-peace and anti-harmony among people and (promoting) ethnic hatred. The government is ready to break this tendency by using administrative means," he said.
"When the Interahamwe of Rwanda preached hatred among people, the end result was, as everyone knows, devastating," he said, in reference to Rwandan Hutu militiamen who are blamed for the 1994 genocide killing around 800 000 people, mainly Tutsis, in a span of 100 days.
"Ethiopian opposition is following the same trend to create havoc and hatred among people by agitating fabricated agendas," he added.
"Those who want to live in peace and harmony have to use the vote to say no to anti peace and hatred," he said.
Opposition leaders have repeatedly accused the prime minister of favouring his Tigray tribe, a charge he has rejected.
The election will be Ethiopia's third since Meles' ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) came to power in 1991.
The prime minister accused CUD of pressing unregistered voters to go to polling stations on voting day.
"By doing so, they want to create havoc during voting day and they want people to be frustrated and prevent legally-registered voters from casting their ballots," he said.
Meles defended his government's decision to expel three US-funded pro-democracy groups, saying they were illegally operating in the country.
"We have invited observers from all over the world. The three American institutions that were asked to leave (in March) were not invited," he said.
"They entered the country as tourists and claimed to be observers. As a sovereign country, they should have respected the laws," the prime minister said.