Suchergebnisse

This article looks at the role of the main opposition party in Ethiopia, Kinijit, during the parliamentary elections of 2005. It shows that the election was unique in that it galvanized the people of Ethiopia to come out and vote en masse. Kinijit was mainly instrumental in mobilizing the people and provided hope for a political change towards democracy. They saw in Kinijit the capacity to lead the country as opposed to the ruling party, trusted it fully and were determined to follow its leadership. The voter turn-out was the highest in the history of the country. Kinijit won the elections but the ruling party rigged the results and declared itself the winner. Controversy arose and dragged on for months. Kinijit then resorted to a protest movement in the form of civil disobedience. The government took this as 'unconstitutional and as preparation for armed rebellion' and began a clamp-down. The entire leadership of Kinijit was imprisoned, and some 400 people were massacred as they demonstrated. Close to 17,000 others were thrown in jail and labor camps. This article examines the flaws in Kinijit's decision to resort to civil disobedience, looks at the consequences of the election for the process of democratization and at what that means in the fight against poverty and under-development. It singles out Kinijit's structural problems, such as insufficient institutional preparedness and lack of organizational structure in 2005, and suggests the strategic political course it should have taken.

The claims and counter-claims over the troubled border between Ethiopia and Eritrea, at the root of the crisis between the two governments, were by no means resolved by the war of 1998–2000. Indeed, when the jointly-formed post-war commission delivered its ruling on the boundaries, its terms were rejected out of hand by Ethiopia. Eritrean border claims rest largely upon the maps drawn up by Italy in 1934, while Ethiopia's claims largely rests on the treaty that Emperor Menelik entered with the Italians in 1908. And this is only to touch upon the ramifications of the tangled dispute. This article provides a critical observation of the claims made by the two governments; it assesses the validity of these claims, explores their strengths and points out their weaknesses. It also shows why the impasse continues to fester, pushing the crisis dangerously close to renewed war, and offers some tentative suggestions on how a lasting solution to the Ethio-Eritrean crisis might be found.

Introduction / Ridwan Laher and Korir Sing'Oei. - 1. Indigenous as equals under the African Charter / Cynthia Morel. - 2. Historical development of indigenous identification and rights in Africa / Dr Felix Ndahinda. - 3. The Impact of Dominant Environment Policies on Indigenous Peoples in Africa / Melakou Tegegn. - 4. Gender and indigenous peoples' rights / Soyata Maiga. - 5. Constitutional reform and minority exclusion / Dr Paul Goldsmith. - 6. Advocacy for indigenous peoples' rights in Africa / George Mukundi Wachira and Tuuli Karjala. - 7. A challenging nexus / Laura A. Young. - 8. The past is never just in the past / Ridwan Laher. - 9. Conclusion / Ridwan Laher and Korir Sing'Oei

1. Editorial note - Pietro Toggia, Melakou Tegegn and Abebe Zegeye 2. History writing as a state ideological project in Ethiopia - Pietro Toggia 3. Modernity, Eurocentrism, and radical politics in Ethiopia, 1961-1991 - Teshale Tibebu 4. The Beta Israel and the impossible return - Abebe Zegeye 5. Who is Amhara? - Mackonen Michael 6. A new discourse on 'gender' in Ethiopia - Indrawatie Biseswar 7. An investigation into the maintenance of the Maale language in Ethiopia - Lawrie Barnes and Kobus van Aswegen 8. The EPRDF vis-à-vis Ethiopia's development challenges - Melakou Tegegn 9. A retrospective observation of Elias Sime - Meskerem Assegued 10. Situated neoliberalism and urban crisis in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - Fassil Demissie