Ethnic federalism and self-determination for nationalities in a semi-authoritarian state: The case of Ethiopia

International Journal on Minority and Group Rights

Volumn 13, Issue 2-3, 2006, Pages 243-261

  Aalen, Lovise ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF OSLO   (Norway)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ETHNOPOLITICS; FEDERAL SYSTEM; NATIONAL POLITICS;

AFRICA; EAST AFRICA; ETHIOPIA; SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA;

EID: 33747295650     PISSN: 13854879     EISSN: 15718115     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1163/157181106777909849     Document Type: Article

References (54)

1. FDRE Constitution. Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, (Addis Ababa 1994).
2. See M. Ottaway, Democracy Challenged: The Rise of Semi-Authoritarianism (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington DC, 2003). In this book, the author focuses on the semi-authoritarian regimes of Venezuela, Egypt, Azerbaijan, Croatia and Senegal.
3. See M. Burgess and A.-G. Gagnon, Comparative Federalism and Federation: Competing Traditions and Future Directions (Harvester Wheatsheaf, New York, 1993), P. King, Federalism and Federation, (Croom Helm, London, 1982), and J. J. Linz, 'Democracy, Multinationalism and Federalism', in W. Busch and A. Merkel (eds.), Demokratie in Ost Und West (Frankfurt am Main, Suhrkamp, 1999).
4. See R. Simeon and D.-P. Conway, 'Federalism and the Management of Conflict in Multinational Societies', in A.-G. Gagnon and J. Tully (eds.), Multinational Democracies (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2001).
5. See R. Braubock, 'Why Stay Together? A Pluralist Approach to Secession and Federation' in W.Kymlicka and W. Normann (eds.), Citizenship in Diverse Societies (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2000).
6. See Y. Ghai, Autonomy and Ethnicity: Negotiating Competing Claims in Multi-Ethnic States, Cambridge Studies in Law and Society (Cambridge University Press, New York, 2000) and G. Smith, 'Sustainable Federation, Democratisation and Distributive Justice', in W. Norman and W. Kymlicka Citizenship in Diverse Societies (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2000).
7. See L. Adele Jinadu, 'Ethnic Conflict and Federalism in Nigeria', in ZEF Discussion Papers on Development Policy (Center for Development Research, Bonn, 2002).
8. S. Vaughan, Ethnicity and Power in Ethiopia (PhD Dissertation: The University of Edinburgh, 2003).
9. Meles Zenawi cited in S. Vaughan, 'The Addis Ababa Transitional Conference of July 1991: Its Origin, History and Significance' (Centre for African Studies, Edinburgh, 1994).
10. See J. Abbink, 'Breaking and Making the State: The Dynamics of Ethnic Democracy in Ethiopia' 13:2 Journal of Contemporary African Studies (1995) pp. 149-63.
11. J. Young, 'Regionalism and Democracy in Ethiopia', 19 Third World Quarterly (1998) pp. 191-204.
12. See C. Clapham, Transformation and Continuity in Revolutionary Ethiopia (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1988).
13. See P. Yeros, Ethnicity and Nationalism in Africa: Constructivist Reflections and Contemporary Politics (Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke 1999).
14. E.g., E. Evans-Pritchard, Kinship and Marriage among the Nuer (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1951/1999).
15. See J.-F. Bayart, The State in Africa: The Politics of the Belly (Longman, New York, 1993) and T. Ranger, 'The Invention of Tradition in Africa', in E. J. Hobsbawm and T. Ranger (eds.), The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1983).
16. FDRE Constitution. Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (Addis Ababa 1994).
17. See G. Smith, 'Sustainable Federation, Democratisation and Distributive Justice', in W. Kymlicka and W. Norman (eds.), Citizenship in Diverse Societies (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2000).
18. See E. Poluha, 'Ethnicity and Democracy a Viable Alliance?', in M. A. Mohamand Salih and J. Markakis, Ethnicity and the State in Eastern Africa (Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala, 1998). Actually,
19. See E. Chole, 'Opening Pandora's Box: Preliminary Notes on Fiscal Decentralisation in Contemporary Ethiopia', 1 North East African Studies (1994) pp. 7-30.
20. The members of the HPR are elected by a plurality of the votes cast in general elections every five years (Article 54.1). But twenty of the seats are exempted from the majority-based, one-member constituencies and are reserved for officially recognised ethnic groups with less than 100,000 people, in order to ensure minority representation.
21. P. H. Brietzke, 'Ethiopia's "Leap in the Dark": Federalism and Self-Determination in the New Constitution', 39 Journal of African Law (1997) pp. 19-38.
22. All officially recognised ethnic groups have a special representation in the House of the Federation. Each nationality has one representative plus one extra for each million of its population. The numbers of nationalities in the House have been updated, since new groups are coming up with the claim to be represented. fOne example of this is the Silte group who got their own local administration and representation in the HF in 2000, after succeeding in separating from the larger Gurage group in the Southern region of the country, SNNPRS.
23. See Aalen, supra note 18.
24. See W. H. Riker, Federalism: Origin, Operation, Significance (Little Brown, Boston, 1964).
25. The four member parties of the EPRDF, the Oromo People's Demmocratic Organisation (OPDO), the Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM), the Southern Ethiopian People's Democratic Front (SEPDF) and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) operate in the four regions of Oromiya, Amhara, SNNPRS and Tigray respectively. Currently, there are EPRDF affiliate parties in power in all the regional states not ruled by EPRDF members, and they also represent the regional governments in the federal institutions. These are the Afar People's Democratic Movement (APDO) in the Afar region, the Somali People's Democratic Front (SPDF) in Somali, the Gambella People's Democratic Front (GPDF) in Gambella, the Benishangul-Gumuz Peoples Democratic Unity Front (BGPDUF) in Benishangul-Gumuz, and the Harari National League (HNL) in Harari. The EPRDF has been instrumental in creating all the regional affiliates and is working closely with them. For details on the various regions, see Christine Gibbs, "Sharing the Faith - Religion and Ethnicity in the City of Harar," Horn of Africa: An Independent Journal 16 (1998), John Markakis, "The Somali in Ethiopia," Review of African Political Economy 23 (1996), J. Young, "Along Ethiopia's Western Fronties: Gambella and Benishangul in Transition," Journal of Modern African studies 37, no. 2 (1999).
26. Abbink, supra note 10 and Aklilu Abraham, 'Ethiopia: The Challenge of Federalism Based on Ethnic Restructuring. A Case Study of the Sidama and Wolaita Ethnic Groups in Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Regional Sate (SNNPRS).' Research Report to: The Robert S. McNamara Fellowship Program 1998, (2000).
27. During the last five to ten years, a new system of sub-kebele structures has been evolving throughout the country. Through this system, local administrators are able to control the rural population all the way down to five household units (Information obtained from interviews conducted in Addis Ababa March 2005). See also Human Rights Watch: Suppressing dissent: Human rights abuses and repression in Ethiopia's Oromia Region, 10 May 2005 on 12 May 2005.
28. Aalen, 'Expressions of Control, Fear and Devotion: The Elections in Mekelle and Wukro, Tigray Region', in S. Pausewang, K. Tronvoll and L. Aalen (eds.), Ethiopia since the Derg: A Decade of Democratic Performance and Pretension (Zed Books, London, 2002) and K. Tronvoll and Ø. Aadland, The Process of Democratisation in Ethiopia an Expression of Popular Participation or Political Resistance? Human Rights Report No. 5 (Norwegian Institute of Human Rights, Oslo, 1995).
29. The final election results showed that the EPRDF and its allies had obtained 371 out of 547 (67.8%) of the seats in the national parliament, the House of People's Representatives, while the opposition got 174 seats (31.8 %), including 109 seats for CUD, 52 seats for UEDF and 11 for OFDM. The two remaining opposition seats went to the small Sheko and Mezenger People's Democratic Unity Organisation (SMPDUO) from Southern region and one independent candidate, the Ethiopian ex-president Negaso Gidada (National Electoral Board, Press release, 5 September 2005).
30. The government confirmed that 3000 people had been arrested only in Addis Ababa in June (Information Minister Bereket Simon in Addis Tribune, 24 June 2005), while Human Rights Watch and Ethiopian Human Rights Council, among others, claimed that the numbers were much higher countrywide, due to mass arrests in at least nine towns outside Addis Ababa. (See Human Rights Watch, Ethiopia: Crackdown spreads beyond capital, New York, 15 June 2005). No exact numbers of detainees were published by the government after the November protests. Other sources reported more than 20,000 detainees in only one of the detention camps, the Dedesa camp in Oromiya (Sub-Saharan Informer, 18 November 2005).
31. By the end of February 2006, the defendants have still not been sentenced. It appears that the government applies a deliberate strategy of delaying the process, in order to buy time to clamp down on further protests.
32. One of CUD's member parties, the All Ethiopian Unity Party (AEUP), is the direct successor of AAPO. The AAPO renamed itself as AEUP in 2002. AEUP is the largest party in the coalition and AEUP's chairman Hailu Shawel is the chairman of CUD.
33. Here are some examples of such rhetoric: "CUD is not different from the mere Derg's Worker's Party. Thus they oppose Article 39 of the Constitution... CUD has planned to destroy this constitutional system and abolish the Constitution" (the EPRDF's campaign on Ethiopian TV, 2 April 2005) and "war is their zeal and the Derg regime is the state that they want to re-establish" (the EPRDF's campaign on Ethiopian TV, 15 April 2005).
34. "The opposition parties, which are proponents of the Interhamwe, want to destroy differences and form mixtures. They raise conflicts between people. Voting for the opposition brings a worse genocide than that of Rwanda... If Interhamwe is voted in urban centres, cities will become arenas of chaos, development will stagnate and genocide will take place." (The EPRDF's campaign on Ethiopian TV, 22 April 2005).
35. See Human Rights Watch 2005, Suppressing dissent: Human rights abuses and political repression in Ethiopia's Oromia region, May 2005, Vol. 17, No. 7 and Amnesty International's report 'Ethiopia: The 15 May 2005 elections and human rights - recommendations to the government, election observers and political parties', April 2005.
36. There were also a few attempts of promoting anti-Tigrayan feelings from the opposition side. Some statements from CUD representatives were interpreted as anti-Tigrayan, even though it was not clear whether the speakers intended to spark this issue or not. An example of this was the CUD representative Bedru Adem's speech on the CUD mass rally one week before the elections in Addis Ababa. In front of a cheering crowd of around two million people gathered at the largest public square in the capital, he said: "Must the ruling group return to where they came from and be knocked out!" (CUD's Bedru Adem quoted in Asqual newspaper, 10 May 2005). In a context where anti-Tigrayan emotions may run high, this statement is easily interpreted as saying that the TPLF and its fellow Tigrayans should leave the national power in Addis Ababa and go back to Tigray.
37. See several statements from the Ministry of Information, among them a statement entitled "Our democracy is meant to serve the interests of our peoples and never to accommodate anarchy" (Ethiopian Herald, 5 June 2005).
38. Ethiopian Television, exclusive interview with the Ethiopian Prime Minister on 5 May 2005.
39. Ottaway, supra note 2.
40. The difference between the Ethiopian and the Soviet/Yugoslav federations, is corresponding to the contrast between a 'holding-together'-federation where a unitary state divides powers to maintain a union and a 'coming-together'-federation, where formerly independent states go together (voluntarily or involuntarily). Linz argues that the former type of federation is the most stable, see J. J. Linz, "Democracy, Multinationalism and Federalism," in Demokraties in Ost Und West, ed. W Busch and A. Merkel (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1999).
41. For an example of an apparently improved situation for smaller ethnic groups, see E. Watson, 'Capturing a Local Elite: The Konso Honeymoon', in W. James et al., Remapping Ethiopia: Socialism and After (James Currey, Oxford, 2002).
42. The Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), with Ethiopia's largest ethnic groups, the Oromo, as its constituency, has been fighting for an independent Oromyia. The organisation has been banned and open fighting between the government army and the OLF has occurred many times since 1992. Supporters of the OLF are persecuted and are victims of extra-judicial punishment and killing. See Amnesty International, Ethiopia Annual Report 2002 (Amnesty International http://web.amnesty.org/report2003/ eth-summary-eng, 2003 [cited)., visited 24 March 2005.
43. This process has a parallel in the Nigerian federation, where new states within the federal member states are established from time to time, after claims from ethnic or regionally based groups. This is described as "State Creation" in Jinadu, "Ethnic Conflict and Federalism in Nigeria."
44. W. James, D. Donham, E. Kurimoti, and A. Triulzi (eds.), Remapping Ethiopia: Socialism & After, Eastern African Studies (James Currey, Oxford, 2002) and J. Markakis, 'The Politics of Identity - the Case of the Gurage', in M. A. Mohamed Salih and J. Markakis (eds.), Ethnicity and the State in Eastern Africa (Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala, 1998).
45. J. D. Y. Peel, 'The Cultural Work of Yoruba Ethnogenesis', in E. Tonkin, M. McDonald and M. Chapman (eds), History and Ethnicity (Routledge, London/N.Y, 1989).
46. The Silte are Muslims, and not Orthodox Christians, as the majority of the other Gurage groups are, and the Silte language has been taught in school in eastern Gurage since 1982 (Markakis, supra note 44).
47. A. Abraham, 'Towards a Political Resolution of Ethnic Conflict in Ethiopia: The Case of Siltie-Gurage Indentity Question' in Report submitted to Organisation of Social Sciences in Eastern and Southern Africa (OSSREA) (2000), and J. Markakis, 'The Politics of Identity - the Case of the Gurage', in M. A. Mohamed Salih and J. Markakis (eds.), Ethnicity and the State in Eastern Africa (Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala, 1998).
48. J. Markakis, 'The Politics of Identity - the Case of the Gurage', in M. A. Mohamed Salih and J. Markakis (eds.), Ethnicity and the State in Eastern Africa (Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala, 1998).
49. A. Kefale, 'Federalism, Some Trends of Ethnic Conflicts and Ethnic Conflict Management in Ethiopia', in A. G. Nhema (ed.), The Quest for Peace in Africa: Transformations, Democracy and Public Policy (International Books, Amsterdam, 2003).
50. B. Zewde, A History of Modern Ethiopia: 1855-1974, Eastern African Studies (James Currey, London, 1991.)
51. Data Dea, 'Managing Diversity? A Note on the "Wogagoda" Politics in the Omotic Speaking Southwest Ethiopia', paper presented at the International Ethiopian Studies Conference (Hamburg, July 2003) and S. Vaughan, Ethnicity and Power in Ethiopia. PhD Dissertation (The University of Edinburgh, 2003).
52. M. Bassi, 'Returnees in Moyale District, Ethiopia: New Means for an Old Inter-Ethnic Game', in R. Hogg (ed.), Pastoralists, Ethnicity and the State in Ethiopia (Haan Publishing, London, 1997) and G. Schlee, and A. A. Shongolo, 'Local War and its Impact on Ethnic and Religious Identification in Southern Ethiopia', 36:1 Geo Journal (1995).
53. S. Vaughan and K. Tronvoll, The Culture of Power in Contemporary Ethiopian Political Life, Sida Studies No. 10 (Sida, Stockholm, 2003).
54. Amnesty International, Ethiopia Annual Report 2002, , visited 24 March 2005.