Ethiopia calls for regime change in Eritrea

Africa news, April 06, 2011
Ethiopia's Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, on Tuesday call for regime change in Eritrea and accused an opposition party, Medrek, of planning and instigating violence in Ethiopia. Zenawi has also accused Egypt of backing Eritrea's effort to destabilize in that country.

“Ethiopia would not tolerate Eritrean government’s destructive policy anymore and the country is forced to change its policy from “passive defiance” to directly help Eritrean people topple the regime,” Zenawi said while presenting an eight-month government’s performance report to parliament.

According to the prime minister, Eritrean government has continued its attempt to destabilize Ethiopia by deploying terrorists and home grown “destructive forces”, such as the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and Ogden National Liberation Front (ONLF), as well as the Somalia extremists group, Al shabab.

He further stated, “Until now, our strategy has been defending our sovereignty by speeding up our development. Now, we found that we could not go any longer with passive defense. It’s not possible to take passive defense as the only alternative.”

“Therefore, we have to facilitate ways for Eritrean people to remove its dictatorial regime. We have no intention to jump into their country but we need to extend our influence there. If Eritrean government tries to attack us, we will also respond proportionally,” Meles added.

The Ethiopian Prime Minster brought to light how the Egyptians are working with Eritrea to destabilize Ethiopia in order to hinder its decision to construct dam on the Nile.

Meles told Parliament, “Recently, Eritrea is training and deploying, Al shabab and locally grown destructive forces to terrorize our country. But Egypt is the direct force behind these destructive elements that back them.”

“In order to prevent any development on Blue Nile River, Egypt and Eritrea has created their own front,” he added.

He, however, confirmed that that Ethiopia has no intention of invading Eritrea or opening a new war.

Ethiopia Prime Minster told the country’s Parliament that Egypt’s a long time strategy is to destabilize Ethiopia and so that cannot raise a voice about using the Nile.

Meles Further pointed out that the current policy of backing Eritrea and other terrorists group is part of it long time strategy that goes back to over 50 years.
He stressed that the Ethiopian people are not enemies of the Egyptian people and he called on the people of Egypt to realize that the building of the dam is also beneficial to them.

Previously the Prime Minster in his speech at launching of the dam construction he told the audience that Ethiopia would welcome Egypt and Sudan to join in construction at any level if they wish to do so.

Speaking about opposition forces that are legally recognized, “The Ethiopian government is neither blind nor deaf. You don’t have to think as if we did not know anything,” Meles said adding that the government has refrained from releasing the list of detainees and suspected OLF members by police until the opposition parties did it.

“Now that the opposition has made public the list of the detainees, it means that the opposition is testifying that all OLF members who are detained are their members. In other words, they proved by themselves that the opposition is the hiding place for OLF”.

“We even know that OLF members have been here with us for five years at this house (parliament). We knew everything, but we did not take them to court, as we did not have substantial evidence. Now, the opposition parties have proved it those who are in custody are their members,” Meles told parliament.

The opposition’s party “Medrek, particularly Unity for Democracy and Justice,” is orchestrating to instigate violence and protest in the country. However, he said I would like the party to know that there is a price to pay.

“We would like to make it clear that the opposition cannot go long by being a cover of anti-peace elements,” he added.