Ethiopia: Prime minister Abiy Ahmed vows to continue reforms ‘at Any Cost’

AP | Ethiopia’s prime minister Abiy Ahmed, in his first press conference since taking office vowed Saturday to continue with dramatic reforms “at any cost” and said the longtime ruling coalition soon will prepare for a “free and fair election” in 2020.

“My dream is that doubts about the ballot box will disappear,” Abiy said, saying the vote will not be delayed and promising a peaceful transfer of power if he loses.

The 42-year-old Abiy who became prime minister in April and shocked the country with a wave of reforms including restoring diplomatic ties with neighboring Eritrea after 2 decades, pledging to open up state-owned companies to outside investment and releasing thousands of prisoners.

The reforms have been praised both locally and abroad, and attracted investors interested in one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies.
Recent ethnic unrest in various parts of Ethiopia, however, has dampened the initial jubilation and posed a major challenge to the new leader.

“There are groups that are working in unison to cause chaos in different parts of the country,” Abiy told reporters. “They are triggering peoples’ emotions to this end.”

He said the unrest in the eastern Somali region has calmed but measures will be taken against former officials, including the region’s former President Abdi Mohammed Omar, who is suspected of orchestrating the chaos earlier this month that led to the destruction of government offices, looting of businesses and burning of churches.

The prime minister also in recent months has welcomed a number of once-exiled opposition figures and groups back to Ethiopia and invited them to join in the political conversation.

But on Saturday he drew the line at former military dictator Col. Mengistu Hailemariam, who overthrew the last Ethiopian emperor, Haileselassie, in 1974 and eventually was sentenced to life for spearheading a “Red Terror” that killed tens of thousands of people. He fled the country in 1991 as rebels, who now make up the ruling coalition, approached the capital.

Some Ethiopians have called on Abiy to offer Mengistu amnesty after a rare photo of him in exile in Zimbabwe went viral early this month.

“Ethiopia’s constitution clearly stipulates the ‘Red Terror’ crimes cannot be covered under an amnesty law,” Abiy said. “So Col. Mengistu will not return home. But if the law in the future allows, that may change.”