User:Andualem mitiku/State of emergency in ethiopia 2016

Ethiopian State of Emergency 2016 The Ethiopian government declared State of Emergency on October 9, 2016 which will be in effect for the next six months. This state of emergency is the results of protests in most part of the country against the government. This protests starts 2015, but the government didn’t able to stop or answer the questions of the protester in normal governmental measures, so a result the government declared the first state of emergency in the past 25 years. Contents; 1.	 Recent history 2.	Political implication 3.	FDRE constitution 4.	The impacts on the society 5.	 Links 6.	 References 7.      additional redings

Recent history
Ethiopia, one of the oldest states in the world has a great history of victory against the colonial powers. The place which is origin of human ancestors and the place where more than 80 ethnic groups live together with harmony for long time. The diversity of ethnicity is a beauty by itself. But it has also negative impacts in the unity of the state. After the downfall of the military regime in 1991, the Ethiopian People’s Democratic Revolutionary Democratic Front lead group’s takes power. The first thing they did was implementing the Federal system of government in the country. It was not an easy task to implement a federal government system in the country like Ethiopia. This is because the country was a unitary state for more than three thousands year. The other most things are that this federalism is based on ethnic and language backgrounds; this was one reason mentioned by scholars for not easily implement the system.

Oromo opposition and Amhara resistance
After 25years of leading this country the Ethiopian government is facing an opposition from all direction of the country. The two major ethnic groups such as the Oromo and Amhara ethnic, they take 65% of the country’s population number, starts a resistance movement against the ruling party since 2015.this movement went to different parts of the country. Corruptions, maladministration, injustice, lack of equal economic benefits, losing their land in the name of investments are some of the cause that is trigged the movement. Since a few months things look different. Opposition from all directions is manifested3. Due to corruption in the country, human right violations and lack of equal economic benefit, this opposition will get acceptance from most protesters. In October 2, there was an annual oromo4 religious festival called Irracha5, a festival people from the entire oromia region come and give thanks to their God in a city named Bishoftu. Bisoftu is 50km far from the capital Addis Ababa. During this festival people all Oromo people comes to give thanks to their god. In this event people was start shouting and showing different signs and rising different questions to the government. It was a tough time for the government to control the situation. This is because more than 4millions people are gathered. What they did to stop this opposition was the right decision for some people and its lack of humanity for others. The government military fired a tear gas in to the crowed. People were starting to run. In this situation more than 600 peoples are died because of the crowded.

Political implication
Those who support what the government did to stop the opposition say “it was the right and the only decision to stop further destruction and conflicts between different ethnic conflicts. And the government is responsible to protect the country peace so the measure taken was right and necessary.” Whereas there is another group who are strongly balms the government for the measure taken during the festivals says “people have the right to express their feeling anywhere and anytime. So the government needs to respect this right of their own people.” It was arguable that the measure taken by the government was necessary or not, is it proportional or not, but this was an immediate reason that leads the people all over the oromia region to go out for the opposition. People start to burn the government property and also foreign investor’s property. After the governments call an immediate council of minister meeting the government declares a 6 month state of emergency. Due to this most rights will be suspended. The police may arrest people without court arrest warrant, search any house they suspect without search warrant, any kind of demonstration and meeting is suspended by this declaration of state of emergency, watching Ethiopian Satellite Television(which is leaded by the political groups outside the country), writing articles which will imitate people to go for opposition, having any communication with the opposition groups outside the country, having any sign of opposition on mobile phones and laptops, watching a website which criticize the government is prohibited by this regulation. This action of the government is getting supporter as well as oppositions. These who support the declaration of state of emergency says “it’s a decision which saves the country from civil war and ethnic conflicts.” Whereas some scholars doesn’t agree with this, the said “civil war in the country wouldn’t be happen. The opposition is against the ruling government not targeted on ethnic group. And also it seems the governments want to take time to control the opposition.”

FDRE constitution
According to the Ethiopian constitution article 93, the council of minister has the power to declare the state of emergency in three conditions. These are during foreign invasion, natural disaster or natural epidemic occur and when there is a breakdown of country’s law and regulation, which will endanger the constitutional order.

the impacts of the declaration on the society
The declaration of state of emergency creates a fear in most people. Most of the adult in the country have a bad experience with these kinds of emergency of states. During the dictator dergu regime there was a state of emergency in which they put curfew on cities. During this time the police will go to different houses and do whatever they like. Due to this bad memory, most people will get home early. Whereas, others have said “it’s a key to safety.” And the country’s security becomes better after the declaration of the state of emergency. However most business in different big cities of the country decreases due to the blockage of internet services, tourists stop to go outside from the capital city, Addis Ababa due to different security reasons and also most of the people who live in cities prefer to stay home or go home early rather than working. Most economists also predict that this declaration will also highly affect the income of the only internet service provider in the country called ethio telecom.

1.	References 1.	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopia 2.	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_People%27s_Revolutionary_Democratic_Front 3.	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Ethiopian_protests 4.	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oromo_people 5.	http://www.tadias.com/10/02/2016/ethiopia-deadly-stampede-at-protest-during-irrecha-festival-in-bishoftu 6.	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_Constitution_of_Ethiopia

2.	external links

-	https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/21/1500-people-arrested-in-ethiopia-in-two-week-state-of-emergency -	www.wsj.com/articles/ethiopia-declares-state-of-emergency-to-stop-protests-1476013505 -	http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/10/ethiopia-declares-state-emergency-protests-161009110506730.html