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Reasons behind the extension of the state of emergency declaration
Desta Hailu
As it can be recalled, the FDRE government has recently issued a state of emergency as per the article 93 of the constitution following the unrest that occurred in some parts of Amhara and Oromia six months ago. When the declaration was issued at the time, it was not possible to reverse the unrest and disturbance that occurred in those areas through the usual legal mechanism. Thus, after the council of ministers decided on the declaration, it was implemented for six months until very recently.
In the recent regular session the house of people’ representatives held, it was decided for the proclamation to continue for four months in anonymous vote. The secretariat of the command post overseeing the state of emergency and minister of the national defense Ato Siraj Fegessa presented the performance of the post to the parliament recently and answered questions raised by member of the parliament.
However, some individuals especially the extremist Diasporas were heard saying ‘why is the proclamation elongated?’ out of a narrow-minded hatred as if they genuinely care for the country and people. And in my belief we should answer these people.
As it’s known, it was possible to control the unrest that occurred in the aforementioned areas through the state of emergency proclamation. Through it, the unrests which have evolved into unwanted direction was halted. Our peace loving people have contributed the lion share in this. By informing armed forces in the area, by teaching the young people that there is nothing to benefit from unrests and violence and by making them took rehabilitative training through the command post, they have shown their positive attitude towards their peace.
As a result to this, it was possible to turn the youth; who were the main actors in the unrest, to turn back their attention towards development and benefits; and a success has been gained as a result to the uninterrupted effort exerted by the people and the government. And this situation has become the reason for the youth to enter into work through the condition the government facilitated for them. Especially through the 10 billion birr budget allocated by the government including the subsidy made by regional states, the young people have shown huge desire to enter into work with full spirit. As a result to this, the young people that lost hope as a consequence of lack of good governance and joblessness have started to see hope and we are even hearing them saying how wrong it was to have done those things they did either knowingly or unknowingly.
The youth are able to open their eyes and see the sinister things and plots people like Jawar Mohammed and the extremist Diaspora media have done to disturb the peace of this country. Thus, by concerting their raw energy, the young people are working to put their hand in the development activities of this country.
Of course the fact that the state of emergency is extended may anger countries that don’t want to see Ethiopia at peace and want to see the past unrest and violence to make comeback to the country. However, as the main and important deciders in this situation are the people of our country, nobody is concerned or wants to hear them. As stated, when the declaration first started to be implemented, it was said that it will be lifted off once the issues that led to the declaration of the proclamation are reversed back to their former state.
As far as I can understand, this means unless the security of our country is fully reversed back to its former state, the declaration/proclamation will not be lifted off. And the body that is responsible to make that judgment is the command post and the inquiry board that is setup by the parliament to monitor the implementation of the proclamation. As Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn recently said to the Parliament that amendments on the proclamation’s procedure have been made to help create a condition that can help led to the regular law enforcement mechanism – most of the issues remaining constant.
However, although peace and stability is brought, still there are some things that need to be done in some part of our country together with the command post. There are still some occurrences in some area of our country that demands the intervention of the command post. As the Prime Minister said to the parliament, these situations include clashes in some areas, holding up cars in the streets and stealing and breaking windows, trying to obstruct and disturb the teaching and learning process even if this occurred in few areas, throwing of explosive objects at individual and organizations compound in some areas. These situations show that the problems that called for the proclamation are not fully solved.
In addition, in a study undertaken by the government on the people, 82% of the people involved in the study stated their belief that the problems will be fully solved if the proclamation is extended one more time. And this is why the Prime Minister said to the parliament that it is necessary to fully solve the problems that are coming back and forth together with the people.
Recently the secretariat of the command post has thoroughly explained and stressed on this situation in front of the parliament. According to him, the fact that anti-peace forces that want to use problems that arise in regional border areas are operating, also the fact that there are still some people that want to disturb the peace and stability even though most of the main leaders of the unrest and disturbances are apprehended has made extending the declaration important.
In addition to this, in order to fully realize our country’s peace and stability and bring it to a place where it will not be reversed back, it has become necessary to extend the state of emergency declaration. This stance of the prime minister and the command post secretariat is backed by the inquiry board that is setup by the parliament to oversee and monitor the proclamation as per the constitution.
The board has stated that it is better for the proclamation duration to be extended after assessing the situation on the ground throughout the country. And the parliament based on the recommendation of the board has extended the proclamation for the next four months. These are the realities on the ground. And as long as the issues that made the issuance of the state of emergency necessary are not fully solved, asking the merit of the extension of the emergency proclamation is same as not wanting the peace of this country and people.
I think this is also obstructing the path of development and growth our country and people initiated. Thus, it should be known that the proclamation is extended based on the consent of the people, and also in order to take the peace and stability that is gained back to its previous solid position. Other than this, labeling the extension with various names by not understanding the realities of the ground is nothing more than not respecting the rights of the people and the need to take away the rights of the people through propaganda.
All in all, these people should know that the people will be vigilant for their country’s peace and stability in the added four months like they always are. And through these months they will hold the necessary dialogue with the government and will get involved in fully solving the issues that motivated the declaration of state of emergency in the first place.
