Category: Politics

{As demonstrations continue, opposition tells Al Jazeera that jailed protesters of all backgrounds should be released.}

Addis Ababa – An opposition leader in Ethiopia has demanded that “political prisoners” be freed as anti-government protests continued to rage in one of Africa’s most populous countries.

The call was made by Tiruneh Gamta, a leader of the Oromo ethnic group, from which the biggest number of protesters come.

According to the New York-based Human Rights Watch, at least 500 people have been killed since unrest began in November.

Thousands have also been arrested, rights groups say, and many have not been heard from since they were detained.

“We want all political prisoners, regardless of any political stand or religion or creed, released from jail. Together with this, we need democratic rights,” Gamta told Al Jazeera.

The government has denied that violence from the security forces is “systemic” and pledged to launch an independent investigation, blaming opposition groups inside and outside of the country and what it called “anti-peace” elements for the chaos.

Al Jazeera interviewed a woman who said she was arrested while on her way to a market. A protest had been taking place close to the market, she said.

After a night in a jail cell, she and 30 other people were ordered onto a bus and told not to look outside, she said. Seven hours later, she said, they arrived at a camp.

“At the camp, they put us in a cell. Then the next day, they ordered us out for what they said was exercise,” the woman, who requested anonymity, told Al Jazeera.

“They beat us as they ordered us to exercise, and when we got tired, they continued to beat us. I tried to do what they said, but I couldn’t, so they beat me more. Even when I was running, they were beating me all over my body.”

Interrogation was carried out regularly to wear the detained down, the woman said.

“Five or six policemen interrogated each one of us every day. They kept threatening us. They said if you give false testimony, we will kill you.”

Protests that started in November among people from the Oromo ethnic group have spread. Demonstrators from the Amhara region have also started to demand greater political and economic rights.

The Oromo and Amhara are the two biggest ethnic groups in Ethiopia. Both accuse the government of being dominated by members of the Tigrayan ethnic group, which makes up about six percent of the population.

Government promised accountability

Government leaders have said they communicate with opposition groups to listen to their grievances. They also promised that police found guilty of abuse will be held to account.

“We will do whatever it takes to make sure such things do not happen, and if they do happen, the people are not left unaccounted for,” Getachew Reda, a government spokesman, told Al Jazeera.

Members of the opposition, though, say they have heard similar reassurances before.

In the latest bout of unrest earlier this week, protesters attacked foreign-owned businesses, according to the owners of a flower firm.

The Dutch company said crowds of people in the Oromia and Amhara regions torched flower farms as they targeted businesses with perceived links to the government. Flowers are one of the country’s top exports.

Esmeralda Farms said its 10-million-euro investment ($11.1m) went up in smoke this week in Bahir Dar city and that several other horticulture companies were also affected.

{As Gabon is rocked by violence following the contested re-election of President Ali Bongo, experts says electoral fraud in Africa is becoming harder, thanks to civil society vigilance and spread of mobile technology.}

Opposition leader Jean Ping on Friday declared himself the rightful president of Gabon and called for a recount, following Bongo’s claim of victory with a razor-thin margin of just under 6,000 votes in the August 27, 2016 election.

But recent elections in Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Benin and Burkina Faso have all been held largely without dispute, overseen by engaged citizens who assured careful monitoring of the process, said Mathias Hounkpe, Political Governance Programme Manager for the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), which promotes greater government transparency.

“It is more and more difficult to commit fraud,” he said.

Preventing fraud with ballot papers was down to a clear legal framework for organising elections, electoral bodies “in a position to respect the rules”, independent figures such as international election observers and a free press and active social media users who would guarantee a fair vote, according to Hounkpe.

For Aboubacry Mbodji, secretary-general of the African rights group RADDHO, west and central African countries such as Senegal, Ghana and the Atlantic island of Cape-Verde have shown Africa how a successful democracy holds an election.

A strong civil society and the combination of free media and citizens with access to new technology to disseminate information was “extremely important”, he told AFP.

Senegal, where RADDHO is based, saw “a change at the top” in 2000 when liberal candidate Abdoulaye Wade challenged the socialist regime that had held power for 40 years, and was elected president for two terms.

GOVERNMENT FIGHTBACK

But Wade himself was booted out in 2012 after angering voters with attempts to stay on for a third stint in power, showing the maturity of the electorate, Mbodji said.

“(The 2000 election) was in large part thanks to the use of mobile phones, but also the internet,” he added.

Any party members tempted to tamper with ballots had to face the large numbers of Senegalese who remained in place at voting stations to ensure it passed off peacefully, he said, and reporters who called in the results to media from mobile phones, especially radio stations, covering the event.

The last 15 years have seen organisations such as “Y en a marre” (We are sick of it) in Senegal, “Balai citoyen” (Citizen sweep-up) in Burkina Faso and “Lutte pour le changement” (Fight for change) in the Democratic Republic of Congo appear, intent on pressing governments to be less opaque.

Despite the trend towards more transparent elections, heavy handed government reactions have not entirely vanished, with internet and social media shutdowns during presidential elections in Uganda in February and in Congo-Brazzaville in March, and now in Gabon.

“The African Union observers couldn’t even communicate properly to complete their tasks,” Mbodji said, referring to the Congo election that returned long time leader Denis Sassou Nguesso to power.

But even the continent’s most entrenched leaders couldn’t escape the effect of the tidal wave of information the internet made possible, said Hounkpe.

“Those in power have less and less capacity to manipulate the process.”

{Police fire tear gas to disperse protesters of crunch talks over delayed presidential election.}

Police in the Democratic Republic of Congo have fired tear gas to disperse a rally in capital Kinshasa to protest about talks between opposition parties and the government on a delayed presidential election.

Young protesters, opposed to the dialogue, threw rocks and set fire to tyres on Thursday in front of the headquarters of the Union for the Congolese Nation (UNC) and Labour Alliance for Development (ATD) parties, whose presidents are participating in the negotiations with President Joseph Kabila.

Kabila’s opponents accuse him of stalling the vote to cling on to power, a charge he denies.

Some protesters chanted on Thursday: “We’re going to burn the headquarters of Kamerhe. Kamerhe is a traitor,” in reference to UNC president Vital Kamerhe, who will lead the opposition delegation at the talks.

They also chanted down former Togo premier Edem Kodjo, who has been named by the African Union as the talks’ “facilitator”.

The meeting between the government, opposition and civic leaders was due to start later on Thursday after authorities said last month that a poll scheduled for November would not be able to held before next July as millions of new voters needed to be enrolled.

Some prominent figures have agreed to participate, but most of the main opposition parties are boycotting the talks.

They have vowed to stay away from the negotiating table until political prisoners are released and legal action is halted against wealthy businessman and presidential hopeful Moise Katumbi.

Katumbi was tried in absentia in June for property fraud and sentenced to three years in jail.

While the courts have approved Katumbi’s seeking medical treatment abroad, they say that he will be arrested on his return and could face additional charges of recruiting mercenaries.

The presiding judge in the fraud case has since said that the authorities pressured her into signing off on a guilty verdict to ensure Katumbi would be ineligible to run.

Constitution limits

Kabila won disputed elections in 2006 and 2011 after succeeding his assassinated father, Laurent, in 2001.

The constitution limits him to two elected terms but the country’s highest court says that he can remain beyond the end of his mandate in December until the election takes place.

International powers fear an outbreak of violence in a country that has never experienced a peaceful transition of power, and where millions died in wars between 1996 and 2003.

{Jean Ping demands a recount under supervision of international monitors, as fresh clashes rock capital city.}

Gabonese opposition leader Jean Ping has demanded a recount after incumbent President Ali Bongo was declared winner of a knife-edge presidential election in the West African nation.

Loud explosions and gunfire could be heard in the Nkembo neighbourhood of the capital Libreville on Thursday, witnesses said, as security forces clashed with angry Ping supporters.

Speaking to Al Jazeera from Libreville, Ping said the result was “a joke”.

“Everybody inside and outside the country knows that I’m the winner. There is no doubt about that. All the European observers know that,” Ping said.

“That man [Bongo], I believe, is used to cheating, always. And the population is not accepting this type of remake of cheating every seven years,” the opposition leader added.

“What we are asking is, under the supervision of the international community, to count ballot by ballot, bureau by bureau. And then you will see that the margin is so big that he cannot win. It’s as simple as that.”

The Reuters news agency reported that rioting had erupted in at least nine different suburbs of the capital on Thursday, citing witnesses and a police source.

As the violence spread, France called on the government of the former French colony to release details of local vote tallies after the claims of rigging.

“The election result must be perfectly clear and transparent,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said on RMC radio, adding that the election results should be published bureau by bureau.

Overnight on Thursday, security forces attacked the opposition headquarters in Libreville, Ping said, wounding several people.

“The presidential guard plus some mercenaries and the police, after 1am, bombed my headquarters. They destroyed everything, and we have now two deaths and several people injured.”

Bongo won 49.80 percent of Saturday’s vote against 48.23 percent for Ping, a narrow margin of only 5,594 votes of a total 627,805 registered voters.

Fires and explosions

Moments after the poll results were announced by the interior ministry on Wednesday, anti-government protesters shouting “Ali must go!” tried to storm the offices of the election commission.

Later on Wednesday the country’s parliament building was partially set on fire.

Al Jazeera’s Catherine Soi, reporting from the electoral commission compound in Libreville, said Ping’s camp would not accept the result.

“Protesters came right outside this compound, many of them lighting tyres and chanting anti-government songs,” she said.

“They were dispersed by the police,” she said, adding that explosions could be heard in the distance.

Earlier, clouds of smoke and tear gas could be seen over parts of the city where clashes were taking place.

By nightfall, protesters vented their fury by setting fire to the parliament building, sending skyward a plume of flames and black smoke, witnesses and AFP news agency correspondents said.

Fires were visible in other parts of Libreville and explosions were heard as protesters faced off against heavily armed security forces.