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Ethiopia: Embassies told not to travel without notice
Recent exchange of allegations between opposition parties and the government over the intimidations and killings have led to a lot of coverage by foreign media of the elections as being rife with tension.
By Hayal Alemayehu, Reporter
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday told Embassies and International Organization that they should notify the ministry of any travel plans outside of Addis Ababa to any of the regions.
The ministry in a press release sent to The Reporter said that it had received many requests from embassies and international organizations to partake in the observation and monitoring of the upcoming national elections and has repeatedly denied them as it would make it hard for the ministry to sign a memorandum of understanding with each individually. It said that no one outside of the EU and AU commission has been invited to observe the elections.
According to the press release, all travel plans made by embassies and international organization as of last Monday for a period of 50 days should first be told to the ministry and that it will issue a letter of support for them.
Gavin Cook, spokesperson for the Bristish Embassy said that although they welcome the Ethiopian government’s decision to invite the EU to observe the elections, the Embassy had not made any request to the government to observe the elections. “We have not applied to observe and are still considering what monitoring we may do ourselves,” he said.
Sources close to the US Embassy said that the US government was contemplating of reciprocating in the same manner by asking Ethiopian Embassy staff to notify them before they travel outside of Washington DC.
Recent exchange of allegations between opposition parties and the government over the intimidations and killings have led to a lot of coverage by foreign media of the elections as being rife with tension.
The French and US embassies issued safety advisories to their citizens living in Ethiopia. In an email to its citizens, the French embassy advised them avoid public places, public transportation systems and to stay away from any demonstrations and public gatherings.
The embassy also warned its citizens to prepare stocks of food, water, electricity sources and fuel ahead of the polling day.
For those out of the capital, Addis Ababa, the Embassy has also announced a 24-hour-ready telephone service through which that they can contact it in emergency cases.
Observer
May 15, 2010 at 4:21 pm
The warning given from the Ethiopian government sounds like the one given here in America to residents in tornado isle or in mid west where there is hurricane, when a tornado or huuricane is expected to bring a huge damage on life and properties during a tornado or hurricane seasons. The tornado or hurricane warning is perenial as it recurs annually and the people re-built and re-start living after the damage.
The Ethiopian political life is just like that – a political system with a huge singulaity of a political tornado but period of 5 years. The political tornado is cyclic that recurs not every year but every 5 years.
The Ethiopian political system in short is described as : a system that functions in a political domain which I will call it mobius band in which there is only one face and one edge even though for naive observers it may look regular and with huge political singularity comparable to a tornado and hurricane.
This singulaity occurs probably on the line used to create the mobius band by making one twist and connecting the two ends of the rectangular band.
It is sad to see this every 5 years and very sad the people do not get what they deserve.
Why should there really be a problem in identifying a person who you think his/her ideas represent yours? Placing your choice in a box and go home, and then let responsible people count and reprsent the data to public and let the one with a majority vote takes the place that was contested. Is it not that simple? Why warning, why killing, why intimidating,
It simply defies common sense and displays the immaturity of the people who are using this as a political modus operandi, while others from outside are looking at it as utterly nonsense and to the best , childish way of wining a childrens’ game.
B
May 15, 2010 at 8:07 pm
Yes. Because Ethiopian Officials have done that announcement since they know that the majority will not vote for EPRDF and they may plan to do some thing after election as they did in the previous.
B
May 15, 2010 at 8:10 pm
SENSELESS ELECTION!!!!!!!!!!!