Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, July 1 (Infosplusgabon) – The Ethiopian Cabinet has approved a new Bill seeking amnesty for three armed groups previously declared as terrorist organizations, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said on Saturday.
The Bill has been forwarded to the Ethiopian Parliament for approval and would immediately seek to have the designation of the three organizations as terrorist groups dropped.
According to Fitsum Arega, Chief of Staff at the Office of the Prime Minister, said the Council of Ministers has approved the resolution allowing the armed groups’ participation in national politics.
The three armed groups are Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and the Eritrea-based Ginbot 7, also known as the 7 May liberation, which is led by mostly leaders who claimed victory during the 2005 general election, sweeping the seats in the Addis Ababa administration.
Ginbot 7 is led by Sebit Nega, who recently quit his university teaching job in the US to begin an armed struggle against the Ethiopian government.
Among the key members of Ginbot 7 is Andergachew Tsigie, who fled to Britain and assumed a British citizenship.
He was arrested in 2014 and kept incommunicado until recently when he was released from detention. He later appeared shaking hands with the new Prime Minister Abiy, who has been hailed as a pro-reform driven political leader.
Andy, was seized while travelling to Eritrea. He was kidnapped by Ethiopian operatives from an airport lounge in Yemen and rendered to Ethiopian detention until his release recently.
The ONLF on the other hand has led an armed insurgency in the Ogaden region. At least 1,000 civilians are believed to have been killed during the armed operation in the Ogaden region in Ethiopia’s Somali Regional state.
At least 500 insurgents of the ONLF are estimated to have been killed by the Ethiopian military although local community elders claim up to 2,500 members were killed during the armed operation.
ONLF claims to have killed 950 members of the Ethiopian Defence Forces although only 375 members of the Ethiopian Defence Forces are officially acknowledged to have been killed during armed insurgency since 2007.
The Ethiopian Council of Ministers’ declaration No. 652/2009 will drop the terrorism tag on the three organizations and re-designate them as peaceful political organizations.
“The decision will encourage groups to use peaceful political discourse to achieve political ends”, Fitsum was quoted as saying by the state affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporation.
The law proposes amnesty from prosecution and drops terrorism charges against individuals convicted for political crimes and crimes against the constitutional order.
FIN/INFOSPLUSGABON/MOL/GABON 2018
© Copyright Infosplusgabon