Ethiopia Halts Regional Plan After Protests

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/14/world/africa/ethiopia-halts-regional-plan-after-protests.html

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ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — The Ethiopian government has canceled a widely promoted plan to integrate the capital, Addis Ababa, with the surrounding region after it touched off protests and violence that has killed scores of people since late last year.

Opposition activists belonging to the Oromo, Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, called the plan unfair because it threatened the sovereignty of their communities in the Oromia region on the edges of the capital.

The so-called master plan was abandoned after the Oromo branch of the governing coalition decided to withdraw its support, according to Getachew Reda, a government spokesman. He added that he did not expect violence to decrease, claiming that the protests have been hijacked by antigovernment elements.

“This is not an attempt to pander to some violent people,” Mr. Getachew said Wednesday. “This is a decision by the ruling party in Oromia, which believes in heeding the call of the people.”

But Merera Gudina, chairman of the opposition Oromo Federalist Congress, expressed suspicion as to whether or not the plan would be scrapped for good. “They say they stopped it, but it could be temporarily,” he said.

The estimated death toll of at least 140, he said, was still rising.

Ethiopia has claimed double-digit economic growth over the past decade, and its state-driven development agenda aims to transform this poor, mostly rural country, which has the second-highest population in Africa, into an industrial powerhouse. Yet opposition groups say those ambitious proposals leave no room for civil liberties or multiparty democracy.

The governing coalition, which has been in power since 1991, and allied parties won all 547 parliamentary seats in a national election last year.

Oromo opposition activists say the protests are fueled by longstanding grievances, including political marginalization and the widespread displacement of Oromo farmers for little or no compensation. For that reason, said Dr. Merera, the protest movement was far from over.