ESAT News (March 10, 2016)
Ethiopian Prime Minister, Hailemariam Desalegn vowed to crash demands by several ethnic groups in the country for self-administration and assertion of their identity, what the people believe was their constitutional rights.
The premier, presenting his six month report to the rubber stamp parliament with all its seats taken by the ruling coalition EPRDF, admitted that the increasing demand for recognition of identity and self-administration had become a headache to his government.
The premier’s statement was seen as incongruous to the federal system and the constitution of the land that gives autonomy to ethnic groups in the administration of their affairs and respect to their identity and culture.
The premier told the parliament, which has no member from an opposition party, that the demand by the people of Qimant to be recognized as separate from Amhara was legitimate while on the other hand the demand by the people of Wolkait, Konso, Kuncha and Sidama, to name a few, for assertion of their identity and self-administration was not justifiable.
His latest statement, like his usual hocus-pocus, was puzzling to many who see the prime minister as a stooge whose task was just parroting the words of the TPLF oligarchs who wield real political power.