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Many Nations, One Name
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11638 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
Date : |
9 / 1986 |
2,469 Words |
| Author
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Anthony Shaw
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Ideological rhetoric in Ethiopia normally divides problems and policies into two categories - temporary, sort term; and long range, final objectives.
Into the first category fit most current problems, including drought and famine, opposition from the various nationalities and guerrilla movements, the economy, and resettlement.
The second category covers the installation of the Marxist-Leninist state, under the Workers Party of Ethiopia (WPE). Steps toward this latter objective has included the creation of the WPE in September 1984, a new constitution (the draft version of which was finally published in June this year), and the formal creation of the Peoples Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (PDRE), expected in September, though it may now be delayed.
In this scheme there is the expectation that the steps taken on the way to the Marxist-Leninist state will play a large part in solving the current temporary problems. The creation of an enlarged state sector, for example, and the spread of cooperatives are seen as part of the answer to food shortages and to the economic problems consequent upon drought and war.
Most important perhaps, the organization of the party and the establishment of the new constitution are seen as the answer to the regime's most visible difficulty, that of tribalism, or, as the Ethiopians prefer to call it, the issue of the nationalities.
Roster Of Rebels
The dimensions of this problem can be most strikingly underlined by listing the ethnically based groups that are currently opposed to the government (and in many cases to each other as well), and which often are actively engaged in fighting in the several wars going on at the moment.
In Eritrea there are: the Eritrean Liberation Front (Revolutionary Council); the Eritrean Liberation Front/Peoples Liberation Front (Central Committee); and the ELF/PLF (Revolutionary Council), all three of which are now joined into the ELF United Organization. There are also two other fragments of the former Eritrean Liberation Front (which split up in the early 1980s); the Eritrean Democratic Movement; and the Eritrean Peoples Liberation Front (EPLF), much the largest group and the one which has the only serious military presence in Eritrea.
In Tigray region, there is the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF), which now includes a party, the Marxist-Leninist League of Tigray, set up last year; and the Tigray Liberation Front which is virtually defunct and has no presence inside the region.
Among Oromos, the largest single nationality in Ethiopia, there is the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) which operates in Western Ethiopia and to a limited extent in parts of the east and south; the Somali and Abbo Liberation Front (SALF) which is based in neighboring Somalia and operates in the south of Ethiopia; the Islamic Front based in northern Somalia and with some support in eastern Ethiopia; and another different, unconnected, Islamic Front based inside Ethiopia in the highland of Hararghe region.
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