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By Kirubel Tadesse (www.capitalethiopia.com)

Last week, Kirubel Tadesse spoke to Gebru Asrat, Chairman of Arena Tigray for Democracy and Sovereignty (Arena), which is a member of the opposition's biggest coalition, Medrek. The former EPRDF senior figure and regional president explains why Tigray needs a change of government, comes clean on the TPLF's use of Western aid in the 1980s and details the circumstances surrounding the murder of a Medrek candidate last week.

Capital: How was Arena Tigray established and who are its founders?

Gebru: Arena was established two years ago bringing together members of diverse groups. Young university students, civil servants and former TPLF members who were operating independently came together in agreement under a common program to form the party.
During the formation of the party, a huge number of citizens from all sectors were involved in Tigray. We actually presented over 1,200 signatures, though the legal minimum to form a regional party was only 700.

Capital: How many candidates is Arena fielding in Tigray for regional and federal parliament seats?

Gebru: For Tigray regional house elections there are 152 seats for grabs. We have over 100 candidates contesting the seats. In the federal house representing the region there are 38 seats that will be contested. Out of the 38 seats, we have 35 candidates registered to run for parliament seats, but now one of them has been murdered.

Capital: What are you proposing for Tigray? What will Tigray gain if it votes for Arena?

Gebru: Where the alternatives are coming from is from an assessment of what is there on the ground in Tigray. The ruling party there is the TPLF and its political and economic directives are taking the wrong direction - failing to register development.

In the region there is high level of unemployment and inflation. Drought and famine are also common there. In the political course, the region is deprived of basic freedoms and there continues to be abuses of basic rights. Basically our program is to solve these immense problems.

TPLF/EPRDF bases its ideals from the revolutionary democracy ideology, which is basically a one party supremacy. This basic undemocratic idealism encourages centralism while it starves democracy and the multiparty system. Society is also divided by the ideology: TPLF categorise individuals as an ally, centrist, or as an enemy - there are official EPRDF documents that categorise society like this. When is there is a so called enemy, abuses and arrests follow that basically prevent the existence of free society, free citizens - we want to change that in Tigray.

We want to establish a multiparty system that entertains various ideas and a system that guarantees freedom for citizens equally, without prejudice or distinctions of any kind. Basic human and democratic rights that are universally accepted must be respected in Tigray.
The political ideals are also governing the economic activity of the region. Now in Tigray there is a high level of state involvement in the economic sector. In our program too we propose the government to have a say in the economic performance, but we don't seek absolute control. Now it is hard to believe how hard the government there is trying to have a control on even small businesses. The small and micro businesses are even being asked to become party members. It shows you the nature of the ruling party when it tries to control these small scale economic actors. This doesn't help development.

If there is no room for efforts that strive for prosperity, that is a problem. TPLF wants to control every operation, examples abound. There was a share company formed by scholars who were seeking plot to invest in the service, agriculture and industry sectors. The ruling party realised that it may not control them, so they were denied plot and their area of operation was limited only to small areas of operation, such as to education. The decision discouraged a promising investment. Now the control held over big companies is moving to small scale industries.

The public is asking about the party run corporations: who is the owner? Are they the public's or the party's? No clear answer has been given so far.

There needs to be a space for freedom, to invest freely without being asked for political support. There is a high level of corruption and bad governance in Tigray. We want to bring institutional transformation change to result in good governance.

Capital: As we can see in the results of the previous polls, TPLF is very popular in Tigray. The ties go back years when the party teamed with the people there to overthrow the Derg regime. Now it is said the opposition cannot gain a support base in the region. What do you think of this assessment?

Gebru: It is a fact that once TPLF was very popular and that it was difficult to distinguish the party from the people. The joint effort brought about the downfall of the Derg. After that event what followed has shown that the TPLF failed to deliver what the people envisionsed.

What the people want is known to all: they want justice without discrimination - that is not here now. It wants good governance -that was not delivered. The people want corruption free institutions - that is not the case. In fact, corruption is bottlenecking the institutions in a great manner, let me give you an example: In Mekele there is a protected green area. Cadres-even central committee members - grabbed a plot and built a house. They did that only because they have authority; it was not allowed for other citizens. First it is protected area, secondly, if it is allowed it should be offered to the whole public in, for example, a public auction, equally for all.

TPLF cadres fail to understand that they struggled for all to be equal; not for them to be superior to the rest of the people. They are also dividing citizens based on political support: they are classifying people as first and second class citizens based on the political support they offer.

There is also this ongoing BPR where civil servants are being favoured as per the support they are giving to the TPLF; not as per their performance. Even economically, though TPLF stayed in power for 18 years, the people did not get what they hoped for. Whenever there is a rain shortfall, millions of people starve. Instead, it could have brought people out of poverty. There are few wealthy people, whether they got it legally or not, but they are not representative of the majority of the people. The hunger that existed 30 years ago is there; there is still a deep-rooted poverty.

There are the sorts of challenges in Tigray. Therefore it is wrong to think the TPLF and the people are the same now. Let there be free and fair elections - we can test the theory. But TPLF knows it, so it won't allow that to happen, already our candidates are enduring abuses: one was beaten, another killed.

TPLF has already spent its political capital, it can only continue as it is doing now, using money and political power to unlawfully dominate so it can continue to govern Tigray.

Capital: There is the controversial story that broke this week in the international media: It claimed the TPLF used aid sent to buy food to buy weapons to fight the Derg during the armed struggle. Do you have any knowledge of this?

Gebru: This is a clear issue. I don't think anyone can make any political gains out of it. The foreigners, the western countries, were not providing assistance with solely humanitarian motives. That has to be understood.

The previous geopolitical line-up forced them to support some fronts. That is what I understand and what I know since I was there. There was a clear presence of the Soviets in Ethiopia during that time and the West felt they lost their traditional presence. They wanted to change that by supporting the opposition front and they did it. It was to alter the geopolitical situation.

For the countries it would have been unlawful to openly support these fronts, so they did so under the cover of humanitarian assistance. I was laughing yesterday when I heard even Shabia playing this blame game: it mainly built its army by funds generated through the Eritrean Relief Association. That is how they fought the war.

TPLF did the same, they know it, that's why the funds came. But TPLF spent huge amounts on humanitarian assistance. I think it should be known that TPLF undertook various rehabilitation efforts and daily assistance, even buying farming tools and hybrid grains. The assistance that came was huge so it did use it for party purposes also. I don't think either the Western countries or the aid agencies, or even the former fighters, can accuse anybody over this.

Capital: Are you saying the donors were not tricked as claimed, they knowingly gave the aid to be used by the TPLF?

Gebru: Yes, it is a known fact. They did it purposely.

Capital: Your party this week made accusations that there has been a politically motivated murder of a parliamentary candidate. But government officials are saying that the late Aregawi Gebreyohannes was involved in a bar fight; the attack was not politically motivated; and your party now is trying to make political gains out of the situation. What do you say now about the incident?

Gebru: I was amused by the officials' responses. Why would they bother to make statements about the case if it were a normal murder case?

What should be put into consideration is the person was first arrested on January 16 in Sheraro area when he was disseminating our party's program. Also he was arrested in the constituency he was running when he was campaigning. He reported to our party that he is suffering continuous abuse from the ruling party; even he was advised not to leave the city.

The day he was killed, he went to bed at 10pm. The people responsible came to the bar, which his sister was running, and started to trash the house, he woke around 3am, since he lives nearby. I call them mercenaries: these people attacked him and brutally slayed him like a cow. Four of the alleged killers were freed on Thursday, but because the people protested they were put back into police custody. The deceased had no quarrel or contact of any kind with them.
Our other candidate was harshly beaten in Wukromariam area. I heard what was said about this candidate too: it was said that he was campaigning on restricted areas in school area. That is not true. But let's just say it was the case: should not they simply stop him? Was it right to harshly beat the candidate as they did? But he too was arrested. Does the ruling party deny this? We don't know what is next for this guy too. These things have to be seen.