Interview with president of southern nations region (SNNPR)

Haile Mariam Dessalegn is the president of the Southern Nations and Nationalities People’s Region (SNNPR). The region has recently seen two serious clashes between security forces and protesters, in Tepi in March and Awasa in May, leaving an estimated 145 people dead. Here the president responds to calls by the European Union (EU) for a public inquiry and tells IRIN what action is being taken. QUESTION: How seriously are you taking the EU’s call for a public inquiry into the Awasa shootings? ANSWER: I think we are taking this issue very seriously and the situation is now calm. After the incident we began investigating it and now those ringleaders of this issue are under scrutiny by the regional attorney – that is the ringleaders who provoked this issue. What happened is under study so we will know the result after the experts of the regional police and leaders of that area make the technical evaluation. I am not sure how long they are going to take – maybe a month or so – but they have started the process. Q: Is there any investigation into the use of excess force by the military or security forces? A: Actually we asked the police officials to say exactly what this was all about – was excessive force used, what was the situation all about. The police have to justify that excessive force was not used and they are working on that justification. That is what we are doing. They [the police] are saying in a statement, before the formal report, that the shooting has been from within the demonstrators so we cannot say that it excessive force was used, but still they are trying to justify what has happened. Q: How is the situation in Awasa now after the demonstrations about the change in status of the town? A: I think it is very calm now and it is a normal situation, from my own observations and from the information I have. Q: Do you envisage future problems with the Sidama ethnic group because they are concerned the Sidama capital will move to another town? A: I think discussions have been reached at the grassroots level. What has been told to the people is different from what the administration is trying to do, they were wrongly provoked. Now when we tell the people the truth about what is happening they say they didn’t understand what was happening and this was wrongly told to them. So this is the consensus and I don’t think other problems will arise because people are already assured that this is how Awasa should grow. Q: When will the decision be taken to change the status of the town? A: I think in the coming August we have a regional council meeting and the proclamation will be finalised then. This gives us confidence that people agree with the situation. It is similar to Mekele [Tigray regional capital] and to Bahar Dar – there is not much difference to that. Except that there is a provision that the surrounding people, the Sidama people, should get their benefits from the town because the town is surrounded by this nationality. So they have a provision in the proclamation that the town mayor will be out of this nationality as well as 30 percent of the seats of the council of the town. Q: What was the final death toll after the shooting? A: The official report from the hospitals is 17 have died and 25 wounded. This is officially from the hospitals, but those who have not been to hospital, maybe those who were wounded and escaped to the woods may have gone home and might have died. I don’t have the figures. We can only tell from those who have been to hospital. Q: Has the EU asked for a public inquiry into what has happened in Tepi and what actually did happen? A: Yes. Actually they [EU] are also convinced that the Mezhenger and the Sheko [two ethnic groups in the region] group are the initiators who marched into the town and killed about 30 persons in the town. Then after that, there is a feeling that some retaliation might have taken place after the incident, after about 50 deaths due to the Sheko Mezhenger group in the first instance. And then after the other nationalities might have gone to the rural sites and retaliated. Q: Are you bringing any outside observers or independent people in to help with the investigation? A: I think we are going to do our own investigation and any interested group can do this investigation on its own. An EU group has gone there. We told the local administration to work together with them, to allow them to investigate whatever they like. And then they have investigated the situation. Q: Do you support the EU’s call for a public investigation? A: I am not against whatever truth coming out. But it should be according to the law. Q: It must be disturbing for such large numbers of people to be killed? A: I think this is not a new incident. We have some history, some issues. It started some 50 years ago. Several times that kind of thing has happened in that area. So this is not a new incident in that situation. But still the number of deaths is quite high when you compare it to other situations. As far as there is marching between one nationality and another, then deaths could happen in such sorts of things. They use all sorts of mechanisms to kill one another. These people, the Sheko Mezhenger are hunters; they are neither farmers nor pastoralists. They are hunters. So they use local weapons. Q: They say they were persecuted by the local security forces and were hunted down? A: I think that is not true. Even the investigation of the EU delegation does not justify that. It is not the local authority nor the local police who marched against them, it is them who marched and then after that the issue reversed. But I think in the first instance it done by the group of the Sheko Mezhengers. There is one political party [Sheko-Mezhenger People's Democratic Union Organisation] which won in one woreda [district] and missed in another woreda. They wanted to take all the woredas and they marched on areas where they couldn’t win, thinking that this can be reversed. So I think the misunderstanding belongs to them. The consciousness of the people is not so high about what elections are all about, how this process works and how you come to power.