Conflict blamed on lack of democracy, poverty

Lack of democracy and widespread poverty are at the root of the many conflicts that have ravaged Ethiopia, according to the country's president. But President Girma Wolde Giorgis added that the conflicts now affecting the impoverished country were mere “home-bred squabbles” when compared to the past. “Ethiopia is a beginner in the exercise of democracy,” he told a three-day conference on Federalism, Conflict and Peace Building in Addis Ababa, which started on Monday. “We are a federal democracy coming out of age-old aristocratic and autocratic regimes,” he said. “Unfortunately we inherited no institutions, civil society or organisations with adequate experience on democratic governance." “By all standards of measurement we are beginners on the long road to mature, accountable, transparent, sensitive and responsive political order,” he added. The three-day symposium was billed as a landmark conference. It is one of the first times that managing conflict in the country has been openly discussed with government officials. German ambassador Dr Helga von Strachwitz, who also gave a keynote speech, hailed Ethiopia’s “sometimes bumpy” drive towards a federal democracy. The current government fought for more than a decade against the former Marxist regime which was eventually overthrown in 1991. Seven years later a bitter two-year border war erupted with neighbouring Eritrea, which won its independence from Ethiopia in 1991. “The underlying causes of conflict in Ethiopia are two-fold,” President Girma told the conference organised by the German development agency, GTZ. “Lack of democratic culture and experience on the one hand, and scarce resources and poverty on the other.” He welcomed moves made by the current government to foster democracy in the country. He said the soon-to-be formed human rights commission and independent judicial system were bedrocks of democratic reform.