Ethiopian Somali Democratic League

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Ethiopian Somali Democratic League ( ESDL abbreviation ; German about "Ethiopian-Somali Democratic League" or "Democratic League of the Ethiopian Somali") was a party in the Somali region of Ethiopia . It was created in 1994 from the merger of ten or more parties of various Somali - clans , that of the ruling national EPRDF was initiated. In 1998, at the instigation of the EPRDF, the ESDL merged with parts of the Ogaden National Liberation Front to form the Somali People's Democratic Party .

Prehistory and foundation

The Tigray People's Liberation Front and the EPRDF coalition it led , which overthrew the Derg regime in Ethiopia in 1991, took steps towards democratization and decentralization of the country. In the Somali region, which was formed with the reorganization of the administrative structure of Ethiopia , dozens of clan-based parties emerged that competed for power and influence. The EPRDF initially worked with the Western Somali Liberation Front and the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), two groups that were anchored in the largest Somali clan on Ethiopian territory - the Ogadeni- Darod - and who had also fought against the Derg regime. The ONLF won the first elections in the region in 1992.

As early as 1991, some Somali people in Addis Ababa who refused to align the parties according to individual clans tried to form a cross-clan political organization for the Ethiopian Somali. They came together with the support of the two Somali vice ministers in the Ethiopian government - Abdi Adan and Shamsudiin Ahmed - and some of them set up a committee. However, their efforts failed because of the ONLF's reluctance to compromise.

In 1994 the ONLF / Ogadeni-dominated regional parliament declared that it wanted to make use of the constitutional right of secession and strive for independence for the Somali region. The EPRDF, which had been secretly drafting strategies since 1992 to weaken the separatist ONLF, then promoted efforts to unite the non-Ogadeni opposition. At a three-day meeting in February 1994 in an unused military camp in Hurso (26 km west of Dire Dawa in the Shinile Zone ) in the presence of Prime Minister Tamrat Layne , ten or more parties from smaller clans were united to form the new party ESDL. 1,500 delegates approved the choice of party name and colors and unanimously confirmed Abdimajid Hussein (also: Abdul Majid Hussein ), the only Somali minister in the federal government and member of the Isaaq clan, as party leader. He was a member of the Isaaq clan, but was born a member of the Gadabursi clan (Makahil). His father was unable to pay the blood to the Habar Awal clan and his own clan refused, so he was integrated into the Habar Awal. Shamsudiin Ahmed , who belongs to the Gadabursi Dir , became the first general secretary .

composition

According to a source, eleven groups belonged to the parties that joined forces in the ESDL: the Somali Democratic Union Party or Democratic United Party of the Hawiye in the south, the Issa and Gurgura Liberation Front , Gurgura Independence Front , Eastern Gabooye Democratic Organization , Eastern Ethiopian Somali League , the Horiyal Democratic Front of the Gadabursi, Social Alliance Democratic Organization , Somali Abo Democratic Union , the Shekhash People's Democratic Movement of the Shekash , the Isaaq- dominated Ethiopian Somalis' Democratic Movement and a party of the Rer Barre . Other sources speak of ten or thirteen parties.

This made the non-Ogadeni clans the new regional partners of the EPRDF. Better than the Ogadeni, they “understood the limitations of the democracy proposed by Meles Zenawi ”. Their mutual dislike of Ogadeni supremacy led them to pull together and accept the support of the EPRDF. Ogadeni were also formally integrated into the ESDL.

1995 elections

In view of the upcoming elections in 1995, the ESDL lacked preparation time and resources. The party sent a delegation to neighboring Djibouti to seek financial support from Ethiopians and other Somalis living there. This raised around 30,000 US dollars and a number of vehicles. They put up candidates with ties to local clans in each of the districts. Differences within the ONLF, an election boycott by parts of the ONLF and a change in the constituencies to the detriment of the Ogadeni clan contributed to the ESDL's election victory. She won 76 out of 139 seats in the regional parliament and 15 of the 23 seats in the Somali region in the national parliament . (According to other sources, she received two thirds of the seats in the regional parliament and all seats in the national parliament or 75 regional and 23 of 25 national parliamentary seats.)

Reign and end

The first act of the new regional parliament was to elect the 21 members of the new government. When filling these and other offices, the ESDL had to take note that the EPRDF “preferred” certain candidates. The ESDL regional government made Jijiga the new regional capital instead of the remote town of Gode in the Ogadeni area and definitely adopted the name "Somali" for the provisional region 5 (instead of " Ogadenia ", which the previous parliamentary majority would have preferred). The regional administration was professionalized and expanded, teachers were subjected to a qualification check and a number of “phantom teachers” were removed from the payroll. New wells have also been dug in arid areas and a teacher training institute and a school for nurses have been established in Jijiga. However, large parts of the public saw the influence of the EPRDF as an obstacle to the development of the Somali region and were convinced that the EPRDF could remove any regional government at any time.

Within two years, internal disputes between Regional President Eid Dahir Farah and parts of the party committee led to a political crisis in the ESDL. By the end of 1997, the party had lost support from the EPRDF and large parts of the population. The EPRDF then decided to merge the ESDL with parts of the ONLF willing to cooperate. From this merger, the Somali People's Democratic Party (SPDP) emerged in 1998 , which has governed since 2000 and is more subordinate to the EPRDF than the ESDL. Most of the representatives of the ESDL in the national parliament were not accepted into the SPDP.

swell

  1. ↑ a b c d e Tobias Hagmann, Mohamud H. Khalif: State and Politics in Ethiopia's Somali Region since 1991 ( Memento of the original from August 31, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , in: Bildhaan. An International Journal of Somali Studies 6, 2006, pp. 25–49 (PDF; 121 kB) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / tobiashagmann.freeflux.net
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Abdi Ismail Samatar: Ethiopian Federalism: Autonomy versus Control in the Somali Region , in: Third World Quarterly , Vol. 25/6, 2004
  3. ↑ a b c d e John Markakis: The Somali in Ethiopia , in: Review of African Political Economy , Vol. 23, No. 70 (December 1996), pp. 567-570
  4. ^ A b c Ludovic Ollivier: Les Somalis du Harar et la "démocratie ethnique" Ethiopienne (1991-1994) , in: Politique Africaine 59, 1995, pp. 153-163
  5. ^ A b John Markakis: Briefing: Somalia in the New Political Order of Ethiopia , in: Review of African Political Economy , Vol. 21, No. 59 (March 1994), pp. 71-79, 1994
  6. ^ A b Samuel Negash: Colonial Legacy, State Intervention and Secessionism: Paradoxical National Identities of the Ogaden and the Ishaq Clans of Ethiopia , in: Bahru Zewde (ed.): Society, State, and Identity in African History , African Books Collective 2008 , ISBN 9789994450251 , pp. 288-291
  7. ↑ Katharine Murison (ed.): Africa South of the Sahara 2004 , Europa Regional Surveys of the World , 33rd edition, Routledge 2004, ISBN 9781857431834 (p. 426) (list of the eleven parties)