‘’The 18 elders were led by Ugas Mohammed Dulane and met Prime Minister Meles Zenawi in Addis Ababa on June 29th. It was the first time that elders from the Somali region had been personally received by the Prime Minister. In view of this novelty and in remembrance of Meles Zenawi’s earlier refusal to meet the elders at the beginning of the year, the event was widely interpreted as a political success for the Ogaden. During the meeting the elders deplored the insecurity and underdevelopment of their home areas and requested more political representation in line with their clans’ population size.
Furthermore, they asked the Prime Minister to engage in negotiations with the ONLF. Meles Zenawi acknowledged the problems described by the elders and promised to take care of them personally. At the same time he repeated Abay Tsehaye’s call to the Ogaden elders not to elect CUD candidates in the August 21st elections. While no written record exists of this meeting, all sources concur that the Ogaden elders and the Prime Minister agreed on the following quid pro quo. The elders offered their support for SPDP candidates in the coming elections in return for the government’s readiness to engage in negotiations with the ONLF and to promote politicians selected by the elders. An Ogadeni intellectual who followed the meeting closely summed up the outcome of the negotiations thus:
The Prime Minister told the elders: We will give you ministerial posts in Addis Ababa, make the regional president an ogadeni, and six somali regional politicians to be nominated will become ambassadors. Plus, we will enter into discussions between ONLF and EPRDF for a peaceful solution!’
[Contested Power in Ethiopia: Traditional Authorities and Multi-Party Elections
edited by Kjetil Tronvoll, Tobias Hagmann, Pages 74-75
Furthermore, they asked the Prime Minister to engage in negotiations with the ONLF. Meles Zenawi acknowledged the problems described by the elders and promised to take care of them personally. At the same time he repeated Abay Tsehaye’s call to the Ogaden elders not to elect CUD candidates in the August 21st elections. While no written record exists of this meeting, all sources concur that the Ogaden elders and the Prime Minister agreed on the following quid pro quo. The elders offered their support for SPDP candidates in the coming elections in return for the government’s readiness to engage in negotiations with the ONLF and to promote politicians selected by the elders. An Ogadeni intellectual who followed the meeting closely summed up the outcome of the negotiations thus:
The Prime Minister told the elders: We will give you ministerial posts in Addis Ababa, make the regional president an ogadeni, and six somali regional politicians to be nominated will become ambassadors. Plus, we will enter into discussions between ONLF and EPRDF for a peaceful solution!’
[Contested Power in Ethiopia: Traditional Authorities and Multi-Party Elections
edited by Kjetil Tronvoll, Tobias Hagmann, Pages 74-75
