| Rising Tensions: Regional Presidents residence searched
By EthioTribune Staff Writer
September 7, 2006
(Finfinne, Oromia) A day after troops on machine gun mounted pickup trucks
patrolled major roads and intersections in Addis, security forces last night
searched in and/or around the house of General Abba Dula Gammada, the
butcher of Oromia and the person who, as defense minister, ordered the
killing of pro-democracy protesters last June.
The specific reasons that prompted this act are a mystery. One probable
reading is that the security forces might be concerned about hostile
attempts against the general and wanted to make sure that he is out of harms
way. Other sources indicate that lately the Prime Minister has been
courting Mr. Dhaabaa Badhaane, head of mass organization in the OPDO, as a
possible, but most unlikely, replacement for the reviled general whose
unpopularity has become a liability and a source of extreme concern for the
regime. He is one of the most detested personalities along with the likes of
Bereket Simon, the former Information Minister, in Israel for treatment of
unknown ailment.
For the Prime Minister it is a routine process to use and then throw
anyone from among the PDO establishment at a whim. Now that the general
has been exhaustively used, Meles might be ready for the throw.
Mr. Badhaane, who has lately been seen dining and wining with the Prime
Minister, is an unproven figure already immersed in corruption from head to
toe. There are piles of allegations of sleaze surrounding him. The fact
that he has netted millions selling government urban land grants at
exorbitant market prices is however beyond doubt.
Mr. Badhane is one of those catapulted out of ordinary life and given a high
post not out of competence but out of his readiness to serve the regime with
loyalty, even when this clashed with the rights of individuals and people or
the laws of the country.
The previous two regional Presidents of the Oromia state, Mr. Hasan Ali
and Jeneydin Saddo, were removed, among many other reasons, for
demonstrating a measure of timid assertiveness, especially late in their
tenure. Mr. Ali was too frustrated as to abandon the post and seek asylum in
the US in 1998. He lives quietly in Tennessee.
Mr. Dammaksa, the other former head of Oromia, was unceremoniously removed
in 2001 allegedly for corruption but in reality for siding with the Prime
Ministers opponents during the split within the top leadership of the TPLF,
the dominant party within the rump EPRDF. Afterwards Mr. Dammaksa received
political resuscitation and given the portfolio of defense minister in the
new cabinet.
There is information that he has recently warned the Prime Minister that the
discontent in the armed forces is much more serious than earlier
anticipated. The defection of Brigadier General Kemal Galchu along with
many other high ranking officers accompanies by hundreds of troops has made
the regime unusually jittery. That is why many observers openly question the
tenability of the regimes hold on power in the face of rising protests by
students and general apprehension by the populace.
The troop presence level has been scaled down today. It is however reported
that hundreds of plain clothes security personnel continue to patrol the
streets of the capital.
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