Dr. Abiy answer on Harar water crises and rule of law with full question in Frankfurt, Germany

I have put together the full answer by PM. Dr. Abiy Ahmed in Frankfurt, Germany on Harar water and garbage disposal crises along with the question raised on the deterioration of rule of law across Ethiopia. Included is also the full question asked by Dr. Dereje Getahun who has traveled from Moscow, Russian Federation for the event.

I have tried to translate to the best of my abilities and knowledge of the languages with no bias or filtering.

Question:

"My name is Dr. Dreje Getahun. I came from Moscow, Russian Federation. I have two questions."

“The first one is regarding the relationship and governing style between the federal and regional governments. That means, as we all recall, there were conflicts recently with respect to ethnic and religious conflicts in several regions of Ethiopia ranging from Ogaden (Somali) region, in Babile (Oromia), Harar and its surroundings, Addis Ababa and it surroundings, and many more areas. These conflicts have resulted in loss of so many lives, family displacements, and property damages. When all these things happened, the federal government didn’t take immediate actions and as a result the same situations continued to exist in some regions of the country.”
He continued, “Ethiopia is not only or the first country who follows the current kind of Ethiopian federal system. There are so many more countries who follow federal system similar to Ethiopia. But, these countries, when it comes to country’s national security is at stake, human rights are violated, and rule of law is deteriorated, they would take immediate actions in order to preserve good governance.”

“But, in our country, it appears in some areas, it looks like as if small pockets that resembles like some kind of government have been created. These groups have engaged in disturbing peace, disrupting daily people’s work, and terrorizing people’s life by kidnapping, killing, torture, and so forth.”

He continued, “As we have all witnessed recently, contrary to our country’s culture, our upbringing, if we take Harari region as an example, so many bad things have happened to the people who live in Harari region by depriving the people access to water, not allowing garbage disposal, horrible and unspeakable crimes are being committed.”

Finally, to his question, he said, “As we all know, the Harari region, as the rest of other Ethiopian regions, has never wavered or negotiated on the question of being an Ethiopian or it sovereignty. It is very confusing or intriguing when nobody is paying attention to the current situation considering the history of Harar and its people that spans over 1000 year. If these situations continue as it is, it would cause bigger problems for our country as whole. Therefore, what is the federal government is planning to do to alleviate these dire problems that this region is currently facing?”

Answer:

Before addressing the Harar situation PM Dr. Abiy Ahmed said in brief summary on the lack of rule of law, “basically lack of jobs for the youth have contributed a lot to the current tendency of mob rule.“ He continued to say that, “neither the government nor the youth would benefit from these trends and the only path is respecting the rule of law.”

Here is PM Dr. Abiy’s answer on Harar question:

“On Harari question, as you said, the Harar people, the Somali people, the Agew people, the Oromo people, the Amhara people, the Tigray people, the Walayta people, and the Sidama people have all their own and rich history. No one’s history is superior or better and higher or lower rather we firmly believe that all Ethiopians have made history, have rich history, and we should all preserve our history. “
“Harari, not only as a people but even as one individual citizen, its rights should not be infringed up on, its basic necessities shouldn’t be tampered with, and it would be better if we all live together equally and respect each other. If we choose otherwise, we would all be losers.”