The Council of Ministers reacted to the formation of the National Reconciliation Commission which has been advocated for by several politicians and civic society groups recently.
The council met on Wednesday November 14 and approved the draft proclamation to form a reconciliation commission and send it to the parliament for ratification.
Since the coming of EPRDF after the fall of the Derg regime in 1991 several political activists and individuals who have followed the country’s political system have said the EPRDF led government should come up with a reconciliation and national consensus to halt public grievances and establish a smooth and democratic political platform in the country. Even though political elites asked for reconciliation, the ruling party refused it, claiming that there were no grievances in the country.
The sector actors have also claimed that ignoring the reconciliation issue has accelerated the grievances and increased political instability in the country.
The current response of the council is an answer to close to three decades of requests from opposition parties and other political elites.
The reconciliation commission may facilitate the platform to stabilize the peace process in the country and accelerate the reform introduced since the coming of PM Abiy Ahmed (PhD).
The commission will come up with solutions to political, social and economic differences.
In its latest meeting the council also approved the draft proclamation for the formation of an identity and administrational border commission. Since the country was divided by an ethnic based federation of the constitution drafted and ratified by the EPRDF led council, identity based conflict and inter border disagreement has been observed. For instance the identity claim in SNNP, Amhara and the border claim in Somali, Oromia, Gambella and Benshangul Gumuz has occurred over the past 30 years.
The identity commission is expected to come up with independent and scientific based solutions, according to statement of the Council of Ministers. The proclamation is expected to be ratified by the parliament.
Besides the two proclamations the council has also evaluated draft regulations for the formation of different federal offices in relation to the current restructure of ministry offices. Some of the new offices include: a water development commission, irrigation commission, drainage development authority, technology and innovation authority, geo spatial information institute.
In an unrelated development the Office of the Prime Minister has announced that the current campaign against corruption and human right abuse crackdown will continue. In the statement the PM described individuals who engage in illegal activity as a cancer to the country. It said that these individuals are not representative of any group or ethnicity.
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