State Minister for Government Communications Shimelis Kamal accused “religious extremeists” of cooperating with opposition to eliminate the values of tolerance and respect in his country and hindering the construction of the Renaissance Dam.
Kamal told the Ethiopian News Agnecy that the Ethiopian people know that both extrememists and the opposition seek to eliminate the values of tolerance, coexistence and respect which characterize the Ethiopian people.
The extremist groups and opposition seek to cancel the counter terrorism law which respects human rights and democracy and takes into account the eperiences of other countries and the international law, he argued.
Kamal did not disclose further details about the opposition attempts to undermine the values of the society.
The opposition, led by the Unity for Democracy and Justice Party, accuses the government of using the counter terrorism law to target those who oppose the policies of the government. The opposition recently organized several demonstrations calling for the abolition of this law.
There have been tensions between Addis Ababa on one hand and Cairo and Khartoum on the other over Ethiopia's construction of the Grand Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile which would purportedly diminish Egypt’s and Sudan’s share of Nile water and weaken its electric power generation.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
