What is your latest understanding of where Hailu Shawel is and what his status is?

At the moment, Engineer Hailu Shawel is under house arrest and the sad story I have very recently today is that he is being prevented from having food supply. People tried to get him food supply – they were not allowed to do so. Otherwise his health is in good condition. His spirit is high and he is quite strong spiritually. That is where he is – the situation.

What is your understanding about why he is under house arrest?

Well, you can not arrive at a logical conclusion about what they are doing, how they are doing it. We just can't understand. It is not on the basis of the law we have in this country. It is not on the basis of possible threats that he could create, because I am 100 per cent sure that we are anti-violence. Not only do we follow the strategy of non-violence but we are totally anti violent acts. We don't think anyone of us deserves to be detained.

The EPRDF claims that Hailu Shawel is under arrest because he had somehow encouraged the strike and somehow encouraged the violence on Wednesday – that he was a "threat to national security".

That is the story they are telling. I don't believe that. I can not buy that. Knowing Ato Hailu and Ato Lidetu and knowing the rest of my colleagues these are stories that I cannot buy.

Does the CUD feel any responsibility for the unrest this week?

Not at all.

I have attended press conferences here where there were appeals made for peaceful protests or mass strikes or stay-at-homes. And that would fit in with the taxi strike and the shops shutting. Does the CUD feel responsible for that level of protest?

No, CUD has never been involved, and I don't think CUD will ever be involved in such acts which are initiated by other groups. But we have to make clear that what they did - what students did, what the taxi drivers did – has nothing wrong with it. They just demanded a response from government officials. Nobody bothered to pay attention. And what they tried to do is just to attract attention – nothing more. They were not violent as far as I am concerned. But the response given by the government security police forces was very brutal. The phrase "excessive force" is not sufficient for what has happened. OK, it is in the category of "excessive force" but the concept of excessive force is, if there is any retaliation from the other side then the act taken by the government side is much more than the action taken by the other side. But I don't see any forceful act taken by the protesters. I don't see. It is just a wild act.

At press conferences, I heard you calling on people to organise peaceful protests, stay-at-homes, prayer vigils or strikes. Did that lead on to the taxi strikes and the student protests?

I don't think so. What CUD has been saying is that we will keep on trying a number of solutions that can be provided by the existing institutions like the election board like the court. And if we are not satisfied, then we go to peaceful acts like strikes, assemblies. These are also constitutional rights of the citizens.
All along what we have been saying is that we know that there are reasons for people to be angry but this anger shouldn't push it to be violent. Just try all possible means within the category of non-violent struggle. But the people shouldn't be submissive to struggle for their constitutional right. Not only is it a human right, it is also a constitutional right, a citizen's right to ask for clarification, to complain. And the acts could include, for example, Article 30 of our constitution says that strike, assemblies and the like are basic rights of citizens. We take these steps. First let’s see what the election board is going to do about these problems. Then, if we are not satisfied, let's see what the court can say about it. Then of we are not satisfied, still we have the citizen's right to exercise. Then what we are saying is, lets follow these steps, but in the meantime be ready for this. We are not saying 'go ahead' or do anything. Because we have to calm the people. But by calming people we can not discourage them from using their constitutional right.

Are you at all worried that if it does reach that stage that we will have a repeat of the violence of Wednesday?

Well, I think the government has learned not to do it again. That is what I hope. And it has to pay for the deeds that is has done already. And without finishing its debt, and then coming again to another terrible act, is not advisable. I can't tell because I am not in the mind of the government officials. But if I were – already enough damage has been done.

But would it not be safer or wiser just not to have any more protests, just in case it creates more violence?

Well, it is the decision of the people. I mean, here is a basic citizen's right, already endorsed in the constitution. The people have already made a lot of sacrifices to make the past election successful. I think, the participation was very astonishing. After doing all this and all of a sudden someone comes and says to the people, 'No you haven't elected Mr A, rather you have elected Mr B'. This is totally unacceptable. So, what we are saying is, let the people see how things go, how the election board is working on this issue to solve the problem, how the court system is working to solve the problem and then we do hope that a satisfactory solution will come to convince the people. But if not, still this exercise is their basic right. Nobody can stop them from doing so. All that we are trying to say is let's find out a solution right away through the process that the election board is going through. We want it to be finished there. If not then there is also court. If the court is just working its duty on the basis of the law of the land, then we will all be satisfied. Because we are demanding that all institutions should act according to the law of the land, not the law of some other country. We are saying the law of the land has to be respected – election laws and all other laws. If there is any distortion of the law, that is not acceptable. It is not only CUD that is not accepting it. People themselves whose rights have been violated can not accept. So let this process be given a chance. And we do hope that, if not the first, then the second phase will make everything acceptable…We are not trying hard to go to the third level before the first and second levels are given a chance.

What is the current status of this agreement that you signed late last week?

At the moment there has been complaint about the statement made by CUD. And we said we are sorry that a statement made by CUD seems to give an interpretation that is not appreciating the basic document. We are saying that if that is so then that can be corrected. And we corrected it, I mean we tried to explain.

What was the statement? Was it from Hailu Shawel or Lidetu?

No. It has nothing to do with them. The signatory was Engineer Gezachew. There are two steps. We have agreed that problems arising due to the counting and in general post-elections has to be first screened by a certain screening body, than, once screened, it would go to further investigation and through this process we will come to an acceptable end…If there are cases regarding constituencies that require further investigation then they can pass the first phase. These are things that we have agreed on. This was the agreement. And on the same day, the closing statement was made saying that this is perfectly OK. We have agreed. It is already signed. But to take this agreement to practical implementation phase we are demanding that certain things have to be streamlined. Like, if you go to our office now, most of our office facilitators are detained. If you give me any assignment now – even a single-page letter – it is very difficult for me, let along producing evidence, let alone communicating with 156 constituencies and organising evidence and so on and so on. So what we are saying is, given the situation now, given that most of our members are detained, some of our leaders are under house arrest and the office facilitators, office workers are detained, then how can we produce support for the implementation of the agreement that we are in. And in the presence of total deprivation of electronic media like radio, like television, how can we communicate with our supporters and the population at large. How can we tell them that we are on the right track and seeking support in this direction and so on. We are helpless. We are so weak that we can not support this agreement for its implementation. It is really a practical problem.

The person who is representing us on this platform is not the only one responsible for this. We have debated and discussed and agreed that this message has to be sent. Signing it and putting it on the shelf is not our intention. Signing is agreeing on the ideal. So what we are saying is that unless A, B and C are in order, we are afraid that this agreement may not be practical. But some people misunderstood it so we tried to correct it, at least to the satisfaction of the diplomatic community who are involved in this part of the process.

If you could sum it up, how would you describe your relationship with the EPRDF at the moment?

The situation may improve but at the moment, the attitude of the EPRDF towards us is not a correct one. It is rather damaging. But, I think, if we do something together or of we have a forum which makes us work together for one end then the situation may improve. That is my personal feeling. Because we will have at least one common objective to achieve which requires the contribution of all parties towards its achievement, then maybe trust may develop in this way. I think that if we get into the implementation of this agreement soon and then EPRDF and international community and all of us may understand why we are demanding that the atmosphere should be conducive for this useful agreement to be implemented.

How many of your members are being detained at the moment?

Two of the officials – Hailu Shawel and Lidetu. There are very many but let me tell you the basic staff that we are missing. One is office coordinator, the office administrator, we have what we call a regional coordinator and again two general coordinators and one of the office facilitators. And again, our south region coordinator and two of his secretaries. This is only here in Addis. Regional offices in Dessie, Jimma, Asela, Oleya, Bahar Dar – all of their coordinators, the key personnel there are detained. The CUD's worry is there is a very important process in front of us covering more than 50 per cent of the total constituencies, then in order to do so, one of the stakeholders, the CUD, and another, the UEDF who also have the same problem, how can we be expected to deliver our share to the satisfaction of what is being expected to be done.

My last question, could you still boycott the parliament as your last resort?

Well, the thing is there are many options. We haven't gone into detail and come to a conclusion. But boycotting is one of the options. We know that it is the worst option. But if everything is bad then we are not going to be part of this bad process and outcome. So better to stay away. We have no vested interests, just looking for minor benefits like the salary or the name tag. That is not our interest. We are really serious to contribute to the democratic process. And if we are not contributing to this process then we had better forget it because there is no use…So we give priority to our integrity because we have promised the people that we will stand for their interests and we will never stand against their interests. If their interests are better served by boycotting, we will do it. If their interest is served by not boycotting, we will do that as well.