The Ethiopian reform wave rolls

Ethiopia has fired its prison chief and removed three opposition groups from its" terrorist "list, the latest measures taken by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to shake the African giant decades of obsessive regime of security.

The dismissal of the head of the prison service, along with four former colleagues, comes hours before a Human Rights Watch report detailing torture in a notorious prison and urging the government to hold officials accountable.

Announcing the layoffs, Attorney General Berhanu Tsegaye said that prison guards must respect individual rights set out in the constitution, a rare public reprimand to the country's security apparatus.

His remarks echo Abiy's astounding criticism of security forces last month, in which the 41-year-old doctor, with a Ph.D. in peace and security studies, acknowledged widespread police brutality and equated it with state terrorism.

"Does the constitution stipulate that prisoners must be badped and beaten? This is not the case," he said during a televised parliamentary session. "Police badped.It is unconstitutional.Police was a terrorist."

In power for only three months, Abiy has overthrown policy in the nation of 100 million people in the Horn of Africa .

At the forefront of his reforms was the launching of peace talks with his neighbor and sworn enemy, Eritrea, against whom Ethiopia had waged a border war between 1998 and 2000 in which 80,000 people were killed. would have died.

It also canceled the state of emergency and announced its intention to partially open the economy, including attracting foreign capital to the national telecommunications company and the national airline – two attractive investment prospects given the size and growth of Ethiopia. After the recent release of political prisoners, the parliament on Thursday decided the Oromo Liberation Front and the Ogaden National Liberation Front, two secessionist groups, and the Ginbot 7, an exiled opposition movement, n & # 39; Was no longer a "terrorist" group.

The reshuffling of the ethnic polyglot former Oromo, the largest in Ethiopia, won Asmara's applause in Washington and compared the reforms of perestroika 1980s of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

It also drew opposition from the extremists of the Tiger People's Liberation Front (TPLF), the Tigrayan ethnic party that dominated the ruling EPRDF coalition – and by badociation the country and the country. 39 economy – for almost three decades.

Two people were killed in a grenade explosion at a mbadive pro-Abiy rally in Addis Ababa last month, with the guilt of those who opposed his reform campaign.

There was no claim of responsibility, but the attack underscored the magnitude of Abiy's challenge and raised fears – including from the Eritrean president Isaias Afwerki – the new Ethiopian leader may not prevail.

"Ethiopia is now at a turning point or a transition.What is the destination? How will this be achieved?" Isaias said last month in Asmara's first response to the openings of Abiy peace.

In the Tigrayan areas near the Eritrean border, residents have criticized the olive branch of Abiy in Asmara, while the TPLF has warned that it will not "participate in any process. which would harm the inhabitants of Tigray ".

He then found a more conciliatory tone, hailing Eritrea's positive reaction to Abiy's overtures. Some former high-level "securocrats" do not go quietly.

Major-General Teklebrhan Woldearegay, who resigned from his position as director of the INSA Computer Security Agency in April, said this week at a Tiger radio station that "I have not been here since." Abiy was "undemocratic and acting like a king".

Gebreyesus Gebregziabher, the head of the ax prison, is a member of the TPLF while his replacement comes from the Abiy party, the Oromo People's Democratic Organization.

Abiy was elected at the head of the four-party EPRDF in March after three years of violent protests by the Oromo ethnic group and other groups who felt exploited and abused in a campaign economic development.