During his brief tenure, he was seen as a committed enemy of the al-Itihaad al-Islamiya, a now-defunct militant Islamic group based in the Ogaden and parts of Somalia, because he worked closely with the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front during their early operations against the movement.
He is notable as he is the sole independent in the EPDRF-dominated chamber, representing the Bonga constituency.
Democratic Party (United States) | People's Republic of China | English people | French people | American Revolutionary War | Democratic Republic of the Congo | Democratic Party | Filipino people | British people | Social Democratic Party of Germany | Irish people | Scottish people | Romani people | New Democratic Party | Mexican people | Democratic-Republican Party | Japanese people | German people | Brazilian people | Italian people | Democratic-Republican Party (United States) | Social Democratic Party | Portuguese people | Dutch people | Turkish people | Welsh people | Pashtun people | Palestinian people | Spanish people | Tamil people |
Ethiopian President Mengistu Haile Mariam, one of the major supporters of the SPLA, had recently been overthrown by the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front.
During the 2005 Ethiopian general election, Dawit criticized the Ethiopian government by writing articles and editorials suggesting that the EPRDF might have lost the election.
According to Hirut Abebe-Jiri, an activist involved in preserving and documenting atrocities while Mengistu Haile Mariam ruled the country, and other women, Kelbessa directly oversaw their torture, and demanded to know whether they were members of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party, then fighting the government in the Ethiopian Civil War.
Shortly afterwards, Radio Ethiopia broadcast a charge by Mengistu that Tafari and his associates had been killed because they were secret supporters of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party (EPRP).
In the 2005 Ethiopian elections, the electoral district of Bugna elected Bereket Simon (Amhara National Democratic Movement, one of the partners in the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front) as their representative in the House of People's Representatives.