Unrest continues in Ethiopia
2005-11-04 12:49
Addis Ababa - Children were among the wounded and doctors said three people were killed as police tried to put down political protests in Ethiopia.
The state-run television, quoting federal police, said two people were killed on Thursday.
The renewed violence came a day after police shot dead at least 31 people and wounded dozens more, according to doctors who refused to give their names for fear of reprisals. The government has said that casualty figure was exaggerated and blamed its opposition for the violence.
Thursday's victims were shot at Old Airport, a wealthy neighbourhood where many foreign expatriates live, according to doctors at the Black Lion and Zewditu hospitals. Sporadic gunfire was heard near the French and Dutch embassies. Elsewhere in Addis Ababa, stone-throwing protesters had earlier defied a heavy military presence.
Election-related violence
The wounded include a seven-year-old girl who lost an eye after police hit her with a baton. An 11-year-old boy, Yarad Wubetu, was shot in the stomach when he came out of his home to watch police chasing a group of young men, said his mother, Lomi Bayia, a 33-year-old seamstress.
Businesses were closed and taxis were off the streets.
The violence erupted over protests of May 15 elections that gave Prime Minister Zenawi Meles' Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front control of nearly two-thirds of parliament. Opposition parties say the vote and counting were marred by fraud, intimidation and violence, and accuse the ruling party of rigging the elections.
The election had been seen as a test of Meles's commitment to reform. Meles has been lauded in the West as a new kind of African leader, appointed to British Prime Minister Tony Blair to his Commission for Africa to help draft a blueprint for ending poverty and building democracy. But at home his government has little tolerance for dissent and has been accused of severe human rights abuses.
Britain's minister for Africa, Lord Triesman, called for restraint from both sides and for an urgent, independent investigation into this week's violence.
The British ambassador in Addis Ababa called on the Ethiopian foreign minister and expressed serious concern over the arrest of opposition leaders and some civil society representatives and urged that all those not to be charged should be released immediately.
Western diplomats fear Ethiopia might be more likely to go to war again with longtime rival Eritrea as a way to rally domestic support.
International development agency ActionAid said on Thursday police had detained its policy manager in Ethiopia, Daniel Bekele, for three days without charge or access to his lawyer. Other civil society leaders have also been detained during a crackdown on organizations suspected of not being pro-government.
- AP