Ethiopia accused of violent political suppression

Jan 12, 2006 (NEW YORK) — A leading human rights group accused the Ethiopian government on Thursday of using excessive force to suppress political dissent in the wake of disputed elections.

Human Rights Watch said the Horn of Africa nation was “violently suppressing any form of protest” and called on donor nations to insist on an independent inquiry into abuses by federal police and local officials.

“The government is deepening its crackdown in Ethiopia’s rural areas, far from the eyes and ears of international observers in Addis Ababa, said Peter Takirambudde, director of Human Rights Watch’s Africa Division.

“People are being terrorised by federal police working hand-in-glove with local officials and militias,” he said.

Political unrest rocked Ethiopia in the wake of national polls in May that were marked by allegations of massive fraud.

The government accused the main opposition party, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), of inciting the violence in a bid to foment a coup d’etat, and has arrested the group’s top leadership.

More than 80 people, nearly all of them opposition supporters, have been killed in the unrest.