US urges end to Ethiopian turmoil

Nov 2, 2005 (WASHINGTON) — The United States urged both sides in Ethiopia’s violent election dispute to walk away from the turmoil and settle their problems through the democratic process.

Opposition members who won seats in parliament and control of Addis Ababa, the capital, in last May’s election should take their elected positions, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Wednesday.

At least 41 people were killed in the first two days of this week, 33 of them Wednesday, human rights groups reported. Witnesses said police and soldiers were firing at will in Addis Ababa on anybody who left their houses. Leaders for the opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy say hundreds of supporters are jailed, many of them for weeks.

“We call on all parties to immediately show restraint to step back from the current environment of heightened political tension,” McCormack said.

In addition, he said Prime Minister Zenawi Meles’ government should set up an independent commission to investigate this round of demonstrations and those of June 8, when rights groups say the authorities killed 42 people.

The violence ensued after Meles’ Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front was declared winner of the May 15 elections. Coalition leaders say the election was stolen.

“We deplore the use of violence and deliberate attempts to invoke violence in a misguided attempt to resolve political differences,” McCormack said.

He urged the government to release political detainees, including the opposition supporters, and said senior leaders arrested Wednesday should be treated humanely. If charged, they should be tried fairly and quickly, he said.

At the same time, McCormack said, “We call on the opposition to refrain from inciting civil disobedience during this time of heightened tension. While the ability to protest peacefully is a legitimate right in a democracy, violent demonstrations pose a substantial threat to public safety and do nothing to advance democracy.”

The way forward, the spokesman said, is for all political groups to be allowed to function in Ethiopia’s democratic process. Included in that is “for elected members of the opposition to take their seats in parliament and to assume the administration of the city of Addis Ababa.”

(AP/ST)