Unrest in fourth day in Ethiopia
Nov 3, 2005 (ADDIS ABABA) — Police reportedly shot and killed two people and wounded eight others Thursday as they tried to quell a fourth day of protests against Ethiopia’s disputed parliamentary elections.
The renewed violence came a day after police shot dead at least 23 people and wounded dozens more, according to doctors.
Thursday’s victims were shot at Old Airport, a wealthy neighborhood 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.
Businesses were closed and taxis were off the streets.
Wednesday, doctors at five hospitals said the bodies of 23 people killed in the clashes were brought to emergency rooms and at least 150 people were treated for injuries, including a 7-year-old boy who was shot in the hip. Doctors refused to give their names for fear of reprisals.
Information Minister Berhan Hailu said the figures were exaggerated, and said 11 civilians and one police officer were killed, and 54 officers and 28 civilians were injured.
Adam Melaku, head of the independent Ethiopian Human Rights Council, on Wednesday said his group believed at least eight people were killed in the fighting.
Berhan said demonstrators burned several buses and destroyed four houses Wednesday. He said the government was “sorry and sad” for the violence, but he blamed it on the main opposition party. The capital, a city of 3 million, is an opposition stronghold.
There were reports of a massive wave of arrests late Wednesday and early Thursday as federal police went from house to house, detaining young men. Diplomats said around 2,000 people had been arrested.
During Wednesday’s clashes, machine-gun fire and explosions rocked the capital, and armored personnel carriers carrying special forces troops rumbled down streets littered with burning tires and broken glass.
The violence spread across the city, reaching the doorsteps of the British, French, Kenyan and Belgian embassies — all located in different parts of the capital. Workers at U.N. headquarters were told not to leave their offices.
Police surrounded Zewditu Hospital, dragging out and arresting young men. Witnesses said security forces were rounding up young people in various parts of the city.
Witnesses said bystanders and even people in their homes were caught up in the violence. One man said officers broke into his family’s housing compound Wednesday, firing guns indiscriminately as they searched for the demonstrators who threw stones to express their unhappiness with the elections.
Tigist Daniel, 16, said she brought her 50-year-old mother to a hospital after police shot her in the stomach.
This week’s protests began peacefully Monday, when tax drivers hooted their horns to show support for the opposition. Thirty of the drivers were arrested, which may have sparked protests Tuesday that deteriorated into clashes between protesters and police that killed eight people and wounded 43 others.
May 15 elections seen as a test of Prime Minister Zenawi Meles’ commitment to reform gave 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.
Amid this week’s protests, a New York-based media watchdog said authorities have threatened to arrest journalists and made statements that could endanger independent reporters in the capital. The government also appears to be using state media to smear foreign and independent media.
Several editors and publishers had gone into hiding since the government threatened to detain leaders of the Ethiopian Free Press Journalists’ Association and reporters it accused of being mouthpieces for the main opposition party, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
(AP)