Lawyers demand release of Ethiopia’s opposition CUD leaders
Nov 7, 2005 (ADDIS ABABA) — Top Ethiopian opposition leaders were brought before judges Monday for the first time since being detained amid bloody political protests last week, and found themselves in the same special court where members of a toppled military dictatorship were being tried.
Clashes last week between police and opposition supporters angered by the outcome of elections earlier this year left at least 46 people dead, drew international condemnation and raised questions about Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s commitment to democracy.
The opposition called for a general strike to begin Monday and continue until the government allows opposition parties access to controlled state media and reforms of parliamentary procedures that effectively bar minority parties from making changes to laws being discussed in the House of People’s Representatives. The strike call and general unease appeared to combine to keep shops closed and taxis off the streets. But the capital was relatively calm, as were key provincial towns were violence had spread last week.
Meles has blamed the main opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy for the violence and vowed that opposition officials would be prosecuted.
The 24 opposition leaders brought to court Monday, including Coalition for Unity and Democracy chairman Hailu Shawel and vice chairman Berhanu Nega and prominent human rights activist Mesfin Wolde Mariam, were ordered held another 14 days during the closed hearing, according to one of their lawyers, Mehrteab Leul.
Mehrteab said they were not yet charged, but were suspected of “trying to bring an end to the constitutional system by violence.”
Another of their lawyers, Getachew Kitaw, head of the Ethiopian Bar Association, said it was unconstitutional to have brought them before the special court.
Members of the former military administrative council, better known as the Derg, its name in Amharic, the national language, were being tried in the special court on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity allegedly committed during a two-year period in the late 1970s called the “red terror.” Col. Mengistu Haile Mariam’s “red terror” purge of his opponents came at a time when he was consolidating power after ousting Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974.
Mengistu was ousted in May 1991 by rebels, among them the current prime minister. Mengistu fled to exile in Zimbabwe.
Earlier Monday, lawyers for the opposition leaders had gone to court to demand that their clients, some said to be ill, be charged or released. It was not immediately clear how that case would be affected by the leaders’ appearance in the special court.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Meles, speaking in Germany, said he regretted the deaths but that police came under armed attack.
“It was not a normal demonstration,” Meles said while attending a conference called “Partnership with Africa,” convened by German President Horst Koehler. “And I don’t want to justify it when policemen get in a panic, but I can understand it when there are people throwing hand grenades and using guns.”
He pledged an independent investigation into the killings.
The U.S. and European Union pressed Ethiopia to release the opposition leaders, allow access to thousands of people detained and end a crackdown on independent media.
The violence has “damaged Ethiopia’s international reputation,” the U.S. and EU said in a statement read Sunday by read British Ambassador Bob Dewar.
The statement also urged opposition leaders to discourage violence, saying: “these distressing events have further deepened mistrust, as well as political and social divisions.”
Top Western diplomats said they were discussing suspending aid to the country. The U.S. and EU are giving some US$1.3 billion (A1.1 billion) in aid to Ethiopia this year. The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity, due to the sensitive nature of the talks.
The violence began Tuesday after peaceful protests Monday over the disputed May 15 elections.
The vote gave Meles’s Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front control of nearly two-thirds of parliament. Opposition parties have accused the ruling party of rigging the vote, and said the election and vote count were marred by fraud, intimidation and violence.
While the protests were sparked by the election dispute, many Ethiopians believe they reflect growing frustration over abject poverty in this nation of at least 70 million.
(AP/ST)