Ethiopian police open fire during Chrisrian fiesta
Jan 19, 2006 (ADDIS ABABA) — Ethiopian police shot and wounded at least one person and injured three others with batons on Thursday during disturbances at celebrations marking the Orthodox Epiphany, or Timkat, participants and hospital sources said.
Police said they had no reports of injuries but acknowledged they had moved to restore order after members of crowds celebrating the baptism of Jesus Christ became unruly and began throwing stones.
One of those wounded, however, said there had been no disturbances although some in the crowd of revelers had been chanting anti-government slogans amid continuing tension over disputed elections last year and a crackdown on the opposition after two explosions of deadly violence in the capital.
“I was shot by the police while we were celebrating Timkat,” said Pedros Gizaw, a 24-year-old market vendor who was being treated for a gunshot wound to the hip at Addis Ababa’s Menelik Hospital.
“Some people were chanting anti-government slogans, we weren’t doing anything wrong when I was shot, we were just dancing and chanting,” he said, adding that he had heard between seven and 10 shots.
Hospital sources said three other young men had been admitted for treatment for injuries caused by being beaten with truncheons or sticks.
Police said they had been forced to act when Timkat celebrants became unruly in three parts of the city.
“In three areas, some agitators tried to disturb the crowd by throwing stones,” an official said. “Without a significant intervention of the security forces, peace was restored.
“The celebration was peaceful and calm,” the official said, adding that police had “received no report of injuries.”
An AFP correspondent said streets in some parts of the capital, particularly those near Addis Ababa University, were littered with stones and that hundreds of riot police were deployed in various parts of the city.
Timkat, a colorful, raucous and ultimately water-drenched festival, ranks second in importance only to Christmas for the country’s 40 million Orthodox Church followers and routinely draws tens of thousands of into Ethiopia’s streets each January 19.
It is marked by huge crowds of white-clad revellers marching through streets to relentless drum beats behind elaborately dressed priests covered in jewel-encrusted velvet and satin robes, holding aloft replicas of the Ark of the Covenant — the vessel in which the Biblical Ten Commandments are believed to have been held and which the Orthodox church here maintains is located in Ethiopia.
(ST/AFP)