Ethiopia says arrested 9 planning to assassinate govt

Sept 8, 2006 (ADDIS ABABA) — Ethiopia said it has arrested nine members of a rebel hit squad planning to assassinate government leaders, state media reported Friday.

The suspects were working for the rebel Oromo Liberation Front, which has been fighting for greater autonomy in southern Ethiopia, the National Intelligence and Security Service said.

However, the opposition OLF denied the charges describing it in a press release “as usual, to a smear campaign to falsely defame the image of the OLF”.

The Oromo make up a third of Ethiopia’s 75 million people, and have been the center of dissent against the ruling Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front.

Merera Gudina, head of the Oromo National Congress, said he was skeptical of the government’s claims. On Monday, he said the Ethiopian government has detained without charge more than 250 members of the Oromo ethnic group. The latest arrests came Thursday.

“The problem is that no one has been brought into court yet, so the public has not been able to see them with their own eyes,” Merera told The AP. “If we can’t see them defending themselves in a court of law, how can we know what the truth is?”

In early August, an Ethiopian army officer of Oromo descent, Brig. Gen. Kemal Geltu, defected to traditional enemy Eritrea with more than 100 Ethiopian troops under his command. He said he was unhappy with the Ethiopian government’s treatment of the Oromo.

(AP/ST)