Riot police fired at protesters for a second day in Ethiopia’s capital on Wednesday, a day after eight people were killed and 43 wounded in renewed protests against disputed elections, human rights officials said.
Clashes broke out early on Wednesday when police took action to disperse stone-throwing opposition supporters. The clashes began after sporadic bursts of gunfire in parts of Addis Ababa late on Tuesday and early on Wednesday, hours after security officials arrested leaders and activists of the main opposition party.
The pro-government Walta Information Centre said the opposition leaders were detained for allegedly orchestrating, coordinating and leading violence. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has accused the opposition of treason and committing ”serious” crimes in the run-up to the May 15 elections.
”Protesters were throwing stones at the riot police and the riot police are shooting. We do not know whether there are casualties yet, but the problems are continuing,” said Adam Melaku, head of the independent Ethiopia Human Rights Council.
Eyewitnesses said security officials were rounding up young people in various parts of the city.
Some publishers and editors of private newspapers accused of publishing ”baseless” reports and propaganda could also be sued, the information ministry said in a statement.
The ministry said those killed on Tuesday were six civilians and two police officers.
‘They were shooting at anyone’
Tuesday’s clashes erupted a day after police arrested and revoked the licences of 30 taxi drivers who took part in demonstrations against the parliamentary elections, which opposition parties claim were rigged by Meles’s ruling party.
Final results gave Meles’s Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front control of 60% of Parliament.
Opposition parties made strong gains in the polls, but say the vote and counting were flawed by fraud, intimidation and violence.
Bukara Debele, a 22-year-old tailor, said police fired indiscriminately at people on the streets, including those who were not involved in the protests on Tuesday.
”I could see there was beginning to be trouble, so I turned around to go home, but everyone started running and the police started shooting and I was shot in my leg,” he said from a hospital bed.
”They were shooting at anyone. People were falling over and screaming and the riot police were hitting” them with batons, he said.
Most of the dead were shot in the chest, according to doctors at the Black Lion hospital, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of fears of retribution.
Information Minister Berhan Hailu blamed the violence on the Coalition for Unity and Democracy, saying it had called for demonstrations as part of a plan ”to disrupt the peace and stability in the country”.
Call for calm
Opposition spokesperson Gizachew Shiferaw urged supporters to stay calm and accused police of using excessive force.
”To blame us for this violence is madness. The trouble was incited by the government simply because people were supporting us by hooting their car horns. The measures that the police took … were excessive,” he said.
Opposition parties have claimed that hundreds of their supporters and members have been arrested in the past two months.
At least 42 people were killed by police during protests in June, according to human rights groups.
Also on Tuesday, the government threatened legal action against the Coalition for Unity and Democracy, which has been boycotting Ethiopia’s Lower House of Parliament until it gets answers to questions about the results of the May elections.
The party has 109 seats in the 547-member Council of People’s Representatives.
The elections were seen as a test of Meles’s commitment to reform his sometimes-authoritarian regime. The United States government has touted Meles as a progressive African leader and a key partner in the war on terror. — Sapa-AP