An Ethiopian court sentenced 35 opposition members to life in prison on Monday, rebuffing a prosecution request that they be executed for trying to overthrow the government, treason and inciting violence. The remaining eight defendants were ordered to serve terms of between 18 months and 18 years.
Ethiopian prosecutors demanded the death penalty on Monday for 38 opposition officials convicted of trying to overthrow the government, treason and inciting violence. ”Since they have been found guilty on all counts, they should be punished with the highest penalty,” prosecutor Abraham Tetemke told the court.
Ethiopian prosecutors on Tuesday appealed for a death sentence for former Marxist ruler Mengistu Haile Mariam, saying the life sentence he was given for genocide was not equal to his crimes. An Ethiopian court in January sentenced Mengistu to life in prison for killings thousands of people during his bloody 17-year rule.
Ethiopian rebels who killed 74 people and seized seven Chinese workers in an attack on an oilfield said on Thursday they had no plans to hold the foreigners. But a London-based spokesperson for the Ogaden National Liberation Front, which claimed responsibility for the raid, gave no details about when the Chinese would be freed.
Ethiopia accused Eritrea on Thursday of arming anti-Ethiopian rebels and urged the United Nations to take action against its long-time Horn of Africa foe. Eritrean officials were not immediately available to comment, but always deny such allegations. Addis Ababa and Asmara have routinely fired harsh rhetoric at each other since a 1998 to 2000 border war.
Ethiopia demanded on Wednesday that Eritrea free eight Ethiopians being held by kidnappers, saying they were victims of Eritrean ”terrorism”. Five Europeans were freed from the kidnapped group on Tuesday in Eritrea after a 12-day ordeal. The victims were seized in remote northern Ethiopia in a case which has stoked tensions between the Horn of Africa rivals.
Ethiopian security forces scoured a remote north-eastern region on Monday in search of a group of kidnapped Europeans, including British embassy officials. Several British newspapers, quoting defence sources, said London had sent a Special Air Service team to Ethiopia.
Eritrea dismissed as ”baseless fabrication” on Sunday accusations by an Ethiopian official that Eritrean forces kidnapped a group of tourists, including Britons and Ethiopians, in a remote part of Ethiopia. The Britons went missing last week in the remote and inhospitable Afar area in the north-east of the country.
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/ 28 February 2007
The African Union appealed on Wednesday for urgent funding to activate a peacekeeping mission aimed at stabilising Somalia, where an insurgency is brewing after a war over the New Year. The AU wants to put an 8 000-strong force of nine battalions in Somalia for six months, then hand over to the United Nations.
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/ 20 January 2007
An African Union mission to Somalia recommended on Friday that it send peacekeepers for six months before handing over to the United Nations to tame a nation in chaos for 16 years. Diplomats see international peacekeepers as the only way to stabilise Somalia once Ethiopian troops return home.