Ethiopia: Top opposition leader & deputy arrested, EU
protests
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Ethiopia PM Meles: Once again in defiance of the rule of law
because it didn’t go his way again.
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8 June 2005, BBC News
Ethiopia has put a
top opposition leader and his deputy under house arrest hours after clashes in
which 22 died, an EU observer has reported.
Hailu Shawul is leader of the
Coalition for Unity and Democracy, which denies being behind this week's
student protests in the capital, Addis Ababa.
Ana Gomes, chief EU observer at
last month's elections, condemned the deaths and protested to Ethiopia's
government.
The ruling party has been accused
of massive fraud at the polls.
Final results have not been
announced three weeks after the polls as reports of the fraud are investigated.
EU observers have voiced concern
over irregular vote counting and biased reports by the state-owned media.
Opposition blamed
Police fired live rounds to
disperse stone-throwing protesters in the Mercato and Piazza markets in the
city centre.
Injured protesters filled the
city's Black Lion hospital while relatives crowded outside, many of them
weeping.
Hundreds of students have been
arrested this week for defying a protest ban.
Journalists reported seeing at
least four bodies with bullet wounds in the head.
The government
said it regretted the loss of life but blamed it on looters, which it said were
incited by the CUD.
Information Minister Bereket
Simon told Reuters news agency shortly before reports of Hailu Shawul's arrest
that the CUD would "have to take responsibility" .
Mr Bereket said that seven buses
had been destroyed and businesses and banks damaged by looters.
He denied the police had used
excessive force to restore order.
Speaking for the EU, Ms Gomes
said her mission condemned "harassment and threatening measures" with
regard to CUD leaders.
She confirmed that Berhanu Nega,
the CUD's deputy leader, had been warned not to leave his home.
Unrest spreads
Doctors said they were treating
at least 100 people, many of whom had been shot. Some of those who agreed to
speak to journalists denied taking part in the demonstrations.
"I was looking for my son, I
opened the door and I was shot," Ateneyesh Mamo, a mother of two who was
shot in the pelvis, told the AFP news agency.
Wednesday's killings came after
two days of student protests in which police beat back protesters with batons
and rifle butts, as well as firing warning shots in the air, witnesses said.
The UK Foreign Office has warned
citizens travelling in Ethiopia to be cautious and says that tension is
spreading to other towns and cities.
According to provisional election
results, the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front and its
allies have won 320 seats so far, giving it a majority in the 547-member
parliament.
The opposition have, however, won
almost 200 seats - a huge gain from the 12 they had in the previous parliament.
When
the crowd dispersed in fear, they started shooting at them. There was blood
everywhere 
