Electoral violence, ethnic war in Ethiopia

After the UK froze a planned $36.1 million aid package, Ethiopia has freed 336 prisoners seized in a crackdown following clashes with police over elections which left 36 dead. But more remain behind bars. The main opposition group, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy, has said up to 120 of its staff have been jailed. Ethiopia's main human rights group has said three of its members were arrested.

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's ruling party claimed victory in the elections, based on provisional results. But parties have lodged complaints in 299 of the country's 527 constituencies. The unrest is the most serious dissent the Meles government has faced since it came to power in a 1991 revolution.

International observers acknowledged there were abuses by both the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front and the opposition parties during the campaign, but called it the most free and competitive in the country's history. (AP, June 17)

The electoral violence comes as multiple ethnic wars continue across much of Ethiopia. Eritrea Daily reported June 18 claims by guerillas of the Ogaden National Liberation Front to have seized a government army base. The oil-rich Ogaden Basin was the goad of a brief war between Ethiopia and Somalia in the Ogaden Crisis of 1977, when Somalia invaded in support of Ogaden separatists but was driven back after three months of fighting. The Ogaden guerillas are now apparently trying tie down Ethiopian forces to prevent Ethiopia from sending peacekeepers to Somalia to help oversee a government transition there, fearing the new regime in Mogadishu would be too closeley tied to Addis Ababa. (See our last post on Somalia.) However, even if the guerillas have lost Somalia as a sponsor, Eritrea (at odds with Ethiopia, from which it gained independence in 1991, over border disputes) is likely picking up the slack.

See also WW4 REPORT #16, and our special report, "State Terror Against Indigenous Peoples in Ethiopia"

Update

From Haaretz, Nov. 3:

ADDIS ABABA -- In the second day of violent unrest in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia, an estimated 100 people, and perhaps as many as 200, were killed by police and army forces battling
rock-throwing demonstrators, most of them young people in their teens
or early twenties.

[...]

The wife of an opposition parliament member was shot as she attempted
to prevent her husband's arrest in their home on Wednesday, said Adam
Melaku, the secretary general of the Ethiopian Human Rights Council.

The current violence, the aftermath of a contested election that was
held on May 15 this year, began yesterday in the Markota district,
the huge, densely populated market area in the heart of Addis Ababa.
Stone throwing youths confronted federal police forces, and four
demonstrators were shot dead, along with two policemen.

At least two other civilians were killed in other parts of Addis
Ababa on Wednesday, and at night, police and army forces arrested top
members of the opposition, including Haile Shewan, chair of the
largest opposition coalition, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy,
or Kinijet in Amharic.

Earlier this week, police swarmed the streets, making sweeping
searches of young men and arresting hundreds of Kinijet supporters.

Stores were closed all over Addis Ababa, both as an expression of
support for the opposition and out of fear of the violence engulfing
the city.