by Lea-Lisa Westerhoff and Abraham Fisseha
ADDIS ABABA, June 8 (AFP) - Extreme tension gripped the Ethiopian capital late Wednesday after security forces opened fire on crowds during protests over last month's disputed elections, killing more than 20.
As authorities defended the use of deadly force by police and warned of severe consequences for any lawbreakers, Addis Ababa was largely devoid of traffic and pedestrians as frightened residents remained at home.
Security was tight and rocks and broken glass littered several main streets, remnants of earlier clashes in which protestors and people the government termed "hooligans" stoned police and vehicles and attempted to loot shops.
In the Mercato area around Ethiopia's largest open-air market where the violence was fierce, all shops were closed and people peered out from balconies and windows as riot police and heavily armed special forces troops cruised by in pick-up trucks.
One shopkeeper still in the area said the heavy police presence frightened him after the shootings but said it had been the rock-throwing demonstrators that caused him to shut down his drinks and sweets stall.
"I closed my shop this morning because it was too dangerous," said the man who gave his name as Ahmed. "A lot of people were throwing stones and the police were beating people. I am afraid now with all these police around."
Despite the dearth of human presence downtown, small crowds of anxious family members seeking news about relatives remained at overflowing hospitals where hundreds wounded by police gunfire were still being treated.
Mothers, wives and sisters cried and wailed while stunned men looked on as doctors tried to deal with the injured, most of whom were suffering from gunshot wounds and awaiting care in blood-stained corridors.
Patients groaned as medics, often without any anaesthesia, treated the wounds, stopping only to receive new dead and injured being ferried by a steady flow of ambulances.
Government officials traded accusations of blame for the violence with the opposition and said the police had acted to protect the capital where all demonstrations were banned for one month after the May 15 polls.
"The Ethiopian security forces have moved against demonstrators who tried to break into a bank and two jails," federal police commissioner Workneh Gebyohe said on state radio.
"The police have taken appropriate action to prevent them from doing so," he said.
But many of the wounded expressed shock and surprise that police had fired on them, professing not to have been involved in any protest or crime.
"I was going home to have lunch, the police shot at me, I don't know why," said Bayushu, a 19-year-old woman, waiting for an x-ray in one hospital hallway.
"I was looking for my son, I opened the door and I was shot," said 39-year-old Ateneyesh Mamo, a mother of two who was shot in the pelvis.
"I'm very angry because I wasn't protesting, I wasn't doing anything, I was just looking for my seven-year-old son," she said. "I don't understand what happened."
Two laborers, 22-year-old Getu and 25-year-old Abebe, who were shot in the right leg and shoulder respectively, echoed her complaints, telling AFP they had been simply walking along streets when they were fired on.
"I was going home and I was shot by a policeman," said Getu. "I wasn't participating in any demonstration."
"I was with friends on the street, I wasn't demonstrating," said Abebe. "They shot me in the shoulder."
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Copyright (c) 2005 Agence France-Presse
Received by NewsEdge Insight: 06/08/2005 11:36:59