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At least 5 dead as riot police, opposition supporters clash in Ethiopia
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Updated at 11:13 on November 1, 2005, EST.
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ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) - Riot police clashed with dozens of opposition supporters in Ethiopia's capital Tuesday, fatally shooting at least five people and wounding some 20 in renewed protests of the disputed May elections.
The clashes came 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 Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's party.
Final results gave Meles' Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front control of 60 per cent of the 547-seat 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.
"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.
An Associated Press reporter saw Red Cross ambulances bring in five victims, including a woman who was shot in the face and a man shot in the back. Some of the wounded later died.
Security forces kicked journalists out of the facilities before they could talk to victims.
The riots subsided after hundreds of police reinforcements were deployed on streets strewn with broken glass and smoking tires. But western diplomats said gunfire erupted again in another part of Addis Ababa later Tuesday.
Information Minister Berhan Hailu blamed the violence on the main opposition party, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy.
"The CUD has called for these demonstrations," Berhan said. "It is part of their plan to disrupt the peace and stability in the country. The incident today is a continuation of their previous disruption."
Opposition spokesman 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. Protests in June against the alleged electoral fraud saw police kill at least 42 people, according to human rights groups. Also 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.
"Taking the CUD to court for its stance against the constitution is timely," the government said in a statement.
The elections were seen as a test of Meles's commitment to reform his sometimes-authoritarian regime. The U.S. government has touted Meles as a progressive African leader and a key partner in the war on terror.
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The Canadian Press, 2005
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