Ms. Almaz Seifu, a senior official of the opposition United Ethiopian Democratic Forces (UEDF) was on Saturday whisked away by security agents of the government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi as she was waiting for a taxi in the Ethiopian capital.

Ms. Almaz’s phone was cut off while talking to the ER reporter from her place of detention, and further communication couldn’t be established. ONC was basking in resounding election victories in most parts of Oromia region before the prime minister began to draw wicked parallels between the the victorious UEDF and Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) officials and the genocidal Interehamwe Rwanda militias. His intentions were seriously taken and denounced by both Ethiopian and foreign observers, including from the election-observer officials of the European Union. Nevertheless, in a bid to reverse the election outcome by sheer brutality, Meles gave his special security forces unbridled rights to quash any resistance. His forces have already credited themselves with the June 8 rampant killings. At least 40 were killed, and over 100 wounded in the state-sponsored terrorism which saw the detention of thousands.

The arrest of Ms Almas has come when UEDF President Merera Gudina is on a working visit to a number of European capitals, including to Brussels where he met with European Union officials Friday over the violent post-election developments. On Saturday Dr. Merera was on schedule to preside over a meeting of Ethiopians in Frankfurt, Germany.

The UEDF president, who frequently accuses the ruling party of trying to spark ethnic conflict in Ethiopia, had lost an MP-elect member of his party two weeks ago in Shashemene town. Police shot the would-be legislator dead.

Thanks to mounting diplomatic pressure, the government this week released about 2700 detainees from Zwai Camp. But almost all opposition members still remain behind bars, thus posing a major stumbling block to making any headway with the warring leaders in power.

Following the May 15 elections, the government embarked on terrorizing the society, with security forces rounding up both opposition supporters and members. Last month ONC election observers in Bedeno and Weter town were forced to seek refuge at a Red Cross center in Harar, in eastern Ethiopia, once the ruling party officials knew the people have voted for the opposition.

Ms Almaz had told a newspaper at that time that the “observers sought refuge at the Red Cross fearing for their lives after receiving threats.”

The election was crystal clear the people had voted Meles out of office. As a punitive response, the prime minister and his Information Minister openly fan ethnic hate and terror against the civil society which made its commitment to a political change by a record 90% turnout of a voting 25 million people. In spite of clear government moves to spark ethnic conflict, the Ethiopian people have so far rebuffed such designs.

Recently, Information Minister Bereket went further and said the killings on June 8 were necessary to avert letting the country slide into mayhem and anarchy that would have made the Rwanda genocide a “child’s play.”

Meanwhile, Ethiopian protest rallies continued worldwide, hoping the Tony Blair and Bush administrations, the two main financiers of the Meles regime, would take firm measures to save the country from the hands of two individuals who wouldn’t refrain from inflicting irreversible damages to Africa’s most populous nation with 72 million.

As a glimmer of hope, about a dozen members of the US Congress sent a letter to Meles on June 20, urging him to “immediately end the violent response to protesters and rescind the state of emergency as quickly as possible.”