Following the failed murder attempt, security forces of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi terrorized the city by rounding up hundreds of opposition supporters as well as students from nearby Kombolcha town. The detainees were taken to Denkoro Chaka, a detention center described by the webiste as a “Nazi-like concentration camp.”
Conditions at the malaria-infested forest were cruel as detainees were subject to deliberate starvation and torture.
Ethiopian Review said the people had no media of their own to report their plight to the international community as the national TV and Radio were in the hands of Meles Zenawi.
News reporters from AP, Reuters, BBC and AFP were all located in Addis, thus giving the premier a rare opportunity to avenge his defeat in the elections by unleashing a reign of terror which has covered most of the country now. Massive detentions are meanwhile reported in other parts of Wollo, Gojjam, and Gondar, the latter being a city which saw 5 buildings on a university campus reduced to ashes through arson.
Observers say the degree of popular opposition to Meles and his party which ruled Ethiopia for the last 14 years was running deep throughout the country that in the lack of justice people may resort to violence to offset the prime minister’s ruthless campaign of terror.
The BBC reported on Monday Addis Ababa was mourning the deaths of at least 36 unarmed demonstrators who were gunned down on June 8 at the order of the premier who declared a state of emergency on May 15 once he knew his party lost all 23 seats in Addis Ababa, and was the end of his rule as more reports of losses reached Addis from polling stations in the rest of the country.
