News Report
|
Several students were beaten and suffered severe injuries to their heads and limbs. Even teachers and headmasters
in some schools were not spared. Many students were put on trucks and
driven to unknown places where they could not easily be visited by friends and
families. These students have also missed their semester exams because
of the detentions. Parents were coerced into signing pledges to pay heavy
penalties for any property damaged during student riots. Several
teachers have been victims of politically motivated threats and intimidation in
the form of written warnings of penalties and some have been arbitrarily
suspended or dismissed from their teaching position without due
process. The reason given is inciting students to riot.
However, none of these brutal methods of suppression appear to have
stopped
the protests against the regime. On 19th and 20th January, a number of
people celebrating Epiphany were killed by the police because there
were
protests against the continued incarceration of opposition leaders.
Scores
of people were also detained.
During his report to Parliament last week, the Prime Minister rejected
international calls for the release of the jailed opposition leaders.
He said that their case is now in the hands of the court. However, in a
statement they prepared for the Court on 4th January and later
circulated to the public, the opposition leaders and journalists accused of treason
declared that they will not participate in the court trial, saying that
they were being prosecuted on trumped up charges, that the judiciary was not
independent, and that this trial was nothing more than a political
exercise aimed at fragmenting and weakening the main opposition party (CUDP).
Where this latest development will lead to is hard to say.
ETHIOMEDIA.COM – ETHIOPIA’S PREMIER NEWS AND VIEWS WEBSITE
© COPYRIGHT 20001-2006ETHIOMEDIA.COM. EMAIL: [email protected]