Judge Says Ethiopian Forces Killed 193 Protesters

Taken from Yahoo News, Wed Oct 18 2006
By ANTHONY MITCHELL, Associated Press Writer

NAIROBI, Kenya - Ethiopian security forces fatally shot, beat or strangled 193 people protesting election fraud last year, triple the official death toll, a senior judge appointed to investigate the violence said Wednesday.

Wolde-Michael Meshesha, a vice chairman of the 10-member inquiry, accused the government of trying to suppress the results of the probe amid sharp questions about Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's commitment to democratic reform.

Ethiopian officials refused to comment on the claims. The prime minister and other officials said at the time demonstrators were trying to overthrow the government.

"This was a massacre," Wolde-Michael said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

"These demonstrators were unarmed yet the majority died from shots to the head."

"There is no doubt that excessive force was used," added the judge, who left Ethiopia last month after receiving anonymous death threats, leaving his wife and five daughters behind. He is claiming asylum in Europe and would not disclose his exact whereabouts out of fear for his safety.

A draft of the inquiry team's report, which was to have been presented to the Ethiopian parliament in July and has been obtained by the AP, said among those killed were 40 teenagers, including a boy and a girl, both 14. The two were shot.

Six policemen also were killed in the June and November 2005 riots, bringing the overall death toll to 199, the report said. More than 750 people were injured, the report added. Wolde-Michael said the figures could be higher because many people were too afraid to speak out.

The government claimed at the time that 26 people were killed in June and 35 civilians and seven police were killed in November. According to Wolde-Michael, Meles said he did not authorize police to use live bullets.

Wolde-Michael also said he saw police records showing that 20,000 people were rounded up during the protests. More than 100 opposition leaders, journalists and aid workers are on trial for treason and attempted genocide.

The unrest followed May 2005 parliamentary elections that gave Meles' Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front control of nearly two-thirds of parliament. Opposition parties said the election was marred by fraud, intimidation and violence.

Ana Gomes, who was the European Union's chief observer during the elections, told the AP the report "exposes the lie" that the Ethiopian government is moving toward democracy.

"It is time the EU and U.S. realize that the current regime in Ethiopia is repressing the people because it lacks democratic legitimacy and is actually weak," she said by e-mail after reading the report. "It is driving Ethiopia to more poverty, conflict and war."

Wolde-Michael and the other commissioners spent six months interviewing more than 600 people, including the prime minister, police officers, witnesses and government officials.

In early July, shortly before completing its report, the team held a vote and ruled eight to two that excessive force had been used. The vote and comments of the commission members were recorded on video, a copy of which also has been obtained by the AP.

"Many people were killed arbitrarily," inquiry chairman and supreme court judge Frehiwot Samuel, who is also believed to have fled Ethiopia, was heard saying on the video. "Old men were killed while in their homes and children were also victims of the attack while playing in the garden."

An Ethiopian Orthodox priest, Estatiose Gebrekristos, was recorded as saying: "Based on my eyes, ears and knowledge the actions taken were 100 percent wrong."

But two of the commission members said the government responded appropriately.
"I consider the motives of the protesters was to overthrow the government," Elias Redman, vice president of the Ethiopian Islamic Affairs Council, said on the video. "I therefore fully support the action taken by the police."

Meles said at the time that demonstrators were attempting a revolution. Prior to the unrest, he had banned demonstrations and announced on state television he had put security forces under his direct control.

Wolde-Michael, who was appointed a judge by the current government in 1994, said the inquiry team came under intense pressure once the ruling party learned of its findings. Their offices were surrounded by security forces and the electricity was cut, he said.

Two days before the report was to be released, the team was summoned by the prime minister and told to reverse its findings, Wolde-Michael added.

In January, Britain withheld $87 million in aid because of concerns about the government's handling of the unrest. Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the world, and more than half of its 77 million people live on less than $1 a day.