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ETHIOPIA: EU calls for public inquiry into
Tepi, Awasa killings
NAIROBI, 17 Jul 2002 (IRIN) - The European Union has called on Ethiopia to
hold a public inquiry into clashes between security forces and protesters that
left 128 dead, diplomats told IRIN on Wednesday.
Three ambassadors representing the EU member states urged the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs to ensure an "open transparent and public" inquiry
into the incident. The clashes erupted after an ethnic group in the Tepi Region,
some 700 km southwest of Addis Ababa, protested over the result of local
elections.
The EU's call comes after Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi discussed the
killings with EU head Romano Prodi. They also discussed the May shootings in
Awasa in which at least 17 people were killed in clashes between demonstrators
and police. The EU has also called for an inquiry into that incident. Diplomats
said that Zenawi was "deeply concerned" by the killings.
The appeal by the EU also follows a weeklong diplomatic mission it sent to Tepi
to establish what had happened. The Netherlands Embassy led the five-member
team. It presented its findings last week to the president of the region, Haile
Mariam Dessalegn, and urged him to support an open inquiry.
"We don't want this pushed under the carpet," a senior diplomat told
IRIN. "We want an investigation and the people responsible for ordering the
killings, both for Awasa and Tepi, to be held to account."
The EU is one of the largest donors of development aid to Ethiopia, and has
pledged some US $480 million over the next five years. They have also given
money for the establishment of a Human Rights Commission and an Ombudsman.
Tepi Killings
The Tepi killings, in March, erupted after the Sheko-Mezhenger People's
Democratic Union Organisation demonstrated against the outcome of the December
2001 elections, saying it won more than one of the local districts - known as
Woredas. After an investigation, the National Election Board ruled that the
elections were fair; sparking tensions between the local administration and the
union. Then, around 300 demonstrators marched into Tepi, capital of Yeki
District; armed with spears, machetes and rifles, the Ethiopian Human Rights
Council said.
In the fighting that followed between police, the Sheko, and the Mezehenger
ethnic groups; 24 people were killed among them five policemen and an official
from the local administration. Then, special police were deployed into the area,
the rights council said, along with troops from neighbouring Gambella Region.
After the initial skirmishes a month-long wave of retaliation against the Sheko
left 128 dead, although opposition groups put that figure higher.
Sources who visited Tepi - a fertile coffee growing region in the Southern
Nations and Nationalities People's Region - told IRIN that locals had complained
that a mass grave existed although the diplomats had not seen any evidence of
this.
"One village were visited was effectively razed to the ground," one
source said. "Scorch marks were on the tress were their houses had been
burned. The villages we visited were empty. Clearly people had fled."
The rights council estimated that 1,177 houses were set ablaze in the first days
of the incident.
"We welcome the move by the European Union," Hailu Makonnan, the
secretary-general of rights council, said. "We will have to see if it bears
fruit." A spokesman from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said local
authorities were conducting an investigation whose findings would be submitted
to the federal government.
IRIN
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