http://www.reuters.com/article/us-ethiopia-protests-idUSKCN0WY502?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews
World | Fri Apr 1, 2016 11:12am EDT
Related: WORLD, AFRICA
Ethiopia opposition say land-protest arrests aimed at deterring future
demonstrations
ADDIS ABABA | BY AARON MAASHO
An Ethiopian opposition group said on Friday that police had arrested
more than 2,600 people in the last three weeks for taking part in land
protests and that the government was thereby aiming to deter future
protests.
Plans to requisition farmland in the Oromiya region surrounding the
capital for development sparked the country's worst unrest in over a
decade, with rights groups and U.S.-based dissidents saying as many as
200 people may have been killed.
An opposition coalition said the arrests over protests in the four
months up to February came despite government assurances of clemency.
Representatives of the government were not immediately available for comment.
Authorities scrapped the land scheme in January and pledged not to
prosecute the demonstrators, while Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn
issued an apology in parliament last month saying his administration
would work to address grievances over governance.
Despite the pledges, the Ethiopian Federal Democratic Unity Forum
(MEDREK) said 2,627 people have since been "illegally rounded up" and
remain under custody.
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"It is an act of reprisal," MEDREK's chairman Beyene Petros told Reuters.
"The whole purpose why they are increasing their witchhunt is to
simply stop the public from planning or initiating any future public
protest," he added.
The coalition said in a statement that the arrests took place in 12
different areas of Oromiya, Ethiopia's largest region by size and
population.
The second-most populous nation in Africa with 90 million people,
Ethiopia has long been one of the poorest countries in the world per
capita, but has made strides toward industrialization, recording some
of the continent's strongest economic growth rates for a decade.
But reallocating land for new developments is a thorny issue in a
country where the vast majority of the population still survives on
small farms. The opposition says farmers have often been forced off
land and poorly compensated.
(Reporting by Aaron Maasho; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
Received on Fri Apr 01 2016 - 21:58:24 EDT