http://www.reuters.com/article/us-ethiopia-protests-idUSKCN12208I
World News | Sun Oct 2, 2016 | 8:22am EDT
Ethiopians killed in stampede after police fire warning shots during protest
By Aaron Maasho | ADDIS ABABA
ADDIS ABABA Police in Ethiopia's Oromiya region fired teargas and
warning shots on Sunday to disperse anti-government protesters at a
religious festival, triggering a stampede that the opposition party
said killed at least 50 people.
The government did not give a precise death toll resulting from
chaotic scenes during the annual festival where some people chanted
slogans against the government and waved a rebel group's flag. But it
said "lives were lost" and that several were injured.
Sporadic protests have erupted in Oromiya in the last two years,
initially sparked by a land row but increasingly turning more broadly
against the government. Since late 2015, scores of protesters have
been killed in clashes with police.
These developments highlight tensions in the country where the
government has delivered stellar economic growth rates but faced
criticism from opponents and rights group that it has trampled on
political freedoms.
Thousands of people had gathered for the annual Irreecha festival of
thanksgiving in the town of Bishoftu, about 40 km (25 miles) south of
the capital Addis Ababa.
Crowds chanted "we need freedom" and "we need justice", preventing
community elders, deemed close to the government, from delivering
their speeches at the festival.
Some protesters waved the red, green and yellow flag of the Oromo
Liberation Front, a rebel group branded a "terrorist" organization by
the government, witnesses said.
When police fired teargas and guns into the air, crowds fled and
created a stampede, some of them plunging into a deep ditch, witnesses
said.
The witnesses said they saw people dragging out a dozen or more
victims, showing no obvious sign of life. Half a dozen people, also
motionless, were also seen being taken by pick-up truck to a hospital,
one witness said.
"As a result of the chaos, lives were lost and several of the injured
were taken to hospital," the government communications office said in
a statement, without giving figures. "Those responsible will face
justice."
Merera Gudina, chairman of the opposition Oromo Federalist Congress,
told Reuters at least 50 people were killed, saying his group had been
talking to families of the victims.
He said the government tried to use the event to show Oromiya was
calm. "But residents still protested," he said.
The government blames rebel groups and dissidents abroad for stirring
up the protests and provoking violence. It dismisses charges that it
clamps down on free speech or its opponents.
Protesters had chanted slogans against Oromo People's Democratic
Organization, one of the four regional parties that make up the
Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front, which has ruled the
country for quarter of a century.
In a 2015 parliamentary election, opposition parties failed to win a
single seat - down from just one in the previous parliament. Opponents
accused the government of rigging the vote, a charge government
officials dismissed.
Protests in Oromiya province initially flared in 2014 over a
development plan for the capital that would have expanded its
boundaries, a move seen as threatening farmland.
Scores have been killed since late in 2015 and this year as protests
gathered pace, although the government shelved the boundary plan
earlier this year.
(Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Toby Chopra and Jane Merriman)
Received on Sun Oct 02 2016 - 09:26:14 EDT