Africa News
Ethiopia rejects Amnesty reports of Oromo student arrests
Feb 2, 2006, 12:00 GMT
Addis Ababa - Ethiopia on Thursday rejected a report from Amnesty International that it had arrested thousands of ethnic Oromo students during last November's anti-government demonstrations, many of whom were said to be at risk of torture. The news disseminated by the Amnesty International East Africa Bureau is incredible misinformation, the Ethiopian Ministry of Information said in a statement. The London-based human rights advocacy group said Wednesday that the arrests of thousands of Oromo students took place during a wave of post-election demonstrations in Ethiopia, where torture has been reported. The whereabouts of many of the detained student were not known, Amnesty reported. The statement however dismissed the report saying 'only around 86' students had been arrested on various charges relating to alleged violence and that they would be dealt with by the courts in due course. The November disturbances stemmed from demonstrations in Addis Ababa and followed a first wave of violence in June, protesting alleged fraud in multi-party elections held in May. Those detained have been accused of links with the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), Amnesty International said. The OLF has been banned in Ethiopia over political differences with the ruling EPRDF Party of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, with which it had previously been briefly allied in power. The EPRDF and the OLF succeeded, with other regional guerrilla groups, in jointly toppling the military/Marxist regime of former President Mengistu Hailemariam, in exile in Zimbabwe since the fall of his regime in May 1991.
© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse
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