Hundreds detained, many suffer broken arms and legs

ADDIS ABABA (Dec 7) - Senior opposition party leaders and three busloads of protesters were admitted to the 3rd Police Station on Saturday night, eye-witnesses said. The 3rd police station is adjacent to the infamous Maekelawi Prison in the capital.

Many of the arrested were limping with injuries from police beatings. Engineer Yilikal Getnet, chairman of Semayawi Party, reportedly suffered a broken hand.Families and friends who tried to take food and clothing to the detainees at the 3rd Police Station and elsewhere, were turned back, without passing the essentials. Other activists who suffered beatings were also being held at Kazanchis and Cherkos police stations.

* * * * * ADDIS ABABA (Dec 6) - A huge federal police force on Saturday rounded up and brutally beat opposition party leaders, supporters and rally organizers who were streaming to a big square in the capital to stage a protest rally.
Prominent among those arrested are Yilikal Getnet, leader of the opposition Semayawi Party, and dozens of other senior opposition party figures.
The huge Meskel Square where the rally was to be held was a scene of police brutality, with unarmed civilian protesters coming under attacks by club- and batton-wielding members of the Federal Police force.
Police blocked the main roads that lead to the Meskel Square, arresting several members of the Muslim community whom they took along with others to the Exhibition Center, which police turned to a temporary detention facility.
The protest rally organized by nine opposition coalition taksforce was to pressure the ruling party that a forthcoming election be free and fair.

Intentionally fragmented along ethnic lines, impoverished Ethiopia has been under one-party repressive rule since 1991.

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