ETHIOPIA
Calm returns to Addis Ababa
Special forces patrolled the streets as calm returned Nov. 5 after a week of bloody clashes between demonstrators and police left at least 44 people dead and thousands in police custody.
Diplomats said Nov. 4 that shooting erupted in one neighborhood in the capital Addis Ababa, where the violence started Nov. 1 after protests over disputed May 15 elections.
The vote -- seen as a test of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's commitment to reform -- gave his Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front control of nearly two-thirds of Parliament. Opposition parties have accused the governing party of rigging the vote, and said the election and vote count were marred by fraud, intimidation and violence.
Meles blamed the opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy for the violence and vowed that opposition officials would be prosecuted.
The Japan Times Weekly: Nov. 12, 2005 (C) All rights reserved
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