Savage Police clash with students in Addis

Ethiomedia

March 2, 2006

The students are calling for the release of the political prisoners whom Meles has charged with fabricated cases of "treason and genocide."

Earlier on Tuesday, Federal police members savagely beat students of Menelik High School in Addis Ababa after students protested that the police stop turning the school into their barrack by surrounding the school if it were an enemy camp.

Eye-witnesses said the students - aged between 12 and 16 - were savagely beaten by police batons and truncheons. The road between the school and residence of the Orthodox Patriarch, was closed when the police engaged the students in brutal beatings with clubs and truncheons. Most of the young students were seen crying and running away limping from severe police beatings. A misnomer, the word "federal" has nothing to do with police activities linked to federal affairs. The federal police are a force loyal to Meles Zenawi, one of Africa's most ruthless dictators.

In another development, teachers who attended a government propaganda meeting in Awassa town, about 300 km south of Addis, were forced to fill out membership forms of the ruling party entirely controlled by Meles Zenawi, sources said over the weekend.

"Many teachers filled out the forms for fear of losing their jobs. But this doesn't mean there would be a change of attitude toward the rogue regime," a teacher who spoke on condition of anonymity told the source. In Addis Ababa, Meles Zenawi's repressive EPRDF party boasts of having more than half a million members. At the May 2005 national elections, however, the "members" voted for Kinijit - which swept all 23 parliamentary seats.

Meanwhile, political cadres of Mr. Meles Zenawi were scrambling public land within the Addis Ababa region among themselves. Each cadre is taking areas between 500 to 1000 square meters. The cadres use their guns to frighten the peasants who are intimidated into selling each square meter for less than 3 Birr.