June 13, 2005
A quiet weekend
Addis Ababa had a mercifully quiet weekend although tension remained in the air. People jumped whenever a wedding procession went by with guests shouting and car horns blaring. And I wasn't the only one to mistake the first crashes of thunder yesterday afternoon for gunfire.
But, as far as I know, there were no large scale clashes between police and protesters. Yesterday, for the first time, I noticed a significant number of taxis - both cars and minibuses - on the road. We will have to wait and see whether shops start opening today.
The main news was the continued house arrest of Hailu Shawel, chairman of the opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD).
Here is the Reuters version of the story at it appeared in Scotland's Sunday Herald:
Ethiopian opposition leader arrested (Sunday Herald)
ETHIOPIAN opposition leader Hailu Shawel and his family have been put under house arrest after a week of violence in the country which has left 26 protesters dead. "I am not allowed to leave my residence, my wife and maid are not allowed to leave and nobody is allowed to visit," said Hailu, chairman of the main opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD). "I am virtually in prison."
One small detail of the Hailu story was the photographers who went to cover the arrest were "roughed up" by police and had their cameras confiscated.
I can now only think of a handful of journalists out here who have not been detained or harassed in some way over the past week. A photographer and reporter were arrested during student protests on Monday; five journalists had their accreditation removed on Wednesday; I was briefly detained on Friday and the other photographers were roughed up on Saturday. Another European freelance photographer told me he had been arrested three times last week - detained for up to three hours at a time in police stations before his embassy could free him. Another MeskelSquare reader who has been wandering round Addis with a camera, emailed in to say that they too had been stopped.
Posted by aheavens at June 13, 2005 7:47 AM