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Ethiopia declared a state of emergency on Sunday
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Protesters say government grabs land, denies rights
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Western states want business, fret about crackdown
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Ethiopian PM says police do not use extreme violence (Adds comments from German
chancellor, Ethiopian PM. Changes media identifier to ETHIOPIA-PROTESTS/MERKEL)
By
Andreas Rinke and Aaron Maasho
ADDIS
ABABA, Oct 11 German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Ethiopia on Tuesday to open
up its politics and ensure police do not use heavy-handed tactics against
protesters, after more than a year of unrest that rights groups say has led to
about 500 deaths.
Merkel,
who spoke at a news conference with Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn,
arrived in Ethiopia after a fresh flare up near the capital of the clashes that
have cast a shadow over a nation with one of Africa's fastest growing
economies.
The
violence prompted the government to declare a nationwide state of emergency on
Sunday.
Western
states, which are among the biggest donors to what is still a poor nation, want
their companies to win deals in Ethiopia but have become increasingly concerned
by the government's authoritarian approach to development.
"I
made the case that you should have open talks with people who have
problems," Merkel told Hailemariam, adding that police should respond
proportionately to protests.
Last
week, protesters ransacked or torched about a dozen mostly foreign-owned
factories, flower farms and other sites, accusing the government of building on
seized land and stifling opposition. Opponents blamed police for provoking a
stampede at a festival in Oromiya that killed at least 55 people on Oct. 2.
"In
a democracy there always needs to be an opposition that has a voice - in the
best case in parliament," Merkel added.
Opposition
parties failed to win a single seat in parliament in the 2015 election,
accusing the government of rigging the vote - charges which it denies. There
was just one opposition lawmaker in the previous assembly.
"The
government is not using extreme violence. If it happened, we will investigate
the units involved," the prime minister responded.
Addressing
parliament the day before Merkel arrived, Ethiopia's president called for an
amendment to the election law to allow "alternative voices" to be
heard - an offer that a senior opposition figure dismissed as "too little,
too late".
In
another show of German discontent, a diplomat said Addis Ababa had proposed
that Merkel address parliament, but Berlin refused because it lacked any
opposition members.
The
diplomat, who asked not to be named, said the message being sent was that there
was "no business as usual".
The
international community has praised Ethiopia for its economic achievements and
development strategy. Under this, healthcare and other types of social support
have spread across a country where most people rely on subsistence farming that
has been hit by severe drought in the past two years or more.
A
nation still renowned in the West for a devastating 1984 famine exacerbated by
the policies of the then Marxist government, Ethiopia has been one of Africa's
fastest expanding economies for the past 15 years of so. In 2015, growth was 10
percent.
But
the lack of public space for criticism has risen up the agenda for Western
powers. U.S. President Barack Obama told his Ethiopian hosts in Addis Ababa
last year that greater political openness would "strengthen rather than
inhibit" development.
The
government said at the time it ensured political freedoms but differed over the
pace of reforms that Washington wanted.
Till
now, Chinese firms and financing have been a major driver of growth, building
high-rise towers and a metro system in Addis Abba, and constructing a new
railway that links the capital of the land-locked nation to Djibouti port.
Western
investors have also secured deals. Britain's Diageo and Heineken of the
Netherlands have bought breweries, Dutch and Belgian firms run flower farms and
companies such as Hennes and Mauritz (H&M) are starting to source clothes
from Ethiopian plants.
As
well as meeting top Ethiopian officials, Merkel will hold talks at the African
Union, which has its headquarters in Addis Ababa, and also has a meeting
scheduled with opposition leaders and civil society figures later on Tuesday.
(Writing by Edmund Blair and Madeline Chambers; editing by David Stamp)
Source: Rueters
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