Ethiopian police massacred 193 protesters, including 40 teenagers, in election violence last year, an independent report has claimed, BBC Online reports Wednesday.
It said the government used “excessive force” to crack down on protesters who claimed the elections had been rigged. Ethiopian security forces said 58 people, including seven police, had died during an attempted revolution.
Ethiopian judge Wolde-Michael Meshesha, who carried out the investigation, claims that he had been put under pressure to alter his findings and fled into hiding in Europe when he received anonymous death threats.
People took to the streets of the capital Addis Ababa and other cities in June and November last year to protest the outcome of a general election in May.
Students accused the police of brutality. The dead had been shot, beaten and strangled.
The judge described the deaths as a massacre and said the toll could well have been higher. He said there was no doubt that excessive force had been used.
More than 100 opposition leaders, journalists and aid workers were rounded up during the protests and are currently on trial, accused of treason and attempted genocide.
