Killings in Ethiopia reach new high

Press, 14 March 1977, Page 8

Killings in Ethiopia reach new high

NZPA Addis Ababa Government troops killed 344 people and wounded 132 since last Monday in a nationwide campaign to crush opposition to the Marxist military Government. the Ethiopian News Agency has said. Scores of people were also killed in the last week at eight factories in Addis Ababa in a shadowy war of assassination between Gov- 1 ernment backers and opponents, sources said. The Governmen* has nationalised the Voice of the Gospel, a radio station run by the World Lutheran Federation and broadcasting to Africa and Asia, saying it is.

part of a policy to treat all religions equally. ; The Ethiopian News Agency said that most of the week’s casualties were i 268 members of the Ethio-i pian Democratic Union!, killed or wounded in fighting in the north-west town ofr Metema. |, It said that Militia forces had also wounded or killed 76 other persons in sweeps!, in the last few days against! opponents of the Govern- i ment in the south-eastern provinces of Bale, Harar and!, Arusi. '< Sources said that hundreds of people had been killed in the capital in the last few] months as Government sup-'

porters battled the underground Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party, supported primarily bv students and intellectuals. A British university science lecturer, Mr VVilliarr Morton, was killed lasi iThursday in a shooting accident on the outskirts ol Addis Ababa. He was the first foreigner to die in the (civil strife. j The military Governmeni (is led by Lieutenant Colone Mengistu Haile Mariam, whe 'on Friday admitted thai “manv lives are being shed" in the strife He gainec power in 1975 by Over (throwing the late Emperoi 'Haile Selassie.