Prime Minister orders investigation into Dire Dawa killings

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has ordered an investigation into the killing of six people, reportedly by police, in the eastern town of Dire Dawa, and has spoken with elders to help resolve the issue, government spokesman Zemedkun Teckle said over the weekend. The six were shot dead after police clashed with shopkeepers in the town, some 500 km east of the capital, in a dispute over smuggled goods, the Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO) said on Friday. Another 19 people were injured as police “indiscriminately” opened fire on demonstrators who claimed their goods had been illegally seized, EHRCO added. The police had raided the shops to confiscate smuggled items. The Ethiopian government has pledged to crack down on smuggling across the highly porous 1,600-km border with Somalia which, it says, undermines legitimate trading. Zemedkun said that while the investigation would look into the shooting, the authorities had to act on smuggling allegations after complaints from other businesses. “The issue of contraband is very serious in this area and legitimate shopkeepers are angry because they see people breaking the law and benefitting. So the authorities have to act.” However, EHRCO argues the police were heavy handed during the raid. “The customs police should have followed the legal procedure of search, rather than breaking into the shops and trying to take the properties of owners in their absence and through use of force,” EHRCO said in its report, translated from Amharic. “By failing to do this, they transgressed the laws of the country and caused damage to life, body and property of civilians.” “Moreover, other ways of calming down the crowd should have been followed rather than firing indiscriminately and killing and wounding innocent civilians, the statement continued. “We urge the government to investigate the matter and bring to justice those responsible for the loss of human life, physical injuries sustained and damage to property.” Many pastoralists use the borders for trading and regularly cross with their livestock into either Djibouti or Somalia. It often provides a lifeline in times of hardship: humanitarian organisations have noted that, traditionally, people turn to smuggling as a coping mechanism during lean times or drought.