Ethiopia Issues Terror Warning
Addis Ababa
06 November
2008
The U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa has issued a heightened security alert a day after Ethiopia's government warned of an imminent terrorist attack. VOA's Peter Heinlein in the Ethiopian capital reports the alert coincides with a government roundup of ethnic Oromos, including several prominent citizens, on suspicion of collaborating with terrorists.
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An e-mail sent by the U.S. Embassy in Ethiopia
advises Americans in the country to avoid public gatherings and public places.
The message specifically mentions hotels as places to avoid.
The message was sent less than 24 hours after Ethiopia's Anti-Terrorism
Task Force warned of an imminent terrorist attack and urged citizens to be
vigilant.
Police recently rounded up about two dozen members of Ethiopia's
largest ethnic community, the Oromos, and charged them with aiding terrorists.
Among those arrested were the top managers of two of Addis Ababa's
finest hotels, as well as the leader of one of the largest Oromo political
parties.
Witnesses say those detained were told during a courtroom proceeding that they
were suspected of collecting money and sending it to known members of the Oromo
Liberation Front, an armed insurgent group.
Bereket Simon, senior adviser to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi was quoted earlier
as saying the leader of the Oromo Federal Democratic Movement, Bakele Jirata,
had been working 'hand in glove' with terrorists.
In an e-mail sent to VOA this week, the OLF said its fighters had killed 31
Ethiopian soldiers in a clash October 31 in eastern Oromia region. The message
told of two other similar clashes earlier in the month. Government spokesman Zemedkun
Tekle dismissed the OLF message, calling it fabricated, and an attempt by the
rebels to get attention.
Police were out in force in Addis
Ababa after the security alert.
Security was especially tight around the city's best hotels, but diplomats and
political observers cautioned not to read too much into the timing of the
terrorist warning and the arrest of prominent Oromos.
They note other violent insurgent groups also operate in Ethiopia,
including the Ogaden National Liberation Front, which is blamed for several
suicide bombings last week in the Somaliland and Puntland regions of neighboring Somalia.
The ONLF is also blamed for a deadly attack on a Chinese-run oil exploration
site in Ethiopia's Ogaden region last year.
The leader of Ethiopia's largest Oromo party, Merara Gudina, tells VOA he
does not understand why the crackdown is occurring.
"Really I could not make heads nor tails of it except that the government
is sometimes routinely harassing Oromos and political activists, [and] all of
us on the legal platform especially during the elections. These things are
routine," he said.
Merera, who heads the Oromo National Congress, and the leader of the Oromo
Federal Democratic Movement parliamentary bloc both vehemently deny any
involvement with the OLF insurgency.
Oromos are Ethiopia's largest ethnic community, making up as much as
35 to 40 percent of the country's estimated 80 million people
Ethiopia's capital has been the scene of several terrorist attacks this year.
In May, a bomb blew up in a taxi van in front of the Hilton Hotel, killing six
people, including a man with dual U.S. and Israeli citizenship. A coordinated series of
gas station bombings killed three people in April, and a blast in a public hall
last month killed four and injured more than 20 others.
Source: voanews