{"id":27915,"date":"2016-08-21T00:20:46","date_gmt":"2016-08-21T00:20:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/ethiopia-pledges-probe-into-killing-of-protesters\/"},"modified":"2016-08-21T00:20:13","modified_gmt":"2016-08-21T00:20:13","slug":"ethiopia-pledges-probe-into-killing-of-protesters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/ethiopia-pledges-probe-into-killing-of-protesters\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethiopia pledges probe into killing of protesters"},"content":{"rendered":"

{The Ethiopian government says it will investigate allegations that security forces killed hundreds of protesters.}<\/p>\n

Ethiopian government has said it will launch an independent investigation about the killing of protesters by security forces during anti-government demonstrations but denied that the police violence in the country is “systematic.”<\/p>\n

“I have to reiterate once again this is not systemic,” government spokesperson Getachew Reda told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

“There are cases of off-grid police officers who sometimes take the law into their own hands,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The government takes such allegations very seriously.”<\/p>\n

The Human Rights Watch said Ethiopian security forces have killed at least 500 people since anti-government protests began in November and that thousands of people have been arrested and detained.<\/p>\n

Anti-government protests that started among the Oromo, Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, have spread in recent weeks to the second largest ethnic group in the country, the Amhara.<\/p>\n

Both groups are demanding more political and economic rights.<\/p>\n

“The ruling party won a hundred percent of federal and regional parliamentary seats in last years election,” said Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford, reporting from Adis Ababa.<\/p>\n

“The opposition protesters say the party is dominated by a minority ethnic group that has been in power for more than 25 years and is ignoring their constitutional rights.”<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, security forces killed nearly 100 people across Ethiopia in three days of violent protests, according to Amnesty International. Security forces opened fire on protesters, according to activists.<\/p>\n

The Ethiopian government blamed the opposition in and outside the country for organising what it calls “unauthorised protests by anti-peace forces.”<\/p>\n

‘We welcome the decision’<\/p>\n

\u201cWe welcome the decision to launch an independent investigation,” Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), told reporters in Geneva on Friday.<\/p>\n

Ethiopia has previously dismissed a plea from the UN to allow international observers to investigate the killing of protesters by security forces.<\/p>\n

“We urge the Government to ensure that the investigation has a mandate to cover allegations of human rights violations since the unrest in Oromia began in November 2015,” Shamdasani said.<\/p>\n

She went on to stress that the probe should be “indeed independent, transparent, thorough and effective, with a view to establishing whether the use of excessive force occurred and with a view to bringing to justice the perpetrators of any human rights violations.”<\/p>\n

“The government has repeatedly said that security forces who have committed abuses or bear any responsibility for the killing of innocent protesters will be punished,” said Al Jazeera’s Stratford.<\/p>\n

“But so far, publicly at least, no one has been called to account.”<\/p>\n

\"The<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{The Ethiopian government says it will investigate allegations that security forces killed hundreds of protesters.} Ethiopian government has said it will launch an independent investigation about the killing of protesters by security forces during anti-government demonstrations but denied that the police violence in the country is “systematic.” “I have to reiterate once again this is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-27915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27915\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27915"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=27915"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=27915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}