1.
GV EXTERIOR Demonstrators marching through Addis Ababa streets
0.11

2.
GV Marchers moving slowly and giving arm salute
0.26

3.
GV Crowd moving along, some holding up flimsy placards (2 shots)
0.46

4.
GV Ranks moving through streets
1.00

5.
GV PAN Crowd assembled, chanting and waving placards
1.09


The campaign was said to be part of the government's efforts to get rid of internal opposition. The EPRP, a Marxist party, wants Ethiopia's military rulers, who are also Marxists, to hand over power to a civilian government. The security forces were reported to have rounded up almost 300 'anti-revolutionaries' during the campaign in Addis Ababa. The military government banned political parties in 1974.




Initials BB/1725



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Hundreds of members of an Addis Ababa urban dwellers association on Sunday (15 January) marched through the Ethiopian capital in a political protest march. Observers said that the marchers, led by local youth, were raging against the activities and mergers of the country's popular political parties and against anti-revolutionary forces in Ethiopia.

SYNOPSIS: Reports said the crowd contained at least 60 former members of the Ethiopian People's Liberation Party and that some boasted of having carried out political assassinations and sabotage.

These youths said they had taken advantage of an amnesty for political agitators and had become revolutionaries. They wanted to convert their fellow citizens to their brand of political thought and action.

The marchers belonged to one of 25 urban dwellers associations which look after affairs in their separate administrative zones in Addis ababa. At their meetings, the youths are given to publicly exposing and denouncing fellow members whom they accuse of being counter-revolutionaries. On the day of this march, official radio in Addis Ababa announced that security forces had shot dead 19 members of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party (EPRP) during a two-day search operation in the city.

Ethiopia's official ENA news agency said the previous day that five EPRP leaders had been killed early in the campaign.