Police use brute force to detain opposition figures, activists

ADDIS ABABA - A huge federal police force on Saturday rounded up and brutally beat opposition party leaders, supporters and rally organizers who were streaming to a big square in the capital to stage a protest rally.

Prominent among those arrested are Yilikal Getnet, leader of the opposition Semayawi Party, and dozens of other senior opposition party figures.
The huge Meskel Square where the rally was to be held was a scene of police brutality, with unarmed civilian protesters coming under attacks by club- and batton-wielding members of the Federal Police force. 

Police blocked the main roads that lead to the Meskel Square, arresting several members of the Muslim community whom they took along with others to the Exhibition Center, which police turned to a temporary detention facility. 

The protest rally organized by nine opposition coalition taksforce was to pressure the ruling party that a forthcoming election be free and fair. 

Intentionally fragmented along ethnic lines, impoverished Ethiopia has been under a one-party repressive rule since 1991.