ETHIOPIA: Soldiers to be tried over Gambella killings

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

ADDIS ABABA, 18 Mar 2005 (IRIN) - Six Ethiopian soldiers are to face trial for their role in a massacre in the border region with Sudan where hundreds were killed in months of violence, officials said on Friday.

"Those six army members' allegedly participated in the killings and will face trial," government spokesman, Zemedkun Teckle, said. No date, he added, had been set for the trial.

Hundreds of people were killed and thousands fled their homes after clashes in the oil and gold-rich region of Gambella, 800 km west of the capital, Addis Ababa, in 2003. An independent inquiry said the army was involved in the extra-judicial killing of 13 people.

Gambella, which has a total population of 228,000, is ethnically diverse with people from the Nuer, Anyuak, Majanger, Komo and Opo tribes. Fighting erupted in December 2003 after eight government refugee workers were killed in an ambush on their vehicle.

Anyuaks were blamed for the attack and dozens died in a violent three-day clash in Gambella. The government said 56 people were killed, while a human rights report from the US State Department stated that 100 people were killed, mostly from the Anyuak ethnic group.

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