The general secretary of the World Council of Churches, Rev. Dr. Samuel Kobia, has called on the Ethiopian government to bring to an immediate end its military action against the people and to release political prisoners as soon as possible.

|QUOTE|Rev. Kobia expressed “great sadness” for the death of many Ethiopians following demonstrations and riots in Addis Adaba in a letter sent last Friday to the Ethiopian prime minister Meles Zenawi.

In the letter, Kobia warned that “further military action against the people is an escalation of violence and will further damage the political climate and make dialogue even less possible”.

The letter read: “The World Council of Churches urgently and respectfully calls on Your Excellency to exercise utmost restraint and bring to an immediate halt the military action against the people and release the political prisoners as soon as possible.

“Such action will help in easing the fast rising political tension,” said Kobia.

Kobia met with Zenawi last September during a visit to WCC members in the country, where he expressed his conviction that “honest dialogue with the opposition” was needed.

Following the visit, Kobia wrote to the leadership of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy and the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces making the same appeal “to resolve the political impasse through dialogue".

In last Friday’s letter to the Ethiopian prime minister, Kobia criticised the government for its arrest and detention of key figures in the opposition, saying, “These developments are not likely to lead to a peaceful resolution, but instead would aggravate the situation”.

|TOP|He warned: “Consequent to the actions taken by the government, the wedge between the government and the opposition will widen, thereby unnecessarily dividing the population and leading to economic and political hardship."

“It could even destabilise the entire nation with all the adverse effects on the laudable initiatives you have taken on development and democratisation process.”

Bloody clashes between demonstrators and police over the disputed May 15 elections last week left 46 people dead and thousands in custody, reports IOL.

Prime minister Zenawi promised an independent commission would investigate whether police had used excessive force to quell last week’s violence and similar in June, in which at least 42 people were also killed.

The country has come under intense pressure from the U.S. and the European Union, the country’s main donors, to investigate the clashes which started on Tuesday following peaceful protests on Monday.