After the opposition called for protests against the government over the fradulent May elections, and people began taking to the streets of Addis Ababa on Tuesday, the unrest has spread beyond the cities with thousands of people demonstrating against the government. Could this be the start of a revolution, or will this one be silenced just as those before it?

Addis Ababa – Thousands of students took to the streets in several Ethiopian cities Friday as unrest to protest a government crackdown on the opposition spread beyond the capital. Four people were killed and 11 injured, state television reported.

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, the target of the students’ wrath, insisted that the country was under control.

Nearly 40 people have reportedly been killed and some 3,000 others arrested after violent street clashes erupted in Addis Ababa on Tuesday. The latest casualties came in the northwestern city of Bahir Dar, state television said late Friday.

Demonstrations were also reported to have spread to Gondar in the northwest, Alemaya and Dire Dawa in the east, Awassa and Jimma in the south, and Dessie in the centre of the country. It was not immediately clear whether there were more casualties.

Demonstrators are calling for the release of the leaders of the main opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) party and up to 100 of CUD supporters reportedly arrested in Addis Ababa alone.

Police fired into the air and used force to break up the demonstrations.

Following the beginning of demonstrations, the entire opposition leadership has been imprisoned, with dozens killed and thousands arrested by police forces. Unofficial reports put the death count in the hundreds, with the bodies being taken to military camps for disposal. A mass demonstration had been attempted immediately following the elections in May, but the government justified its brutal crackdown back then by revoking the right to assemble for thirty days following voting day. Now they have no justification, and are simply trying to silence dissent.

The violence on the part of the Meles administration is forcing Britain to look much more closely at the unexamined aid that it gives to Ethiopia. The Tories and Liberal Democrats are calling on the Labor party to with hold aid from the Ethiopian government because of the way it deals with the opposition. There needs to be strings attached, basically. The reason the Brits need to do this is because, in Ethiopia, the everyday people see this aid as directly supporting the government that is committing these acts against them.

BRITAIN reacted furiously yesterday after riot police shot dead at least 23 people, including several women, in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa during a second day of demonstrations over disputed elections.

The continued violence is a deep embarrassment for Tony Blair, who has championed the Ethiopian Prime Minister as belonging to a “new breed” of reformist African leaders. Ethiopia is one of Britain????????s biggest aid recipients.

As scores of wounded were taken to ramshackle hospitals across the capital, gangs of youths shouted anti-Blair slogans at Britons living in the city.

One British resident working for the United Nations told The Times: “They were not threatening, but there is a lot of anger over Britain????????s support of this government. They shouted things like: ???????Tell Blair to open his eyes???????? and ???????Tell your government what is happening here????????.”

“When is the West going to realise this government is a bunch of morons,” another Briton said.

These protests seem to be gaining more steam, even as previous attempts have been quelled. But it seems that with each silencing, each further push is more powerful than the former. Meles has already promised that there will be no colored revolution, but a decision like that is usually up to the people themselves. It could happen at this rate, and if it does, Britain certainly doesn’t want to be caught on the wrong side of things.

Weichegud! ET Politics wonder how parents are supposed to protect their children from Meles when he’s shooting them down in the streets.

Ethiopundit says that the rumors of an Ethiopia-Eritrean war is bullshit, and that it’s simply a distraction to the west of the real issues.