A joint undercover investigation by BBC Newsnight and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism last month uncovered evidence that the Ethiopian government is using billions of dollars of development aid as a tool for political oppression.

The team travelled to the southern region of Ethiopia where they found villages in which whole communities are starving, having allegedly been denied basic food, seed and fertiliser for failing to support Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

Now Newsnight has heard from members of the Ethiopian diaspora that the government is accused of a renewed crack-down on opposition supporters, politicians and journalists.

Angus Stickler reports, then Jeremy Paxman hears from International Secretary Andrew Mitchell.

Source: BBC

According to World Radio Swiss, a police officer in the canton of Vaud accused of abusing his authority is to be re-tried, following claims he was acquitted thanks to his colleagues committing perjury. The case had been dismissed, but will now be fully re-investigated.

The substance of the case dates back to New Year’s Eve, 2006. A 16-year-old Eritrean man was stopped on two separate occasions by police in Lausanne.

He claims that on the second occasion, a patrol officer drenched him in pepper spray, and abandoned him near a forest. The man from Eritrea says his attempts to lodge a complaint later that night were rejected.

The case eventually went to court, and the policeman was acquitted, based on testimony by his colleagues. Some months later, however, a fellow officer who’d left the force accused those colleagues of lying under oath, to cover up police brutality. Those accusations are now being investigated, and the previous acquittal has been cancelled.

Now the case will be brought before a higher court, which should investigate what happened on the New Year’s Eve day in 2006. Bringing the case to the next level of courts should assure that justice is spoken and that the risk of fraud within the case is abolished.

The police force or so called “Gendarmerie” from the canton Vaud has already been involved in similar incidents in the past. For example during the G8 Summit in 2003 two demonstrators, were nearly killed by police officers from the canton Vaud.