ETHIOPIANS SET UP VIGILANTE GROUPS

Ethiopia's new rulers are reviving the security apparatus of their predecessors and ordering vigilante groups to be set up to track down dissenters. The Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), which fought its way to power on May 29, has announced that ``security and peace committees'' will be established in all districts.

According to the official radio, elections to the security committees were to be held Sunday. The committees will have 20 members each, four of whom will be chosen from among officials of the ousted regime.

The committees will have the task of tracking down and capturing former senior officials who served under deposed President Mengistu Haile Mariam, nearly 400 of whom have surrendered since the EPRDF marched into the capital.

Similar channels for informers flourished during Colonel Mengistu's 14 years of rule.

One candidate seeking election to a vigilante committee praised the decision to include supporters of the old regime as a bid to foster cooperation with the former ruling party.

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