The second most populous country in Africa and one of the poorest, Ethiopia is a test case for the West in its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty on the continent. But its government's undemocratic leanings have presented donor countries with a dilemma.

After a disastrous year, 2006 in Ethiopia was a static one. Some 20 journalists spent it in cells in Addis Ababa, part of a group of at least 76 members of the opposition, civil society and the private press prosecuted for 'treason', 'conspiracy' to overthrow the government and 'genocide'. For Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, there was no doubt that the opposition wanted to engineer a coup and to take revenge on ethnic Tigreans like himself.