This article about to read is from 2012. What’s happening in Tigray today the result of mistreatment of the past.
The
Public and The International Community to Support The Cause of Human Rights For
All.
Since
Prime Minister Meles came to power 16 years ago, his security forces have
killed, tortured
and harassed thousands of people who have criticized the
government.
Meles
Zenawi, Seyoum Mesfin, and Tigray in general are soiled by innocent Ethiopian
blood,
it would be foolish to expect the Tigray will do the right thingmeaning
strive for a united and
peaceful Ethiopia.
Students
in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, gather around one of the
victims who died in protests
Wednesday. It is the agony of our Imprisoned,
Latest Information on Kinijit Arrested Leaders
people
and the portrayal of the current sad situation
in the country. Helping the rest of
the
world understand what’s happening in Addis today. These photos are some of the
evidence
regarding human rights violations in Ethiopia today.
The
police were running at the crowd, firing shots. I got shot in my leg,. the
22-year-old day
laborer who identified himself by one name, Getu, said. .I was
just trying to get home to avoid
the
trouble..
I
kept running with the others while the soldiers chased us, shooting towards the
running mass.
We would run a bit then stop and turn round. The police assume
that you have a gun if you keep
running and so to avoid being shot you have to
run a
little, walk a little, checking over your
shoulder.
The
BBC’s Mohammed Adow in Addis Ababa said lashes between police and protestors
erupted
early on wednesday morning and spread across the city, reaching the
doorstep of the British and
French
embassies.
Most
of the clashes occurred in the commercial district of Mercato, where Many
people were
shopping in reparation for the Eid festivities. They
are killing, no one is crying. They are killing more,
not one drop more Our own
government, is killing us You have nothing to say to us or about us.
We
are not hooligans, thieves or terrorists
We
are the future of this country of ours
A
country tired of its savvy and ruthless
leader
Meles Zenawi power Banchi D, Baltimore,
United States
A
man, shot in clashes between stonethrowing opposition
supporters and riot police in Ethiopia’s
capital is rushed to an Addis Ababa
hospital on Tuesday As
the wounded were taken to the
hospital, a woman shouted: "Murder
state". Eight people died in Tuesday’s violence and at leas
t 23 on
Wednesday.
we
are really in deep, deep danger. We need help now, before we are bathing in
blood. .
Doctors
said most of the dead had been shot in the chest and those wounded were shot in
the
legs and arms. I am not sure what will happen tomorrow but I hope that the
international
community comes to our aid.
"The
donor countries can twist Meles’s arm and make him compromise - release the
prisoners,
allow the newspapers to reopen," he said about Zenawi.
"That’s if they care about democracy
as much as they say."Another
bloodbath is taking place in Ethiopia,.
Ana Gomes, the European
Union.s
chief election observer in the May polling,
said in a recent letter urging colleagues
on the
European Parliament to end their chummy approach toward Mr. Meles.
An
excuse for cracking down on all government critics Shooting at unarmed students
is a
shameful
misuse of government power Source from Human Rights News Ethiopia: Government Attacks
Universities,
Civil Society
By
Saman Zia-Zarifi
Since
Prime Minister Meles came to power 14 years ago, his security forces have
killed, imprisoned,
tortured and harassed thousands of people who have criticized
the governments. Shooting at unarmed
students is a shameful misuse of
government power, the Ethiopian government has to investigate
and
prosecute the authorities responsible for firing on the students. The
government’s heavy-handed
tactics have enflamed what began as a peaceful local
student protest into a violent national crisis, the
attacks on academic freedom have
now degenerated into a wholesale assault on civil society in
Ethiopia."
said Saman Zia-Zarifi, Academic Freedom director for Human Rights Watch.
Senior
research fellow in the Department of International Law at Erasmus
University in Rotterdam,
the Netherlands.
Ethiopian
security forces have used excessive force in dealing with student protests and
are using
the protests as an excuse for cracking down on all government
critics, Human Rights Watch
charged
today. Attacks by security forces on Addis Ababa University, in Ethiopia’s
capital, have
led to forty-one deaths, hundreds of injuries, and the detention
of over two thousand students
and scores of government critics since April 17.
Voice of the people. The bodies of two young
men in the Black
Lion Hospital,
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, killed during clashes
between youths
and police. aheavens’ photostream.
Birtukan
is our leader and we cannot allow thugs to touch her, leave alone to arrest
her,.
were among the slogans being chanted by angry residents of Addis Ababa The people of
Ethiopia are making it loud and
clear that their struggle for justice, which is on the verge
of success, will
not be deterred by any means. The uprising that
began by the students of
Addis Ababa this
week is spreading full-fledgedly across. And if anything, this attests
to the
underlying fact. While assuming it has contained and weakened the civil
disobedience
of June, the regime was exposed
to the much stronger revolt of last month.
And before the
November violence cools down, the regime is being perturbed by
the third wave of uprising
and public unrest that exploded this week.
The
crisis in Ethiopia, which is
getting worse every day The crisis in Ethiopia is getting worse
every
day.
The
people of Ethiopia
are making it loud and clear that their struggle for justice, which is
on the
verge of success, will not be deterred by any means. The uprising that began by
the students of Addis Ababa
this week is spreading full-fledgedly across. And if anything,
this attests to
the underlying fact. While assuming it has contained and weakened the civil
disobedience of June, the regime was exposed to the much stronger revolt of
last month.
And before the November violence cools down, the regime is being
perturbed by the
third wave of uprising and public unrest
that exploded this week. The Voice of the people
Addis under fire!
Violent
rioting is rocking a great number of districts of the ethiopian capital Addis
Abeba.
The heaviest fighting is around the areas known as Ferensai Legasion,
Bella, Megenagna
and Mekanisa, as protesters erected roadblocks with stones and
burning tires. Police
activity is at its highest as live bullets are being shot
at the rioters.
The death toll is already
expected to be very high.
Today’s
violence follows yesterday’s arrests of top CUD officials and the clampdown on
the private press.
What
the hell are they doing??? How blind are
they not to see how much everybody hates them and
gettin sick of them?? Its
gonna get worse!The securities and Federals..we never knew we had devil
brothers. How could you be soo devil to kill
your own brothers and sisters?? 23 killed
and 183 wounded!!!
Meles
Kutchu has to go. This is the time all Ethiopian people knows who you are and
what you stand for.
If I were you Meles, I will give up. Cause People are knows
the true you that you can’t lead us with your
poissen idias. Long live Ethiopia (In
the 1980s, the TPLF had a reputation as
hard-line communists who
saw Enver Hoxha’s Albania as a model state.)
Comment
from: Yemereb Lij
Woyane’s
downfall is coming faster than everyone thinks, including Meles. Every single
life
lost is an additional evidence revealing the core of the brutal-Albanian
guided power by force.
Now that US
media has picked up the news and we continue
writing to respective senators,
US will be cornered to denounce Meles. Let’s
keep up voicing our concern in unison!!!
Comment
from: Ashenafi
Meles
Leave Ethiopia Killing women and children, 13 years old?
What
a desperate move... you know it your time is finished. butchering, soaking on
blood
will bring you to be judged for your enless crimes on innocents, you
can’t get away with this....
Why
is the police killing the people that it is supposed to protect? Shame on the
Ethiopian
Police for killing its brothers, sisters, little children, and
mothers. Shame on you! It is just
mind boggling to me why the leaders think
that massacring the people they say they are
serving will stop any opposition.
The use of power to silence
the people never solves a problem.
The
so called Democratic government of Ethiopia has set a fire that it
cannot extinguish.
Mika’el,
Los Angeles, California The independent Ethiopia Human Rights Council said
Clashes between police and protesters erupted in gunfire and grenade explosions
on
Wednesday, with police killing
at least 33 people during a second day of renewed
demonstrations against Ethiopia’s
disputed elections, a rights group said. Hundreds
of heavily armed riot police
were deployed across the capital as heavy machine-gun
and rifle and loud
explosions rocked Addis Ababa.
News
Paper Washington
Post 12/25/05
Dozens
of people, including women and children, were killed when security forces fired
into crowds.
In
the following weeks, police jailed at least 15,000 protesters and 130 senior
opposition figures,
including professors, judges and the city’s elected mayor,
Berhanu Nega. Most were charged
with treason, but some are being prosecuted for
calling for genocide against Meles’s ethnic group,
the Tigrayans.
23
Bomer Nega, 84, the father of jailed mayor Berhanu
Nega "The opposition doesn’t even have a
spokesperson.
They are all in jail," said Nega. "There’s no democracy here. They
allow leaders to
be elected, but then put them behind bars. I think this
country is being led back into the corner."
The
Ethiopian people has been tremendous suffering. As random killings, beatings,
lootings and
mass arrests continue, the country is gripped in fear. The joy of
a 90 percent voter turnout last
May is turning into a nightmare.
So
far, 89 people have been shot at point blank
range for participating in peaceful
street
demonstrations and close to 70,000 have
been arrested as possible foes and put
in
remote prisons, where the death toll is mounting.
According to the British newspaper
The Observer, a number of people have died
while in custody of government forces.
24
Abdu, originally from Africa, is a
Houston-based writer on foreign policy. Meles Zenawi
handpicked by Tony Blair
Onslaught : By David Blair Police came for Teshome Legesse, a
CUD city
councillor, as he was having lunch with his family on Nov 1. When they beat him
with rifle butts, his wife, Etenesh Yimmam, 46, became hysterical.
They beat her with sticks,
then one
of the police shot her twice.
The
man who killed Mrs Etenesh received a shouted order from another officer:
"Just do it."
At that moment, he fired again, apparently aiming at
the woman’s son, bent over her body.
He missed and wounded one of the family’s
neighbours. Then two officers
fired in the air,
dispersing the crowd, and the police left in a pick-up,taking
the dead woman’s husband.
25
Arrests were taking place across Addis
Ababa. The city’s jail overflowed and prisoners
were
held in its compound. As that became crammed, detainees were held in the
National
Exhibition Centre. Even that overflowed, so government offices were
used as temporary prisons.
Detainees
were beaten, stripped of their shoes
then driven to an old military camp at
Dedesa,
250 miles west of Addis Ababa. There
they survive in disused barracks on daily
rations of
four slices of bread.
Western
diplomats have reports of executions
at Dedesa and of a body being hung
on the
camp’s gates. The best estimate
for the total detained is 40,000. A
leader handpicked by
Tony Blair to champion
Africa has smashed his
opponents
with the biggest crackdown in the
continent’s recent history, jailing 40,000
people
including boys of 15. Meles
Zenawi, the Ethiopian prime minister
and a member of Britain’s
Commission
for Africa, has launched a systematic
onslaught against every possible
adversary.
By
David Blair in Addis Ababa
Daily
Telegraph.co.uk
Meles Zenawi was born in 1956 in
the town of Adwa in the Tigray Region. 11
The
regime of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi haslaunched
what the Daily Telegeraph correspondent
describes
as "a systematic onslaught against the majority
of the Ethiopian people," save his Tigrean
minority
tribe in the north (11), after the Ethiopian people
overwhelmingly rejected his regime in the last
election.
But in 1992 when Ethiopia
was divided in 7 ethnic
regions and Tigray expanded its territory with
60%
by trimming fertile land from Beemer and Wollo.
The building and expansion of Tigray in
different
directions, often to the extent of expanding to
other people’s territories is bound to lead to
conflict,
wherever it emerges.
1.
Addis Ababa* 2.
Afar 3.
Amhara 4. .Benishangul-Gumaz 5.
Dire Dawa* 6. Gambela 7.
Harari
8. Oromia 9.
Somali 10.
Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples
Region 11.
Tigray
Meles
Zenawi was born on 08 May, 1955 in
Adwa, in the Tigray Province
of 28 Northern Ethiopia.
He attended the Queen of
Sheba
Junior Secondary School before going
on to complete his tertiary schooling
at
the General Wingate School
in Addis Ababa;
after graduation he attended Addis Ababa University,
studying
medicine between
1972-1974. In 1974 he left school to
join the Tigrai People.s Liberation Front (TPLF)
during
the chaos that ensued in Ethiopia that
led to Haile Selassie.s overthrow
by coup d.état by the Derg, which
was the
group of the army who orchestrated
the coup. He
would go on to be elected to the Leadership
Committee and the
Executive Committee
of the TPLF in 1979 and 1983 respectively,
and by 1989 he was chairman of
both the TPLF
and the EPRDF (Ethiopian
Peoples. Revolutionary Democratic
Front). It should be noted that after
since the
overthrow of Haile Selassie a
guerrilla war had raged against the Derg and
their leader Mengistu Haile Mariam
until
his overthrown in May 1991, when EPRDF
would close in on Addis Ababa, forcing
him to flee the country.
After
Mengistu.s overthrow, Zenawi would
assume the role as transitional President
of Ethiopia
on 28 May 1991
until
22 August 1995, when he would go on
to become Prime Minister of the country,
despite opposition boycotts
of the election.
He would be re-elected to the Prime
Minister office in 2000 and in 2005. During
his tenure in office
, he has been active
as a mediator in several regional conflicts
in the region, including in Burundi, Somalia
and Sudan.
A
long time friend of the Clinton Administration,
he has also been recognized
by the Bush Administration as an
important war on Terror in the region, receiving
massive US aid for both food and
other financial assistance programmes.
He
would go on to complete his MA in Business
Administration at the Open University
(UK)
in 1995, followed by an
MSc
in Economics from the Erasmus University
(Netherlands)
in 2004. He is married
with three children, and his
hobbies
include reading, swimming and tennis. His
presidency is lauded by his followers as
him being one of the most
progressive in
Ethiopian history, and he has been successful
in throwing off the cruel shackles
of Mengistu.s extremely
oppressive
Marxist regime, and he is noted to
be an very well-read intellectual. That said,
his opposition has many charges
against
him. Human
Rights Abuses Once
thought of as the great hope for democracy
in Africa and lauded by Tony
Blair
for his exemplary good governance, recent
evidence suggests that a human rights
crisis is now brewing in Ethiopia.
After
parliamentary elections in May 2005,
which has come under scrutiny after Zenawi.s
party won a majority with 296 of
547
Parliamentary seats, despite the fact that
the Kinjit, which is a unified opposition
to Zenawi has ranks of approximately
1.5 million members, and dominates
some densely populated areas. This
immediately raised questions of whether
the election
was rigged. Moreover parliamentary
rules have been recently changed
to only allow a party with more than
51% of parliamentary
seats the right to
raise issues for discussion.
This
has created instability in the country which
has caused an eruption of violent demonstrations
against Zenawi in June,
2005
which led to violent measures to quell
the riots, leaving scores dead as government
forces fired live rounds into
the
crowds. Following this, he has continued
to crack down on brutally on opposition,
with reports of numerous
politically
motivated murders carried out by
the country.s security forces. Zenawi maintains
that the current situation has
been
orchestrated against him by opposition
to effect his overthrow and that this
has been planned since before
parliamentary
elections. Recently
reports of detention camps in Ethiopia
are coming to light, particularly the
Dedesa
camp, where there are reports of
merciless beating and torture of political prisoners
by Ethiopian security forces, and
as
many as 45,000 detainees are being held in
the camp right now. Opposition leader Hailu
Shawel alleges that between
40,000 and
50,000 youths have been detained by the
Zenawi government, although other sources
suggest that this number
is closer to
10,000.
This
is causing much concern among British
and other European politicians, with
foreign aid and projects now being withheld
or delayed. Many think that Tony Blair
is beginning to regret appointing Zenawi
to the African Commission earlier this
year.
There
are also reports that journalists in the
country have been arrested in numbers and
charged with treason, and some say
that
Ethiopia
now ranks among the world. leading
jailers of journalists since government
crackdowns in November 2005,
with many private newspapers now forbidden
from publishing, and a wanted list
for more journalists.
War
with Eritrea After
the successful secession of Eritrea from
Ethiopia
under Mengistu.s regime, several
territories
granted to Eritrea
in the peace
settlements, notably Badame, the gradual
separation of Eritrea
under Afewerki
from
Ethiopia
would result in increasing
border tensions. This culminated
in all-out war between the two
countries
in 1998 until a peace settlement
was
reached in 2000, but not before
dealing
a major blow to both alreadyimpoverished
countries.
In fact as a result
of
the peace treaty
reached
in
December
2000,
Badame
was
granted
to Eritrea,
while
other disputed
territories
were
divided
between the
two
countries.
Zenawi.s
public statements that he and his
country
agree to the peace settlements.
34
There
are seven words that describe
Meles
Zenawi. He can be defined as a
merciless,
cruel, pitiless, barbarous Harsh,
uncompassionate
and ruthless
Meles
Zenawi came in power by
overthrow
- Colonel Mengistu Haile
Mariam.
The only way he will lose his
power,
it looks like the same way he came
in
power not by election or democratic.
This
is not an option anymore for him but
a
day will come where Ethiopian will have
better
leader than Meles Zenawi.
35
In
the 1980s, the TPLF had a reputation as
hard-line
communists who saw Enver
Hoxha’s
Albania
as a model state.
Now
Ethiopian are tired of its savvy
leader
Meles Zenawi.
Recent
events have revieled his inner soul.
Anti-government
protestors were shot
dead
by riot police and now we fear for
our
country’s future.
Friday,
4 November, 2005, UK
Why
is the police killing the people that it
is
supposed to protect? Shame on the
36
Ethiopian
Police for killing its brothers,
sisters,
little children, and mothers. Shame
on
you! It is just mind boggling to me why
the
leaders think that massacring the
people
they say they are serving will stop
any
opposition. The use of power to
silence
the people never solves a problem.
The
so called Democratic government of
Ethiopia has
set a fire that it cannot
extinguish.
Mika’el, L.A. California
US
Policymaker
If
the U.S.
policymakers continues to bet
on
Meles, it shouldn.t forget that the lives
of
millions of Africans were lost in the
Congo, Liberia
and Sudan
because of
similar
misjudgments. It would not be the
first
time Africans died because U.S.
policymakers
failed to recognize the
dangers
of backing a ruthless, doomed
regime.
Michael
Clough Africa advocacy director
for
Human Rights Watch.
37
According
to Sen. Patrick Leahy, DVermont,
paramilitary
units continue to
use
random searches, beatings, mass
arrests
and lethal force against peaceful
protesters.
In Ethiopia,
a crime against
humanity
is unfolding while the world
either
vacillates or lacks the will to stop it.
U.S.
Senator Maria Cantwell:
Mr.
President, I rise to speak on the
disturbing
reports of political chaos in
Ethiopia. With
allegations of vote
tampering
and emerging pictures of
large-scale
human rights abuses
taking
place in Ethiopia,
that the
Administration
must impress upon
Prime
Minister Meles Zenawi and
other
global neighbors, that severe
consequences
follow actions which
undermine
democratic ideals.
38
Senator
Patrick Leahy
The
Bush Administration should make
clear
to Prime Minister Meles that if his
government
does not abide by the basic
principles
of democracy, due process and
respect
for human rights, including an end
to
the use of random searches, beatings,
mass
arrests and lethal force against
peaceful
protesters, and if political
detainees
are not released, that we will join
with
the European Union and suspend our
aid
to his government, including our
support
for financing from the World Bank
and
the African Development Bank other
than
for basic human needs. There should
be
severe consequences for such a flagrant
39
subversion
of the will of the Ethiopian
people
However,
the protests that have erupted in
the
wake of the May 15 elections present
Mr
Meles with one of the most serious
challenges
of his premiership. And he will
now
have to deal with strong opposition
parties
for the first time.
The
vote tabulation and reporting process
for
the May 15 election was abused and
corrupted
by the EPRDF. Any new
government
that assumes power based on
the
fraud-tainted results will lack
democratic
legitimacy.
Meles
failed victim to a self-imagined
scenario
that the democratic resurgence
will
overthrow him. Having built such a
false
scenario, he took command over all
forces,
declared a state of emergency and
paved
the way for a mis-direction of the
democratic
process altogether. He violated
40
both
the constitution and the rule of law
and
exposed fully the superficiality and
shallowness
of his conversion to
democracy
in the first place.
Meles
Zenawi is a weak leader of
Ethiopia. He
does not care about Ethiopia
or
East Africa. He will do everything to
stay
in power. Even if he has to kill close
family
member or close friends if they
criticizing
him or question him his action.
He
is there to stay forever. He believes
that
he is immortal and very intelligence
when
it comes to fool other people & he is
cunning
when it comes to do evil.
He
will tell you first what you want to hear
until
he comes up with a plan B how to
get
rid off you. He already has plans B for
everyone
if they criticize him his action.
His
philosophy is to take action right away
before
it goes out of hand.
Only
fools will believe him what he says
because
action speaks faster than his
words.
His action are true reflection of
state
of mind.
41
I
don.t know how some people believe that
Meles
Zenawi will lose in election. . No
way
Jose . He came in power by
overthrowing
Megistu HaileMariam. The
only
way he will be removed from his
power
will be if someone overthrow him.
Until
that day comes don.t be fool, you
can
vote him out of election or anything
else.
He already proved the Ethiopian
people
that it is not going to be easy just
democratically
by election. So, there is one
option
left which is to overthrowing him
but
to overthrow him one need courage.
The
question is that do Ethiopian have the
guts
? If we are sick and tired of him what
are
we waiting for ? Action speak faster
than
words. How many more Ethiopian
have
to die before we say enough is
enough.
Those who already died, do not
deseve
to die?
They
have the right to criticize the
government
and they have the right
demonstrate
or go to strike. As the Bob
Marle
would say . stand up get up stand
up
for your right. who else would stand
up
for our right ? So, why Meles Zenawi
gave
order to kill all the civilian ? To
42
scare
the Ethiopian people ? and he is
saying
we have no right demonstrate and if
we
demonstrate, he is will give order to
kill
us ? In this case we will never have
right
as long he is in power. We have
learned
that he will never hezitate to kill
civilian
and politician let alone to prison.
How
many Ethiopian are in prison today ?
What
are we doing ? How can we get rid
off
this ruthless leader ? Where are
Ethiopian
intellectual? Why are we quite ?
Why
are some Ethiopian still supporting
Meles
?
Today
Ethiopian are disappearing from
their
homes. There a lot of people in prison
and
they are being tortured, killed and
getting
sick
43
You
can say today that there is no justice
in
Ethiopia.
The
photos on this book are some of the
evidence
regarding human rights
violations
today in Ethiopia.
Engineer
Hailu
Shawel is in grave health condition
Latest
information on Kinijit arrested Leaders.
.
The prison administration has denied us
access
to our lawyers to discuss the gravity
of
the charges," Hailu Shawel
Those
who voice their right get prisoned
without
due process special those who
hold
government office so Meles Zenawi
can
stay in power longer by getting rid off
those
critize or compliane about how he
run
the the government.
Engineer
Hailu Shawel
44
Birtukan
Mideksa
Dr.
Berhanu Nega
Ph.D.
in economics from the New
School for Social
Research,
in New York City.
Dr.
Negede Gobeze,
Dr.
Negede obtained his Ph D in Law from a French
university
with a thesis on Constitutional Law
Prof.
Mesfin WoldeMariam,
45
Millionaire
Solomon Tekalign, former
president
of the Addis Ababa Chamber of
Commerce,
Berhane
Mewa,
Artist
Tamagn Beyene
Tamagn
Beyene was awarded "Man of the
Year"
Award in North America in
recognition
of his outstanding
contributions
to the struggle for democracy
in
Ethiopia.
Tegbar
USA
- Tel: 202 369 9543 *
Fax:
202 449 5640 * E-mail:
tegbar@gmail.com
* www.tegbar.org
46
December
27, 2005
Mr.
Kofi A. Annan
Secretary
General
United
Nations
New York, NY
10017
USA
The
Honorable Secretary General,
I
would first like to note two calls made to
the
UN on behalf of Ethiopians who are
suffering
under an excess of a government
that
has lost any semblance of democratic
credentials.
First,
on December 15, 2005, the European
Union
Parliament Members (MEPs)
unanimously
condemned the violence, the
use
of disproportionate means of
repression
by the armed forces of the
Ethiopian
Government and the mass
47
arrests
underway in Ethiopia.
The MEPs
unanimously
called for .an independent
international
commission of inquiry,
optimally
under UN responsibility, to
investigate
the human rights abuses and to
identify
and bring to justice those
responsible..
As
Your Excellency is aware, the
European
Union closely monitored the
period
leading to the May 2005 election,
observed
the election and watched firsthand
the
aftermath of the election.
Therefore,
the MEPs are well positioned to
understand
the extent of atrocities being
committed
in Ethiopia
and provide an
independent
assessment and the possible
remedy
to correct the wrongs.
Second,
on December 21, 2005, Reporters
Without
Borders (RWB), called on the UN
to
send a legal observation mission to
Ethiopia to
assess the validity of the
charges
made, monitor the due process of
the
law at the coming mass trial and report
back
to the UN Security Council. With its
network
of reporters on the ground, RWB
48
is
credibly placed to realize the veracity of
the
situation.
It
has now entered into historian records
that
immediately following the election,
Mr.
Zenawi suspended peaceful
demonstrations
and brought the police, the
security
and the armed forces under his
personal
control, once he recognized the
vote
counting was not going in his favor.
He
then unleashed his special forces on its
own
people and has committed horrifying
atrocities
since May 2005, which has
continued
till this date and does not show
any
sign of abating.
We
are worried that while the international
media
rightly focuses on the shooting and
killings
of innocent demonstrators in June
and
November 2005, reports on the
impressments
of thousands of suspected
supporters
of the opposition parties, and
write
about the fabricated treason charges
brought
on the leaders of the main
opposition
party (CUDP), a silent but
systematic
annihilation of the supports of
the
opposition is underway. There is
49
information
filtering out of Ethiopia
on the
presence
of mass graves. At least five
known
concentration camps are in
operations
out of the sight of the
diplomatic
community and international
media.
We
believe, the UN has learned from a
bitter
experience in the past that when
governments
fail to uphold the rights of
their
citizens and squash the rule of law,
this
august body that is led by you could
not
afford to be a bystander. To echo your
words,
.the principle of non-intervention
in
internal affairs cannot be used to protect
those
who commit genocide, large-scale
ethnic
cleansing,
or other comparable atrocities..
We
want to impress upon you that the
stakes
that are involved in this case are
much
larger than what happened in
Zimbabwe, for
which you sent your
special
envoy. The consequences of
inaction
would be horrifying even to
contemplate
and from the information
filtering
out of Ethiopia,
we are convinced
that
unless the international community is
50
willing
to proactively intervene by sending
an
independent investigation team, the
situation
might spin out of control thereby
transforming
the already fragile East
African
region in to a zone of complete
instability.
Dear
Secretary General,
The
urgency of your action in support of
the
decision by MEPs can not be
sufficiently
stressed and is practically
impossible
to exaggerate. It also can not be
left
for another day. Therefore, we urge
and
plead to you to bring the power of
your
good office to implement the
proposal
made bythe MEPs.
Regards,
Meskerem
Girma
Chairperson
Attachments:
1)
Decision by European Members of
Parliament
2)
Selected samples of international news
reports
51
12/30/05
All
Free Press Products Banned !!
Almost
all Free Presses products have
been
banned as government owned
printing
companies declined to print even
non-political
newspapers on Friday. The
Friday
issues of all political and sport
Newspapers
were not printed and seen on
the
street today
The
banning of all private press products
came
amid the threat by donor nations to
withheld
Aid in response to government
crackdown
on opposition leaders, activists
and
journalists. The existence of the Free
Press
in Ethiopia
was the major
precondition
for the government to qualify
for
assistance.
Sources
also confirmed that flyers are
being
distributed widely in major cities
that
say; .Keep the peaceful struggle for
52
human
rights and freedom.. .The
government
seems desperate and trying to
block
any news sources. All radio
transmissions
including the VOA Amharic
service
are jammed,. the source added.
Following
the students protest and mass
uprising
in the last two weeks, the fragile
Meles
Zenawi regime has closed several
schools
and universities. Tanks, armored
vehicles
and heavily armed cars full of
.Agazi.
snipers are still round on the
schools
and main roads of Addis Ababa
to
dissuade
people from potential protests.
The
Official website of Kinijit
http://www.kinijit.org
Government
Terror Continues
12/29/2005
Media
Coverage
(EthioMedia)
53
Whether
one calls it militarism or fascism,
something
wrong to any civil society has
reigned
in Ethiopia.
Fifteen
years in power, defeated at the
polls,
Meles Zenawi wants to rule the
country
forever by sowing the seeds of
fear
and terror.
Student
protests at Wondyrad and Tikdem
schools
in the northern suburbs of Addis
Ababa
ended in severe beatings and
injuries.
Despite serious injuries, the
students
were hauled off to detention
centers
in the company of gunfire.
At
Tikidem, school teachers were beaten
mercilessly.
Agazi forces who stormed the
school
broke into the office of the school
principal
who was beaten and clubbed
severely.
He was showing his photo ID to
prove
he was the school director but that
did
not spare him from the karate kicks
and
cruel beatings of Agazi, the special
force
Meles
founded
secretly
with
the
planned
54
anticipation
to crush any civil
disobedience
to his rule.
Similalry,
Kokebe Tsibah students in
Addis
were Thursday beaten by members
of
Agazi, federal police and security
forces.
The students were ordered to bring
parents
to school for an earlier protest.
When
none of them brought parents, the
soldiers
began to chase the students,
turning
the school into a chaotic scene of
disturbances,
noise and wailing. Mothers
were
crying for help as their kids were
being
clubbed by the men-in-uniform loyal
to
the ruthless tyrant - Meles Zenawi.
Scores
of students were taken to detention
centers.
High school students are very
young,
14 years of age on average
Protesters
outside the Oslo
Concert House
didn’t
think Ethiopia’s
president deserved
the
prize.
55
Meles
Zenawi how long are you going to
deny
people.s right ?
I
am not sure how long you are going to
rule
Ethiopia
this way. So far either out
of
fear or selfish reasons you are
governing
Ethiopia
undemocratically.
When
I say you, it include the whole
Tigray
people. I am not sure, whether it is
due
to lack of education or ignorance.
Keep
in mind that, unless an education is
highly
specialized, it is the primary
reason
for the rise of this civil unrest.
You
have to ask yourself what am I doing
wrong
? Why are people not happy ? The
Ethiopian,
Eritrean, the world seems not
happy
with you. Why do you think that is
?
because you seem to forget one
important
lesson learned in the past, how
you
came to power because you were not
happy
. You(Tigray) were not only
unhappy
of course, Oromo, Amhara and
Eritrean.
So, with the help of everyone,
we
overthrow Mengustu Hailemariam and
you
came in power.
When
Eritrean are unhappy, even God is
not
happy.
56
Today
Ethiopian are suffering
everywhere.
They
were being accused of fabricated charges 1/5/2005
The
physical, psychological, moral and
human
cost of the after-math of the
election
in Ethiopia
is both unforgivable
and
unforgettable. There was absolutely no
reason
why the country had to be in the
situation
it has been forced to be right
now.
There is no justification for
repression.
No justification for state of
emergency.
No justification for curfew. No
justification
to charge those who speak out
for
Ethiopia
as committing .treason..
There
is no justification to allow the
people
to vote in the first place, and then
deny
them from knowing the true result.
Why
invite the people to participate in
57
what
the regime billed as a democratic
election
only to de-fraud the very election
itself?
If all along the regime has no
intention
to play by the democratic rule of
the
game, why play it and even more
clumsily
pretend to implement a
democratic
election when it has neither the
intention
nor the will to honour and respect
the
true verdict of the people.
It
is the regime that asked the people to
vote!
And when the people voted
expressing
their choices, the regime
pounced
and unleashed large-scale
repression
and massacres in June and
November
changing what started as a
highly
promising beginning into a
nightmare
of blood, tears and sorrow for
the
people. Now the repression is moving
into
high gear and the country has been
gripped
by fear and intimidation. The
whole
atmosphere has been poisoned.
Young
people have been targeted. The
security
forces have been unleashed
ferociously
.
I am accused of Fabricated
charges
1/4//2006
The
entire leadership of the
58
CUD
is now in jail
from
three year to death sentence
The
Ethiopian
people
want better leader and better
justice.
They are suffering because Meles
Zenawi
will not give them.
As
long there is no peace & democracy in
Ethiopia there
will be always famine.
CNN
World News Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Ethiopian
mother Ayan, left,
holds
Asma Monday; her
daughter
holds Nemo, who
doctors
say will die within a
week
from malnutrition.
59
Africa’s Big Man :
Meles
Zenawi Trying To Stay In Power For Life
The
government of Prime Minister Meles
Zenawi
is using legal means to suppress
dissent,
but it is increasingly behaving like
an
outlaw regime. It is scandalous that
Ethiopian
authorities have persisted in
using
outdated and illegitimate charges to
send
these journalists to jail, " said Ann
Cooper,
executive director of the
Committee
to Protect Journalists.
60
The
continued victimization and the hurt
of
Tigrai under the evil schemes of
Weyane
goes back to 1976. Ever since
"Tigrai
Manifesto" was made public in
1976,
the Weyane made Tigrai to dream
about
the "Greater Republic
of Tigrai"-
which
was just "Hilmi Abai Tigrai", an
unattainable
dream. Since 1976, every
conceivable
evil schemes and actions of
Weyane
were done by promising the moon
and
the starts to the people of Tigrai.
Tigrai
was demanded to sacrifice more and
to
give more and she was promised her
sacrifices
will be crowned by "Greater
Republic of Tigrai"-a free Tigrai from the
domination
and subjugation of what the
Weyane
call "chauvinists".
Although
this dream was politically,
legally,
and economically unattainable
dream,
it was Tigrai that was used as
"Fengiregach"
(as Addis calls it) or as
canon
fodder to achieve a mission that was
dead
on arrival in the first place. Tigrai has
never
been told that this "Greater Republic
of
Tigrai" madness is legally, politically,
and
economically unattainable political
adventure
of a handful Weyane clique.
61
Greater
Republic of Tigrai" in front of the
innocent
Tigrawot worked for more than
30
years and still the Weyane are doing
just
that. In short, Tigrai was asked and
demanded
to provide her children and her
resources
to be sacrificed to promote the
political
adventure (ENDERA) of a few
half-baked
and unrefined hoodlums.
After
17 years of untold hardship,
sacrifices,
and bloodshed, the first phase of
the
"victimization" of Tigrai was
concluded
in May 1991. By 1993, once the
handful
Weyane entered Finn Finne
(Addis Ababa) to enjoy the
good life at
Menelik Palace.
Still
blinded by greed, inferiority complex,
and
the good life at Menelik
Palace;
To
promise some thing is one thing but to
be
able to deliver is quite another. When
the
Weyane came up with "Abai Tigrai"
promise,
we wondered if they had the
chance
learn or have they ever taught the
people
of Tigrai about Biafra, a Nigerian
province
that tried to secede from Nigeria
62
in
the 70s? There was a lesson to learn
from
this breakaway Nigerian province
that
was left stranded in the middle of
nowhere.
If the Weyane were farsighted,
educated,
or intelligent; Biafra should have
been
a case in point to learn from. Tigrai
should
have learned a lesson from Biafra
before
they called upon their people to pay
the
price beyond the numbers for mission,
which
is dead on arrival in the first place.
The
Biafran lesson was there and it was
(is)
not an old lesson either. After eight (8)
years
of bloody war, unable to garish a
single
recognition as sovereign state from
any
country, except from the then
apartheid
regime of South Africa, Biafra
was
crushed and now it is still a Nigerian
province.
Somaliland case that declared its
independence
from Somalia
and yet there
is
not a single country in the world
recognizing
her as sovereign state and
even
if Tigrai declared one day as a
sovereign
state no one will recognize it.
"Abai
Tigrai" will not be different from
that
of Biafra or Somaliland
63
Meles
Zenawi, Seyoum Mesfin, and
Weyane
in general are soiled by innocent
Ethiopian
blood, it would be foolish to
expect
the Weyane will do the right thingmeaning
strive
for a united and peaceful
Ethiopia.
Jounalists
and Artist got arrested
The
prime minister does not like cartoons
64
Those
that have Short life span insects
Dozens
of journalists have
been
sued for defamation
and,
twice in 1996,
journalists
were jailed
because
their papers had
published
unflattering cartoons of the head
of
government. Three journalists spent
four
years behind bars in the capital before
being
released for "lack of evidence".
It
will
come
as
no
surprise
that
for
over
five
years
Ethiopia
has
been
Africa’s
biggest
jail
for journalists.
65
Meles
Zenawi
Restriction
on the Press
Many
independent jounalists, editors and
publishers
continue to endure harassment
and
intimidation, and criminal penalties
for
a range of speech related penalties
66
remain
on the books. In June 2005, the
Ministry
of Information revoked the
licenses
of five Ethiopian journalists
working
for the Voice of America and
Radio
Deutsche-Welle because it
disapproved
of their coverage of the
elections
and the post-election
controversy.
What
is on the Minds of Ethiopians .
The
Disputed Border or The Disputed Election?
There
is an Amara proverb: One cannot
awaken
he who is determined to be asleep.
The
person who coined that proverb must
have
had a premonition of the fate of his
countrymen
in the first decade of the 21st
century.
For this has been a difficult and
lonely
time to be Ethiopian.
Our
best hope for a free and democratic
Ethiopia
was rudely dashed by one who
had
repeatedly and consistently refused to
entertain
any notion that Ethiopia
is
anything
but his private dominion. Our
women
are killed while trying to protect
our
children from beating and deportation
67
to
concentration camps. Snipers and
machine
gunners trained to engage
organized
enemy forces are set on our men
and
boys who peacefully march to express
their
grievances. Hundreds of thousands of
men,
women and children are held in open
air
concentration camps infested with all
sorts
of tropical maladies from malaria to
poisonous
snakes. The less fortunate
among
our leaders are summarily
executed,
with the more fortunate ones
only
rounded up, charged with treason or
other
similarly contrived charges and held
in
prison for years without trial, without
definite
dates for release. Members of the
private
media and leaders of civic society
organizations
who express dissenting
opinions
face similar fates. The state
controlled
media is reduced to serving as
the
private propaganda outlet of the
hostage
takers, inundating the captive
population
with a never ending barrage of
carefully
orchestrated program of
misinformation,
intimidation and character
assassination.
What little private press
survived
a 14 year reign of harassment and
intimidation,
was brought to an end when
68
publishers,
editors, reporters and
newspaper
vendors met the fate of our
elected
officials during the final campaign
to
rid the landscape of anyone and
anything
that smells like a threat.
It
is in the face of this unprecedented and
complete
lockdown of the big prison that
is
Ethiopia
that Ethiopians looked for help
from
the unified global community of
which
they believed to be a member in
good
standing. The people were confident
that
the world would stand with them.
After
all they had just performed
marvelously
in the democratic game
played
under the rules established by the
new
world order. Ethiopians believed that
central
to the new order is the notion of
government
of the people, by the people,
and
for the people - a government which
the
people set up and which the people can
change
peacefully, through the ballot, if
they
so choose. Having exhibited the kind
of
discipline, resiliency and single
mindedness
in the pursuit of the
democratic
alternative reminiscent of the
performance
of their Olympic heroes, the
Ethiopian
people believed that they are
69
fully
justified in demanding that the
arbiters
of the new world order step in and
ensure
that their victory is not appropriated
by
the slight of hand of their suppressors.
Words
cannot describe the disappointment
and
dismay of the Ethiopian people. Those
who
so repeatedly and publicly pledged to
stand
with anyone anywhere in the world
who
fights for freedom, those who lead the
very
country which leads ’the free world’
and
those who "vetted" and "certified" the
commander
of the Ethiopian gulag to be "a
new
kind of African leader", "a
renaissance
man", and a man who can be
trusted
to be a strong ally, now anxiously
look
the other way when they face the
anger
and wrath of Ethiopians worldwide.
In
the early days, they even had the
audacity
to condemn the victim for
inciting
the killer into violence. Though
they
have given up on that that particular
line,
they are still unwilling to meet their
obligations
to Ethiopia
and to the new
global
order.
Today,
when Ethiopians in London,
in
Washington, in Ottawa, in Brussels, in
Paris and elsewhere
confront the world’s
70
power
brokers, they try to change the
subject
to something, anything. Their new
found
and preferred diversionary tactic is
to
point to the dark clouds of war hanging
over
Ethiopia.
At every forum where
Ethiopia merits
a mention, they speak of
the
gravity of the crisis on the Eritrean
border.
They report on the count of the
army
divisions deployed by one or the
other
side. They discuss the length and
depth
of the trenches dug and of the
deployment
of tanks and field guns. They
rehash
the body count from the last bloody
episode.
Each of these is meant to scare
the
Ethiopian people into believing that
they
face something which is of greater
danger
to their immediate security than
their
domestic problem. It is also intended
to
show that they have not really forgotten
Ethiopia
and the plight of Ethiopians. This
is
meant to alert us that they are just
working
on something even more urgent
which
must be addressed right away, lest
Armageddon
be visited upon us.
Perhaps
the end of the days is around the
corner.
How else can I explain agreeing
with
Isayas Afworki of all people-not once
71
but
twice? Of course, the border crisis was
manufactured
to divert attention from what
is
going on across Ethiopia,
from Addis,
Ambo
and Awassa to Zege, Zuway and
Zarema.
Only one other time, when he
called
the AU the club of dictators, had I
ever
agreed with Mr. Afworki. Never mind
that
calling these two issues correctly
would
not exempt Mr. Afworki from a
straight
jacket; as one who likes to give the
devil
his due, I must admit he called each
of
these correctly.
Why
don’t they ask us what matters to the
average
Joe in Abeshaland? If they did, we
would
tell them that Eritrea
is Meles’
problem.
Our number one problem today
is
Meles. If another war starts, it would
cost
us the lives of our children, but in the
end
it would not change anything. In the
last
war, more than 70,000 of our young
men
lost their lives and limb. And just
what
did we get out of it? Absolutely
nothing!!.
That war was not fought for us.
It
was like one of those children’s
arguments
over whose prick is longer. It
was
fought to protect the egos of the two
contestants,
and contestants we were not.
72
If
we could select our fights, we would
fight
to be free from tyranny. We would
fight
to protect the dignity of the Ethiopian
man
who must cower in fear in front of his
wife
and his children not to displease the
commissar
lest he might be beaten up or
taken
away. If we could choose our fight,
we
would fight to protect our women from
the
indignity of rape and beatings by the
cadres
of our master and their friend.
The
border conflict is a contrived story
talked
about to serve as a diversion from
our
real issues. When Mr. Yamamato
travels
to Addis and to Asmara
to discuss
the
border issue, when the disgraceful
Koffi
Annan sends his special envoy to
persuade
Meles to stand down, the
Ethiopian
people know you are not doing
it
for us. If we could talk to them, if they
had
asked us, here is what we would tell
these
two gentlemen. If you really want to
help,
please, tell the hostage takers to
release
the political prisoners and to allow
the
winners of the last election to form a
government.
We will tell you to take some
of
the loot you are scheduled to send to
Ethiopia and
spend it on chartered flights
73
to
destination they prefer to
go...Zimbabwe
included. There would be
no
hard feelings.
When
Javier Solana treks from the snow
and
cold of Brussels to Addis and Asmara,
they
would ask him why he and the rest of
the
European Commission would spend
European
taxpayers’ money on a large
election
monitoring team if they didn’t
intend
to act on their findings. They would
ask
him why, if the Commission cares
about
the other 77 million Ethiopians, it
would
continue to hold the bloody hands
of
the one tyrant. Finally, the Ethiopian
people
would advise him that if he cannot
understand
or appreciate their pain, he
should
expend his energy where it might
be
more fruitfully deployed.
As
to the AU... The AU is an
embarrassment
to all Africans. It sits
quietly
right there in Addis, not a full
block
removed from where some of the
killings
took place. It allows its own
compound
to serve as a holding pen for
those
rounded up. The AU leader Konare
rides
to Berlin and to Abuja with the
Butcher
of Addis in a chartered jet paid for
74
by
the Ethiopian people while innocent
Ethiopians
were still being killed in his
back
yard. This goes on before the ink
dries
on the new peer review provisions of
the
AU charter. What a disgrace!! The
only
comfort I draw about the AU is in the
knowledge
that if we could hold a
referendum,
the people of Africa would
vote
overwhelmingly against it. The AU is
neither
created nor governed by the people
of
Africa.
Britain cuts
off aid to Ethiopian government
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia
(AP) -- Britain
cut
all of its aid to Ethiopia’s
government
on
Wednesday and plans to redirect the 73
million
euro ($88 million U.S.)
to
75
humanitarian
agencies working in the
Horn
of Africa nation.
Britain cuts
off aid to Ethiopian
government
due to violations and
human
abuse
Money
redirected to aid agencies after
protesters
killed, jailed
Media,
opposition, aid workers jailed
Hillary
Benn,
"Since
the May elections, people have
been
shot down on the streets, people have
been
arrested and many are currently on
trial,"
he told Reuters.
Britain’s
international
development
secretary, said his
government
was "seriously
concerned"
by the unrest sparked
by
disputed elections last year
76
that
returned the ruling party to power and
led
to 88 protesters being killed by security
forces.
Benn met with Ethiopia’s
Prime
Minister
Meles Zenawi
On
Friday January 19, 2006, an
international
human rights group said
Ethiopian
authorities are intimidating,
77
arresting
and using excessive force in rural
areas
to quell dissent over the election
results.
Some 129 opposition leaders,
journalists
and aid workers are facing trial
on
charges of treason, genocide and other
crimes
which carry the death penalty.
Political
and civil unrest has shaken the
country
since the May general elections
and
police have arrested hundreds of
opposition
supporters and journalists on
charges
of treason, sparking international
concern
over Meles’ commitment to
human
rights.
Benn
said concerns had also been raised
over
"ongoing clashes involving students
and
security forces in schools and colleges
across
the country." He also called for an
independent
investigation into alleged
human
rights violations in Oromiya.
Other
Western donors have said they are
considering
redirecting $375 million U.S.
in
budget support for the government to
other
areas because of the political crisis in
the
country.
78
Ethiopia:
World
Report 2006
Human
Rights Watch
Released
on January 18th, 2006
We
investigate and expose human rights
violations
and hold abusers accountable
We
enlist the public and the international
community
to support the cause of human
rights
for all.
By
Anthony Mitchell, Associated Press
Writer
January 20, 2006
The
police
used
live
ammunition
to
quell the
demonstrations,
shooting
one man in the pelvis and leaving
three
others seriously wounded, the injured
man,
Pedros Gizaw, told The Associated
Press
on Thursday 19th, 2006
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) --
79
Protesters
threw stones and police
responded
with gunfire Friday in
Ethiopia’s
capital as annual religious
processions
were turned into political
protests
for a second day and at least 10
people
suffered gunshot wounds.
Demonstrations
were
reported
in several
neighborhoods
across
Addis Ababa, and riot
police
were driving
through
the city.
Wubishet
Solomon said he had
no
idea why he was shot in the neck
Some
of the police trucks appeared to be
carrying
people wounded from the clashes,
though
their destination was not
immediately
clear.
Doctors
at the main Menelik
Hospital said
they
were treating at least 10 people with
gunshot
wounds, two of whom were in
surgery.
Other hospitals
80
Wubishet
Solomon said he had no idea why he was shot in the neck
also
reported receiving wounded people,
but
no details were immediately available.
20
January 2006 - At least one person has
been
killed and
22
wounded
after
violence
broke
out at an
Ethiopian
Christian
festival.
