From dianasum at directcon.net Wed Dec 7 08:27:54 2005 From: dianasum at directcon.net (Diana Stauffer) Date: Wed, 7 Dec 2005 08:27:54 -0800 Subject: [GP-Eldorado-n] urgent action needed to help in Ethiopia Message-ID: <02ce01c5fb4b$3275d830$c8d14fd1@D81GRT31> This from, Ben Parks, one of our peace community members and long time ally and activist for political justice and human rights. Hood day all; December 06, 2005 please read the information below. check the web sites .. then ... Americans on this list need to contact their government representatives immediately. this is really happening ... six of my kids were hunted down and arrested last month... one called from his hiding place while police were in the house .!! all but one are back from prison .. the latest released after 3 weeks. it is not so lucky for 115,000 others .. also please call the Ethiopia embassy in DC .. ask what they are doing to stop the arrests and detentions... Ambassador : Kassahun Ayele : Tel: 202/364-1200 ....... Fax: 202/587-0195 Los Angeles consulate: phone :(213) 365-6651 ....... FAX :(213) 365-6670 thanks .. Ben Parks ======================================= http://www.mediaethiopia.com/Election2005/MediaETHIOPIA%20EDITORIAL_SOS_Ethiopia.htm http://allafrica.com/stories/200512060599.html http://www.ethiopians.com/ http://www.mediaethiopia.com/blog/ SOS Ethiopia: 115,000 political prisoners at a Nazi-style concentration camp MediaETHIOPIA EDITORIAL Published: December 5, 2005 Almost four weeks after the popular revolt in Addis Ababa in November of 2005 in which more than 100 people were killed according to human right groups, shocking news is slowly emerging indicating that more than 43,000 political prisoners have been detained in open air prisons (read Nazi-style concentration camps) in the Dedessa valley of South West Ethiopia. For the first time in 11 years since almost a million Tutsis were slaughtered by Interhuame militias in the green hills of Rwanda in 1994 and 10 years since the Summer 1995 massacre of Bosnians, another human tragedy is unfolding in the green valleys of the Dedessa region of Ethiopia where Mr. Meles Zenawi's secret troops called Agazi Militia are torturing, starving, and killing political detainees from Addis Ababa. The latest reports indicate that as many as 500 people have already been shot and buried at mass burial sites, and almost 50 people have died en-route to the concentration camps. In fact, there is fear that it is a matter of time before diseases, torture and outright random killing by this government Agazi militia fashioned after the monstrous Interhuame militia of Rwanda kill the majority of the more than 43,000 political prisoners from Addis Ababa. While news has been slowly coming to Addis that Mr. Meles' Agazi militia has built a death camp in the Dedessa valley, it was only this weekend that an international news agency (Channel 4 of the UK) had broken the news to the outside world. Confronted by this frightening news, the usually timid Mr. Tim Clarke who represents the EU in Ethiopia sounded symphatetic to the victims while his colleague Mr. Robert Dewar, the UK's ambassador has preferred to appease the increasingly violent and Nazi-style appetite of Mr. Meles Zenawi. The US is yet to make any official statement on this impending genocide. In the Ethiopian community inside Ethiopia and outside the country, there is increasing nervousness that the only noise that the West will make will be, sadly, after the fact. At this stage where the lives of more than 43,000 are threatened by an Interhuame-styled Agazi militia in a death camp, Ethiopians plead with the rest of humanity to come to their rescue by stopping this mad man, Meles Zenawi. For the EU which pays almost a billion Euro per year to Meles, and the World Bank which offers him and his cronies another $ 500 million, this is a crucial time where the have to exercise their power to stop this nightmare. It is the $1.5 billion that these two organizations give to Meles that pays for the salary and weaponry of the Agazi militia. Will the good citizens of the European Union and the United States approve their tax money being used to support a murderous militia ready to kill 43,000 in Dedessa concentration camp, 30,000 in Bir Sheleqo concentration camp, 18,000 in Ziway concentration camp, 8,000 in Denkoro Chaka concentration camp, 9,000 in Shoa Robit concentration camp, innocent young Ethiopians and bury them in mass burial sites? We think the next 10-15 days leading to Christmas of 2005 will be very critical for the World to stand up for the rescue of lives before 115,000 innocent Ethiopian men and women. All the world has to do is to speak up and stand up to this mad man who thinks he can kill thousands of people to stay in power. The tragedy could be averted if the more than 120 embassies and consulates in Addis Ababa stand up for human life. Sadly, a tragedy of no parallel will indeed occur if all these diplomats representing the weak as well as the mighty powers of the world prefer to appease the new monster of Africa, Mr. Meles Zenawi. History, as Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia said in 1936, will judge the world if no action is taken to save these 115,000 lives. ================================================= http://www.ethiopians.com/blog/2005/11/view-from-ngos-meles-graziani-had.html I work with one of the largest NGOs working with vulnerable children in Ethiopia. I have been deeply troubled and traumatized by recent events in Ethiopia. I have witnessed ruthless killings of minors as young as ten years old. When stone throwing youths, most of them unemployed angry young men with no political motives other than their own grievances, expressed their frustrations in protests, the armed militia responded by firing live ammunitions indiscriminately into crowds. I have seen with my own eyes when security forces killed and injured at least seven young kids around Piazza who were fleeing for their lives. Eyewitness accounts have confirmed that security forces brutally shot defenseless protesters even in areas where there were no protests. Though the government media reported that the number of people killed in was 42 local residents estimate over 200, which needs to be independently verified. Some of those killed were street kids whose bodies have been disposed by government troops. The inhuman treatment of innocent people was so widespread that the troops rounded young men from their homes en mass. So far the police have said that they have released nearly 9000 people who were not involved in the riots from harsh concentration camps. The fact that all those people were detained without due process of law shows the extent to which the government is violating basic human rights. Returnees from the detention centres are claiming that they were held against their wills in appalling conditions and some were apparently tortured. There is also a report that the detainees were shaved off with shared razor blades exposing them to infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS. Beatings and degrading treatment is reportedly rampant in the concentration camps. Detainees are also said to be given a roll of bread a day. It is estimated that over 10,000 detainees have still been held against their will and without due process of law in degrading and inhuman conditions including in Didesa, a remote military camp, were the weather is harsh and yellow fever is widespread. I call upon the international community including the International Red Cross, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Save the Children and Unicef to investigate the gross human rights violations and crimes against humanities being perpetrated by the government troops and security forces. I urge the partners of the Ethiopian government especially the European Union, the United States and the United Kingdom to take a firm stand against the authorities who have been killing, torturing, and jailing their critics. I also call upon the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Mr. Meles Zenawi, to stop behaving ruthlessly and inhumanely against unarmed civilians. May I remind the His Excellency that there is time for expiry of military power and the likelihood of facing justice. The government of Ethiopia should be held to account to any appalling crimes it is committing against its own vulnerable poor people including the unemployed, orphans, street children and women. Act now urgently. Tania Martinet Relief Worke -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: