<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2769" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>This from, Ben Parks, one of our peace community members
and long time ally and activist for political justice and human
rights.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>Hood day
all;
December 06, 2005<BR><BR>please read the information below.<BR>check the web
sites .. then ...<BR>Americans on this list need to contact their
government representatives<BR>immediately.<BR>this is really happening
...<BR>six of my kids were hunted down and arrested last month...<BR>one called
from his hiding place while police were in the house .!!<BR>all but one are back
from prison .. the latest released after 3 weeks.<BR>it is not so lucky
for 115,000 others ..<BR><BR>also please call the Ethiopia embassy in DC
..<BR>ask what they are doing to stop the arrests and
detentions...<BR> Ambassador : Kassahun
Ayele : Tel: 202/364-1200 .......
Fax:<BR>202/587-0195<BR>Los Angeles consulate:<BR>
phone :(213) 365-6651 ....... FAX :(213)
365-6670<BR><BR>thanks ..<BR> Ben
Parks<BR>=======================================<BR><BR><BR><BR><A
href="http://www.mediaethiopia.com/Election2005/MediaETHIOPIA EDITORIAL_SOS_Ethiopia.htm">http://www.mediaethiopia.com/Election2005/MediaETHIOPIA%20EDITORIAL_SOS_Ethiopia.htm</A><BR><BR><A
href="http://allafrica.com/stories/200512060599.html">http://allafrica.com/stories/200512060599.html</A><BR><A
href="http://www.ethiopians.com/">http://www.ethiopians.com/</A><BR><A
href="http://www.mediaethiopia.com/blog/">http://www.mediaethiopia.com/blog/</A><BR><BR>SOS
Ethiopia: 115,000 political prisoners at a<BR> Nazi-style concentration
camp<BR><BR> MediaETHIOPIA EDITORIAL<BR> Published: December 5,
2005<BR><BR> Almost four weeks after the popular revolt in
Addis<BR> Ababa in November of 2005 in which more than 100<BR> people
were killed according to human right groups,<BR> shocking news is slowly
emerging indicating that more<BR> than 43,000 political prisoners have been
detained in<BR> open air prisons (read Nazi-style concentration
camps)<BR> in the Dedessa valley of South West Ethiopia. For
the<BR> first time in 11 years since almost a million Tutsis<BR> were
slaughtered by Interhuame militias in the green<BR> hills of Rwanda in 1994
and 10 years since the Summer<BR> 1995 massacre of Bosnians, another human
tragedy is<BR> unfolding in the green valleys of the Dedessa
region<BR> of Ethiopia where Mr. Meles Zenawi's secret
troops<BR> called Agazi Militia are torturing, starving,
and<BR> killing political detainees from Addis Ababa. The<BR> latest
reports indicate that as many as 500 people<BR> have already been shot and
buried at mass burial<BR> sites, and almost 50 people have died en-route to
the<BR> concentration camps. In fact, there is fear that it is<BR> a
matter of time before diseases, torture and outright<BR> random killing by
this government Agazi militia<BR> fashioned after the monstrous Interhuame
militia of<BR> Rwanda kill the majority of the more than
43,000<BR> political prisoners from Addis Ababa. While news
has<BR> been slowly coming to Addis that Mr. Meles' Agazi<BR> militia
has built a death camp in the Dedessa valley,<BR> it was only this weekend
that an international news<BR> agency (Channel 4 of the UK) had broken the
news to<BR> the outside world. Confronted by this
frightening<BR> news, the usually timid Mr. Tim Clarke who
represents<BR> the EU in Ethiopia sounded symphatetic to the
victims<BR> while his colleague Mr. Robert Dewar, the
UK's<BR> ambassador has preferred to appease the
increasingly<BR> violent and Nazi-style appetite of Mr. Meles
Zenawi.<BR> The US is yet to make any official statement on
this<BR> impending genocide. In the Ethiopian community
inside<BR> Ethiopia and outside the country, there is
increasing<BR> nervousness that the only noise that the West
will<BR> make will be, sadly, after the fact.<BR><BR> At this stage
where the lives of more than 43,000 are<BR> threatened by an
Interhuame-styled Agazi militia in a<BR> death camp, Ethiopians plead with
the rest of humanity<BR> to come to their rescue by stopping this mad
man,<BR> Meles Zenawi. For the EU which pays almost a billion<BR> Euro
per year to Meles, and the World Bank which<BR> offers him and his cronies
another $ 500 million, this<BR> is a crucial time where the have to
exercise their<BR> power to stop this nightmare. It is the $1.5
billion<BR> that these two organizations give to Meles that
pays<BR> for the salary and weaponry of the Agazi militia.
Will<BR> the good citizens of the European Union and the
United<BR> States approve their tax money being used to support
a<BR> murderous militia ready to kill 43,000 in
Dedessa<BR> concentration camp, 30,000 in Bir
Sheleqo<BR> concentration camp, 18,000 in Ziway
concentration<BR> camp, 8,000 in Denkoro Chaka concentration camp,
9,000<BR> in Shoa Robit concentration camp, innocent
young<BR> Ethiopians and bury them in mass burial sites?<BR><BR> We
think the next 10-15 days leading to Christmas of<BR> 2005 will be very
critical for the World to stand up<BR> for the rescue of lives before
115,000 innocent<BR> Ethiopian men and women. All the world has to do is
to<BR> speak up and stand up to this mad man who thinks he<BR> can
kill thousands of people to stay in power. The<BR> tragedy could be averted
if the more than 120<BR> embassies and consulates in Addis Ababa stand up
for<BR> human life. Sadly, a tragedy of no parallel will<BR> indeed
occur if all these diplomats representing the<BR> weak as well as the
mighty powers of the world prefer<BR> to appease the new monster of Africa,
Mr. Meles<BR> Zenawi. History, as Emperor Haile Selassie of
Ethiopia<BR> said in 1936, will judge the world if no action
is<BR> taken to save these 115,000
lives.<BR><BR>=================================================<BR><A
href="http://www.ethiopians.com/blog/2005/11/view-from-ngos-meles-graziani-had.html">http://www.ethiopians.com/blog/2005/11/view-from-ngos-meles-graziani-had.html</A><BR><BR>I
work with one of the largest NGOs working with vulnerable children
in<BR>Ethiopia. I have been deeply troubled and traumatized by recent
events<BR>in Ethiopia. I have witnessed ruthless killings of minors as young
as<BR>ten years old.<BR><BR>When stone throwing youths, most of them unemployed
angry young men with<BR>no political motives other than their own grievances,
expressed their<BR>frustrations in protests, the armed militia responded by
firing live<BR>ammunitions indiscriminately into crowds. I have seen with my own
eyes<BR>when security forces killed and injured at least seven young kids
around<BR>Piazza who were fleeing for their lives. Eyewitness accounts
have<BR>confirmed that security forces brutally shot defenseless protesters
even<BR>in areas where there were no protests. Though the government
media<BR>reported that the number of people killed in was 42 local
residents<BR>estimate over 200, which needs to be independently
verified.<BR><BR>Some of those killed were street kids whose bodies have been
disposed by<BR>government troops. The inhuman treatment of innocent people was
so<BR>widespread that the troops rounded young men from their homes en
mass.<BR>So far the police have said that they have released nearly 9000
people<BR>who were not involved in the riots from harsh concentration camps.
The<BR>fact that all those people were detained without due process of
law<BR>shows the extent to which the government is violating basic
human<BR>rights.<BR><BR>Returnees from the detention centres are claiming that
they were held<BR>against their wills in appalling conditions and some were
apparently<BR>tortured. There is also a report that the detainees were shaved
off with<BR>shared razor blades exposing them to infectious diseases such
as<BR>HIV/AIDS. Beatings and degrading treatment is reportedly rampant in
the<BR>concentration camps. Detainees are also said to be given a roll of
bread<BR>a day.<BR><BR>It is estimated that over 10,000 detainees have still
been held against<BR>their will and without due process of law in degrading and
inhuman<BR>conditions including in Didesa, a remote military camp, were the
weather<BR>is harsh and yellow fever is widespread.<BR><BR>I call upon the
international community including the International Red<BR>Cross, Amnesty
International, Human Rights Watch, Save the Children and<BR>Unicef to
investigate the gross human rights violations and crimes<BR>against humanities
being perpetrated by the government troops and<BR>security forces. I urge the
partners of the Ethiopian government<BR>especially the European Union, the
United States and the United Kingdom<BR>to take a firm stand against the
authorities who have been killing,<BR>torturing, and jailing their critics. I
also call upon the Prime<BR>Minister of Ethiopia, Mr. Meles Zenawi, to stop
behaving ruthlessly and<BR>inhumanely against unarmed civilians. May I remind
the His Excellency<BR>that there is time for expiry of military power and the
likelihood of<BR>facing justice.<BR><BR>The government of Ethiopia should be
held to account to any appalling<BR>crimes it is committing against its own
vulnerable poor people including<BR>the unemployed, orphans, street children and
women.<BR><BR>Act now urgently.<BR><BR>Tania Martinet<BR>Relief
Worke</DIV></BODY></HTML>