|
An
Open Letter to Mr. Louis Michel
Mr.
Louis Michel
European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid BERLAYMONT 10 /165 1049 Brussels – Belgium
Dear
Commissionner,
“Injustice
anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”
Martin Luther King
Protest
against the invitation of the tyrant P/M Meles Zenawi to the EU.
The United Ethiopian
Democratic Forces strongly condemns the presence of the tyrant Prime
Minister Meles Zenawi in the European Union forum.
Today, Ethiopia is
not only the illustration of a deep socio-economic and political
crisis where millions cry for social justice, but also the scene of
horrible massacres, mysterious disappearances, systematic and
horrifying tortures and mass arrests without due process of law.
Details of these violent acts against humanity and such ruthless
repression against all people who yearn for freedom of expression,
human and democratic rights are abundantly available in the archives
of major human rights organizations including those of Amnesty
International and the acclaimed institutions of the European Union and
US Congress.
As you well
know the latest crisis in our country came in the wake of the May 2005
elections declared unfair and not up to international standards
according to the final report of the EU election observers mission.
The EPRDF government, decisively defeated at the poles, decided not to
respect the people’s voice and to remain in power by using its
security forces put under the direct and personal command of the
tyrant Meles Zenawi. In June and November 2005, these forces were
unleashed against peaceful demonstrators in Addis Abeba and other
cities in the country. The final report of
the Inquiry Commission set up to investigate the unrest concluded that
Meles Zenawi's security forces “massacred” 193 people, triple
the official death toll. During these protests unarmed citizens were
shot, beaten and strangled to death. Among those killed were 40
teenagers, including a boy and a girl, both 14. The two were fatally
shot.
The Inquiry Commission approved the final report by an 8 to 2
majority. But Meles Zenawi threatened the Commission’s members and
ordered a reversal of the findings. Three members, including the
chairman and the vice-chairman fled the country after receiving
threats. They did so after making sure that a draft of the inquiry
team's original report was smuggled out of the country, Copies of this
have been obtained by AP and other news agencies. The Meles government
has intimidated the remaining members of the commission who came out
with a “revised” version of the report which turned out to be more
favourable to the dictatorship.
Mr. Commissioner,
As
you closely follow developments in Ethiopia and as we know your
concern about good governance as the only path to development and
justice, we are sure that you are aware of every thing that happened
in Ethiopia under Meles – the rigged elections, the massacres, the
mass arrests and this latest resort to Stalinist methods to suppress
the findings of a team of courageous and honest Ethiopians who
squarely put the blame for the atrocities committed against our people
on the Meles dictatorship.
As
much as we are dismayed and disappointed by what we see as a double
standard applied by someone from whom so much was expected in the
field of freedom and democracy, we are encouraged to see the European
Parliament’s consistent and principled stand on the issues of human
rights, rule of law and good governance in our country. On the very
day the tyrant arrived in Brussels (November 16, 2006) at your
invitation to participate in the European Development Days and to
deliver a speech on good governance (sic!) the august body once again
passed a resolution condemning the serious human rights violations in
Ethiopia, demanding the publication of the original and unaltered
report of the Inquiry Commission and expressing regret that the tyrant
was unduly honoured by your invitation to participate in the Forum. Mr. Commissioner,
The man at the helm
of these hideous atrocities against a nation and its people is none
other than the leader of the ruling EPRDF, Meles Zenawi. After he
seized power in May 1991 toppling the dictator Mengistu Hailemariam
through violence, he continued to rule the country with the same
means, the barrel of gun. With the gun as an instrument of maiming
opposition, he stamped on democracy, rule of law and human rights only
to enforce bizarre and destructive policies of ethnic politics against
the will and wish of the overwhelming Ethiopian people. Knowing the
magnitude of the opposition to his shortsighted policies, Meles
designed the ethnic politics as a strategy of “divide and rule”
and sadly enough we see the nation divided on ethnic and sub-ethnic
polities and sliding to unmanageable conflicts never experienced
before. Mr. Meles Zenawi is engaged in doing all he can to divide and
suppress the people of Ethiopia in a futile attempt to cripple a
unified opposition to his tyrannical misrule. For Meles Zenawi, what
matters is sticking to power through sheer violence even at the cost
of a civil war the consequences of which no one would like to
contemplate.
The grim realities
that transpired in the wake of the May 2005 election, the flagrant
rigging of the election results, the incarceration of thousands who
demanded free and fair election and the carnage that followed to
terrorize the people not to attempt any peaceful protest are tangible
cases in point signifying the pattern of tyrannical behavior of the
regime under Meles Zenawi. The Ethiopian people have suffered under
this rule for the last 15 long years and will remain so as long as
this regime is in power.
To honor such a
blatant human rights violator and an absolute dictator in the halls of
democracy is simply to give a blind eye to gross human rights
violations and to the prevailing abject realities in Ethiopia. It is a
slap on the face of the Ethiopian people who are yearning to be free
from this tyrant's grip and are struggling to bring democracy and hope
for a better future.
The United Ethiopian Democratic Forces (UEDF) urges
the EU to dissociate itself from this tyrant and to support the
Ethiopian people in their endeavors to replace dictatorship with
democracy and rule of law.
United
Ethiopian Democratic Forces
17,
November 2006
|