Ethiopian watchdog urges intl probe on religious violences

November 3, 2006. In an open letter to United Nations Secretary General Kofi Anan and other world leaders, Ethiopian Americans for Justice called for an immediate investigation of the recent violence between Christians and Muslims in Ethiopia.

More than 15 people were killed and 800 homes were destroyed during a four-day spasm of religious violence in South Western Ethiopia. According to news reports, the violence began on October 15, 2006.

According to the group, there is credible evidence that the minority government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi is fanning communal violence to stay in power against popular will.

The group also accused the Meles government for instigating violence to gain Western sympathy and cash in the name of fighting Islamic extremism. The communal violence coupled with the Ethiopian ruling group’s subcontracting of the invasion of Somalia is being used to divert world attention from domestic human rights abuses.

For more information, please contact:
Ethiopian Americans for Justice at [email protected]

November 3, 2006

Mr. Kofi Anan
– Secretary General of the United Nations
– United Nations Headquarters
– New York, NY 10027

Dear Mr. Secretary General,

We are writing to you about a disturbing situation unfolding in Ethiopia: the deliberate stoking of hatred and killing between Christians and Muslims. There is credible information that the government of Prime Minister Zenawi is behind the communal violence and we are writing to appeal to you and to other world leaders to call for an immediate, independent, international investigation.

At least 15 people were killed, 800 homes and three religious enters were destroyed in a four-day spasm of Christian-Muslim violence that started on October 15 near the South Western town of Jimma, according to the Reuters news agency.

Reports reaching us show government involvement. For example, an agent provocateur and instigator of religious violence known by the name of Sassahulih Kebede was caught red-handed and yet was immediately released after high-level officials intervened.

We have also received videotapes of eyewitness accounts (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwSYIHlQ5ZI&eurl= ) that show that ruling party agents, including uniformed security men, were involved in the killings. Incidentally, the same authorities have deliberately allowed the circulation of videotapes designed to inflame the Christian population.

An oppressive government, poverty and widespread disease are crushing Ethiopians of all faiths. Christians and Muslims have lived in harmony for generations. They have little incentive to fight each other.

But the Tigrai People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) that rules Ethiopia has every incentive to pit major ethnic and religious groups against each other. Only by having other groups at each other’s throat can such an unrepresentative and unpopular group stay in power.

Divide and rule has been the modus operandi of the TPLF. Playing one ethnic group against the other is the primary instrument for guaranteeing continuing minority rule. But Ethiopians saw through the ruse, voting without regard to ethnicity. The TPLF is now pulling the religious card.

Holymen of the regime have joined he fray. His Holiness Aba Paulos, the government-appointed “cadre” Bishop of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, has chosen to play a political role of fanning the flames instead of being a force for healing.

The diabolical act of Ethiopia’s tiny and secretive ruling elite is also being orchestrated to gain Western sympathy and cash in the name of fighting Islamic extremism.

Ethiopians cast their vote of no confidence against the current government by an overwhelming majority during the May 2005elections. At least 193 innocent Ethiopians were gunned down, an unknown number wounded and some 30,000 thrown in jail when they went to the streets to protest the stealing of these elections.

Prime Minister Zenawi ordered the massacre of civilians in post-election violence, according to an enquiry commission established by his own government. We believe the stoking of communal violence internally and the invasion of Somalia are designed to divert world attention and to prolong the ruling of a much-hated and embattled government.

Ethiopians have suffered enough in the past 30 years. The last thing they need is a religious war that will bring untold mayhem and suffering to one of Africa’s biggest and proud nation. There are indications that the ruling party has more elaborate plans to fan religious violence. We appeal to you to interveneimmediatelyandtocallforanimpartialinternationalinvestigation.

Sincerely,

Haile Kassahun

Ethiopian Americans for Justice

CC:

– Prime Minister Tony Blair, United Kingdom
– Mr. Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission
– Mr. Alfa Omar Konare, Chairperson of the African Union
– Ms. Condoleza Rice, Secretary of State, United States
– Mr. Timothy Clark, Head of EU Mission to Ethiopia
– Ms. Vicky Huddleston, Chargé D’Affaires, US Embassy, Addis Ababa
– Amnesty International
– Human Rights Watch