Opposition EPRP condemns rights abuses by Ethiopian govt

December 13/2003, troops of the 43rd Division of the Meles Zenawi army commanded by MajorTsegaye Beyene accompanied armed and enraged vigilantes in Gambella town to slaughter close to500 Anuak civilians in a brutal way. It was a genocidal act approved by Meles Zenawi himself and his deputies Abai Tsehaye and Barnabas Gebreab from the Ministry of Federal Affairs. None of thesecriminals have been brought before a court of law up to now.

The massacre of Anuak civilians followed the killing of eight government cadres involved in the settlement of Nuer refugees by unknown gunmen. The corpses were brought into Gambella town in a deliberate attempt to enflame passions and to suggest that Anuaks were responsible for the killing.Kinsmen of the dead armed with rifles and machetes and supported by soldiers under the command ofMajor Tsegaye Beyene rampaged through Gambella town murdering any and every Anuak theyfound. More than 400 huts were burnt and dozens of women raped before being shot. Meles Zenawi declared the killings “pure fiction” and his deputy Bereket Semon backed the lie by denying any crime had been committed. Ominously, there was no official condemnation of the massacre from the Westthat was crying foul and murder in neighboring Darfur in the Sudan.

Meles Zenawi enjoys the support of the West, especially of Washington. Its gross human rights violations are ignored because the regime is a foot soldier in the region for the war called the ‘war against terror”. It has sent troops to invade Somalia and commit atrocities there contrary to the interests and wishes of the Ethiopian people who bear no enmity towards their neighbors. Emboldenedby this indulgence on the part of Washington, the Meles regime is now massacring the people in the Ogaden and pursuing a brutal counter insurgency campaign that is outright criminal. All over Ethiopia, the regime continues to routinely violate the rights of the people, to hold thousands of political prisoners in jail, to practice torture, to follow a backward policy of ethnic discrimination, to muzzle the free press and to brutally suppress all dissent. A sure candidate for world wide condemnation, the Meles regime is however being patted on the back and tolerated by the practitioners of the double standard associated with cruel real politik.

The EPRP condemns the regime of terror and once again expresses its solidarity with the people in Gambella, the Ogaden and all over Ethiopia. The dictatorship shall be defeated!!

EPRP EPRPP.O.Box 73337 BP 22 Washington D.C. 20056 Bois Colombes 92270 U.S.A France

Tel. : (202) 291-4217 Fax : (202) 291-7645E-mail [email protected]: http://www.EPRP.com