Saturday, 27 June 2015

An open letter concerning the visit of President Obama to Ethiopia – AEUP Support Group

All Ethiopian Unity Party (AEUP) USA-Support Group

We are saddened to hear and read that President Barack Obama will visit Ethiopia, a nation that is currently ruled by a merciless dictatorship, in July 2015. America is a country that works toward forming a better union for its citizens. The American declaration of independence holds self-evident that all men are created equal with inalienable rights for life liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and that individuals have the right to overthrow a ruler who works against their just rights. All such individual and the just human rights of Ethiopians have been trampled over by the ethnic-based party, which has been ruling Ethiopia during the last 24 years, and which incrementally has become a stronger and brazen dictatorship.

The regime operates by smoke and mirrors: it has a good sounding constitution but it does not follow it; its leaders speak of good sounding principles to western leaders, but they are merciless and brutal to their own citizens; its leaders speak of the plight of the impoverished, and diseased Ethiopians, but the rulers enrich themselves by pillaging Ethiopia. The so-called national army is organized by the ruling party, and over 95% of the officer belong to the ruling ethnic group. Ethiopians have no rights to have independent journalists. The country has no independent judiciary, or national election board.

The regime holds sham elections every five years and gets elected by imprisoning, torturing and killing opposition party officials. It places individuals in the national parliament, which it assigns as members of the opposition party. Just before the so-called National Elections of May 2015, the regime imprisoned the duly elected president, President Mamushet Amare, and 46 other Ethiopians of the largest pan-Ethiopian party, AEUP (All Ethiopian Unity Party, also known as MEAD -Yemelaw Ethiopia Andenet Derjit”)

The representatives of other pan-Ethiopian parties had also been replaced by individuals who have been hand-picked by the ruling regime, or were allowed to function, while some opposition candidates running for elections had been tortured, imprisoned or killed by the regime. In short, pan-Ethiopian opposition party officials are hunted down, one by one, and put to jail, tortured or killed for using their “constitutional guaranteed” rights to run for elections and to speak out against injustice perpetrated by the ruling TPLF/EPRDF regime.

We are saddened to know that the USA continues to give monetary support to the ethnic-based regime of Ethiopia, and we were even more deeply angered and saddened when a US official, Mrs. Wendy Sherman, so shamelessly and blatantly made wrong public statements to provide support to the dictatorial regime of Ethiopia days before the re-election of the regime.

The Ethiopian dictatorship is an abomination to all freedom-loving people across the world. It survives through trickery and double dealing with the West and the East. It ought to have been unthinkable for the USA to provide any support to the brazen dictatorship of Ethiopia, which has forcibly created ethnic-based Bantustans that dislocated millions of Ethiopians, killed hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians. The citizens of Ethiopia will not benefit by any support given to to dictatorial regime.
Upon President Obama’s visit to the OAU at Addis Abeba and the dictatorial Ethiopian regime in Ethiopia, we plead to President Obama to consider the following.

1. Ask firmly for the release of President Mamushet Amare, Mr Abraham Getu and 46 other AEUP officials, as well as the untold number of prisoners of conscience including Andualem Arage, Unity for Democracy Justice Party V. Chairman and journalists, Eskindr Nega, Reyot Alemu, Zone 9 Bloggers and tens of thousands who languish in the TPLF/EPRDF jails all over the country for only exercising their constitutional rights in a peaceful way.

2.Put the necessary pressure to have the dictatorial regime scrap the so called ” Charities law ” which has become the weapon of subjugation, as an excuse of fighting terrorism to suppress, harass and kill opposition party members and citizens.

3. Attach any American aid or budget support to the Ethiopian regime be contingent with or on conditions of the protection and safeguarding of basic human rights and accountability.

4. Go through the USA State Department’s own 2014 and 2015 country reports on Ethiopia and demand answers from the Ethiopian regime.

Ethiopia stretches her hands to God, and it shall survive.
All Ethiopian Unity Party (AEUP) USA-Support group
June 24, 2015

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