PRESS RELEASE

The net result of Woyane’s attempt to meet with the Ethiopian Diaspora in Dallas can be summed up as having two fold results. Firstly, the meeting confirmed and highlighted one more time that Woyane is nothing but a minority ethnic-based regime masquerading as Ethiopian. Secondly, the Woyane attempt to divide the Diaspora galvanized the opposition so much that the newly broad-based unified opposition to TPLF now includes political groups who until now were operating in their own political domain. Here is how these realities materialized in yesterday’ meeting.

Believing that Meles’s rule in Ethiopia is secured through vote rigging that culminated in a 99.6% parliamentary power; believing the free-loaders propaganda that the Diaspora is susceptible to support TPLF in exchange for individual economic enticement; most of all believing that the weaknesses of the opposition were permanent and fatal; this week-end, the Meles regime fired its opening salvo against the Ethiopian Diaspora after almost a full year and multi-million dollar preparation. As part of this fiasco, Meles’s handpicked messengers were sent to Dallas, Texas to talk to the community about the phantom five year “transformation” plan of Ethiopia. This was supposed to be a meeting where Ethiopians in Dallas were to pack the Marriott Quorum Hotel near the Galleria; be mesmerized by the dazzling economic performance of the TPLF regime and in the end align their politics with the “transformation” plan and even fund it with their hard earned dollar by buying the $500 bonds on spot. Instead what transpired is basically the reverse.

Here is how the process leading to the April 9th meeting was played by a handful of free-loaders under the guidance and funding of the Woyane Embassy in DC and their local and regional Tigrean masters on one hand and the newly unified opposition activists on the other. The free-loaders started out handing out invitation letters from the Embassy and announced on the local radio that this will be a meeting open for all Ethiopians. They even boasted that all Ethiopians in the DFW area will be welcome to challenge Meles’s stooges with Q&A sessions. Based on this announcement and the information and invitation letters they received from inside the free loaders camp, the opposition activists were ready to challenge them. (Remember getting such info from this camp is not hard. Free-loaders by definition work for the highest bidder: this character of the free-loaders is personified by non-other than their head in Dallas, the phony “captain” and empty-pocket “investor” Abey Mekonnon. Everybody knows Abey is a 24/7 hassler who struggles to feed himself and his family let alone invest).

If the meeting was open to all Ethiopians the activists planned to participate in the meeting, be civil and ask very hard questions on behalf of the Ethiopian people, who have been denied their God given right to gather, demonstrate or make peaceful protest. The peaceful activists were ready to challenge the so called “delegation “about the smokescreen Ethiopian “transformation” and “investment” plan, and have a civilized discussion about the burning issues of the Ethiopian people: litigate the 20 years of TPLF`s dictatorial rule and its failed policy towards democratization of the country.

Instead of allowing everyone who came to attend the meeting, the activists were met with a brute force from the local police and were pinpointed by the local servants of the regime and were not allowed to attend the meeting. These group of servants, who are serving the TPLF regime are Abiye Mekonnen (Main Organizer), Zeraye G. Berhe, Tadesse Tsehaye, Tekola Mekonnen, Tsehaye-Tsidik Bete-Mariam (Former Derg criminal), Mulaw(Mulugeta) Worash, Daniel Bayu (Mamush), Shimeles Gena,Abdulhamid, Halay Woldu, Melaku Abozene ,Abebe and many others who were not resident of the Dallas metro area. Most of the people who were deprived of attending the meeting were law abiding citizens, prodemocracy supporters and local respected elders. The presence of about sixty police officers outside and inside the hotel with drug snuffing dogs makes the event like there was already an explosion. Generally the area resembles like a war zone in the Middle East. It is very sad to see the amount of money spent for such bogus program for propaganda purposes. Most of all, it was unfortunate that the Addison Police was misinformed about the opposition and the peaceful activists in general and used unnecessary force and intimidation to arrest one of our activist Ato Betru Geberegziabher. Ato Betru was later released posting a Bail. The patriotic Ethiopians, who were excluded from their meeting, came all the way from Houston, Austin and Oklahoma State. Our warm-hearted appreciation goes to those true sons and daughters of Ethiopia.

The opposition activists knew very well that the criminal gangs can`t afford a free and open discussion with Ethiopians neither at home nor abroad. The so called “Growth and Transformation” organizers failed miserably, because the meeting was not to discuss with the Ethiopian Diaspora at large, but for selected TDA members and other innocent people, who attend the meeting simply to ask, challenge them and also to express their anger, frustration and grievances about the bureaucratic nature of the regime. Secondly this meeting helped the opposition to identify who our enemies are, and solidify different opposition groups to come together and fight our number one enemy TPLF/EPRDF under Meles. Please visit the Dallas Radio Program for an audio report about the fiasco in detail at www.maaecdallas.org broadcasted on April, 10, 2011.

In a parallel tack, the activists also moved to contact the Marriott hotel management and probe it for action by educating the management personnel through independent and documented accounts of the crimes committed by the regime on the Ethiopian people and by creating parallels with ousted rulers in North African and Middle East. We believe, the hotel management would have canceled the meeting had it not been for the legal advice it received on the consequences of contract breach.

Sure enough, the Saturday April 9th meeting was unlike any other meeting in the history of Ethiopian Diaspora in Dallas. Nobody in Dallas would fail to compare this meeting with that of Kinijit leaders when they came to Dallas. Kinjit leaders were welcomed at DFW Airport with masses of Ethiopians who dominated the airport with the Ethiopian flag and traditional welcome songs. The leaders were paraded on the roads of the city with Limousines as their arrival was broadcast in real time across the Internet. Last but not least, the crowed size and the festive atmosphere in the Kinijit meeting were there to show, that the gathering involved a real Ethiopian event. In contrast, the Woyane emissaries of April 9th entered and exited the city in secret, the organizers of the meeting were forced to open the meeting only to invited guests and the meeting had to be conducted in an environment of security siege. The overwhelming presence of the police, private security personnel, and the hotel staff from A-Z makes April 9 the meeting like a circus with a lot of alarm and disappointment for the organizers. Most of all, it is obvious even to the speakers and the meeting participants themselves that the audience in the auditorium was staffed with the majority of Tigreans from and around Texas.

The final message from Dallas to Woyanes and Meles is clear: you can’t buy our allegiance by showing off roads and buildings. Remember, we are sons and daughters of people who never give up the fight for freedom against Italian fascists who constructed longer and better quality roads in the first half of the past century in five years than you do in 20 years in this century. To some extent, the Italians used money from their own pocket as down payment unlike you who used the after-corruption borrowed and begged money in our name. Most of all, you and us know very well, in every US and European cities you go, Ethiopia has more people who are better educated and more experienced than the political cadres you send who can construct and transform Ethiopia. Freedom, democracy and end of minority Tigrean domination are our issues with you. Leave the Nile, the construction and the transformation for all Ethiopians.

Beka! Gaye
Freedom and Democracy now!

Ethiopian pro-democracy activists in Dallas