Call for all Ethiopians in Oklohama to Join the Peaceful Protest
* Protest For what?: To demand that Senator Inhofe of Oklohama lifts his hold on the proposed law: H.R 2003: The Ethiopian Democracy and Accountability Act
* When: Tuesday, November 13, 2007; starting 10:00AM
* Where: Outside Senator Inhofe’s Oklahoma City office: 1900 NW Expressway Suite 1210 Oklahoma City, OK 73118
For further info call: Tel #: 405-314-4560
Organized by: ETHIOPIAN-AMERICANS and FRIENDS of ETHIOPIA in OKLAHOMA For H.R. 2003
Ethiopian Review would like to thank the EriTV staff for not using the term “Ethiopian government” or “Ethiopian army.” They always use the correct term “Woyanne.” Indeed, Ethiopia has no national army and no legitimate government. The army under the Woyanne regime is a gang of mercenaries who terrorize, torment, murder, mayhem, rape and brutalize the people of Ethiopia and neighboring countries on the orders of Meles Zenawi and the TPLF junta. The sole purpose of the Woyanne army is to protect the Meles crime family from the people of Ethiopia. To call this army of baby killers and rapists an “Ethiopian army” is to dishonor the name Ethiopia. Ethiopians are not completely defenseless thanks to the freedom fighters of ONLF, OLF, as well as the EPPF (soon to reemerge from its internal crisis) who will jointly make up the future Ethiopian army. The video below, which is produced by EriTV, shows the self-contradictory statements of a desperate dictator whose time is running out.
Ethiopian Review would like to thank the EriTV staff for not using the term “Ethiopian government” or “Ethiopian army.” They always use the correct term “Woyanne.” Indeed, Ethiopia has no national army and no legitimate government. The army under the Woyanne regime is a gang of mercenaries who terrorize, torment, murder, mayhem, rape and brutalize the people of Ethiopia and neighboring countries on the orders of Meles Zenawi and the TPLF junta. The sole purpose of the Woyanne army is to protect the Meles crime family from the people of Ethiopia. To call this army of baby killers and rapists an “Ethiopian army” is to dishonor the name Ethiopia. Ethiopians are not completely defenseless thanks to the freedom fighters of ONLF, OLF, as well as the EPPF (soon to reemerge from its internal crisis) who will jointly make up the future Ethiopian army. The video below, which is produced by EriTV, shows the self-contradictory statements of a desperate dictator whose time is running out.
MOGADISHU, Somalia (CNN) — Neighborhoods in the Somali capital were deserted on Sunday, a day after 17 civilians were brutally killed in the wake of intense fighting between Ethiopian-backed Somali troops and Islamic insurgents, according to witnesses and journalists in Mogadishu.
Witnesses in Mogadishu’s al-Baraka neighborhood said the dead included women, the elderly and children as young as 10.
They said all 17 killed were all non-combatants, and blamed the deaths on Ethiopian troops, who are backing interim Somali forces in an attempt to quell an Islamist-led insurgency.
CNN has been unable to reach the Ethiopian military or members of the Somali transitional government for their response.
Residents in Mogadishu accuse the Ethiopian forces of targeting civilians in revenge for the killings of its troops.
Witnesses and journalists in the city also say Ethiopian and Somali forces are indiscriminately shooting at anyone, fearing no consequences from the weak government in Mogadishu.
Bakara market — Mogadishu’s largest public market — remained all but deserted Sunday a day after the Ethiopian-backed Somali forces occupied the streets surrounding the bazaar.
The Somali forces scared off traders after firing shots in the air, witnesses said.
The situation had calmed by Sunday, but there were reports of sporadic fighting.
Up to 100,000 people have abandoned the capital in the last two weeks, according to United Nations estimates.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned Friday of a growing humanitarian crisis in Somalia and said 1.5 million people were in need of humanitarian assistance, a rise of 50 percent since the start of the year.
According to witnesses, the 17 bodies found Saturday in al-Baraka had bullet wounds to the head and chest. Some were heavily bruised and appeared to have been beaten and had their hands tied together, witnesses said.
Photographs seen by CNN showed crowds standing over the blood-spattered bodies of young men in civilian clothes lying in a dusty street. Some had been covered with a loose piece of garment, but their faces were still showing.
In a separate incident, five children — between ages 1 and 7 — were injured after a shell from an Ethiopian tank smashed into their family home in the same neighborhood, the children’s father Aweys Ali Abukar said.
According to Abukar, the shell hit the building as the family was sitting down to breakfast Saturday morning. He said the youngest child was in a serious condition in hospital after the family was struck by falling debris and shrapnel.
According to local media estimates, 60 to 80 people have been killed since Ethiopian troops launched reprisals after the body of one their soldiers was dragged through the streets by an angry mob Thursday.
Ethiopian tanks and artillery have rained down missile and mortar fire on insurgent strongholds in the city, but witnesses said that many of the dead and injured were civilians caught up in the fighting.
Ethiopian troops invaded Somalia in December 2006 to drive the Islamic Courts Union out of Mogadishu and restore a U.N.-backed transitional government after a decade and a half of near-anarchy.
The Islamists responded by launching an insurgency against Somali government and Ethiopian troops that has lasted nearly a year.
Residents say they are a target of the Ethiopian military who want revenge. “All young men run away whenever they set eyes on Ethiopians in uniform,” one woman said, who did not wish to be named.
The bodies of two brothers, aged 30 and 13, were discovered Tuesday in the Gubta settlement following a raid by the Ethiopian military.
Their mother Halimo Abdullahi Abdi claimed they had been shot dead by Ethiopian troops when they tried to leave their home.
Several neighborhoods in the Somali capital, Mogadishu are virtually deserted as residents flee to avoid fighting between Ethiopian Woyanne troops and Islamist-led insurgents Somali freedom fighters. From the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, VOA’s Peter Heinlein reports Ethiopia has rejected charges its troops engaged in reprisal killings after rebels dragged the bodies of dead soldiers through Mogadishu’s streets.
Reporters in the Somali capital say streets are empty in some of the most dangerous areas. The sprawling Bakara market in the southern part of the city was reported closed for a second day.
Tens of thousands of people fled during the past few days to avoid what one witness told VOA was some of the worst violence in Mogadishu in months.
It began Thursday, when Ethiopian Woyanne soldiers launched house to house searches and shelled suspected insurgent hideouts in southern parts of the city.
Civilians complained that the Ethiopian Woyanne troops had fired indiscriminately in reprisal attacks after insurgents dragged the mutilated bodies of dead soldiers through the streets of the capital.
The group Human Rights Watch accused both soldiers and insurgents of violating the laws of war during the exchange of hostilities.
But Bereket Simon, a senior adviser to Ethiopia’s prime minister dictator, vehemently denied there had been any revenge attacks or targeting of civilians.
“Our army is not trained in that fashion,” said Bereket Simon. “It is an army who knows its mission and gives top priority to the safety of the civilian people. So that is not true.”
Ethiopian Woyanne spokesman Bereket soundly rejected any comparison between events of the past few days and the Black Hawk incident.
“This is an accident and it cannot have an impact on Ethiopian Woyanne soldiers, I assure you,” he said. “We have made some sacrifices, but that is not that serious in our opinion. We have improved the situation in Somalia. There is more or less stability in most parts of Mogadishu, and last time somehow this accident happened, and we are singling out the perpetrators and targeting them, so it cannot be contrasted with Black Hawk Down.”
Military analysts say Ethiopia Woyanne sent as many as 2,000 fresh troops to Somalia in the past week, to bolster a force estimated to be in excess of 50,000. Ethiopia Woyanne dispatched troops to Somalia almost a year ago to aid an interim government overwhelmed by Islamist insurgents Somali freedom fighters.
Ethiopian Woyanne leaders have said they would withdraw from Somalia in favor of a robust international peacekeeping force capable of restoring order in a country that has suffered more than a decade and a half of political turmoil. But U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says sending peacekeepers to Somalia under current conditions is ‘not a realistic or viable option’.
As part of preparations for war with Eritrea, Woyanne officials are holding a series of meetings. ER has learned that in many of these meetings, the Woyanne officials are raising their concern about H.R. 2003. It seems that many Woyanne officials are more concerned about this bill in the U.S. Congress than the war with Eritrea.
Late last week, Woyanne dictator Meles Zenawi held a video conference from India with presidents of all the nine killils (regions) to discuss the impending war. According to ER sources, Meles also discussed H.R. 2003 with the killil presidents. Following the video conference, presidents of Tigray, Somali and Beneshangul came up with a recommendation to all the regions to petition the federal government to charge the Kinijit delegation to the U.S. led by Wzt. Bertukan Mideksa with the crime of treason for supporting the bill. The petition is in fact being orchestrated by the Woyanne top leadership, including foreign minister Seyoum Mesfin.
Woyanne officials are scared to death of H.R. 2003 because it will hold them personally accountable for the death of civilians. Many of these officials own expensive homes and other properties in the U.S. When the Woyanne rule ends, these officials plan to leave the country and settle in the U.S. They fear that H.R. 2003 will prevent them from doing that.
