Kinijit delegation headed by Secretary General Muluneh Eyoel and involving executive committee members Ato Abayneh Berhanu, Ato Kifle Tigneh, Ato Ashcalew Ketema, and Dr Yacob Hailemariam will arrive at London’s Heathrow Airport on Sunday, Sept. 9, at 3:30 PM.

Kinijit’s UK Chapter members invite all Ethiopians in the London area to join them in welcoming these national heroes and elected representatives of the people of Ethiopia at the airport.

More info: 0207 168 9893, or 079 4664 4831

PREVENTING THE NEXT DARFUR

By the Alliance for Democracy and Freedom

In 2004, memorial ceremonies for the victims of the Rwandan genocide caused the world to begin to awaken to the slaughter of innocent civilians in Darfur. “Never again,” became the rallying cry for a movement to save Darfur.

Tragically, today, even as the world community unites to end the killing in Darfur, policymakers are ignoring a new Darfur, a spreading conflict in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia that could become the spark that enflames all of Ethiopia.

The Alliance for Democracy and Freedom (AFD), therefore, calls on the international community to act now to halt human rights abuses in the Ogaden –and before it is too late to prevent the next Darfur.

In recent weeks, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRS), Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and Human Rights Watch and the New York Times have all reported that Ethiopian government soldiers have forced thousands of civilians in the Ogaden to abandon their homes. Whole villages and food stocks have been torched by government soldiers. Civilians refusing to leave their homes and villages have been tortured, raped and killed. In direct violation of international humanitarian law, the Ethiopian government has used food as a weapon in its military campaign against the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF). The government has blocked humanitarian agencies from providing food, medicine and other assistance to civilians in the region. And it has arrested and expelled the few journalists who have tried to report on the human toll of the Ethiopian government’s desperate efforts to crush democratic opposition in the region.

The AFD urges the people of Ethiopia to stop this madness. It is urgent that we rise in solidarity to support our suffering brothers and sisters in the Ogaden. We must unite in declaring that injustice against any person or group in any part of the country is an injustice committed against all of us.

RAISE YOUR VOICES!

DEMAND THAT THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY PRESSURE THE ETHIOPIAN GOVERNMENT TO STOP THE ATROCITY AND

TO ALLOW HUMANITARIAN ORGANIZATIONS AND JOURNALISTS IMMEDIATE ACCESS TO THE OGADEN.

AFD believes that the military action, no matter how brutal, cannot quash the people’s desire for democracy and freedom. The problem in the Ogaden is a political problem — and it will only be solved by a comprehensive political solution that addresses not just the crisis in the Ogaden, but also the wider political problems in the country. It is for this reason that AFD is calling for an all-inclusive process of dialogue.

The Struggle for Freedom and Democracy shall prevail!
_________
Alliance for Freedom and Democracy (AFD)

Amnesty International Urgent Action

Arbitrary detention/possible prisoners of conscience/risk of torture or ill-treatment

Fekadu Negeri (m), teacher, Ethiopian Human Rights Council local official
Ibsa Wake (m), lawyer, Ethiopian Human Rights Council local official
Tesfa Burayu (m), teacher, Ethiopian Human Rights Council local official
Abraham Likasa (m)
Jeregna Keba (m), student
Osman Dawer (m), student
Tamrat Tadesse (m), student
Workneh Dinsa (m), teacher

The eight men named above were arrested on 23 August, on suspicion of links with the armed opposition
group Oromo Liberation Front (OLF). They are held in the police station in the western town of Nekemte, and
they are at risk of torture or ill-treatment. Amnesty International believes they may be prisoners of conscience.
Fekadu Negeri, Ibsa Wake and Tesfa Burayu are executive committee members of the regional office of the
Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO) in Nekemte town, Oromia Region. They were arrested together
with 12 other people, seven of whom have been released without charge. Police searched their homes but
reportedly found nothing. By law they should have been taken to court within 48 hours of arrest, but this was
not done until 3 September. After a court hearing that day, they were remanded in custody until 6 September
and then remanded again until 13 September for investigation into suspected links with the OLF.
Amnesty International believes the three EHRCO officials, who had been arrested previously but released
without charge, may be prisoners of conscience detained on account of their work in defence of human
rights. They have been allowed visits from their families. The six others may have been arrested arbitrarily in
the course of the anti-OLF security operations which are underway in parts of the Oromia Region with many
other arrests.

Amnesty International fears the eight men may be detained for a prolonged period without trial or subjected
to an unfair trial.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Thousands of members of the Oromo ethnic group (or “nationality”) have been detained, and many of them
tortured, in recent years on suspicion of links with the OLF, for example for allegedly distributing pro-OLF
leaflets, fundraising or possession of weapons. The OLF, which is based in Eritrea, has been fighting the
government since 1992. Among the detainees have been prisoners of conscience who have not advocated
armed opposition or support for the OLF, such as leaders of the Mecha Tulema Association, a longestablished
and officially-registered Oromo community group, who were released from three years’ detention
in early 2007. (For details see UA 180/04, AFR 25/011/2004, 28 September 2004 and updates.)
Several investigation staff and local committee officials of EHRCO, the leading independent human rights
organization in Ethiopia, were arrested in 2005 after election protests and detained without charge for
several weeks.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible, in English or your
own language:

– expressing concern at the arrests in Nekemte on 23 August of three regional officials of the Ethiopian
Human Rights Council, Fekadu Negeri, Ibsa Wake and Tesfa Burayu, who may be prisoners of conscience
detained solely for their peaceful work in defence of human rights;

– expressing concern also for Abraham Likasa, Jeregna Keba, Osman Dawer, Tamrat Tadesse and Workneh
Dinsa, who were arrested at the same time on suspicion of links with the Oromo Liberation Front;

– calling on the authorities to allow them regular access to their families and legal representatives, and any
medical treatment they may require;

– asking for assurances that they are being treated humanely in custody;

– calling on the authorities to release them if they are not to be charged with a recognizably criminal offence
and given a prompt and fair trial.

APPEALS TO:
Minister of Justice
Mr Assefa Kesito, Ministry of Justice, PO Box 1370, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Fax: +251 11 5517775
+251 11 5520874
Email: [email protected]
Salutation: Dear Minister

Federal Commissioner of Police
Mr Workneh Gebeyehu, Federal Police Commission, Ministry of Federal Affairs
PO Box 5068, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Salutation: Dear Commissioner

The official Ethiopian Human Rights Commission
Ambassador Dr Kassa Gebreheywot, Chief Commissioner, Ethiopian Human Rights Commission
PO Box 1165, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Fax: +251 11 618 0041
Email: [email protected]
Salutation: Dear Chief Commissioner
and to diplomatic representatives of Ethiopia accredited to your country.
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. Check with the International Secretariat, or your section office, if
sending appeals after 18 October 2007.

Group Offers to Help City Develop an Effective, Humane Programme to Control Strays

For Immediate Release:
6 September 2007
Contact:
Teresa Chagrin 1-757-622-7382

Addis Ababa – Today, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) — the world’s largest animal rights
organisation, with more than 1.6 million members and supporters — sent an urgent letter to Addis Ababa Mayor Ato Berhanu Deressa urging him to cancel plans to poison tens of thousands of stray dogs in the city in advance of Ethiopia’s celebration of the Coptic millennium next week. In the letter, PETA points out that the plan — in response to a perceived rabies threat – is both cruel and dangerous, and the group offers to assist with the humane euthanasia of the city’s stray dogs.

Authorities intend to use as bait meat laced with strychnine, a powerful poison that causes intense pain
and severe convulsions — which sometimes last for hours — before causing death by asphyxiation. The
ill-conceived plan would also result in the unintentional and agonising deaths of countless other animals, including birds and mammals who might feed on the poisoned dog carcasses.

PETA is offering to help Addis Ababa establish a full-service animal shelter that includes a programme
of compassionate euthanasia by injections of sodium pentobarbital, which — according to the American
Veterinary Medical Association, the leading authority on the subject — is the most humane way to euthanise
animals. Animal population experts agree that laws mandating that all owned animals be sterilised to
prevent unwanted births — coupled with full-service animal sheltering programmes — are the most effective
ways to reduce stray animal populations and, therefore, reduce the threat of rabies.

“Ethiopia might be preparing to mark the third millennium, but this massive dog-poisoning plan is something right out of the Dark Ages”, says PETA President Ingrid E Newkirk. “We urge Mayor Deressa to call off this cruel massacre and accept our assistance to establish an effective dog-population and rabies-control programme that will benefit both the animals and the city’s residents.”

PETA’s letter to Addis Ababa Mayor Ato Berhanu Deressa is available upon request.
For more information, please visit PETA’s website HelpingAnimals.com

Kinijit supporters from several cities in the United States are on their way to Washington DC to welcome Kinijit
Vice President Bertukan Mideksa and her delegation when they arrive Sunday morning.

One of those who is heading to DC is Ato Cheru Terefe, leading the Atlanta Kinijit chapter supporters. Ethiopian Review has reached him on the phone this morning as he and his colleagues were driving through North Carolina on I-85. Ato Cheru and friends are traveling to DC all the way from Atlanta to say thank you to the Kinijit leaders for the sacrifices they made to help bring a positive change in Ethiopia.

Ato Ashebir and friends from Boston’s Abugida TV and Kinijit Chapter are also on the way to Washington DC. They are excited to meet and welcome Wzt. Bertukan and her heroic friends at the Dulles Airport in Washington DC on Sunday morning.

Ato Tamagne Beyene, one of the coordinators of the welcoming ceremony told Ethiopian Review today that the Kinijit leaders will be greeted by hundreds, may be thousands of Ethiopians at the airport. As the legitimately elected leaders of Ethiopia, Wzt. Bertukan and her delegation will be treated and welcomed with all the ceremony and protocol that are accorded to national leaders.

The coordinating team will provide transportation to those who do not want to drive to the airport. Those who wish to volunteer or get a ride are asked to call Berhan at 202 299 7625.