Listen to VOA Amharic Sept. 28, 2007, report on H.R. 2003, including an interview with Prof. Alemayehu GebreMariam. Click here to listen

The excitement surrounding the Kinijit leaders USA tour is growing. It is spreading and engulfing Ethiopian communities through out North America. It started in Washington DC. It spread to Boston, and to Upstate New York. Now it is in the San Francisco Bay Area as seen Thursday at Oakland Airport.

Saturday, Sept. 29, Kinijit leaders will attend a public meeting and fund raising event in Oakland. Like the one in Washington DC and Boston, it is expected to be the biggest and most exciting Ethiopian political gathering in the SF Bay Area.

Public Meeting in Oakland
Saturday, Sept. 29, 2007
Greek Orthodox Church
4700 Lincoln Ave Oakland, CA 94602 [see map]
For Information: (510) 575-7931

Sunday, there is another one — in Dallas, Texas.

Early Sunday morning, the Kinijit leaders will fly to Dallas, Texas. They will arrive at 11:30 AM. Kinijit Dallas representative Dr Aziz Hassan is urging Ethiopians in the Dallas area to come to Dallas-Forth Worth (DF) Airport [see map], Terminal A, at 11:00 AM to welcome the leaders.

Dr Aziz told Ethiopian Review that Kinijit Dallas has invited Ethiopians from neighboring cities and states, including Oklahoma. Artist Abebe Belew will join the delegates in Dallas as the master of ceremony (MC), Ato Aziz said.

Ato Dejene Assaye, Kinijit Dallas-Fort Worth chairman, told Ethiopian Review that Kinijit supporters in the Dallas area are excited and eagerly awaiting the arrival of their leaders. On Sunday, DF Airport will look like Meskel Square during Timket.

A Grand Public Gathering in Dallas
Sunday, Sept. 30, 2007
Time: 3:00 PM to 8:00PM
Place: The Radisson Hotel
1981 N Central Expressway Richardson, TX 75085 [see map]
For more info: 972 375 1334 or or 214 727 9995

Every one in the U.S. can play a role in making these events succeed even more by urging every one you know in these cities to attend Saturday’s event in Oakland and Sunday’s event in Dallas. Put your high-tech gadgets — emails, cellphones, IM, SMS, blog, web site, paltalk — to work and get the message out.

The renown journalist, artist and the host of Addis Voice Radio, Abebe Belew, from Washington DC will accompany the delegates to Oakland and Dallas. Ato Abebe Belew will be the MC for both the Oakland and Dallas events.

Ethiopian Review will do live coverage of the events in both cities.

United States House of Representatives final House Action on H.R. 2003
Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2007

The Coalition for H.R. 2003 is pleased to announce that HR 2003 (“Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability Act of 2007”), introduced by Chairman Donald Payne of the Subcommittee on Africa on April 20, 2007, has been scheduled for final action by the House of Representatives on October 2, 2007. Consideration of items on the suspension calendar will begin at 10:00 AM. [see here]

There are 14 bills scheduled for floor debate on October 2. H.R. 2003 is listed as #5 on the calendar.

H.R. 2003 was referred to the floor on a special House procedure known as “suspension of the rules”. This procedure is used generally to act swiftly on relatively non-controversial legislation. The procedure is set forth in clause 1 of House Rule XV. When a bill or some other matter is considered “under suspension,” floor debate is limited, all floor amendments are prohibited, and a two-thirds vote is required for final passage. The equivalent calendar in the Senate is called the consent calendar.

H.R. 2003 has 85 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives, and bill was passed on September 26, 2007 with a unanimous vote of the House Foreign Affairs committee! It is expected that H.R. 2003 will be approved by the House.

H.R. 2003 requires the ruling regime to:

● Release of ALL political prisoners and restore the democratic rights of the people.

● Institute democratic reforms with accountability.

● Provide protections for human rights advocates and civic society organization and ensure the existence of adequate monitoring and reporting processes.

● Set up an independent judicial system with proper monitoring processes to protect judges from political interference.

● Bring to justice all human rights abusers, including the killers of 193 innocent men, women and children and those who wounded 763 others in the post-2005 election period, and thousands of others.

● Improve election procedures and ensure fraud free elections.

● Remove press censorship and restrictive press laws and establish a program to strengthen private media in Ethiopia.

The bill also

● Offers training programs for democratic participation.

● Limits the use of U.S. security assistance to peacekeeping and counter-terrorism and NOT against the civilian population.

● Fosters economic development.

● Provides assistance to strengthen local, regional, and national parliaments and governments, political parties, and civil society groups.

● Strengthens training for political parties in the areas of organization building and campaign management.

● Provides training for civil society groups in election monitoring.

● Promotes dispute resolution by means of dialogue, negotiations and compromise, and

● Professionalizes the National Election Board to help it address certain issues, e.g. issues delimitation of constituencies, voter and candidate registration, political party registration, voting irregularities and challenges.

The Coalition will provide further updates as soon as they become available.

This is a message to Ato Hailu Shawel, Kinijit Chairman, by Atkilt Asefa.
Click here [Amhairc, pdf]

Atkilt Assefa can be reached at [email protected]

Ethiopian Review had reported on Wednesday that Kinijit Chairman Hailu Shawel is in critical condition and that no one except close family members are allowed to see him. Ato Hailu’s condition was held in secret until it was discovered by ER’s Intelligence Unit.

The reason for the secrecy was that Shaleqa Yoseph and Taye Woldesemayat wanted to hold the public meeting/fund raising in Washington DC this coming Sunday as scheduled even though they know that doctors have told Ato Hailu not to travel. Yoseph and Taye wanted to go ahead with the event so that they can collect money ($40 per person) and then inform the gathering that Ato Hailu could not come due to illness.

There was a heated debate among the Shaleqa-Taye group about keeping the scheduled event. Taye Woldesemayat, Assefa Dires and others argued that the meeting should be held as planned. Others, fearing public backlash, argued that it must be postponed.

Taye’s side won. But the defeated side leaked the information to ER about Ato Hailu’s condition and asked us to inform the public that the meeting/fund raising event in Washington DC has been postponed. Ato Assefa Dires, the person who is assigned by Taye to watch Ato Hailu 24/7 and restrict access to him from the media and individuals who are not approved by Taye, said yesterday in an interview listen here listen here that Ato Hailu is in good health and that he is traveling to Washington DC for the Sept. 30 event.

In the afternoon, Shaleqa Yoseph also said in another interview that Ato Hailu is in good shape, but confirmed that no one is allowed to visit him other than close family members.

Finally, this morning, the Shaleqa-Taye group were forced to post in their web site that the meeting has been postponed since now every body knows that Ato Hailu is not coming.

These crooks were going to rip us off in the name of Hailu Shawel, again.