Hailu Shawel gets a no confidence vote by Ethiopians in DC

Ethiopians in Washington DC said NO to dictatorship

Ethiopians in the Washington DC Metropolitan Area told Hailu Shawel on Sunday in no uncertain term that they do not support dictatorship.

The people expressed their opposition to dictatorship by not showing up at a public meeting organized by the Shaleqa-EPRP alliance (KIC) for Ato Hailu Shawel.

According to Ethiopian Review sources who were inside the meeting hall, only 300-400 people showed up. Of those who showed up, many of them were relatives and close family friends of Ato Hailu Shawel and his circle of crooked friends who have come from out of town. Ato Mogus Brook and friends have come all the way from Los Angeles for the meeting. Some of Shaleqa Yoseph’s friends from Dallas have also been observed. The rest were EPRP members in the Washington DC area and Mirchaw Sinishaw’s church members (yes, he has his own church named ‘Urael’ and a young priest).

The planned protest rally had been called off by the organizers after they observed that there were very few people who were coming to the meeting. Ato Hailu Shawel himself arrived two hours late. But there were 27 Washington DC police officers with riot gear on a stand by.

The audience was told that questions can be submitted only in writing. But later on, toward the end of the meeting, the moderator, Dr Taye, allowed six questions by those whom he hand picked. There was no effort by the organizers to even fake that it was a democratic meeting.

The funniest part of the event is the fund raising. Dr Taye announced that $120,000 have been pledged. This figure includes fake pledges ($1,000s, $5,000s and more) from paltalk rooms. An EPRP web site (ethiolion) pledged $1,000. Members of the KIC donated about $20,000 (recycling the money they stole from Kinijit). Wzr. Nigest G/Hiwot, whom Dr Taye brought from Ethiopia for the meeting, was promised two cars — one from New York and another from some where in Europe. Wzr. Nigest is scheduled to visit and hold similar meetings in about ten other cities. The way things are going, she can open her own car dealership and stay in the U.S.

Dr Taye was buying all these fake pledges from around the world, including some non-existent European country, and proudly announcing them at the public meeting. Where did Taye get his ph.d.? He should ask for refund.

There was also a financial report. Of the $1.2 million that the Shaleqa group diverted, only $12,000 remain, according to the report.

Ato Hailu made his speech 4 hours after the meeting started. It is hard to understand what message he was trying to convey. He was unfocused and incoherent. The medicines he is taking may be affecting him.

Sunday’s meeting was aggressively promoted by the EPRP web sites and radio programs. Every known EPRP member was present at the meeting. Without the participation of EPRP members, there would have been less than 100 old people. Even with EPRP’s participation, the average age of the audience is no less than 65 years old. Renaissance Hotel looked more like a nursing home on Sunday afternoon.

KIC (the new Derg) did not allow taking pictures, but Ethiopian Review was able to sneak out these photos below.