The Empowerment Initiative
Atlanta, Georgia
LETTER OF CONCERN TO U.S. SENATE COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES REGARDING MISUSE & ABUSE OF U.S. MILITARY SUPPORT
(via email and facsimile)
Nov 19, 2007
Honorable Senator Carl Levin, Senator John McCain, and members of the US Senate Committee on Armed Services:
As a veteran of the US military, I am very concerned that Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia is exploiting personnel trained by the U.S. military and misusing U.S. supplied military armaments to make advances against defenseless civilians within his own borders.
New reports are emerging today from the BBC News, Reuters and the AFP that Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has stepped-up his militaristic assaults in the Somali Region of Ethiopia (the Ogaden) and is employing the indiscriminant and highly destructive tactic of “carpet bombing” to “flush out rebel forces.” What he is doing in reality, however, is annihilating defenseless civilians, their livestock and livelihood and their villages, wells, granaries and shelters in a region of the country that, incidentally, is rich in subterranean resources.
Indiscriminant killing and collective punishment is not a new issue with the Meles regime; however, what is new is the ferocity and extensive nature of these continued assaults on pastoral and nomadic citizens. Bear in mind that it is quite remarkable that the general public can even learn of these militaristic maneuvers considering that Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has banned and expelled the free press, humanitarian aid agencies, and every other outside organization from entering the majority of the Somali Region of Ethiopia (the Ogaden). What is eminently clear is that he does not want the world to know of the atrocities he is responsible for that are taking place there.
I am asking for your verification and assurances, as members of the United States Senate Committee on Armed Services, that our military trainers have in no way been complicit to these current actions of the Ethiopian military and that the weaponry and ordinances being used against defenseless civilians are not, and have not, been supplied by the United States.
Thank you for your consideration, I await your response.
Keif Schleifer
Executive Director
The Empowerment Initiative
Human Rights, Social Justice, Non-Violence Advocacy
[email protected]