The 10th Great Ethiopian Run was held Sunday in Addis Ababa in which over 30,000 people took part.
During the past few years, opponents of the ruling Woyanne junta used the event to express their frustration with the regime since public demonstrations are banned in Ethiopia.
This year, Woyanne wanted to use the event to promote its own agenda of ruling the country unchallenged. So instead of the usual open registration that lasted until a few days before the race, registration forms were sent out to state employees, ruling party members, and groups and businesses that are affiliated with the regime. Registration was closed several weeks before race day.
During yesterday’s race, every individual who was interviewed by the state-controlled ETV talked about Meles Zenawi’s “5 year transformation plan,” which actually is a plan to loot and pillage Ethiopia for 5 more years. Any one who watched the TV coverage of the race Sunday can conclude that it was a Woyanne political event that has been orchestrated by its propaganda chief Bereket Simon.
Meles and Bereket, however, did not fully succeeded in keeping opposition activities out of the event. During the run, thousands of pamphlets commemorating the 5th anniversary of the Ethiopian election massacre were distributed along the race route and other parts of Addis Ababa. An Ethiopian Review source has sent one of the copies shown below (click on the image to enlarge).
