PRESS RELEASE
The Organizing Committee of Ethiopian National Transitional Council (ENTC) held a press conference on Saturday, April 28, 2012, to deliver progress report and announce new initiatives. Several members of the media and over 84 participants had attended the press conference online.
Progress Report
The first part of the press conference focused on progress report. Representative of the Organizing Committee, Dr Fisseha Eshetu, announced that the conference to form the transitional council will be held starting on July 1st, 2012. Two cities are competing to host the conference — Dallas and Washington DC. The Organizing Committee will select the host city this week, according to Dr Fisseha. He reported that local chapters are currently being formed in over 35 cities. During the past 10 days alone, chapters were formed in Atlanta, Las Vegas, Sacramento and London, UK.
The primary responsibility of the chapters are to elect delegates to the June 29-30 conference. The chapters will play a critical role in making sure that every sector of the Ethiopian society is well-represented in the conference that is intended to be a people’s congress (Hizbawi Shengo).
New Initiatives
Dr Fisseha announced that the ENTC Organizing Committee fully endorses the call by 12 Ethiopian media organizations for boycott of enterprises that are controlled by the TPLF regime. He added that the ENTC is forming its own special task force that will coordinate the boycott campaign, and among it first targets are injera, beer and other items that are exported from Ethiopia by TPLF-affiliated companies. In the case of exporting injera, it is causing the tef prices to rise hurting the people in Ethiopia, Dr Fisseha explained.
The other project the ENTC OC has initiated is exploring possible charges of war crimes against the TPLF regime with the help of the International Tribunal Court (ICC). A legal task forces is being formed to carry out the task, Dr Fisseha reported.
The legal task force will also look into the U.S. law named FARA (Foreign Agents Registration Act (22 U.S.C. § 611) that prohibits foreign spies from spying on citizens and residents of the United States to find out if the law applies to TPLF regime agents who are spying on Ethiopians and American-Ethiopians.
Regarding the participation of Ethiopian civil, political and other types of organization in the formation of the transitional council, Dr Fisseha explained that no one will be left out. He reported that progress is being made in several fronts as far as getting all stakeholders involved in the process.
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