The Ethiopian Civic Associations Joint Forum issued a statement today that says the government officials who are responsbible for the June 8 massacre of unarmed civilians must be brought to justice. The Forum, which includes the Ethiopian Teachers Association, the Ethiopian Journalists Associatons, and civic other groups, also said the people's vote must be respected by the ruling party, the oppositon parties, the election board and the international community... read the full text at ethiopianreview.com

please help us hunderdes of Ethiopian Student are in prison and the current government order to shave off their student hair by effected by HIV AIDS blade...
so their any human right please god blees our world.

Email: Gesit@aol.com

City: Addis ababa,

Why BBC not reporting hunderdes of Ethiopian Student are in prison and the current government order to shave off their student hair by effected by HIV AIDS blade...
so their any human right please god blees our world.

Email: Gesit@aol.com

City: Addis ababa,

It's a good thing that the civic groups are stepping in to help lead the people's struggle for freedom against tyrants. There's never been a popular struggle that suceeded without the participation of civic groups such as trade unions. Read the following interesting article. It demonstrates that the Ethiopian people must look to themselves more, and less to the West to plant and nurture genuine democracy and rule of law in their country.

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West plays down murder of demonstrators

By Brian Smith
23 June 2005

Security forces fired indiscriminately at crowds of unarmed protesters in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, killing 36 and wounding more than 100 people on June 8. Protests had erupted in Addis Ababa and several other towns and cities over the previous week in response to alleged fraud in the disputed elections of May 15.

Taxi drivers and shopkeepers went on strike across the capital following the security forces’ shooting of protesters. As the unrest intensified, the government followed up with a mass sweep of arrests. Anyone suspected of sympathy with the opposition was a target, and thousands were detained. Hundreds have since been released, but many remain in detention camps north and south of Addis Ababa.

Exact numbers are unclear, but human rights organisations believe that more than 3,000 people have been arrested. Given the government’s record of prisoner abuse, they are very worried about the conditions in which those detained are being held.
Despite the release of many from the original sweep, more targeted arrests, of CUD and student activists, continue unabated. Human Rights Watch (HRW) reports hundreds of arrests occuring in Gondar, Bure, Bahir Dar, Debre Markos, Dessie, Wondo Genet, Kombolcha, Jinka and Awassa over the last week or so. Many students and CUD officials remain in custody without charges.

The authorities have also cracked down on the foreign and domestic media and on human rights organisations, with journalists critical of the government being harassed and their equipment confiscated. The Ethiopian Human Rights Council reports that five of its members have been arrested in an attempt to paralyse its work. Their whereabouts are unknown.
The response of Western governments to the killings and arbitrary arrests has been very low key. Ethiopia is a client state of Washington, and its government has fully collaborated with the “war on terror.” Prime Minister Meles Zenawi sat on the Commission for Africa, the British-led body that set out the aid proposals and strategy for Africa that Prime Minister Tony Blair is touting at the forthcoming G8 summit.
Both the United States and the European Union have issued mild statements condemning the violence, but blaming “both sides” and urging restraint.

The EU’s head of foreign policy, Javier Solana, and development minister, Louis Michel, appealed “to all parties to avoid incendiary language or action that could lead to further violence.”

The US State Department director for East Africa, Jane Gaffney, “condemned the excessive use of force,” but described the elections as “very impressive.” She added that they should be viewed “within the context of democratisation around the world and particularly in Africa where we see a really close relationship between development/prosperity and democracy. You really can’t have one without the other.”

Blair has made no official comment on the situation. The pro-Labour government Guardian newspaper in a June 13 editorial gives an apologia for British sympathies for the Zenawi government. “The problem,” the Guardian states, “is to establish the difference between a protest against a government’s failure to deliver what is in its capacity to deliver and a protest against the failure to deliver what would be beyond the capacity of any government in present circumstances.”
The editorial adds that “to maintain democratic politics in a country as poor as Ethiopia is a hugely difficult task.”

Presumably, the protesters who were killed made the mistake of demanding the impossible—fair elections.
Following some exposure in the British media on the situation in Ethiopia, the Blair government felt obliged to appear to do something and so put on hold £20 million worth of direct budget aid to the poverty-stricken country. Development Minister Hilary Benn announced the freeze, saying, “It is sensible to hold on to that to see how the situation develops.” He also made clear that the £60 million that Britain has already given this year will not be affected, “because it is in the interest of the Ethiopian people.” He added, “I do not want the poor to suffer as a result of what has happened here in the last few weeks.”
Despite international observers, most notably ex-US President Jimmy Carter, declaring satisfaction with the election, complaints of election irregularities have been filed in around 300 of the country’s 547 constituencies. These include voter intimidation, ballot box stuffing, the disappearance of ballot boxes, and ballots exceeding official voter numbers.
The ruling coalition enjoys vast powers of patronage throughout the country where some 85 percent of a 71-million population are poor peasants. The state owns all the land in Ethiopia, and peasants are fearful of being evicted by the government, so even without rigging it is likely to have won support in the rural areas.

Following negotiations headed by the European Union’s representative, the government has now agreed to investigate the election irregularities and has postponed announcing the official results until July 8. The ban on demonstrations has been extended until then.

Under Western pressure, it seems likely that the opposition could be brought into coalition with Zenawi’s Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). The State Department’s Gaffney stated that “the ruling party and the opposition parties are going to be partners in whatever government finally emerges.”

The elections showed that dissatisfaction with the government was very high throughout the country. This has a number of causes, including the poverty suffered by the vast majority of the population; high unemployment; years of war with neighbouring Eritrea; and ongoing drought with attendant food shortages. Although the opposition CUD was able to utilise this dissatisfaction, its privatisation policies are even more supportive of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank’s free market agenda than those of the EPRDF and would prove just as disastrous.

We should endevour to bring basic human rights and fair justice to the Ethiopian people. We should struggle to bring about a system where every one regardless of his authority, must be accountable for his actions.
Governments change, people get replaced. We have observed these things happen over and over again. But the basic question remains the same and remains unanswered.
A system based on fairness to all equally so to the ordinary people is what we need to fight for. If such a system existed, the people would undoughtedly protect it.
We Ethiopians have never had such a system.
Shouldn't it be what we all need? A system where every one is treated fair and equal.
Please be reminded we are the poorest nation in the world. These novel people with rich culture diversity and integrity have been subjected to this title due to no other than his leaders.
All Ethiopians, let us unite and fight our enemies. Bad governance, Poverty and disease.
Basic human right is the basis for all posetive things to happen to our country.
How can we wxplain the recent brutal killings of childrenin Addis Ababa? A killing that is possible ONLY to SUB-HUMANS.
Our culture is of respect care for each other, of living together, of comforting when one is in grief, of sharing ...
However, the type of brutal acts and killings we have recently witnessed, rape murder and torture against the Gmbella people, and abuse and killing of Oromo youth ....
These outrageous acts do not kill just those precious lives, or they do not just ruin the families of the victims, but they also kill our culture, our love for each other and our very existence as a people...
I plead to ALL ETHIOPIANS to unite and work together for a lasting and common good, for our basic right, for a system that protects the right of the Ethiopian people.
Live aside your personal egos aside and think of the future of Ethiopia, think of our Children and grand children. Especially those of you who call your selves "INTELLECTUALS"yourselves "INTELLECTUALs". Stand up and be counted. Act intellectuals!
Arn't yoy ashamed when your country is titled The "POOREST" on the planet?
Why did we enf up here?
Is refrainment the answer?
Is hating each other the answer?
Is Ethnicity the answer?
I regret seeing our INTELLECTUALS falling into the traps of egnorant leaders (time and time again)and become instrument to distruction.
Ideology? Ethnicity? What next? Religion?
All this non-sense (we have witnessed) is for power.
What about the ETHIOPIAN PEOPLE and abut the FUTURE GENERATION?

Email: g_befekadu@yahoo.com

City: Cambridge

Befekadu, I share your feeling, bro. I think we need to identify and support strong leaders such as Ato Hailu, Dr Taye, Prof. Merera, and Ato Kifle Mulat above and beyond their parties and organizations. From what I see, all these organizations are a drag on the struggle. They are weakening the resolve of the few decisive leaders. They should not have signed on the agreement with the woyanne. They should call for the resignation of Meles Zenawi, and mobilize the Ethiopian people towards these goal. No more vote counting. Now the question is that of justice, and Meles Zenawi and gang must face justice. The leading demand of the oppositon parties should be justice for those who were masaccared on June 8. Any thing less than than is betraying those martyers.

Timely and firm stance truly speaking.If there is something I'd like to add,it's only an emphasis under the Ethiopian people being the sole decision makers on each and every situation that affect their future as a free people and destiny of generations to come.We are as always at the cross-roads of history and I fully hope to pass it easily and leave such hinderances behind for we stand united and conscious of what we need more than ever.Noone can stop us from truimphantly achieving our common goal of having a country where equality,peace and love reign.If EPRDF and cronies think that we have forgotten what's transpired since day #1,they are mistaken .let them dismount the high horse they are riding to destruction and oblivion.

Email: efrembsaba@aol.com

City: Arlington,VA

The latest editorial of us state department on ethiopia(which emphasised the kidnaped personel of ethi.human right org. the the massacered people) gave me a message that the international community particularly us gives more attention to the voice of civic organisation.therefore,ethiopian civic organisations should be more determined to expose brutality of the ruling gang.

Email: ermfasik@yahoo.com

City: assosa

"200 international human rights and civic groups called on the African union and UN to stop Zimbabwe's government's mass eviction." Why is the west with its baggage of institutions crying loud aginst Zimbabwe and not Ethiopia? Is 36 dead not enough?

As Muslim person, we say charity start from home. Where were you when the 400 Hanuck were killed left and right? where were you when the Oromos students were arrested and jailed?
Oppression does not kwow the language of ethnic.
Let us apply the same formula to all Ethiopian. Then, we deliver fair and free jsutice to all.

Email: shirdons@yahoo.com

City: Washington DC

You so called Ibrahim,
I think you are a psycho who dont want to live peacefully with Ethiopians. You also dont want Ethiopians to live happily. I could see hatred lashing through your blood veins. So why dont you go to the Sahara desert and get sunbathe. Your anger might vanish (evaporate).

Email: rachel_br@yahoo.com

Ibrahim, how did you know we were quite. Just b/c you were too busy with your life to pay attention doesn't mean other Ethiopias wre silent when meles was committing atrocinties against people through out ethiopia. Take a look at the number of statements and protestaions made by the oppositon parties against the genocidal acts angainst the Anuak people. When oromo students went on strike in Ambo, they were joined by AAU students. So please do not spread your hate. Do not be a racist.

The Ethiopian people especially the youth must stop being pasive,careless and fearful. instead they have to be strong, determine, brave and the firestarters against their enemies. if allof them come together with determined character, there is no room to criminals such as meles and his bandits- propaganda bereket, leftover taker tail addisu----

Email: HI@hotmail.com

City: A.A

Dear Rachel,
Somali saying goes that truth will not kill you , but make you to think twice. You are personalized the issues since I touched upon the hidden agenda of your ideology. Ethiopia is a country of many nations and they should be all respected on equal footing.
The rest of brouhaha of your e-mail is the history making that is currently unfolding in front of our selves. That is to say, Opposition leaders are warming up Ethiopian palace in order to be in the power seat. Please read the lastest Indien Ocean Newsletter. You might be disappointed when you find out the truth. In other words, that will help to see issues from different angles besides your myopic and narrow outlook of the world. It is not your fault to be upset when you run into another person who has a different perspective of your point, but your past history. Tied up the belt and soon we are landed when the dust settles and Meles and Haile and Ledetu will be in the palace. The killed innocent will be history unless you look thing in dialectical historical perspective.
Dr. Ibrahim Shirdon

Email: shirdons@yahoo.com

City: Washington DC

Who is the Murderer
Meles Zenawi,Bereket Simon,All EPRDF officals and the soliders.
On the eve of June 8 there was no electric light on the village where the fliers were distributed.This flier was prepared by EPRDF officals to agitate the people to come out for Demonstration.Many innocent civilians thought that the fliers were from C.U.D.
becuse a wek before the incident C.U.D officials expressed there might be a possible strike in the near future.EPRDF used this as a pretext for the conspiracy.Above all what was painful was that C.U.D officials didnot came in the fore front to lead this opposition.They prfeered to say we did not manage such an incident .Yes thiey did not manage it butthere was a possible fruitful time to agitate both the miltary and the general public to stand together.only Taxi drivres and students were on the fore front where are our Ethiopian Air lines Pilot .Where are Civil aviation employees .Where are Ethiopian Telecommunication staffs ,Where are both the prvate and state owened Banks.Every one closed his door and expect the out come why.This is due to the weakness of Opposition parties
We do not want to see meles and his collegues in the parliment in whatever representaion.No coalation withthe assasins we are not the enemy of Tigray but of the enemy of Meles Nd his Erirean counterpart who benefited from poors blood

Email: hailepeace@yahoo.com

City: Gondar