September 15, 2005

His Excellency Kofi Annan
Secretary General
United Nations Organization
1st Avenue at 46th Street
New York, NY 10017

Dear Mr. Secretary-General:

In 1936, Emperor Haile Selassie stood before the League of Nations, challenged the now-defunct body to live up to its commitments, and cautioned the member nations with his prophetic words, "God and history will remember your judgment." Today, over 72 million disfranchised Ethiopians raise their voices and request you to uphold the cherished principles of the United Nations and to disinvite Mr. Meles Zenawi to the 2005 World Summit, in protest of his violations of fundamental human rights, disrespect for the people's votes, and the recent massacre of peaceful protesters.

In total disregard of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Mr. Zenawi has subjected the people of Ethiopia to relentless oppression.

(i) On May 15, 2005, the people of Ethiopia exercised their inalienable rights enshrined in Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, under which everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, and cast their votes of no confidence in Mr. Zenawi's 14 years of autocratic rule.

Upon realizing his defeat, Mr. Zenawi used the state machinery and dubious electoral procedures to thwart the aspirations of the people for freedom and democracy. His flagrant violation of Article 21 is documented in numerous reports, including the recently released report by the European Union Election Observation Mission, which stated “… the 15th of May post-polling day irregularities, delays and opacity of the counting and aggregation of data, plus the subsequent flawed handling of complaints and re-runs of elections in some constituencies, …, did not live up to international standards and to the aspirations of Ethiopians for democracy….”

A review of elections held during the past 14 years of Meles Zenawi’s rule reveals consistently disappointing results as documented by the African-American Institute (AAI), the Washington-based National Democratic Institute (NDI), and the Norwegian Resource Bank for Democracy and Human Rights (NORDEM).

(ii) In the wake of his devastating loss at the polls, Mr. Zenawi violated Article 20 of the Declaration, under which everyone’s right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association is protected, by issuing a draconian state of emergency, which banned all demonstrations of any sort, and brought all the security forces, the police and the local militias, under one command accountable to him.

(iii) On June 8, 2005, Mr. Zenawi ordered his troops to massacre over 42 peaceful protesters, and detain thousands of supporters and members of the opposition.

The international community, including members of the US Congress, the European Parliament and other respected organizations denounced the June 8th killings and subsequent arrests. Most notably, in a statement issued on June 8, 2005 (www.et-eueom.org), the European Union Election Observation Mission wrote: “The Mission deplores the deaths of citizens in Addis Ababa in clashes with the security forces over the last days and today. … Many of the injured, mostly by gunshot wounds and including women and children, claim they were shot at random by security forces while waiting for public transportation. ….”

In its 2005 report, Amnesty International confirmed “the prevalence of widespread arbitrary detentions, torture, and excessive use of force by police and soldiers” and declared: “several thousand people remained in long-term detention without charge or trial …prison conditions were harsh.”

(iv) Mr. Zenawi has curtailed the freedom of the press and has imprisoned editors and reporters of the free press, in infringement of Article 19, which guarantees that everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression. This was confirmed, for example, in a recent report of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) which stated: “In the wake of a violent crackdown on protesters following the 15 May 2005 parliamentary elections in Ethiopia, an alarming number of journalists are being arrested and charged for reporting on the situation.”

(v) Mr. Zenawi denied opposition groups the right to free and fair investigation of electoral fraud. As carefully stated in the aforementioned European Union Election Observation Mission report:

“The complaints investigation process took place in the context of serious violations of human rights and freedoms, namely of opposition leaders and suspected supporters. This undermined the opposition’s ability to participate effectively in the process, … material evidence was unobtainable because detained or fearful witnesses were unable to testify and, in one case, an important witness was killed. The climate of threats and intimidation was maintained throughout the complaints investigation process. …. Also opposition witnesses were arrested before or after they testified in front of the panel, and many witnesses or opposition supporters reported to the observers that they were threatened in various ways...” The report also added, “…de facto there was no level-playing field: the ruling party was generally represented on the panels by important members of the local society, including state officials, such as judges. This increased confusion between the roles of the state and EPRDF and exacerbated the atmosphere of intimidation…”
Your Excellency:

The people of Ethiopia lay their deep trust in you not to dim their faith in the lofty ideals of the UN by the invitation of an authoritarian ruler, who has desecrated the fundamental precepts of the organization. As Secretary-General of this august body, we believe that you know very well the significance of the overture of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states: "… if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law." Mr. Zenawi has chosen not to heed this universal tenet, and is leading the country along a disastrous path. Therefore, to provide a podium for him at the World Summit will be to legitimize his dictatorial rule and to reward his disdain for the civilized world.

Respectfully yours,

Ethiopian-Americans for Democracy

hagerwedad@yahoo.com
CC: President of the General Assembly of the UN
President of the Security Council of the UN

Viva! All movements for democracy should be supported in all forms and opportunities. We Ethiopians should commit ourselves for the values of democracy and the rule of law. That deep comitment will take us a long way to cultivate those democratic values and institutions and the international community notices our collective effort to join the community of democratic nations.

It is with these facts that we should support the effort of the Ethiopian Americans movement for democracy. Truely, Ethiopia should not even delegated by a group of terrorist tugs who massacre innocent civilians and children for exercising their basic rights. Not only the UN but also the main donor countries must recognize the nature of this terrorist group and review their bilateral foreign policy.

No matter how little our appeal to Kofe Anann and UN contributes for our cause,we have to use all forms of resistances to expose,disempower and disgrace this decadent Zenawi.Let his public life image be shadowed,let him walk in the dark,we must not allow him to appear in the international public arena as a morale and capable leader.

Email: tatek@keypoint.com.au

City: melbourne australia

Your Excellency UN Sec. Gen. Kofi Annan as you might aware of; we Ethiopian in Ethiopia and in Diaspora are in struggling by every means possible at our disposal to alleviate the current situations in Ethiopia. At this very moment Ethiopia is in a very trying time not only because of its backwardness, poverty, or being hunger stricken but also lead by tyrant who killed, mayhem, galvanised ethnic cleansing, and tried every avenue to remain in power despite the will of our people. What I have said can be ascertained by the report from the EU’s election observers report, Amnesty international numerous reports and obviously from your own various bodies of UN that are operating within Ethiopia. Hence I am hereby requesting humbly for your Excellency to aware of what has been aforementioned and take the appropriate measure.

I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the initiative taken by Ethiopian-Americans for Democracy, we all are behind you and strive to play our part in our respective domicile, too.

Email: hassabu_1@yahoo.co.uk

We don't know which appeals to hit the right target, so it so great that we keep trying. We try, the rest is up to the special God of Ethiopia. May God bless you EAD!! We all so proud of you. Hope CUD/UEDF follow your steps, since they are the one with real evidences and proves of Meles' human right violations. Let's push them to present their cases to the UN as well.


May God bless the Great Ethiopia and its people all around the World!!