Weekend news: [The Martin Luther King, Jr. March Committee demands the immediate and unconditional release of all prisoners of conscience in Ethiopia ] - [Ethiopians rallied demanding the release of unjustly jailed leaders] - [Trial of ex-NSU professor in Ethiopia at critical juncture]
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-Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky's letter to Prime Minister Meles
-See pictures from "Free Ethiopia’s Prisoners of Conscience" activities
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For the final push Visit:
'Free Ethiopia’s Prisoners of Conscience'
[Action Center] - [Resource Center]
____________________________________________________The Martin Luther King, Jr. March Committee demands the immediate and unconditional release of all prisoners of conscience in Ethiopia
The 4th Annual Human Rights Symposium sponsored by the MLK Jr. March Committee focused on human rights issues in Africa. The symposium devoted one whole day to discussion of political and human rights issues in Ethiopia.
Based on these discussions the MLK, Jr., March Committee adopted a set of resolutions including the immediate and unconditional release of all prisoners of conscience in Ethiopia.
Ms. Helen Butler, Executive Director of the Peoples’ Agenda and co-Chairperson of the Human Rights Symposium presented the resolution to Ethiopians at a rally to free all prisoners of conscience in Ethiopia held in front of the US Capitol on February 15, 2007.
At the rally Ms. Butler expressed the Coalition’s determination to provide support to the struggle against human rights abuses in Ethiopia.
Accompanied by Mr. Yassim Kassim, co-Chairperson of the Human Rights Symposium, Dr. Moges Hailemariam, Chairman of Kinijit International Leadership, members of support groups of Kinijit from Atlanta and Washington, DC-Metro, and Ato Obang of the Anuak Justice Committee, Ms. Butler presented the Resolutions of the MLK, Jr. March Committee to the offices of Representative Donald Payne (Chair of the Africa Committee of the US House of Representatives), Rep Mike Honda (Chair of the Ethiopia sub-committee), Rep Chris Smith, Rep Clyburn (Chair of the Black Caucus), and Rep Jesse Jackson.
Also see:
-2007 King holyday human rights symposium: “peace on trial in Ethiopia”
The moment is now to release the prisoners and open the door for a grand national reconciliation
By Prof. Mammo Muchie
...February 19 is a critical moment in history. Will the prisoners of conscience be released or not? All those who understand history and wish the nation to go on with a democratising developmental trajectory will argue for the unconditional release of all the prisoners of conscience.
Those now in jail are people with the moral stature that have answered to the call of the best in Ethiopian citizenship. These citizens should be honoured, not put in jail. Those who forced them into jail must be the first to move a motion to get their immediate release and compensate them for getting them into this unacceptable situation in the first place.
The alleged crimes they have been accused of makes absolutely no sense. All they did is engage in what they believed to be a democratic process. Those who invited the Ethiopian people to vote should have known that they too would be also voted out. The powers that are, however, were not prepared to accept the peoples’ verdict.
Why did they engineer the election that they knew the outcome was not something they were not prepared to accept? Any power that respects the people would not play such games with history. The people manifested a will to govern. Those in power were unwilling to accept it. Those in jail argued fiercely for the respect of voice and votes.(More...)
Ethiopians rallied demanding the release of unjustly jailed leaders
Ethiopians and friends of Ethiopia rallied demanding the release of unjustly jailed leaders of Kinijit, Members of the Independent Press, and Human Rights Advocates.
The protesting crowd condemned the bogus trail of the leaders and called for genuine reconciliation to promote the democratization process, and to bring peace and stability to Ethiopia.
The rally was part of a worldwide demonstration called by Kinijit International Leadership and organized by Kinijit Los Angeles support chapter. It was held at CNN’s west cost main office. It was a beautiful day in Los Angeles; this is in sharp contrast to the extreme cold weather our D.C. compatriots had to go through on Thursday.(More...)
Trial of ex-NSU professor in Ethiopia at critical juncture
The Virginian-Pilot
Monday looms as a judgment day for Yacob Hailemariam.
The lawyer and former Norfolk State University professor has been imprisoned for more than a year in his home country, Ethiopia, after winning a parliament seat as a reformer.
Judges are scheduled to rule on the prosecution's part of a trial on charges of treason and genocide against Hailemariam and more than 70 others, said Charles Schaefer, a country specialist for Amnesty International.
The human rights organization objects to the Ethiopian government's actions, has declared Hailemariam and others "prisoners of conscience," and tracks the case through American diplomats there.
If the judges decide the case hasn't been convincing, "possibly all the prisoners will be released," Schaefer said this week. "That would be the best scenario."(More...)
The Week in Review
- Monday - February 12, 2007
- Tuesday - February 13, 2007
- Thursday - February 15, 2007
- Friday - February 16, 2007
[Marchers Call for the release of prisoners of conscience] - [Meles named 17th worst dictator] - [The plight of Ethiopian journalists] - [Amharic - radical journeys] - [BBC: Heavy blasts rock Somali capital] - [Emigrants in Sioux Falls pray for Ethiopian prisoners]
[The Nation: Bush's Somalia Strategy Enables an Ethiopian Despot] - [panel discussion on Human Rights in Ethiopia held at Harvard University] - [30 Ethiopian and Somali migrants drown] - [Somali minister survives bomb attack] - [BBC: Residents flee Mogadishu]
[France-Africa Summit opens minus Mugabe, Kagame and Mbeki - Meles present] - [Reuters: Mogadishu residents back to living in constant danger] - [Los Angeles Kinijit Support Organization Elects Its Leaders] - [Africa growers back Ethiopia in row with Starbucks] - [UN: Somalia's warlords re-emerge from shadows to threaten relief work]
[Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky's letter to Prime Minister Meles] - [FREE PRISONERS RALLY IN DC A BIG SUCCESS] - [Agence France-Presse: Crime surges in Somalia's lawless capital] - [UN:Ethiopians dying off the cost of Yemen] - [Ethiopian Govt: Union of Eritrean Opposition Groups (EDA) Meets in Addis Ababa] - [Starbucks to double East Africa spending]
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