The same regime, another massacre

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 5 2013

The same regime, another massacre

The TPLF dictatorial regime that indiscriminately killed more than 200 demonstrators in the aftermath of the infamous 2005 election has struck again killing more than 25 innocent demonstrators and wounding, assaulting, and rounding up thousands more. In a bizarre and disgraceful move, the same regime that claimed 99.6% electoral victory just a little more than three years ago, has gone to the same precincts and localities and mercilessly killed the same people that it said – “The People have spoken”.

The abuse and the killing over the weekend targeted Muslim communities all over the nation who for the past 32 months have peacefully been demanding the regime to respect their constitutional right to worship. According to eye witnesses, the heavy-handed attack that resembled a battle field planned operation took place in the town of Kofle about 275 km south of the capital, in Arsi zone of Oromia state. An elderly imam, a five year old child and four teens were among the dead in a killing spree that continued for two days and covered cities, towns, and villages across the nation.

Ethiopia and its tyrant rulers are not new to mass arrests and street massacres; in fact, Ethiopia arrests and kills its own citizens more than any other nation on earth. What’s new and difficult to comprehend is that, the killers in Ethiopia also enjoy one of the largest inflows of foreign aid in the world, and the killing of political disinters and peaceful demonstrators seems to increase as the amount of foreign aid to the killers increases. Ginbot 7, Movement for Justice, Freedom and Democracy condemns the recent mass killing in Ethiopia and holds the TPLF regime and its enables responsible for the innocent life lost.

The political impasse in Ethiopia has come to a dangerous crossroads where the minority regime cannot continue governing the nation without mass arrests and random killings. Ginbot 7 urges the international community, especially those who call themselves ‘defenders of freedom and democracy’ to not quietly watch when citizens in Ethiopian who practice their constitutional right get massacred by their own government.

Ginbot 7 re-affirms its commitment to the proud and courageous people of Ethiopia, and it also wants to use this opportunity to make a call to Muslim and Christian Ethiopians to stand together and show the world that their 1600 years of peaceful co-existence will never be tarnished by the divide and rule policy of the TPLF regime. The time to view and wage the struggle for freedom and justice across religious and ethnic lines has come, and it is now.

Together, we shall overcome!