FREE BIRTUKAN MIDEKSA!
Marking one year in Prison
(join the free Birtukan Mideksa campaign)
Birtukan Mideksa, an opposition party leader, is serving a life sentence in Kaliti Prison in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She is a prisoner of conscience. Birtukan Mideksa was arrested in November 2005 after the Coalition for Unity and Democracy party, of which she was a leader, contested disputed local and parliamentary elections. Subsequent demonstrations turned violent, resulting in the deaths of almost 200 people. She was charged with treason in one of several trials, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. Local elders negotiated a pardon with the Ethiopian authorities, and Birtukan Mideksa and others were released in June 2007 after serving more than 18 months in prison. The terms of the pardon remain unclear. In November 2008 she spoke about her pardon at a public meeting in Sweden. When she returned to Ethiopia, the authorities asked her to retract her statement; she refused and was rearrested in December 2008. The Ministry of Justice revoked her pardon and re-imposed her life sentence.
Source: Amnesty International
Sunday, November 29, 2009
prisoner’s account of the abyss
Omot feared for his life every moment in prison.
‘“You will die like a dog now there is no one to defend you,”’ Omot recalls his jailers in Dimma taunting him. “They said, ‘In America, black people are treated like slaves and there are no white people who will come from America to save your life.’ I told them, ‘Did you see that in America we now have a black president?’ They said ‘Shut up!’”
Source: Daily Planet
‘“You will die like a dog now there is no one to defend you,”’ Omot recalls his jailers in Dimma taunting him. “They said, ‘In America, black people are treated like slaves and there are no white people who will come from America to save your life.’ I told them, ‘Did you see that in America we now have a black president?’ They said ‘Shut up!’”
“One night a group of soldiers came to me and said ‘We are going to teach you something,’” Omot recalls. “They blindfolded me and shoved me into a pickup truck. When they took off my blindfold they pushed me to the ground and I was surrounded by dead bodies. They were mostly skeletons but with pieces of clothing still stuck on.
‘The soldiers told me, ‘Unless you confess you will look like those bodies. You will die just like they did. We will kill you right now.’”
Source: Daily Planet
Monday, October 26, 2009
appeal for food aid
Now 25 years after [the tragic Ethiopian famine] the tribal junta has managed to institute ethnic apartheid policies to discriminate against the Oromos, Amharas and other Ethiopians. In so doing it shifted the famine from Northern Ethiopia to Central, Southern, Eastern and Western Ethiopia—making Ethiopa yet again the closest thing to hell on Earth.
The Western Countries and International Financial Institutions must stop providing financial, political and above all military aid to the minority ethnic regime of Meles Zenawi in order to end famine and continuing humanitarian catastrophe in Ethiopia.
emergency appeal for food aid
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Sign this petition, PLEASE!
Amnesty International launches’ campaign for Birtukan
The Dutch chapter of Amnesty International has launched a campaign for the release of Birtukan Mideksa. Members of Amnesty Netherlands are campaigning to get as many petitions as possible before the dead line (1 December 2009).
Birtukan Mideksa, the charismatic leader of UDJ, is being held in solitary confinement serving a life sentence. Please sign a petition to Mr. Louis Michel European Union Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid to use all diplomatic means for the freedom of Birtukan Mideksa.
Download a sample letter here and send it to Louis.Michel@ec.europa.eu
Source: EMF
The Dutch chapter of Amnesty International has launched a campaign for the release of Birtukan Mideksa. Members of Amnesty Netherlands are campaigning to get as many petitions as possible before the dead line (1 December 2009).
Birtukan Mideksa, the charismatic leader of UDJ, is being held in solitary confinement serving a life sentence. Please sign a petition to Mr. Louis Michel European Union Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid to use all diplomatic means for the freedom of Birtukan Mideksa.
Download a sample letter here and send it to Louis.Michel@ec.europa.eu
Source: EMF
Thursday, August 13, 2009
our AUNG SAN SUU KUI!
Free Birtukan Mideksa (our AUNG SAN SUU KUI)!
Birtukan Mideksa, Ethiopia’s pro-democracy leader, symbolizes peaceful struggle for more democracy, the respect for human rights and the rule of law in Ethiopia.
She is the leader of the Unity for Democracy and Justice Party as formerly known as Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), which achieved a decisive victory in the last Ethiopian national election, held in 2005. The tyrant TPLF regime has refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of that vote.
More: Nothing but the truth
Monday, July 27, 2009
more of the same
The 2005 Ethiopian election is remembered by all Ethiopians because it was the year that the people rejected the tyrant regime with Ballots. On the Election Day all Ethiopians said NO to tyranny and dictatorial rule by voting to oppositions. But, the will of the people administered by the result of the Ballots were refuted by the tyrant regime`s Bullets.
Five years after this election, in 2010, Ethiopians will go to the polls again. The tyrant regime has and is closing all avenues for a peaceful democratic change and it’s already predicted that the outcome will be ‘more of the same” as it was in the last election, in 2005.
Here is how the election will be run:It will be run by the regime “only” to self claim that it has won; to try to impress the International community’s mainly lying to them with what is already known and by wasting their money.
Here is what really will happen in 2010 Election:- Harassment, imprisonments, closure of offices throughout the country
- No opposition (political) party, no civil society organizations, no free press, no justice
- Arrests, disappearances, mass killings of citizen without due process of law
- Self-serving polices
- Misusing poverty
- Vote repression/Voter intimidation
- Barring of foreign monitors from polls
- Voter suppression and corruption, etc…
More of the same:
It will be more of the same as it was in the last election - stealing the election as the tyrant regime did in 2005 election. The donor countries, both East and West governments will keep continue recognizing and cooperating with the tyrant regime. What is left for Ethiopian people is to continue to live with the increasing repression.
Five years after this election, in 2010, Ethiopians will go to the polls again. The tyrant regime has and is closing all avenues for a peaceful democratic change and it’s already predicted that the outcome will be ‘more of the same” as it was in the last election, in 2005.
Here is how the election will be run:It will be run by the regime “only” to self claim that it has won; to try to impress the International community’s mainly lying to them with what is already known and by wasting their money.
Here is what really will happen in 2010 Election:- Harassment, imprisonments, closure of offices throughout the country
- No opposition (political) party, no civil society organizations, no free press, no justice
- Arrests, disappearances, mass killings of citizen without due process of law
- Self-serving polices
- Misusing poverty
- Vote repression/Voter intimidation
- Barring of foreign monitors from polls
- Voter suppression and corruption, etc…
More of the same:
It will be more of the same as it was in the last election - stealing the election as the tyrant regime did in 2005 election. The donor countries, both East and West governments will keep continue recognizing and cooperating with the tyrant regime. What is left for Ethiopian people is to continue to live with the increasing repression.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
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