English

Letters on Ethiopia

On “Ethiopia: West plays down murder of demonstrators”

This is just to thank the author of the above article for a revealing story on the current political situation in Ethiopia. I have noticed many inaccurate stories reported in the mainstream media like CNN and the BBC. Your article depicted the reality in Ethiopia as it is. Again, thank you for your professionalism and fairness in your reportage.

AM
College Park, Maryland
23 June 2005

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It is indeed a tragedy that the wanton massacre of innocent people continues to draw little or no fair attention of the Western media and the Western rulers of this poor country. The temporary disappearance of an individual makes the headlines of the Western media much, much more than the indiscriminate killing of innocent, unarmed, albeit poor and black, people for whose rights to a decent livelihood Mr. Blair’s Commission for Africa pretends to stand. It becomes particularly ironic that the commission includes as a member the PM of Ethiopia, who is at the forefront of the carnage that was committed on June 6, 2005. He has publicly declared without a hint of regret or remorse that the forces that he and his accomplices deployed to kill these poor people did the right thing for “his democracy.”

The Western governments put themselves in the worst light by offering equal counsel to the government that perpetrated the killings and the opposition which has never been armed, whose leaders have been detained, and who have not even been allowed to have access to the government media monopolized by the ruling regime (take note that this is being run by taxes collected from the poor Ethiopian population) to explain their position or calm the population. Many have talked of double standards. Now we have to talk about multiple standards based on color, race, those possessing oil wealth or offering potential markets to Western businesses. As Emperor Haile Selassie said at the Geneva meeting of the League of Nations when the West betrayed Ethiopia when the Italian Fascists invaded a poor and poorly armed country without provocation: “God and history will remember your judgment.”

ST
23 June 2005

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Dear Mr. Smith,

I came across your article about Ethiopia and would like to thank you for covering a true account of the current situation. I would recommend your article to as many of my American friends who have been hearing conflicting stories from the BBC and the like. By far your article is the only impartial reporting about Ethiopia by any Western journalist that I have read.

Kindest regards,

SK
24 June 2005

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Dear Mr. Smith,

Thank you for writing this article about Ethiopia. As you mentioned in your article, the killing of peaceful demonstrators in Ethiopia has got very little coverage in the media here in the states. Mr. Zenawi, the brutal dictator of Ethiopia, is one of the worst leaders in the whole Africa. He lost the May 15 election by a landslide in rural and urban areas of Ethiopia. The day after the election he declared a state of emergency in Ethiopia and banned all demonstrations for one month. His troops massacred an unknown number of innocent students and civilians, mostly in Addis Ababa. The official number doesn’t tell the whole picture of the dead people. Despite the massive pressure by Ethiopians who are living in the diaspora, the Western governments didn’t care that much to put pressure on Mr. Zenawi to abide by the rule of law. As for the issue of respecting the democratic rights of Ethiopian people, I don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel. Since Mr. Zenawi is the friend of the West he’ll continue to rule by the barrel of the gun, against the wishes of Ethiopians. We are bracing to hear of the final result of the election on July 8. Stay tuned.

YJ
23 June 2005

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Hi Brian,

I admire your view and understanding of what is going on in Ethiopia. As you clearly pointed out, the West has underestimated the human rights issues in Ethiopia. I guess the human rights scale or threshold, what the West uses to measure the abuse and murder for Africa, is calibrated at many millions or more. Zenawi and his government are neither friends to the Western, nor to the Ethiopian people. They are just murderers. Murder is what they know and what they do!

Thanks for your voice to the voiceless!

AK
23 June 2005

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