OPEN OBJECTION TO THE US AMBASSADOR IN ADDIS ABABA

STOP CONDONING TORTURE IN ETHIOPIA

"Bereket Simon, a top adviser to Meles [and a psychopathic liar], said it's in the interests of rights groups to lie about the situation, and he rejected the idea that torture occurs in Ethiopia.

"No way. No way. No way. I think you know, these are prohibited by laws, by Ethiopian laws -- torture, any inhuman treatments," Bereket said. "In fact, we have been improving on our prison standards. We've been working hard to train the police forces, the interrogators."

U.S. Ambassador Donald Yamamoto said he wants to investigate claims of abuse, but warned against making allegations about Ethiopia's actions without proof.

"There's a lot of misinformation about Ethiopia -- I mean, it's amazing," Yamamoto said. "The problem comes in trying to divide or separate what is fact and what's fiction, and trying to keep an open mind on every issue. ... There are problems, and we're free to admit that, and the Ethiopians are open to admitting that as well."

Ethiopia's critics are sceptical of the government's promises to improve its human rights record. "

SAN FRANCISO CHRONICLE  APRIL 16/2007

Ambassador Yamamoto is brazenly trying to cover up for the Meles regime and in this way condoning the systematic and widespread practice of torturing prisoners in Ethiopia. As to Bereket Semon, the regime's criminal official, his lies and denials are expected as in his latest foray he denied foreigners were held in secret prisons and Meles Zenawi had to contradict him a few days later and to admit that 41 foreigners from Somalia and Kenya are being held.. The torture of political and non political prisoners in Ethiopian jails and prisons is a very well known fact. Photos of prisoners who had undergone brutal torture and have amputated arms have been presented before. In fact, the practice of torture is so systematic and routine that Ambassador's Yamamoto's sad denial casts a real bad light on his persona and credibility. He could have said instead that Meles Zenawi is an ally of America and we do not care an iota if he murders, tortures or imprisons his political dissidents. Otherwise, the Yamamoto supported regime tortures brutally--beatings, electric torture, burning bodies with hot plates, beating the genitalia, flogging, starvation, ripping flesh by pincers and sharp knives, arresting and torturing relatives of anyone sought by the security forces, etc… it is possible to go on and on if the ambassador really wants to know what is happening in the prisons not that far from his residence.   American blind support to the illegal and brutal regime has compounded the plight of the Ethiopian people and this is something that Ethiopians cannot easily forget or forgive. In the past, this same ambassador has tried to justify the illegal imprisonment of opposition leaders and journalists. In the same way, the attempt to deny that the regime has "disappeared" dozens of political prisoners has been made again and again. It is obvious that the ambassador will not investigate any allegation of torture because he knows that torture is practiced daily and extensively. The regime has denied that there is torture (see Bereket Semon quote above) and the ambassador's claim the regime is open to admitting its problems in this respect is a blatant cover up. Meles Zenawi presides over a regime that tortures and kills and disappears political dissidents and there is no way the US ambassador in Addis Ababa cannot be privy to this fact.

 What is going on is a cruel political circus with Meles serving American interests in the region and the US giving him financial, military and political support. SOCEPP condemns this collusion and openly denounce the US ambassador's shameful attempt to cover up for Meles Zenawi and to support the trampling of the rights of the rights of the Ethiopian people by the repressive regime.

 SOCEPP