JANUARY 14/2007

 PROTEST GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY AWARD TO AZEB MESFIN

In a clear case of adding insult to injury, the Georgetown University in America has decided to give an award of exellence to Azeb Mesfin/Gola, the spouse of the Ethiopian prime minister who has been accused as one of the worst violators of huma rights in Africa. Azeb is being cited for her "leadership role in organizing African First Ladies against the HIV/AIDS" though she is not legally the First lady of Ethiopia but has usurped the title.

Azeb Mesfin is not Meles Zenawi but she is a central committee member of the ruling Tigrean front/TPLF/ which dominates the EPRDF. As such, she is in the centre of the anti democratic politics and policies of the regime. Identified broadly as a corrupt woman who has siphoned off millios of dollars to foreign bank accounts in her and her husband's name, Azeb Mesfin has been accused of using anti AIDS NGO activities as a cover to embezzle money. The regime headed by her husband has contributed to the spread of HIV AIDS in Ethiopia by dismantling the health system and creating favorable conditions for the spread of prostitution, sale of young girls,acute impoverishment and intense frustration. Some quarters report that some 55% of the regime's soldiers are infected by the HIV virus and they are spreading it all over the country without any control or restraint so much so that accusations of deliberate attempts to infect certain ethnic groups have been forewroded from time to time.

To award Azeb Mesfin means that the concered university has decided to belittle itself in the eyes of the world and to side with the enemies of human rights in Ethiopia. The shame is on those who hail corrupt and criminal elements. SOCEPP calls on the Georgetown Univeristy to revoke the decision to award Azeb Mesfin.

SOCEPP