May 28/2007

  DENOUNCE THE POLITICAL MACHINATIONS OF THE RULING EPRDF

VIS A VIS THE VICTIMS OF THE RED TERROR

On Sunday May 27, the ruling EPRDF organized a demonstration and a symbolic burial of the remains of the victims of the Red Terror. This ceremony, planned to coincide with the official celelbration of the takeover of power by the TPLF/EPRDF (May 28/1991), is farcial and cruel in that it is orchestrated  for the political benefit of the ruling group.

 Let us explain.  

• The Red Terror was an official orgy of bloodletting unleashed by the defunct Mengistu Haile Mariam regime against the opposition Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party (EPRP) and that cost the lives of close to 200,000 people all over Ethiopia. The now-ruling TPLF was then a rebel movement but its cadres in the Tigean towns were instructed by their leaders (the same ones now on power) to take part in the Red Terror and many did so causing the deaths of dozens of EPRP members in Tigrai.

• The TPLF itself waged war more than twice against the EPRP and its advance to Addis Ababa was accompanied by an attack against the EPRP controlled areas in Gondar and Gojjam. A number of EPRP leaders captured by the Tigrean Front (TPLF), such as Tsegaye Gebre Medhin,Sitotaw Hussein, Amha Belete, Tekali Gebre sellasie, Bezabih Hagos, Yishak Debretsion,Desalegn Amsalu,etc.. have been disappeared since 1991.

• Once in power, the TPLF declared the EPRP illegal and in the repression that it continued against the EPRP it has killed many and again disappeared the likes of Aberash Berta, Lemma Mekonen, Wondu Sirak Desta, Abebe Ainekulu, Eyob Tekabe,Mot Baynor, Berhani ijigu, Tamrat Gizachew, etc...

The TPLF has,since 1991, been involved in massacres and genocide all over Ethiopia and following the genocide in  Gambella it slaughtered more than 200 peaceful demonstrators who objectred to its election fraud and illegal takeover of power in June 2005. Thousands who perished in Areka, Water, Arbagugu, Eastern Wellega, Adebaye Iyesus,Anwar Mosque, Gambella,etc and in the ethnic conflicts provoked and fanned by its policies and cadres are its victims. The EPRDF's Terror is nameless but it is real and relentless repression that has caused the deaths of very many thousands of people.

 A repressive and murderous regime in its own right, the TPLF has tried since 1991 to use the Red Terror for its own political ends. It is the least morally qualified to pay hommage or to observe the rendering of justice to the victims of the Red Terror. All this makes the Sunday ceremony a cruel political manoeuvre on the part of a regime that still persecutes the EPRP and the people at large. The memory of the Red Terror victims shall be properly paid hommage when Ethiopia is freed from repressive and genocidal regimes.That day has not yet come and SOCEPP joins the relatives of the Red Terror victims in saying to the ruling group that has blood on its hands:Leave the Martyrs Alone. Stop the Repression. Release all Political prisoners.

SOCEPP