January 21, 2004

More than 420 Anuak people have been massacred in Gambella in what was a premeditated ethnic carnage spearheaded by the armed forces of the ruling EPRDF led by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. This massacre, which has been called a virtual genocide by some international human rights organizations, was not only the result of the discriminatory ethnic policy of the ruling EPRDF but it was directly ordered by the EPRDF and perpetrated by the forces and loyalists of the EPRDF.

Thousands of Anuaks have been forced to flee to the Sudan where a government that maintains close political relations with the EPRDF had been deporting and harassing Ethiopian refugees for years. In an attempt to cover up its crime, the EPRDF has arrested many Anuaks (including elders) and is trying to railroad these as the guilty ones. However, the massacre of the Anuak people is the sole responsibility of the EPRDF and aside from the local commanders and the actual killers the main culprits are none other than Abay Tsehaye (minister of Federal Affairs) and his boss, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. They should be charged and brought before a court of law for their prominent role in the massacre-genocide perpetrated in Gambella.

SOCEPP is sad to note that in the same month that Prime Minster Meles ordered the massacre of innocent people in Gambella the chancellor of Germany, Gerard Schroeder, made his way to Addis Abeba to be feted by the prime minister. Germany (West and East) had in the past backed repressive Ethiopian regimes and trained and armed their repressive police. That Chancellor Schroeder should visit Ethiopia at this time and that Germany heaps praise on the repressive EPRDF is a travesty of justice and a pat to the violator of human rights. The massacre in Gambella, like similar massacres in Arba Gugu, Areka, Hadiya, etc, clearly indicts the regime of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi as a perpetrator of ethnic carnage and murder of a grand scale against the Ethiopian people.

SOCEPP