June 3, 2002
H.E. Thabo Mbeki
President of the Republic of South Africa
Pretoria Private Bag x1000 Pretoria 0001
Fax: 012 3238246
E mail: president@po.gov.za
Respected President, SOCEPP, a non- political, non- partisan human rights organization established more than six years ago, extends its respectful greetings to Your Excellency, to your government and to the fraternal people of South Africa.
SOCEPP is addressing this brief letter to your excellency to bring the plight of Ethiopian refugees in South Africa to your attention. As your excellency very well know, Ethiopia had in the past, when she was capable and able, rendered all possible help to the struggling people of Southern Africa as a whole. At present, Ethiopians are the ones forced to flee into exile to escape from the violent repression of an ethnic chauvinist government that has been accused of implementing its own version of bantustanization in Ethiopia. In Ethiopia, a minority regime has trampled on the rule of law and continuously violates human rights. More than 15,000 political prisoners are languishing in dungeons and prisons and so called ghost prisons. Dozens have disappeared after arrest. Hundreds have been shot dead for peacefully protesting as the recent massacre in Awassa has amply shown. In short, Ethiopians who are forced into exile have good reason to fear for their lives and they are all deserving political refugees.
Ethiopians who have fled to South Africa to seek asylum have been subjected to mistreatment as reliable reports have indicated. Some had even been threatened with deportation on the grounds that "the government in Ethiopia is democratic". Nothing could be farther from the truth. SOCEPP humbly calls on Your Excellency and the government of South Africa to assure the protection of the rights of Ethiopians seeking asylum in South Africa much as South Africans in their dark days were given all help by Ethiopia and her people.
Thanking Your Excellency
Ezra Nathaniel
SOCEPP/Berlin
E mail: Socepp@aol.com
Copy to:
Dr. MG Buthelezi
Home Affairs Minister Private Bag X741
Pretoria 0001
Fax : 012 3216491 2
