HEAD OF THE EU ELECTION OBSERVER TEAM IN ETHIOPIA MADAM, Your endorsement of the fraudulent and rigged May 15 election in Ethiopia as democratic has done great injustice to the Ethiopian people who have for the past 14 years struggled for their human and basic rights against an authoritarian regime. The endorsement is an affront to the declared European Union position of supporting free and fair elections in Ethiopia and other places.
The Opposition forces had pointed out from the outset that the EU observer team was inadequate in number- a mere 150 observers for some 35,000 voting stations. The EU team was informed of the very many violations engaged in by the ruling EPRDF, violations raging from murder/26 killed/, intimidation, arrests, beatings, etc. Your EU team has not investigated most of these. On the eve of the election, the regime even rounded up the polling observers of the opposition organizations. Having expelled three American observer teams and an EU monitor who knows the country and had observed the 2002 election the regime was set to put its rigging into practice. The voting passed peacefully because the people and the opposition were responsible but the regime did use force and fraud to have its ways. Actually, the people had not much hope of a free and fair election as the regime had refused to amend its electoral law and change the electoral commission controlled by it.
Madam, it is sad to note that your endorsement of the fraud is yet another example of the double standards that prevail vis a vis Africans and people of other continents. The Meles Zenawi regime has rigged the election and the Ethiopian people will not accept the results. The regime is repressive and its dungeons hold more than 15,000 political prisoners. Meles Zenawi has banned peaceful demonstrations in order to put his fraud in place but the chance for a free and fair election and with it the possibility of a peaceful transition to democratic rule seems lost.
Madam, your team has failed in its mission and SOCEPP refuses to accept you conclusions.
INJUSTICE ANYWHERE IS INJUSTICE EVERYWHERE SOCEPP |