June 7, 2001

 ORDEAL OF STUDENTS CONTINUES

SOCEPP has learnt that more students have arrived in Kenya fleeing from the repression unleashed by the government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi in Ethiopia.

Adane Wonde Gebru( AAU 4th year political science student), Tesfahun Tadelle (AAU 4th year statistics student),Seifu Fekadu (AAU student) are among those who have made it to Nairobi.

SOCEPP is pleased also to announce that Surafel Ambaye, who had been jailed on the Ethiopian side of Moyale by the EPRDF, has managed to escape while others were being forcefully taken back to Addis Abeba. Surafel is now in Nairobi. At the same time, Kenyan authorities have taken off the bus and kept at Gabo,near Moyale, Andnet Yaregal (AAU 3rd year student),Tibebe Tadelle (JCC first year student) and Abraham Teferra (AAU student). There is a clear and present danger that these and other students may be handed over to the EPRDF by the Kenyan police.

SOCEPP is pleased to learn that Ethiopians from Berlin (Germany) and the EPRP in Nairobi have come to the assistance of the students while no other help from any other quarter has reached the students till June 6/2001.

SOCEPP expresses its thanks to those who rushed to help the needy students and calls on others to do the same without procrastination. SOCEPP calls on Ethiopians and other peace loving people to write to the Kenyan government calling on it to refrain from an deportation actions and to respect the asylum rights of the students.

 Send messages to the Kenyan consular office near you with a copy to UNHCR Kenya (kenna@unhcr.ch) and the Kenyan Human Rights Commission (fax no 254-2-574997).

SOCEPP