Open Letter to U.S Senators

Senators Biden and Lugar, Secretary Rice, and others:

I am writing to express my concern about the widespread violations of human rights which the Meles-led Ethiopian government is committing against its citizens, particularly those in the Oromia, Gambela, Ogaden and other regions. I graduated from high school in Addis Ababa and lived in Ethiopia for several years prior to that during the 1960s while my parents were there working. I know the Ethiopian people to be wonderful human beings and my heart goes out to them in their efforts to bring democracy and the rule of law to their beautiful country.

I recently learned of the Ethiopian government’s militaristic “carpet bombing” to “flush out rebels” in the Ogaden, acts which annihilate defenseless civilians while destroying their livestock, granaries, wells and shelter. Human rights advocacy organizations like the Empowerment Initiative are calling for our government to verify that our military trainers have in no way been complicit to these actions of the Ethiopian military and that the weaponry and ordinances being used against defenseless civilians are not being supplied by the United States.

The violence which the Meles-led government commits is not limited to Ethiopian citizens living within the country. Physical assaults and the assignation of Oromo refugees in Kenya have been reported in the media and documented by the Advocacy for the Fundamental Rights of Oromos and Others (AFRO-O), a human rights organization based in Maryland. These victims were living in a guarded camp in Nairobi and are believed to be registered with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.

International human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, are unanimous in their recognition and condemnation of the Ethiopian government’s extra-judicial imprisonment and torture of citizens who are believed to support opposition political parties and their leadership. The AFRO-O recently released the names of 148 Oromos currently being detained in this effort to suppress any opposition to the tyranny of Meles and his government.

Please help bring the fate of these victims to the attention of appropriate agencies and leaders and join with efforts to change the conditions under which Oromos and other Ethiopians suffer at the hands of the Meles-led Ethiopian government. I urge you to put the principles framed in our Constitution’s Bill of Rights and the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights into practice and act now to hold the Ethiopian government accountable for these crimes against humanity and, in particular, support HR 2003 (the Ethiopian Democracy and Accountability Act of 2007), a bipartisan bill authored by Representatives Payne and Smith which is now pending in the Senate.

Donald L Fischer, PhD

Psychologist and Professor

Missouri State University

Springfield, Missouri 65804

donaldfischer@missouristate.edu