There are no words to express the magnitude of the rally held in front of 10 Downing Street at the White Hall in London on Thursday 02 June 2005. People just flooded in from all directions to the White Hall to pass a clear message to Prime Minister Tony Blair, that his chosen Commissioner for Africa, Meles Zenawi and his gang were not progressive as he wanted to portray them to the rest of the world but ordinary criminals and thieves, that are giving nightmare to our people.

Ethiopians from all walks of life came to the rally. Workers left their jobs, students left their schools, mothers brought their children along, and it looked like everyone left their daily lives to attend this rally, united as one without age, sex, ethnicity, and faiths differences. A lady called Weizero Aregash left her hospital bed after an operation few days ago and even led slogans throughout the afternoon. This same lady also left her bed and came to listen Dr Merera Gidina on Sunday earlier. Ethiopians are up for something!

The London Metropolitan Police had the busiest day. At first, just few hundred protestors were expected. Therefore, the Police put up just about 50 barriers marked space for protesters to occupy. When thousands turned up, they had to run up and down rapidly to bring more hundreds of barriers to accommodate the unseen flood of Ethiopians. Ethiopian adored the barrier with their tri colour flag. It is deserving to mention about Mrs Svetlana Mamedova, the Ethiopian Georgian, who suffered in the hands of Woyyane, sew Ethiopian flags by her own hands, bought three dolours of decorative papers, brought them to the demonstration, and took the responsibility of decorating the place, turning it into a design status, attractive the eyes.

At once, an armed Police force with full bulletproof gear was deployed to stand at the gate of No 10. This has been a rare sight in London. The British Police don’t normally bear firearms. There was no need for that really because Ethiopians are well known for their discipline regardless of their number.

As the number of protestors swell, Police Crowed Management Engineers were called in and divided the protestors into two large groups with a wide free space between them. Luckily, enough loud speakers were brought in and two groups of protestors of the same mission started bombarding 10 Downing Street at the same time. The area is normally full of tourists. As a result of this, the population of the area trebled for the day. The sound of the protesters was deafening. The place was emotionally tensed, though one can witness the expression of generosity, kindness and cheerfulness on the beautiful faces of our people in London.

Some tourists who came to the area to look at the Trafalgar Square, 10 Downing Street, the Big Ben and the Parliament ended up being spectators of the protest, attracted to the beautiful colours, reading the slogans and talking to the demonstrators. It was very difficult to distinguish the tourists from the journalists. Hundreds were taking pictures, video taping protestors.

The activists of the Joint Committee of CUD, UEDF and Civic Organisations in London distributed their press release exposing how the regime that is ruling Ethiopia by force staged fake election, and ironically how it badly went for the dictators, losing all seats except in Tigray where it was controlled and staged, and now trying to cheat and get away with it wherever they lost. The joint press release explained how the dictators lost the election everywhere but to rescue the situation stepped up its reign of terror on the people, on the opposition candidates, detained observers, blacked out the news on the state run television, radio and newspapers, declared state of emergency, brought in its own style INTERAHAMWE type of a special Agaazie force to muzzle the people and declared victory. The Ethiopian people had declared loud and clear that they had enough of Woyyane/EPRDF. In fact, it is appalling to hear that now the regime has started summarily arresting the free press journalists to completely stiffen freedom expression with the plan to deny the opposition any channel of communication with the people. However, no amount of intimidation, arrest, torture and harassment would bring peace to the daytime robbers. The people of Ethiopia have shown courage beyond any ones imagination. They are guarding the ballot boxes with their lives. The regimes cadres have been stealing ballot boxes and running away with it. In the process many people have already been killed. Therefore, the demonstrating Ethiopians in London explained to the tourists and journalists who wanted to know more than what the written on slogans what is going on in Ethiopia.

Among the slogans held and heard, one can hear the following:

1. Lift the illegal State of Emergency!
2. Lift the Media Blackout to the opposition!
3. No double standards on Human Rights! 
4. No double standards on fairness of election! 
5. No legitimacy to rigged elections! 
6. No legitimacy to tampered votes!
7. Free access to media for all!
8. Free all detained election observers!
9. Free all prisoners of conscience in Ethiopia.
10. United Kingdom! Kick dictator Meles out of Africa Commission! 
11. United Kingdom! Do not give blessing to rigged election outcome! 
12. United Kingdom! Stop subsidising dictator Meles’s budget!
13. Meles is a dictator!
14. Meles is a murderer!
15. Meles is a cheat!
16. Time is out for dictator Meles.
16. Meles has to go now.
 

There were also Amaric slogans, which stated power should come from wining election and not stealing and cheating. The demonstrators did not only shout out slogans but also sung patriotic songs such “Ethiopia Hagere”, “Min Ale – Hizbu Min Ale”, “Tekebresh yenorshew b’abatochachin dem” and the likes that kept both the demonstrators and the spectators entertained. One particular lady who sung “Ethiopia Hagere” must be a professional with an angelic voice.

Earlier, delegates made up of Hermit Girma (Aba Girma), Ato Eyasu Woldetsadic, Ato Abiyou Wolela, Ato Girum Meseret, Weizero Gebeyanesh Abera (Ato Gemoraw Kassa’s wife) and L.M Abebaw Yigzaw and the untiring patriot in London, Ato Getachew Alemayehu visited the Foreign Minister and explained the grave situation that our people, the opposition and the journalists are currently facing in Ethiopia and handed a letter. Later, the same group was allowed to go into the Downing Street escorted by the Police, and handed over their letter to Tony Blair’s Special Assistants.

Upon their return, the organizers addressed the rally explaining how the current stand off between the ruling regime and our people had continued and warned them that today’s rally was just the beginning. At the moment, our people are waiting signals from the opposition to rise up and claim their rights. When that happens, it would be the duty of the Diaspora to step up the diplomatic onslaught to expose the true nature of the dictators that is ruling Ethiopia by an iron fist.

The demonstrators took the initiative and vowed to promote the cause of Ethiopia and prepare to bear any burden demanded from them to ease it on the people back home.

The demonstration that started at 1:00 pm ended at 5:00 pm with leaders asking the demonstrators to disperse peacefully. The mass listened to the organizers and all that crowed ended the demonstration without any incident and promised to come back again within short period of time.

Peace, unity and democracy for Ethiopia!