As freedom and peace loving Ethiopians residing all over the world, we are terrified to find out
that on January 10, 2012, the Israeli Knesset amended to the 1954 Prevention of Infiltration
Law that grants authorities to detain and deport be it genuine or otherwise political asylum
seekers from Israel under the pretext of “infiltration”. The Republic of Israel, whom you are the
Prime Mister, is a model to the world where freedom and democracy enshrined; we believe will
refrain from giving protection those refugees whose life will be on death row. We appeal to
Your Honorable Prime Minister, on behalf of those Ethiopians who are political refugees
seeking asylum in Israel either to grant them asylum if not provide them protection until the
United Nation Higher Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) arranges a third country to move to.
Without any question, deporting to Ethiopia is condemning them to be tortured and executed by
the dictatorial minority regime of Meles Zenawi.
The government in Ethiopia lead by Meles Zenawi is a tyrannical, despotic and dictatorial
regime responsible for the massacre, disappearance and imprisonment of tens of thousands
members of opposition and those the regime believes are their supporters. Those Ethiopians
who flee from Ethiopia and seek refugee precisely know that they are next on the list of
imprisonment if they are lucky, and if not join those whose where about is untraceable. Those
Ethiopians in Israel are political refugees, if deported will be subjected to face death or
imprisonment without even appearing before the regimes courts. There exists no free judicial
process and no guarantee for a free and fair due process. As such, the regime is above the law of
the land and its own constitution to prolong its stay in power, at any cost. As per Dr. Gregory
Stanton, the founding President of Genocide Watch noted that the regime of Meles Zenawi has
committed genocide and compared it to that Syria where the Alawait minority government has
been unleashing against the majority to stay in power.
To that effect, Mr. Zenawi and his regime will in the future be brought to International Criminal
Court (ICC) to face justice for the crimes committed: To mention a few:
For the massacre of over 70 Sidamas in Sidamo in early 2001.
For the genocide of over 720 Anuaks in 2003.
For the massacre of 193 innocent Citizens after 2005 general election.
For burning alive of thousands of Ogaden Somali Ethiopians.
For the killing, torture and disappearance of thousands of Oromos, Amharas
and Afars,
For forced off land farmers without compensation in order to lease to Arabs,
Indians, Pakistani, Chinese etc nationals on the pretext of development; and
least but not last;
For the death by starvation of citizens of Ethiopia for the last 21 years.
Your Honorable Prime Minister
Notwithstanding the above mentioned atrocities committed by the despotic regime of Meles
Zenawi, it became routine and a day-to-day occurrence that the people of Ethiopia are subjected
to, and not limited to a few of the following:
Educators, human right activists, opposition political leaders, journalists, students,
farmers and spiritual leaders are subjected to extreme suffering in the form of torture,
imprisonment, harassment and disappearing over-night.
The regime over-night drafted and implemented a vague but misuse-able “the so-called
anti-terrorist law” in order to penalize dissent, to curb freedom of speech, free media and
to crack down journalists and members the opposition.
The regime kept on leasing or selling farm lands forcedly evicting thousands of farmers
from their ancestral and inherited land to make way for foreign investors.
A few days ago, passed a law to clamp down on internet and skype users; and any user
will face up to 15 years jail term.
Ethiopian refugees, who were forcibly repatriated from the Sudan and Djibouti, are
consistently disappearing without a trance while they were in prison under the regimes
custody.
We Ethiopians, therefore appeal to your government, to give every consideration in order to
protect those Ethiopian asylum seekers. If they are deported back to Ethiopia we can assure you
that they will be labeled as traitors, terrorists and citizens who committed treason. Knowing
very well the behavior of the regime, if deported they will definitive be tortured, and if lucky
imprisoned God knows for how long.
We believe and hope that our appeal will receive your positive decision and action.
Best regards,
Ethiopians from all over the world
CC:
To: Shimon Peres, President, the Republic State of Israel
To: United Nations Higher Commission for Refugees
To: Amnesty International
To: Human Rights Watch
To: United Christian for Israel
To: BBC, DW, ABC, NBC, NPR, New York Times, AFP, Reuter, ECADF, ESAT, SMNE,
Addis Dimtse, Ethiomedia, Quatero and Ethiopian websites
