We are concerned Ethiopian-Americans writing to you for two reasons. First, please allow us to express our heartfelt gratitude for your recent trip to Ethiopia and for your courage to speak up in support of electoral justice and the protection of human rights.

Our second reason is to remind you of the support Ethiopia needs going forward. The current conflict precipitated by the May15, 2005 electoral fraud will not simply go away. It will not go away unless farsighted leaders like you are willing to go beyond the superficial to understand the elaborate mechanisms set up by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to thwart the will of the people.

The United States and other Western powers called for a nation-wide rerun of elections when Ukrainian elections were rigged. In Ethiopia, there are credible and extensive reports of vote rigging by the ruling party. We believe there should not be separate measures of democracy for Europeans and Africans. What was good for the Ukraine should be good for Ethiopia.

We hope you will urge Secretary Rice, your fellow Congressmen and Congresswomen as well as members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to press Mr. Zenawi to stop his arrogant posturing and join the opposition’s call for a transitional arrangement that will prepare the nation for untampered, free and fair elections.

Mr. Zenawi’s “Revolutionary Democracy” is inspired more by Niccolo Machiavelli and Joseph Stalin than Woodrow Wilson or Winston Churchill. The ruling Tigrai People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) is a secretive, shadow outfit that manipulates the country’s destiny from behind the scenes. It has created satellite organizations under the umbrella of the EPRDF. All individuals and organizations that make up the EPRDF are beholden to the politburo of the TPLF.

In the name of democracy, half a dozen members of the politburo of the Tigrai Liberation Front (TPLF) have put resources at their disposal to steal three nation-wide elections in the last fourteen years – the most recent one being the May 15, 2005 elections.

The ruling group has used its security forces and financial resources to intimidate, disrupt and arrest opponents. It also stuffs ballots and steals ballot boxes. Mr. Zenawi’s party also controls all land, most urban houses, factories, major businesses, major media enterprises, the police, the army and the secret services.

The so-called National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE), an arm of the ruling party, was the main vehicle to frustrate the electorate’s voice while giving legitimacy to the ruling party. Perhaps nothing is more illustrative of the NEBE’s partisan approach than its role in the so-called investigation and arbitration process. In 90 percent of disputed cases, the NEBE voted for the ruling party. As ironic as it may sound, the investigation process was used to award additional seats to the ruling party in districts where it had lost by a landslide.

We shall always remember your profound statement, when you said:

We also thank you for bringing up the need for an independent investigation of the killing of 40 unarmed demonstrators. Any investigation, if ever one is conducted, will likely be a ruling party whitewash, aimed at blunting any reprimand by donor nations.

Yours has been a lone voice of consolation at a time when the Bush administration has decided to play down government-inspired killing of civilians and unabashed electoral fraud. Ethiopians expect President Bush to deliver on his inaugural promise in which he said,

Dear Congressman,

The bill of goods sold to international donors as democracy is in reality an ethnic dictatorship. A small band of former guerillas who claim to represent six percent of the population have brought untold misery and suffering to a nation of 72 million people.

One of the most effective mechanisms of control for the ruling group has been the creation of ethnic Bantustans. A tribalist coterie has managed to control the second most populous nation in sub-Saharan Africa by pitting one ethnic group against another.

Prime Minister Zenawi and his lieutenants have conveniently demonized organizations representing the two largest ethnic groups representing some 70 percent of the population. They have labeled Oromo organizations terrorists, while they call organizations that draw their support from the Amhara and other groups as chauvinists, racists and royalists. This self-serving policy of divide and rule of course makes it expedient for a small minority to impose its will on the overwhelming majority.

Unfortunately, many foreign donors who grease Mr. Zenawi’s repressive machinery have failed to see beyond the veneer. Contrary to the public relations gimmickry and fudged numbers, Ethiopia under Mr. Zenawi has gone from bad to worse. The number of Ethiopians needing foreign food assistance on a regular basis is upwards of 12 million, the largest ever. Over three million Ethiopians are infected with the HIV virus; millions are jobless and the national income under Mr. Zenawi has declined from $120 to $90 per person per year.

No amount of foreign aid could pull Ethiopia out of its current misery. Democracy and good governance are the prerequisites to rally the population and to take on the challenges of poverty and injustice. Foreign aid in the hands of tyrants becomes a potent weapon to rationalize and extend repressive rule.

Many of our members are from your great state of New Jersey; many more are from the tri-state area. We would like you to know how proud we are of the work you are doing.

We urge you to support the call for a transitional arrangement that will conduct truly free and fair elections and to continue your support for an independent investigation into the June 8, 2005 massacre of innocent demonstrators.

Respectfully yours,