In what appears to be a classic case of opposites attract, the more brutal a dictator gets the more appealing it becomes to the “democratically elected government of The United Kingdom.” Every government that comes to power in this country fails to understand that every human being in Africa also yearns for freedom, justice and equality just like in the UK.
“The Prime Minister was forced on to the defensive over the controversial decision to lavish billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on foreign aid at a time when services at home are facing unprecedented cuts.”
Ethiopians from all over the UK invited each other on Tuesday 8th March 2011 and gathered at Parliament Square starting from 4:00 to talk to the conscious minded parliamentarians who may turn up to wine and dine with the child killers. Thankfully they did not turn up in big numbers. The Parliament Square had been occupied by all sorts of protestors. Therefore we were allotted the entire Old Palace Yard where we could even park our cars that brought placards, slogans and rally materials.
Since there were many activists within the crowed there were actually few of us at the Old Palace Yard. Our boys and girls were doing fantastic job of embarrassing any party goer and forcing them to go back. One former respected member of our community was spotted rushing to get in, only to be confronted by our younger activists like Abebe Tolessa and others. They quickly greeted him where he was going as the Old Palace Yard was on the other side of the entrance. He told them that he was invited by a “ferenji friend” (to mean non-Ethiopian) to a dinner party. As if he did not know what was going on, they started telling him that it was a Woyyane dinner party and that he was actually tricked. He immediately claimed innocence and disappeared from the place. Our boys came back laughing to tell us the story.
The demonstration was lively. The protestors demanded not to wine or dine with agents of dictators. They called upon the members of the UK Parliament to stand with democracy and not with the tyrant. Many of the protestors (some came as far as from Leeds and Manchester) had already sent a protest letter to their MPs and received acknowledgements. Many of the MPs assured us that they would not be attending that dinner that night, and would “not be doing anything to support the brutal regime in Ethiopia”. Our slogans echoed in Westminster. “Enough to tyranny”:
Here are some of the slogans:
Enough to tyranny in Ethiopia
Enough to Repression in Ethiopia
Enough to misrule in Ethiopia
Ethiopia under repression for 2 decades
Meles is the face of Tyranny
Meles is the face of Dictatorship
Meles is the face of Repression
Meles has to go now
Last Month Ben Ali
Yesterday Mubarak
Today Gaddafi
Tomorrow Meles
Next is Meles
We stand for Democracy
We stand for freedom
We are the voice of the voice less
British Parliament
Laurence Robertson
Sponsoring a tyrant’s party?
Shame on You
One People, one nation, one Ethiopia
The VOA was recording and interviewing one of the organisers from the place (you may listen to the 9th March 2011 Amharic report). Our ESAT was there from the start to the finish. A TV channel called Islamic Channel was also there recording and filming from the start to the finish.
After successfully getting across sending loud and clear message, the demonstrators dispersed without any incidence, though there was a heavy presence of the Police and security men.
