By Kinijit UK
On a grey autumn evening of 1 November 2007 outside the Ethiopian Embassy, Londoners once again came out and remembered those massacred by the tyrant woyane regime in June and November 2005, fighting for freedom and democracy, following the protest against stolen votes in the May 2005 General election.
In November 2005, 193 peaceful and unarmed protesters were unlawfully killed, execution-style, by security personnel loyal to the regime of Meles Zenawi. According to the Inquiry Commission, “The majority of [the peaceful protesters] died from shots to the head.” The regime has used and continues to use paramilitary groups to commit extra judicial political killings and arrests in Oromia, Sidama and now Ogaden regions.
According to independent reports troops of woyane regime are burning villages, raping women and killing civilians as part of a systematic campaign to drive them from their homes. They reported dozens of villages destroyed and accused the Ethiopian government of forcibly starving its own people by preventing food convoys reaching villages and destroying crops and livestock.
Despite the release of leaders the main opposition and civil society, human rights defenders, and journalists in July 2007, and the rhetoric to bring the democratisation process back on track, the regime still keeps a tight grip on the nation and deny any space for political opposition. The release of Kinijt leaders is by the way the beginning in the struggle for freedom and democracy Not an end by itself.
The TPLF regime following local and international pressure may have released 38 prisoners of conscious, but Daniel Bekele, policy manager of ActionAid Ethiopia, and Netsanet Demissie, General Manager of the Organisation for Social Justice in Ethiopia, and hundreds others political prisoners still remain in prison for allegedly supporting the opposition. Kinijt as a movement for freedom and democracy built around the hopes and dreams of free Ethiopia continues to fights for the release of all political prisoners and establishment of democratic and independent institutions serving citizens not regimes in power. As a generation that does not remember its fallen heroes of freedom and democracy would runs the risk of living as a subject of rulers than a free citizen, on Remembrance Day we acknowledge the courage and sacrifice of those who died fighting against the tyrannical regime in Ethiopia. We strongly believed that their sacrifice have already made a significant difference for the future of our country, but it is up to us to ensure that their dream of free Ethiopia is realized.
Hence, the observers of the vigil sang:
“We remember our martyrs, we remember our heroes, Your death is not in vain, Your sacrifice is not in vain, Your suffering is not in vain, and Justice will be done. There may not be a parade or there may not be a band, but you shall not grow old in our mind.”
We firmly believe Kinijit leaders owe to those many unsung heroes, who left their home and never made it back, and those who left their family never to come back, and to those who called their name in all weathers; to come together and fulfil the long- desire to create a democratic Ethiopia.
Long Live Ethiopia!
Kinijit UK