Washington – Sunday, September 13th, thousands of March 4 Freedom supporters held a very successful demonstration in front of the Capitol Hill in Washington.  The March was a resounding success.

In a demonstration where almost the entire Ethiopian people were represented  , thousands of Ethiopian Americans demanded  the US government to do more to end the dictatorship, war crimes  and genocide in Ethiopia and denounced the ruling tribal dictators who have held power now for more than 17 years who continue to be responsible for ethnic conflicts that claimed countless lives, brutal suppression, mass killings, disappearances, detentions, political persecutions of opposition, civic society and the free press.

The Marchers also demanded, the actions of Ethiopia’s tribal rulers are threatening the economic progress and stability in the region and thereby affecting the interests of United States and Ethiopia. Therefore the US government must

• make human rights central to U.S. relations and must restrict that the use of tax payer’s money from being spent in ways that help support authoritarian regimes, such as in Ethiopia.

• ask for the immediate and unconditional release all prisoners of conscience detained in Ethiopia, including Mrs Birtukan Mideksa (Chairwomen of the Unity and Democracy J), human rights defenders and independent journalists.

• demand that Ethiopian rulers recognize and respect the rights to freedom of speech, assembly, association and press freedom and respect the international and regional human rights treaties to which Ethiopia is party and demand to remove the Draconian laws against press freedom, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and terrorism that are turning Ethiopia into a police state.

Over 3200 petition signatures calling to stop Genocide and War Crimes in Ethiopia and to shape the US foreign policy towards Africa were collected.

March 4 Freedom,

Details to follow!