Die-hard supporters of TPLF were there, as well as hodams with investments in Ethiopia who slavishly showed up upon receiving written request by TPLF representatives to attend, for fear that TPLF will otherwise take away their business. Demonstrators were given blue and red “uniforms” and several were flown in on expensive flights from other U.S. states, paid for courtesy the taxes of impoverished Ethiopians in Ethiopia, and by Al Amoudi’s blood money.

The demonstration looked hardly different in type (though very different in size!) from the forced rally TPLF organised after the 2010 “elections”: Then as well as here, they screamed anti-Human Rights Watch slogans, expressed their love for Meles, and praised the repression against Ethiopians as a flourishing democracy, in the best Orwellian tradition. One had to be in a coma to have been fooled by the pro-TPLF websites which stated that the rally is all about “national questions” such as the Nile water. But if some had indeed been in a coma, they woke up to the real story at the latest when they saw the anti-HRW signs and heard the We Love Meles chants.

So the supporters of Ethiopia’s brutal ruling clique wanted to attract public attention and media coverage for their demonstration on Thursday at the White House and State Department? Well, they got it!.

To view the pictures of all TPLF supporters and loyalists , you may visit our pictorial presentation.