To UN Human Rights Commissioner

March 4 Freedom New Years Candle Light Vigil: Sunday Feb. 5, 2012 at 5 pm

March 4 Freedom New Years Candle Light Vigil

March 4 Freedom New Years Candle Light Vigil, Feb. 5, 2012

To UN Human Rights Commissioner

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Dear Justice Navanathem Pillay,

I am writing you to take action to hold Meles Zenawi and other government officials to account for appalling human rights violations and atrocities at a mass scale in Ethiopia.

The current Ethiopian government has committed gross human rights violations, and continues with campaigns of repression and brutality in many parts of the country. For example, the Ethiopian government has been accused of massacring its own people in many parts of  Ethiopia. This has resulted in a widespread and longstanding reign of terror, with Ethiopian soldiers gang-raping women, burning down huts and killing civilians at will in the Ogaden, Gambella  and other regions. These malicious actions undertaken by government forces are reminiscent of the situation of Darfur.

The “free election” that was held in Ethiopia in May 2005 ended with the deaths of 193 civilians demonstrating election irregularities, and the imprisonment of the entire opposition party leadership for nearly two years .This government does not represent its people, and international election observers such as the European Union have voiced concerns over the failure of the election to meet international standards.
 
In fact, Genocide Watch, the widely-respected internationahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-governmental_organizationl non-governmental organization, has reported on the abuses of the Anuak people in the Gambella region of Ethiopia (a region bordering Southern Sudan). Genocide Watch has enumerated various actions conducted by the government that it states constitute genocide. The actions include:

1) The intentional killing of members of the Anuak ethnic group, targeted solely because they are Anuak, destroying a substantial part of the Anuak group

2) The deliberate targeting of members of the Anuak ethnic group to cause serious bodily or mental harm.

3) The deliberate infliction on the Anuak group, through burning of homes and destruction of food supplies, of conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction.

4) The systematic use of rape as a weapon against a large number of Anuak women in order to destroy the Anuak ethnic group
  
I thank you for your attention to the grave extent of brutality and human rights violations taking place in Ethiopia. Please do all that is possible in your position and your office, to see to it that Meles Zenawi, head of government in Ethiopia, as well as other key officials responsible for these crimes are held to account.

Yours sincerely,

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