WASHINGTON, DC - Ethiopian Americans on Tuesday accused China of colluding with the rogue regime in Ethiopia "for the triumph of tyranny over liberty and democracy for the people of Ethiopia, as it is doing in much of Africa."
Representing several civic organizations in the United States, the activists circulated a strongly-worded statement which called on the Chinese government to stop supporting state-sponsored terrorism in Ethiopia.
The press statement came out ahead of a planned protest rally on August 5 in front of the Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC.
In power since 1991, the Meles Zenawi regime stands accused by human rights organizations of serious crimes, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
Though Ethiopia is the second most populous nation in Africa after Nigeria, the country is deprived of having its own independent radio and TV. Other independent media are also jammed with the help of Chinese technology, the activists say.
Excerpts of the press statement follow:
"By providing military technology, radio and satellite television jamming technologies, the government of China has played a role in the suppression of liberty and basic human rights in Ethiopia. These technologies provided by the Chinese are being used against several independent radio stations, including the Amharic services of the Voice of America and Deutsche Welle. The latest victim of the rogue regime’s airwaves piracy is the newly launched and popular Ethiopian Satellite Television (ESAT)," the activists said in the statement.
"Instead of defending the Ethiopian people in their call for freedom and democracy, due to growing economic interest in Africa, China is colluding with totalitarian regimes that suppress their citizens’ rights and the quest for liberty and democracy in Africa. Instead of empowering Ethiopians in Ethiopia, China is engaged in an exploitative relationship in numerous of its projects throughout Ethiopia in a bid to quench its voracious appetite for strategic resources and cheaper labor in Africa. China is exploiting Ethiopia’s natural resources and hampering the Ethiopian people’s inalienable rights for liberty, justice, and democracy. Chinese firms have been engaged in bribing and corrupting Ethiopian officials.
"By supporting the Meles Zenawi regime, China is banking on profiting from the triumph of tyranny over liberty and democracy for the people of Ethiopia, as it is doing in much of Africa. China has a terrible human rights record at home and supports human rights violations abroad. It is time for China to stop supporting war criminals like Meles Zenawi, who has been suppressing basic liberties of the Ethiopian people. It is time for China to reassess its dealings with rogue regimes like that of Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia and other African dictators.
"We, Ethiopians and Ethiopians Americans, demand that the Chinese government immediately
1.Cease its support for Meles Zenawi’s ethnocentric regime;
2.Cease arming and supplying Meles Zenawi’s minority ethnic dominated military;
3.Cease its support for tyranny in Ethiopia/Africa
4.Cease its support to Meles Zenawi’s regime in jamming the Voice of America, Deutsche Welle, and Ethiopian Satellite Television (ESAT);
5.Respect the human rights of the Ethiopian people, Ethiopian workers employed in Chinese owned projects in accordance with accordance labor and environmental standards as well as the Universal Declaration of Human rights.
6.Stop bribing and corrupting Ethiopian officials to get no bid contracts from the government and dumping their low quality and often dangerous products.
A Coalition of Ethiopian American and Ethiopian Political and Civic Organizations and media groups.
