Ethnic Cleansing in Ethiopia: Letter to Ban Ki-moon

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• PDF April 19, 2013

His Excellency, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the United Nations
Dear Your Excellency,
Subject:  Ethnic Cleansing in Ethiopia

UN Chief Ban Ki-moon

First, we, the leadership team of the undersigned Ethiopian civic and political organizations, present our compliments to Your Excellency. It is with deep anguish and regret that we should like to alert you and appeal to your office, and through your office, to the Security Council of the United Nations concerning the unprecedented level of human displacement and ethnic cleansing that is currently taking place in Ethiopia. You will agree with us that ethnic cleansing is an affront to human worth and dignity and endangers peace and stability in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. It must be halted without any delay. These recurring and well documented violations of fundamental human rights are perpetrated by the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) the ethnic-elite coalition government that has been ruling Ethiopia for the past 21 years.

Your Excellency,
As you know, Ethiopia is a multi-ethnic and multi-religious country with an established history of peaceful coexistence, mutual acceptance and tolerance. This tradition is being torn apart by the governing party. There is disturbingly accumulated anecdotal evidence which shows that ethnic cleansing is planned systematically by the governing party and executed at the regional or Kilil level by officials who are accountable to the central government. The specific incident in the Benishangul-Gumuz regional state involved an estimated 8000 people of the Amhara nationality, the second largest ethnic group in the country. This latest unprovoked removal and displacement of innocent families from their farms and livelihoods follows a similar and large-scale ethnic cleansing of the same Amharic speaking population from the Gura Ferda District of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples (SNNP) regional state. Displaced Ethiopians have no legal or constitutional recourse to secure their livelihood, personal safety, personal property and or to seek compensation. On the contrary, they are forced to expend their meager savings for transport and to support themselves in temporary shelters.
Please read the whole message of the letter to UN secretary Ban Ki-moon about the ethnic cleansing in Ethiopia from http://ecadforum.com/2013/04/25/ethnic-cleansing-in-ethiopia-letter-to-ban-ki-moon/