Pass the word...
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--- "Zerzghi, Amanuel (Amanuel)" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> From: "Zerzghi, Amanuel (Amanuel)" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Eritrean Community Demonstration in DC, May 24-25
> Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 16:11:23 -0400
>
> Selamat,
>
> Subject: Join Eritrean-American Community Demonstration
>
> May 24-25 10 a.m. U.S. Capitol Upper Senate Park
> (Constitution Avenue and Delaware Street, NE.)
>
>
>
> Dear Sir:
>
>
>
> The Eritrean American community in the Washington DC metro area and
> from other regions of the U.S. invites you to participate and address
> its
> gathering to be held Wednesday May 24 and Thursday May 25 at the
> Upper
> Senate Park at 10 a.m. This demonstration is being held on the
> occasion of
> the 8th Independence Anniversary of Eritrea, a small country of 4
> million
> situated in the Horn of Africa. Sadly, this anniversary has come at a
> time
> when Ethiopia has renewed its invasion against Eritrea. By its own
> admission, Ethiopia renewed the war after more than 1 year lull.
> During the
> last two years, Ethiopia deceptively claimed to accept most of the
> OAU/U.S.
> formulated peace package, while all the time planning and now
> executing a
> costly and un-necessary military solution.
>
>
>
> Since the war erupted in May 1998, Ethiopia deported to Eritrea in
> inhumane manner close to 70,000 innocent Eritreans and Ethiopians of
> Eritrean origin, while it holds 1,500 of them in concentration camps
> and
> bars almost 10,000 destitute from leaving Ethiopia where they can no
> longer
> work. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and others have
> condemned
> Ethiopia's actions. Over the last two years, Ethiopia's war against
> Eritrea
> has resulted in tens of thousands dead. Now in the midst of an
> unprecedented
> humanitarian disaster threatening famine for 8 million Ethiopians,
> Ethiopia
> continues waging a senseless war against its Eritrea. Eritrea
> accepted the
> OAU/US peace plan in its entirety and was focussed on staving off
> famine
> threatening 350,000 Eritreans displaced from the border areas.
>
>
>
> Currently over 100,000 Ethiopian troops are by Ethiopia's own
> admission 43 kilometers deep inside uncontested Eritrean territory
> where
> they displaced 250,000 farmers from Eritrea's breadbasket region of
> Gash-Barka, just before the harvest season and seeding for next year.
> Ethiopian troops are looting the displaced farmers' meager resources
> as they
> advance toward populated centers pounded incessantly by air raids.
>
>
>
> As we prepare to hold this demonstration, international humanitarian
> organizations are reacting to the escalation of the war and
> exacerbation of
> the size of people needing relief assistance all over Eritrea:
>
>
> * Save the Children reports threat of starvation to around
> 15,000 children in Eritrea
>
>
>
>
>
> * Action by Churches Together (ACT) members in Eritrea,
> Lutheran World Federation/Department of World Service (LWF/WS) and
> Norwegian
> Church Aid issued an alert indicating the Ethiopia invasion is
> "resulting in
> hunger and starvation for over 1 million Eritreans." (ACT 5/19/2000)
>
>
>
>
>
> * The World Food Program (WFP) has begun 600 ton food airlift
> to help feed more than 250,000 Eritreans displaced; WFP warns even
> larger
> amounts are urgently needed (WFP 5/23/200)
>
>
>
>
>
> As American citizens who know intimately the suffering of our
> families in Eritrea, we are deeply concerned over the catastrophic
> consequences of U.S. lack of intervention and its foreign evacuation
> of the
> Eritrean capital Asmara in the absence of an air moratorium. We urge
> you to
> join us to call on the Clinton Administration to urge Ethiopia to
> stop its
> invasion and in the interim effect a moratorium on air raids and
> establish
> an air relief corridor to the millions of Eritrean farmers threatened
> by
> famine.
>
>
>
> By failing to intervene and secure an airlift corridor and allowing
> Ethiopia to bomb Asmara and deny urgent food aid supply, U.S. foreign
> evacuation will be the most macabre man-made action causing
> irreparable
> damage to Eritrea's and the international community ability to tackle
> the
> country's worsening humanitarian crisis. Considering the gravity of
> the
> impending humanitarian crisis, it is unacceptable for the U.S. to
> contrive
> neutrality and wait for Ethiopia to impose a military solution that
> will
> cause unprecedented loss of life of hundreds of thousand people. Such
> hands-off posture in the face of tragedy of this proportion is simply
> un-American. Act now!
>
__________________________________________________
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