Large Peaceful Demonstration at Downing Street
Horn of Africa for Peace and Stability Forum – Press Release
January 2008

Please be informed that a large peaceful demonstration will be held at Downing Street on the 16th of January 2008 from 13:00 to 18:00 Hrs. The demonstration will be one of its kind and will involve from a wide range of nationalities and ethnic groups including the Somalis, Eritreans, people from Ogaden and Oromo. It is organised by the Horn of Africa for Peace and Stability Forum and is expected to draw thousands of people from all over the UK.

Why a peace demonstration

We are people of the Horn of Africa suffering at the hands of the minority regime in Ethiopia. Our people are being killed, our women raped, our villages burnt and our land occupied. The entire region is in turmoil and as a result, the human suffering and destruction have been incalculable. The Ethiopian government is only able to inflict such widespread pain and suffering with the help of the British taxpayers’ money that has been made available to it unconditionally by the UK government. We will call on the British government to stop being complicit in the crimes committed against the people of the Horn of Africa.

About the Horn of Africa

The Horn of Africa is the easternmost part of Africa and is a region containing the countries of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan. It is inhabited by about 110 million people.

Background

The Horn of Africa has suffered from wars and natural calamity for a long period of time. As a result of this, there has been untold human suffering and destruction. The people of the Horn of Africa have not had the chance to engage in development activities continuously. Foreign interference and bias made the problems intractable. The area with all its natural resources remains one of the poorest in the world.

Currently, the source of the problem is the minority regime led by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi currently in power in Ethiopia. Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the world and is ranked 170 out of 177 in the UN Human Development Report. 81% of its population lives below the poverty line earning just $2 a day. Yet, the Ethiopian government:

• Managed to raise its military budget to $400 million. Ethiopia has spent about $3 billion just on buying arms (Source: SIPRI). While the government spends this amount, the people of Ethiopia find themselves in a dire situation as a result of disease and famine.

• Invaded a neighbouring country, Somalia, in violation of the AU and UN Charters while shelling civilian areas indiscriminately and causing the death of tens of thousands of people, destruction of properties and the displacement of 1.5 million people from their home.

• Sent the army to Ogadenia to loot, murder, rape women and children, burn entire villages and expel aid agencies to stop food aid from getting to the people in the area while preventing journalists from having access to the area to cover up the atrocity.

• Massacred innocent people including children; caused the destruction of hundreds of Anuak villages in Gambella which drove more than 60,000 Anuak people into neighbouring Sudan and Kenya

• Jailed and killed tens of thousands of Oromo people

• Orchestrated ethnic clashes among the various peoples of Ethiopia

• Refused to abide by the decision of an international court and forcefully occupied sovereign Eritrean territories. The border between the two countries remains tense and volatile with over 500,000 soldiers facing each other.

• Rigged the vote in the national election in 2005 and slaughtered 196 peaceful demonstrators in broad daylight and imprisoned thousands of people.

And the list goes on ...

With the increase in brutality of the Ethiopian government, the British government has been happily increasing the financial assistance given to Ethiopia unconditionally. The aid given to Ethiopia has been increased by 600% to £160 million over the last four years, making Ethiopia one of the largest recipients of aid in Africa. This is excluding the money given for food security and humanitarian purposes. It is unthinkable that the Ethiopian regime would be able to cause such chaos and destruction without the financial support that it gets from the British government and others. By virtue of supporting the Apartheid regime of the Ethiopian government, the British government is denying the people of the Horn of Africa the right to live in peace.

The British government subscribes to the idea that the people of the Horn of Africa be subservient to the interests of the minority regime in Ethiopia. It is for this reason that we will be asking the British government to stop propping up the brutal regime in Ethiopia using taxpayers’ money in order to end the terrorizing of innocent people; destruction of properties and invasion, attack of neighbouring states and wreak havoc in the region.

For further details or to contact the organisers, please e-mail to hornofafrica2008@yahoo.com