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Washington Update - Mesfin Mekonen

Sunday, 06 January 2008

1. The top priority for 2008 must be getting H.R. 2003 introduced in the Senate, passed and signed by President Bush. It will be a very challenging struggle, but it is possible.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is considering taking some action on H.R. 2003. Given the enormous pressure the committee is under to act on numerous issues, the only way to guarantee action on H.R. 2003 is to aggressively and persistently communicate with members of the committee and their staffs. There is nothing more persuasive to members of Congress than hearing that constituents have a passionate interest in a specific issue. It is essential that all Ethiopians call and email members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to express their interest in human rights and democracy in Ethiopia, and to urge that the Senate adopt H.R. 2003 as quickly as possible. It is clear that the regime in Ethiopia is very concerned about the legislation. In addition to an expensive, covert lobbying campaign, it has mobilized government officials and media outlets in Ethiopia to spread lies about H.R. 2003, falsely claiming that by expressing support for basic, fundamental rights the U.S. is somehow trying to “colonize” Ethiopia.

Call the Democratic ((202) 224-4651) and Republican ((202) 224-6797) staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today to register your concerns, and to urge them to enact H.R. 2003. Visit http://foreign.senate.gov/about.html for links to the email addresses and telephone numbers of individual members of the committee.

2. Engineer Hailu Shawel, President of the Coalition for Unity and
Democracy in Ethiopia (CUD), will be presenting his vision for a
modern democratic and prosperous Ethiopia in meetings that have
been scheduled this month and February in the U.S. and Canada. He
will be describing how he and his colleagues worked to forge a
national consensus for change, and the importance of maintaining
national unity and to keep focused on the goals that will help
Ethiopians. The path forward requires unity. The formation of
ethnic parties or political groups will only create divisions that
the opponents of liberty can exploit. The terrible effects of the
Meles regime’s ethic divide-and-conquer tactics are obvious.
Engineer Hailu Shawel’s schedule includes meetings in Minnesota on
Jan., 6; Seattle Jan., 13; Atlanta Jan., 19; Oakland Jan., 27; Los
Angeles Feb., 6; Dallas Feb., 10; Boston Feb., 16; and Toronto,

Canada

Feb., 24.

Mesfin Mekonen, Kinijit International Council