OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMAAND DONOR COUNTRIES
January 27, 2012
The Honorable Barak Obama
President of the United States of America
The White House
Washington, D. C.
Mister President
Ethiopia is deemed to be an 'important regional security partner' by the US government and is one of the largest recipients of US aid - over $1 billion a year since 2007. According to Human Right Watch and the Oakland
Institute the regime is forcibly evicting and relocating 70,000 people from Gambella and another 1.5 million people from other parts of the country to make land available for investment in agriculture. In implementing this policy they are illegally expropriating people’s property, making the people landless vagrants condemned to permanent poverty and misfortune, if not death. Dislocating people instead of improving their means of lively hood, implies psychological, social, economic and moral disarray that no foreign aid can substitute. According to the Oakland Institute people have been relocated in inhospitable places where they can’t feed themselves and likely to cause many deaths and extreme hardship. It will also aggravate the current hunger while laying the groundwork for future famine in Ethiopia .
The most alarming part of the article states that President Obama has authorized assistance of US Aid for this inhumane project with consultation with Raji Shah, the administrator of US Aid. We find it extremely difficult and distressing to believe that US funds should be used to support such illegal acts committed by a corrupt and nefarious regimes; which has never respected the rule of law and has been governing by dictate for the last 21 years, thanks to the support it gets from Western Powers among which the US and UK are the most prominent. Recollecting the forced removal of the indigenous people and settling white people in the Kenya Highlands, which directly led to the war of liberation spearheaded by the Mau Mau; and closer at home here in the US to what happened to Native Americans and their land. In Ethiopia violent crashes have already occurred in certain areas, and a very strong public opposition to this measure is evident. It is difficult to believe that the US, who should know about these precedents would support this type of inhumane and unjustifiable population displacement. As reported by reputable organizations like the Human Rights Watch and the Oakland Institute, the relocation project in Ethiopia amounts to actually settling Indian and other foreign farmers, while evicting and dislocating the local population. We believe that the President has been ill advised in this matter, which is contrary to the principle that he announced with regards to the rich exploiting the poor, particularly in view of the extreme poverty that prevails in Ethiopia. It is our hope that the President will rescind this measure and direct the US Aid administration to focus on projects that help those that are less fortunate, instead of being instrumental to detrimental to their well being.
Respectfully yours,
Imru Zelleke
Chairman ENPCP



Lij Imru Zelleke, retired Ambassador of Ethiopia, dedicates his life to the national cause and the well-being of his countrymen. Politician, diplomat, orator, negotiator, writer and above all,committed humanist and patriot. Throughout his life, he has actively participated to key historical events, both at home and abroad, acquiring thus a keen insight into the political and social affairs of the world. His writings reflect an unconditional passion for his country and a wealth of historical and political knowledge.




Leslie Lefkow is senior researcher and Horn of Africa team leader for Human Rights Watch's Africa Division. She has specialized expertise in investigating abuses in armed conflict, humanitarian crises, Sudan, and the Horn of Africa. She has conducted investigations for Human Rights Watch in Sudan, Côte d'Ivoire, Liberia, Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya. Before joining Human Rights Watch, she worked for humanitarian organizations in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Sierra Leone. Lefkow is a graduate of Columbia Law School and Bryn Mawr College.
Professor Getatchew Haile, Ph.D., F.B.A., is Cataloguer Emeritus of Oriental Manuscripts and Regents Professor of Medieval Studies at the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library of Saint John’s University, 

Pursuant to the International Genocide Convention and the Declaration of Human Rights, and on behalf of the victims and survivors of the Ethiopian Genocide of 1935-1941, the Global Alliance for Justice - the Ethiopian cause seeks an apology from the Vatican along with acknowledgement, equity, justice, and fair compensation for the Ethiopian people from all concerned, and for the UN to rightfully include the genocide of the Ethiopian people in the annals of its historical genocide records and archives, in order that this long-ignored and untold story may be preserved, for a future world humanity.

Theodore M. Vestal has been a member of the faculty of Oklahoma State University since 1988, serving in the Department of Political Science, where he has been a professor since 1995, and in the School of International Studies. On 1 August 2008, he was granted the title of Professor Emeritus of Political Science. Professor Vestal teaches primarily in the field of constitutional law, with an emphasis on civil liberties and civil rights. His research interests include public law, contemporary Ethiopia, and international education. Dr. Vestal testified before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Africa in 1994 on "Ethiopia: The Challenges Ahead."In 2002, Professor Vestal was awarded a research grant from the Oklahoma Council for the Humanities to write a book about U.S. foreign policy and attitudes towards Africa generally and Ethiopia specifically as seen in the North American travels of Emperor Haile Selassie.

