Tedla Asfaw
It is cloudy and raining in New York City this morning and expected to be the same the whole day, what a day makes a difference in spring here. Yesterday we had a fantastic mild sunny and bright Thursday for our rally and I thank the Parks department for changing the earlier application for Friday because of Tibetans rally happened to be a socking one.
Our huge Ethiopian flag, 6ft by 4ft. did attract a lot of people mainly foreign tourists who came to visit UN and UN staffs who are going in and out for their business. Attracted by this colorful flag we had many who came to see our slogans that ranged from demand for the removal of TPLF and denouncing the killing that going in Ethiopian Ogaden and Somalia.
Group of young women, college students, came and told us that they were aware of the Ogaden killing and abuse by the TPLF regime when they surf African web sites and support our rally for exposing this crime for many here who may not be aware of. We met a man who worked in Somalia in Hargessa before the USA relief operation early in 1990s turned in to catching " Adid" and ended up in a disaster. His message for Melese Zenawi was clear leave Somalia for Somalis.
We met also a senior reporter and informed us that a general council is debating Somalia on this same day and he is also well aware of what is going on in Ethiopia and we handed to him the press release of the third anniversary of our people victory over tyranny and what lies ahead for Ethiopia and the region.
The most dramatic moment of the day for us was our encounter with two Ethiopian women one old and one middle aged. The old women after briefly talking to us she went to the flag and kissed it. This dramatic love for Ethiopia in foreign land is indeed was inspirational for all of us. The other Ethiopian woman was from Gonder area who knows the land and the people very well.
She told us that Azeb Gola/Mesfin and her families were fascist Italian collaborators and what they are doing now to Ethiopia is revenge. Giving Ethiopian land is pay back time for Gonder area people first by incorporating their land known for producing cash crops like sesame to Tigray region and then she said now the second phase is to hand it to Sudan for future short and long term benefit for Melese and his buddies.
Ethiopians third anniversary of their electoral victory over TPLF was celebrated in front of UN and what we learned from this rally is that we have many supporters in the world community from tourists coming to UN including many who are working for UN that failed to live up to its foundation many years ago to stop wars and the suffering of people.
The rally for the cause of Ethiopia and our region must go on until our people got their right to protest freely in their own country and demand what is expected of their elected leaders and the international organizations. We should also expose Western countries like USA and Britain who are currently subsidizing state terrorism in Ethiopia. Britain's Gordon Brown is still not changing Blair's policy and throwing money to the hyenas in Ethiopia and we hope Obam's presidency will throw out the failed policy of USA for the last sixteen years towards Ethiopia and start fresh..
