Ethiopian activists protest in Copenhagen

Ethiomedia December 21, 2009

COPENHAGEN - Braving frigid weather unseen for over eight years, patriotic Ethiopians drove for several hours from all over Europe and descended on Copenhagen where they denounced genocide perpetrator Meles Zenawi, a pro-democracy website reported on Sunday.
The report on AbbayMedia said temperatures had dropped to minus 12°C when the Ethiopian activists withstood the harsh weather for several hours, appealing to Western leaders, particularly US President Barack Obama, to probe appalling human rights conditions in Ethiopia, and take appropriate measures.
Waving their native country's tricolor, and holding high an oversize photo banner of Birtukan Mideksa, the activists chanted for hours for the release of the prominent opposition leader, and thousands of other political prisoners that Meles has locked up in his dungeons.
Zenawi, who has been in power since 1991, has committed numerous crimes - ranging from turning Ethiopia into a landlocked nation to committing genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. He has evaded Western government attention by fueling conflicts in the Horn of Africa, for which he appears as a Western ally in the name of a 'partner in the war on terror.'
The tyrant was attending the Climate Talks as chief negotiator of African countries but ended up shaming developing countries by crowning himself the unofficial chief negotiatior for the rich West.
"On the ninth day of the Copenhagen climate summit, Africa was sacrificed," award-winning journalist and activist Naomi Klein wrote. "It is hard to believe it was this man who three months ago threatened to walk out of the Climate Talks if African demands were not met."
The betrayal of Meles Zenawi that made headline news for the rest of the world was nothing new for Ethiopians who have for nearly 20 years appealed to the international community to help them ostracize the man they believe is their country's worst enemy.
AbbayMedia said the protest rally was organized by the Committee of the International Network against Repression and Injustice in Ethiopia. Most of the activists were drawn from host country Denmark, UK, Sweden, Germany, Norway, Switzerland, Netherlands, France and Italy.