ESAT News (January 04, 2016)
Anti-government protesters in Ejere, North Shewa burnt down the memorial park dedicated to Ethiopia’s former dictator, Meles Zenawi. In a strong show of defiance and rejection of the ethnocentric regime, protesters also set Zenawi’s portrait on fire.
The antigovernment protest that began two months ago in the Oromia region of Ethiopia, which was sparked by government’s attempt to implement the “integrated master plan,” a plan to widen the capital city limits to surrounding farming communities, has spread to the far eastern regions of the country. Protesters in Hirna town, west Hararghe and Bedeno in east Hararghe blocked main highways; and there has been reports of escalating confrontations with government security forces.
A protester in Ejere, where Zenawi’s park and portrait was blazed on Saturday, said they are burning down the park and the portrait to show their disappointment and disapproval of the ethnic polices of the government and the divide and rule strategy by the minority regime, which he said Meles Zenawi was the mastermind.
The protester who wanted to be anonymous for fear of reprisal said the country “should not be ruled by the ghost of the deceased dictator who is responsible for dividing the country along ethnic lines and creating animosity between people who otherwise lived in harmony for millennia.”
“We need to free our people from the day dream and illusion of a country run by the so called ‘visions of Meles Zenawi,’ as has been propagated by the corrupt regime,” he quipped.