Photo: Social media
ESAT News (August 2, 2016)
On a day of a historic protest demonstration that peacefully concluded in Gondar, northern Ethiopia, security forces of the regime on Sunday unleashed their brute force on peaceful demonstrators in Aweday, a commercial town in the eastern part of the country, killing six people and injuring over twenty.
News of the killings in Aweday was overshadowed by the protest demonstration in Gondar where hundreds of thousands of people, about a million by some estimates, flooded the streets and squares of this historic city, holding the nation in the grip as to what might happen next, as the people snubbed the security forces of the regime, who were armed to the teeth, and went ahead with their show of defiance against tyranny and also expression of solidarity with the rest of Ethiopians.
Regime officials not only refused to give permissions to the demonstrations in Gondar but also warned against any rally, but the people, determined that their voices be heard, staged a colorful demonstration as the Ethiopian tri color adorned the city and the protesters fly high the sacred emblem – the green, yellow and red flag – as a sign of rejection to the redesigned flag of the minority government.
Sunday’s protest demonstration grew out of campaigns by the people of Wolkait, Tegede and Telemt, who are ethnic Amharas, for the restoration of their identity and territory that had been forcefully annexed to the Tigray region in an apparent move by the ruling clique to incorporate a vast fertile land to Tigray, where the ruling minority hail from.
They chanted slogans denouncing dictatorship and an end to the minority rule. They also called for the release of political prisoners, including members of a committee that heads the campaign by the people of Wolkait, Tegede and Telemt.
The demonstrators, in a show of solidarity, called for an end to the killings perpetrated by the regime in the Oromo region in the last eight months; and for the release of the tens of thousands incarcerated by the regime.
The demonstrators also expressed solidarity with Ethiopian Muslims who have been the target of persecution by the regime that falsely accuse them of terrorism. They also called for the release of leaders of the Muslim community who have been detained by the regime for peacefully demanding their religious rights.
They denounced the regime for agreeing to give away a vast Ethiopian territory to the Sudan and vowed to protect their land which they said was legitimately theirs.
Similar protest demonstrations are scheduled to be held on Saturday and Sunday in the Oromo region and Bahir Dar respectively.
According to social media campaigners and also a call by the Blue Party, a massive demonstration will be held in Bahir Dar, another major town in the north and all over the Oromo region, where at least 600 protesters were killed in the last nine months.