I'm so sorry about the technical difficulties.
I'm here to tell you about what's going on in Ethiopia, not only in one province but the whole region of Ethiopia.
We have witnessed a flagrant violation of human rights, genocidal acts and conflict.
As you may know, Ethiopia has been governed by the EPRDF for almost 30 years. Three years ago Abiy Ahmed was elected to be the Prime Minister and the chairman of the EPRDF. The EPRDF has changed its name to the Prosperity Party, but at the time of the transition the TPLF, which was the dominant party governing the country, did not join the PP. Abiy Ahmed was elected to be a reformer. He had freed a lot of political prisoners, allowed some free media and named a new chief justice, a new chairman of the election board, and also a new director for human rights.
However, Abiy Ahmed failed to change the constitution, which is the root cause of the human rights situation in Ethiopia, and a cause for genocidal acts in Ethiopia. He filled courts and executive offices with friends and sympathizers. Also, his regime continued the repression of the previous EPRDF regime, meaning there are still political prisoners of political party leaders in Ethiopia, including Eskinder Nega. There is still a genocide going on in Ethiopia, however, a less reported genocide. The media talks about the conflict in Tigray and the killing of innocent civilians in Tigray. There is also another genocide, the Amhara genocide, which is going on in the Benishangul-Gumuz region and in the Oromia region.
All the regions are governed except for the Tigray region by the EPRDF party, the PP, but the government ignored these atrocities. They don't even want this to be reported. One of the persons who exposed genocidal acts was Eskinder Nega, a leader of the Balderas party. He's been languishing in prison for the last nine months. The preliminary hearing has been delayed many times but he was denied bail. Eskinder has been in jail, and this is his 10th arrest now. He was a good friend of Ethiopia as a country and he was generous in helping Ethiopia from the get-go. It's a country that cares deeply about human rights and that's why your committee has a hearing today.
We ask you to send a mission to Ethiopia. We also ask you to consider sending some aid to Ethiopia and demand that all political prisoners, including Eskinder Nega and others, be released. We also ask you to put pressure on the Ethiopian government to allow humanitarian access to the Tigray region. We ask you to allow human rights investigators and free media all over the country, not only Tigray, to investigate the genocidal acts being committed.
In the past year and a half only about 26 Amharas and Agews have been killed in two regions, in the Benishangul region and in the Oromia region.
Given this, we ask that you pressure the Ethiopian government to facilitate humanitarian and human rights access and also demand and provide due process for political prisoners who are arrested, and also safeguard their health and apply the best COVID-19 protocols. We also ask you not to support the authoritarian regime, and that the money that you give should not be committed to some of the activities that the government uses it for.
In conclusion, I very much appreciate this opportunity and I'm here to answer some of your questions.
Thank you.