Association of Concerned Africa Scholars
May 11, 2001
In response to the accelerating repression against students and scholars in Ethiopia, ACAS on May 11th wrote to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, urging him to release all detainees and restore conditions ensuring freedom of speech and academic freedom. While some detainees have been released, others have not. We urge our members to write as well to:
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi: Fax: 251-1-55-2020
US Secretary of State Colin Powell: Fax: (202) 261-8577, Email: Secretary@state.gov
Print addresses are on our letter below. The African Studies Association (USA) also issued a letter to Prime Minister Meles on 25 June 2001.
Background: Human Rights Watch has issued an alert with a briefing (May 10, 2001); see also the appeal from the Families and Friends of Professor Mesfin Wolde Mariam and Dr. Berhanu Nega (May 14, 2001), as well as an online petition and short biographies of Professor Mesfin and Dr. Berhanu. Further efforts are being organized by the Ethiopian University Support Site, and the Addis Ababa University Alumni Network.
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May 11, 2001
His Excellency Meles Zenawi
P.O.Box 1031
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Via Fax: 2511-55-20-20
Dear Prime Minister Meles,
On behalf of the Association of Concerned Africa Scholars (ACAS), a national organization of progressive scholars actively engaged with Africa, we write to urge that you take immediate steps to release detained students and scholars, and allow university communities to return to their work unhindered by state repression.
ACAS and its members have a long history of respect and support for Ethiopian struggles for freedom; indeed Ethiopia has often been a source of inspiration for Americans. We are thus particularly disturbed by what can only be seen as a determined campaign to suppress free speech and academic freedom. Whatever the events and persons involved in the April disturbances in Addis Ababa, the subsequent attack on Addis Ababa University and other institutions of higher education shocked our members and many in the international academic community. The reports of subsequent summary arrests and the detention of thousands of students and scholars–without charges or trial–is of especially grave concern. The even more recent arrest of Professor Mesfin Woldemariam, the founding member of Ethiopian Human Rights Council, and Dr. Berhanu Nega, a prominent economist at Addis Ababa University, signals we fear an unrelenting campaign to eliminate all dissent, well beyond even the repression of those who work within the fields of higher education.
We thus urge you to use your office to ensure the immediate release of all detained students, scholars, and related persons–or if evidence exists, their charge in public court. The continuation of sweeping arrests and detention without charges, the closure of universities and colleges, and the imposition of loyalty oaths as a condition of study and scholarship, gravely threatens Ethiopia’s proud intellectual heritage, its continuation, and progressive relations between Ethiopia and the United States. We hope continuing repression can be reversed, and return Ethiopia to us as a signal beacon of the struggle for freedom for both Africa and America.
Sincerely,
Merle Bowen, Co-Chair
William G. Martin, Co-Chair
cc:
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell
U.S. Department of State
Washington, DC 20520
Fax: (202) 261-8577
Ambassador Berhane Gebre-Christos
Ethiopian Ambassador to the United States
Embassy of Ethiopia
3506 International Drive, NW
Washington DC 20008
Fax (202) 686-9551