Nejashi Justice Council Strongly Condemns the April 27th Asasa Massacre by the Security Forces of Ethiopian Regime

WASHINGTON, May 7, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Nejashi Justice Council is extremely outraged by the April 27th slaughter of innocent Ethiopian Muslims in Asasa, Arsi zone, Oromia region. According to Badr Broadcast Network 11 innocent Muslims were killed and several injured when the armed force of the Ethiopian Regime arbitrarily opened fire on Muslims returning from Friday prayers. A six-year-old-boy, a woman and an old man were among the innocent civilians killed due to this savage attack of the Ethiopian Regime's force. And the credible report from the ground confirmed that scores of Muslims were arrested. Such a brutal assault on innocent civilians shows the Ethiopian authorities' contempt for the lives of their innocent citizens, says Nejashi Justice Council.

Nejashi Justice Council strongly condemns these acts of deliberate and provoked killings and injuries through the use of armed forces, and arbitrary incarceration of innocent civilians, which is undoubtedly a gross human rights violation. Nejashi Justice Council sends condolences to the families and relatives of all those killed on April 27, 2012.

Currently, the Ethiopian Muslims have been subjected to the highest assault on religious liberty due to the Ethiopian Regime's brazen policy of compulsive conversion of Ethiopian Muslims into an alien "Ahbash religion" which is sponsored and imported from Lebanon by the Ethiopian Regime. According to reports from Al Jazeera Ethiopian Muslims have been rallying in the capital, Addis Ababa, for the last several weeks, protesting in a very disciplined and absolutely peaceful way against the Ethiopian Regime's flagrant violation of religious freedom and its coercive policy, and demanding their constitutional right to be respected. However, the government authorities have repeatedly accused this peaceful rally of anti-freedom policy of the regime, and tried to intimidate to crush the peaceful demands of Muslims under a preposterous link to terrorism; the regime especially targeted the peacefully elected ad-hoc committee, which consists of 17 members and is also intended to serve as a liaison with the regime representing the mass and its demands. A week before this massacre, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi described the recent Muslims' demand as being instigated by terrorist groups and specifically told the parliament of the existence of al-Qaida cells in Arsi and Bale. This bogus allegation of the prime minister raises the specter of potential human rights violations, says Nejashi Justice Council. 

Nejashi Justice Council is gravely concerned that the Asasa massacre will be the implication of the Ethiopian Regime's impending more massacres of innocent and peaceful Ethiopian Muslims in order to fully materialize its coercive religious conversion, which is unconceivable in this age and time. Nejashi Justice Council calls on all Ethiopian communities regardless of faith and ethnicity, and all international human rights groups, to join it in condemning the abominable cruelty perpetrated by unbridled forces of the Ethiopian Regime. Nejashi Justice Council urges the Ethiopian Regime unequivocally to halt completely the chain of execution, incarceration, intimation, religious compulsion, and other gross human rights violations.

Nejashi Justice Council: Nejashi Justice Council is a not-for-profit, independent organization with a mission to promote justice and equality, and raise awareness about human right violations in Ethiopia. The Council is incorporated in Washington, DC under file N00000002043. www.nejashijustice.org

Contact:

Yedesdes Mudessir
Vice President
Nejashi Justice Council
703 498 5200
[email protected]

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SOURCE Nejashi Justice Council