Tigrai Online, Oct. 7, 2014
To: The Honorable John Kerry
Secretary of State of the United States of America
Washington, D.C
Dear Honorable John Kerry,
We Ethiopians and Ethiopian Americans residing in Washington DC and its metropolitan area wish to express our support for the excellent and strong relations that exist between Ethiopia and the United States of America. Indeed, it gives us great satisfaction that relations between our home country and the country in which we live in as citizens or residents, are strong. We, the majority of Ethiopian Americans and Ethiopians living in this country not only highly appreciate this excellent relations between the two countries, but also wish to contribute to strengthen and deepen that relationship. We, in fact, wish to serve as a bridge between the governments and peoples of the two countries with a view of making the relationship all rounded and grounded on a solid basis.
We, who are usually silent, but nevertheless representatives of the majority of Ethiopians and Ethiopian Americans, also support the remarkable progress that our home country Ethiopia is making in all fields. We want to contribute positively to that progress. Most of all, we support the peace and stability that Ethiopia has been able to achieve within itself, as well as its great contribution and its efforts to attain peace and stability in a region that strongly needs it. We would like to take this opportunity to once again express our satisfaction on the excellent cooperation that exists between Ethiopia and the United States of America in the areas of regional peace and security.
On the other hand, there are a few extremist elements in the Ethiopian Diaspora, who are unhappy about the excellent relations between the two countries and bent on derailing them by any means at their disposal, including through illegal and violent means. It is in this connection that we would like to raise our disappointments and reflect our grave concerns on the actions of a group of people who stormed the Embassy of Ethiopia in Washington DC on September 29, 2014 and brought down the Ethiopian flag and threatened the personal security of its diplomats and employees. For all of us, the flag is viewed as our symbol of ‘unity in diversity’ and the act of bringing it down is tantamount to its desecration. We are also saddened that the Embassy’s compound, a symbol of the sovereignty of Ethiopia, has been blatantly violated. We are also disappointed that the perpetrators of this crime have not yet been brought to justice.
In this connection, we would like to raise the following major concerns:
We are concerned that those people who trespassed and destroyed Embassy property are given a free reign to threaten and intimidate Ethiopians here in the United States. These people are members and supporters of the Ginbot 7, a group designated as a terrorist organization by the Ethiopian parliament, the representative body of the Ethiopian people. It is also common knowledge that this is an organization financed, equipped, and trained by the Government of Eritrea, which is under United Nations Security Council sanctions for providing support to terrorist organizations.
Therefore, as citizens and residents of this great nation, we would like to request:
Thank you,
Concerned Ethiopians and Ethiopian-Americans in the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area
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