March 19, 2004

SOCEPP has been informed that the Yemeni authorities have jailed all the Ethiopian refugees (former officers of the Ethiopian armed forces, women and children) who were staging a peaceful protest to call upon the UNHCR to assure them their rights. The refugees in Yemen have been denied their rights, especially by the UNHCR that was supposed to protect them, and were trying to peacefully call the attention of the concerned to improve their condition. The refugees have been targets of overt and covert negative actions and measures on the part of the EPRDF which is ruling in Addis Abeba.

Please call on the government of Yemen to release all the jailed refugees as soon as possible.

Please remind the UNHCR that its failure to protect the Ethiopian refugees in Yemen is unacceptable.

SOCEPP once again expresses its solidarity with the Ethiopian refugees in Yemen and calls on the Yemeni government to release the detained and to assure that their rights are not violated anymore.

Ethiopians in the Diaspora should mobilize in defense of their compatriots in Yemen.

SOCEPP