Peace Rally against Ethiopian Invasion of Eritrea

25 May 2000

Media release

The Eritrean community of New Zealand has called for a march for Friday 26 May, 2000 to protest Ethiopia's invasion of Eritrea, displacing one million civilians. Most of the displaced are farmers from Eritrea's breadbasket region of Gash-Barka , just before the harvest season.

The march, which will start at 12 noon at the Queen Elizabeth Square, assembling from 11 a.m. and will disperse at Aotea Square at about 1 p.m. The march will call upon the New Zealand government, the United Nations and the Organisation of African unity to condemn Ethiopia's invasion and its futile attempt to resolve the conflict through military means. We are asking for an immediate assistance to the victims of this aggression, and help bring about a peaceful end to this murderous conflict between Eritrea and Ethiopia.

The current Ethiopian regime has been squandering more than one million dollars a day on the war for the last two years rather than using it to feed the more than 12 million Ethiopians facing starvation today. The new Ethiopian offensive has substantially compounded the humanitarian crisis in the region. In addition to the millions of victims of famine throughout the region, there are more 600,000 Ethiopian and Eritrean civilians who were displaced as a result of previous offensives in the border conflict between the two nations. The more than 100,000 Ethiopian troops who are 43 kilometres deep inside uncontested Eritrean territory are looting the displaced farmers' meagre resources as they advance toward populated centres that are being pounded incessantly by air raids, which may soon deny critical food airlift route to the one million displaced Eritreans.

The Eritrean community of New Zealand calls upon the New Zealand Government and the rest of the international community and all peace-loving peoples to condemn Ethiopia's invasion of Eritrea and help alleviate this new wave of human crisis the invasion has caused.

From the Eritrean Community Of New Zealand, tel/fax. 09 2966089, mobile 021 474 005.

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