16, 08, 2019

To: Prime Minster Office of Ethiopia

National Electoral Board Ethiopia

We demand an immediate release of the 700 Sidama youth incarcerated and being tortured in Hawassa Town and other districts. Maintaining state of emergency meant suppressing the constitutional rights of the Sidama people. Therefore, Sidaama hold the Ethiopian government, National electoral board, SEPDM and its various institutions constitutionally mandated for facilitating and conducting the Sidama referendum for regional statehood fully accountable for the massacre of the Sidama civilians.

We urge the government to address without any further delay the Sidama demand for regional self- administration in Ethiopia. The Sidama nation should press ahead with determination with its peaceful demand for the realization of its constitutional right to managing its own affairs within Ethiopia.

We call upon the international community to condemn the Sidama massacre of 18-20 of July 2019 and exert pressure on the Ethiopian government to release all the prisoners, remove defense and special police forces from all districts. Killing is not remedy and never brings solution. Instead we strongly advise the government to remove its army from the Sidama land and urgently initiate a civilized discussion with the Sidama people. In civilized world, defense forces protect the sovereign country from an external threat; in Ethiopia however the defense forces is used more often than not- by the government to massacre civilians. We condemn the defense forces for their brutal massacre of the civilians and urge utmost restraint whilst withdrawing from the Sidama land.

Justice, Equality and Freedom for the Sidama Nation and the Rest Nations and Peoples in Ethiopia!