Protest as Ethiopian government holds conference on campus
Network Against Injustice and Repression in Ethiopia stage demonstration outside Sherfield
Chaos broke out at a demonstration held on campus when a fire alarm was triggered and forced hundreds of students to evacuate the central library. The demonstration was in protest at an Ethiopian government conference being held in the Great Hall on Saturday 16th April. In the confusion that followed the alarm, protesters breached police barriers and attempted to storm the Sherfield building.
Almost fifty people gathered to stage a demonstration against the Ethiopian government, who they accuse of human rights abuses. Protesters were initially penned near the biochemistry building, with a police guard limited to only a handful of officers. At 2.43pm, a break glass panel was smashed in the southern entrance foyer of the Sherfield building, triggering the fire alarm. The central library, which was packed with students revising for summer-term exams, was evacuated and hundreds of students spilled out onto the Queen’s lawn. In the commotion, protesters broke past police barriers and tried to enter the Sherfield building where the conference was taking place. Police officers blocked protesters at the entrance to the building and more officers arrived at the scene shortly after. Hundreds of evacuated students gathered to watch the demonstration outside Sherfield, with some complaining about the disruption to their revision. The conference was cancelled due to the escalation of the protests and all of the delegates left campus for safety reasons. The protesters followed to the Ethiopian embassy on Exhibition Road to continue their demonstration. The library was eventually re-opened for students at 3.10pm, after almost half an hour of disorder, when college security officers reset the broken alarm panel. The identity of the perpetrator, who triggered the fire alarm, is not known.
A delegation of Ethiopian government officials, headed by Minister for the Civil Service, Ato Juneidi Sado, attended the conference on the Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) for Ethiopia. The Network Against Injustice and Repression in Ethiopia organised Saturday’s demonstration. Similar demonstrations, organised by affiliated groups, have led to the cancellation of GTP conferences held at two other western universities in recent months.
BANAANBIXII LONDON 16 APR.2011 from Radio Xoriyo on Vimeo.
Ethiopia received 700,000 tonnes of food and £1.8bn in humanitarian aid last year alone, more than almost any other country in the world. However, demonstrators claim that the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) government is illegally misusing it, by refusing aid to supporters of the political opposition. Their allegations are supported by Human Rights Watch, which has warned of an ‘aid-politics trap’ in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian government denies any misuse of humanitarian aid.
Most of the students that gathered to watch the protests had not previously been aware of the situation in Ethiopia, and took an interest for the first time. A second year ISE student said it seemed like “a worthwhile cause” and that “academic institutions can’t become puppets to a political agenda.” However, another student complained, “we don’t know both sides of the story”. Many students were unhappy with the distraction from revision and crowded around the library entrance, starting a small demonstration of their own.
Protesters at the demonstration were of all ages, and included many women and children. They waved Ethiopian flags and raised placards that read, “Great Britain Stop! Development Aid will be wasted!” One woman held a picture of the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, with a swastika printed on his face.
A protester, who had fled from the Ogaden region of the country to the UK, called the college “naive” for allowing the use of their facilities for the conference. On behalf of the protesters, he told Felix, “we condemn Imperial College for allowing these killers to meet here.” He wished to remain anonymous for fear of retribution on his family, still living in Ethiopia. Later on, the same man said that today, “the truth prevailed.”
A spokesperson for the Ethiopian embassy claimed, “some of them [the protesters] are allied to terrorist organisations” and cited a flag raised at the protest that they attributed to a rebel insurgency group, the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF). However, a key organiser of the demonstration refuted these claims and said that the flag belonged to the Ogaden region and its people, rather than just the ONLF.
The embassy’s spokesperson also described Saturday’s protest as a “very violent demonstration”, but failed to provide evidence to support this. There were no reports of violence at the demonstration on campus.
Ethiopian satellite television covered the demonstration and broadcast the events on campus live worldwide.
A spokesperson for the college told Felix, “Imperial runs conference facilities that are booked by a wide range of organisations for private events every year. A booking of these facilities carries no endorsement by the College of the aims and opinions of the event organisers.”
