EPRP SUPPORTS THE STRUGGLE OF THE PEOPLE OF DJIBOUTI

EPRP SUPPORTS THE STRUGGLE OF THE PEOPLE OF DJIBOUTI

11 February 2011

The mass uprising that started out in Tunisia and spread to many Arab countries seems to have reached Djibouti too as students and the people recently demonstrated against the dictatorial regime of Omar Gelleh. The EPRP, in solidarity with people struggling for their rights and democracy, fully backs the people of Djibouti and calls on them to unite in the struggle to oust the dictator and out an end to his ethnic discriminatory regime.

Omar Gelleh, who has taken part in the illegal land grab in Ethiopia (at Bishoftu/Debre Zeit and in Bale, has been heading a sold out and repressive regime in Djibouti and is presently preparing to take part in a third term election much in opposition to his own Constitution. From the Issa clan and born in Dire Dawa (Ethiopia), Omar Gelleh and his family and close friends have oppressed the people of Djibouti (both Issas and Afars) to no end. The French Foreign Legion stationed in the land is now supplemented by a thousand or so American Marines stationed in Camp Lemonier and dozens of German and Japanese troops. Gelleh has also given permission to the notorious private security firm Blackwater to use Djibouti as a naval base. An armed rebellion is strengthening itself in the North under the leadership of the Front for the Restoration of Unity and Democracy (FRUD). It is to be noted that Gelleh’s regime has deported hundreds of Ethiopian refugees back to Ethiopia and allied itself with the anti people gang of Meles Zenawi to work against the interests of the people of the Horn in general.

The EPRP, actively struggling to put an end to the Meles regime, expresses its solidarity with the peoples of Djibouti and calls upon them to intensify the struggle for final victory over the Omar Gelleh regime.