Tesfu Woldeselassie
Gotthelfstrasse 7
4800 Zofingen
Switzerland
British prime Minster
Date: 22/07/2014
Abduction of Mr. Andargachew Tsige – British Citizen
Dear Sir,
I am writing to you about the illegal abduction of Mr. Andargachew Tsige - a British Citizen Passport number 099283837 and DOB 09/02/1955, and the failure of the British Government to provide protection.
Mr. A. Tsige, a British citizen, a prominent and secretary general of an exiled Ethiopian opposition movement, Ginbot 7 was abducted at Sana'a airport on 23 June 2014, by the Yemeni security services while in transit between the United Arab Emirates and Eritrea in contravention of the Vienna Convention.
Mr. A. Tsige, was imprisoned in Ethiopia for his political activities during the ill-fated election of 2005 and has escaped assassination attempts by the dictatorship whose brutality, is well documented by International Human Rights Groups, the United Kingdom, the European Union and the United States. Mr. A. Tsige, an ardent defender of human rights and a staunch critic of the regime in Ethiopia has been convicted and sentenced to death in absentia by the tyrannical regime in Ethiopia.
We understand that British authorities knew he was being held in Yemen for almost a week but they failed to stop his apparent extradition to Ethiopia and his where about is still unknown. Although the Yemeni authorities have confirmed to the British Government that Mr. A. Tsige has been handed over to Ethiopia, Ethiopian authorities have publicly denied that he is in their custody.
I am extremely worried about Mr. A. Tsige, because the authoritarian regime in Ethiopian kills at will. Ethiopia is led by an ethno-centric apartheid regime where journalists, bloggers, and political cartoonists, let alone political opposition members are considered terrorist.
Britain, known to have enormous political leverage as a major donor and political ally of Ethiopian authorities despite its appalling human rights record, but still doesn’t know the where about of its citizen. Britain is accused of a two-tier citizenship protection it provides to its nationals and those who flee political persecution form authoritarian regimes around the world.
I request your immediate intervention to ask the British Government to immediately find Mr. A. Tsige - a father and a champion of democracy and justice, guarantee his personal safety, and ensure his return to his family in the United Kingdom.
Yours sincerely,
Tesfu Woldeselassie
