 So my name is Alison Sieger and my daughter asked me who lives in Boston if we could organize a rally To bring attention to what's going on in Tigray, which is in the north of Ethiopia So I can't refuse my daughter, of course And so I agreed to set up this rally today and a bus load of about 50 people from the Boston Tigray community have just arrived So I'm actually gonna go off and greet them I'm really glad that today is happening And I'm really glad that CCTV is actually filming. What's gonna be happening today? My name is Abia Mbaye. I live here in actually in South Burlington, Vermont And I am also very glad that our friends are coming from Boston as well as from Maine and We just we're here to To show the you know the community that what's happening in Tigray the northern of Ethiopia as Alison was saying And then just create awareness Hi, my name is Awad Adane and I'm here from Maine We're here to get awareness of About Tigray northern of Ethiopia It's still there's no peace and we're trying to get justice for all those people that died Because they do need justice and we're here to get awareness and tell everybody in Vermont what's what's happening there. Thank you Justice now. I'm gonna say independent investigation. You guys say you and all should I say you and you guys independent investigation Okay, I'm gonna say you and you guys say independent investigation. Okay, you will just add independent independent investigation now You Knowing what you know about what's going on in your country in your region. Thank you for showing up today I'm a huge believer in showing up showing up is what makes a difference And you've made a difference today by deciding to be here Thank you to my friends that have chosen to come out on this cold and blustery morning Thank you to the Tigray community of Boston and the Tigray community of Portland, Maine We've got up at the crack of dawn to be here to inform us and the public about what's currently going on in Tigray Thank you to my lovely daughter Alex from there on right here Who had the idea in the first place? Yeah, let's have a round of applause for this young woman here definitely Thank you, Alex. Thank you. I call her Alex Meron. I call her lots of things, but You have the idea in the first place and made it happen you continue to be an incredible fall strategic and very patient leader and I'm so proud of you For those of you who weren't listening to me just now. I'll tell you what the numbers are At the very least half a million people have been murdered Over a hundred twenty thousand women and children have been raped and brutalized Over fifty eight thousand refugees from Tigray are now living in Sudan who by sure has humongous problems of their own right now There's been complete destruction of farms and factories in Tigray, which has resulted in a 95% unemployment rate Bank accounts have been looted and Thousands of Tigrayans have been rounded up and placed in concentration camps in the capital of Addis in the capital Addis Ababa Where many have been tortured rate and some have been executed and You know the toll the toll could be much higher could be much much higher I believe we only know a part of what is going on in Tigray right now We're in a waiting period to see not only what is what happens next in this so-called peace treaty But we are waiting to see what has happened until this point Because like I said journalists and have a still barred from traveling to Tigray. So we are waiting We're waiting to see what exactly the devastation will look like And we can only estimate the loss of life. I also want to thank Beth from senator Sanders office. You want to just It will say a few words in a minute. So Sanders offices here representing much Thanks to you for showing up on a Saturday morning when you really didn't have to so thank you Abbey Ahmed the prime minister of Ethiopia who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize Can you believe it less than a year before he waged war on the people of Tigray? Has so far escaped any consequences for his murderous behavior Resulting in the genocide. He has not been held accountable for the war crimes that he and his government committed In fact, the government of Ethiopia headed of course by Abbey Ahmed has now started what they call a Transitional justice process which says it will deliver accountability for human right abuses The Ministry of Justice has proposed a process based on Ethiopia's domestic courts Rather than an international tribunal as in other conflicts such as Yugoslavia How can this be objective and unbiased It's like the police monitoring the police. It will not work Amidst government has yet to even acknowledge the role irritating troops have played throughout the war Ethiopia's into Ethiopia's national institutions have no power to prosecute foreign soldiers back in Eritrea a separate sovereign country Whose leader has dismissed has dismissed allegations against his military as a fantasy Consequently many human rights experts believe the chances of justice for crimes committed by Eritrean troops are slim So with the Ethiopian courts deciding for themselves whether they have committed crimes against humanity and the fact that the Ethiopian government Haven't even acknowledged Eritrean's involvement in the massacre. It is extremely likely that justice will not prevail There are the monsters here who have ties to Tigray Some of their family members Have been captured and tortured by Eritrean forces They have spent months years in fact worrying about whether their relatives are alive or dead and some of them still do not know We implore you to help us stop this genocide We implore you to bring this war the deadliest this century to the forefront of people's minds and help us seek justice But our loved ones My friend Abby is going to speak more to what we can do here in Vermont in a minute But without justice there really will be no peace Without peace the people of Tigray will continue to live in fear Continue to be killed raped and die of hunger There has to be justice or the peace treaty really means nothing So what do we want? When do we want it? What do we want? When do we want it? What do we want? When do we want it? Beth do you want to just come up and speak for a moment and then and then Abby Can you help me down? Speak for the megaphone if you would type of weather is my second rally that I'm here and I'll be sending a letter to Allison on behalf of senator Sanders with more comments with more common That will share with you all We're happy to support this cause that's happening in Tigray with all the atrocities So thank you for inviting me and thank you for having us here. Welcome to Burlington again And until this point we people here really feel that their voices haven't been heard so thank you again Please thank the senator Yeah You don't have a lot to say because Allison my friend has said it all but First of all, I would like to invite you back my Boston friends and families Again for the third time you're a strong bunch, right? and I would like to thank especially Allison who has been fighting this fight since the inception and Doing everything to support us. I would also like to Say thank you to Vermonters who are joining us today the VT digger the free press senator Sanders is a Representative and in senator Sanders in spirit here So please Give a plot for them as well So the reason we are here Allison has talked about it in detail, but it is it boils down to get Our our, you know our Tigray back To where it was As she said a lot of people have died a lot of people are still suffering Kids have not been to school for three years One year for COVID and two years because of this war People don't have Anywhere to go when they are sick. They are not being taken care of So we need to have a proper care and the proper health care for those people who are sick Most most importantly so we want to have peace and we want to maintain whatever small peace is right now and We want to free all Tigray as As Allison has said Western Tigray and Southern Tigray still being occupied by the Amharas Northern Tigray is still being occupied by Eritreans. That needs to be free and free as soon as possible and Again, thank you everybody for coming and we want free Tigray Free Tigray Thank you Allison wants me to to tell you that we have you know a non-profit here that is established for education and health which Allison is a part of and for those of you who are listening the VT Digger the Free press and others Please support us to support kids back back in Tigray. Thank you So, thank you, Burlington and Vermonters for having us here. Okay Thank you for having us here We are here for at least three important reasons One importantly for peace. We are demanding peace in Tigray It's a good one say Okay We are here demanding three important things peace Justice and the war to stop in our region I think eloquently Allison and I we have addressed this So I don't have much to add but we just want to remind our folks here particularly Vermonters And for them to give and continue their support with our cause It's unfortunate that the world is raging with war in Ukraine particularly in Sudan now I don't know how many people are aware and because we have a substantive population in the Sudan Which is stranded because of the current conflict in the Sudan We have close to about 90,000 and probably heading 200,000 people who are already refugees in the Sudan Bleeding war from Ethiopia from Tigray and they're only four four hours away Just four to five hours away from their farm from their home some governments have been Responsible enough to remove and facilitate the travel of their citizens from cartoon inner Surrounding and pass through methamma to safety which we are very happy and supporting and yet we have 100,000 four hours from their homeland from Murrah from Dancia, but suffering from this So we demand the United States to put pressure on the UNDP on NSR on World Lidford program on ESA or ESAID and other European Communities and European governments to facilitate the return of refugees From and around from Murrah back to their country back to Tigray Even though a peace agreement have been signed November November 3rd, 2022 Unfortunately, the war still continues people continue to suffer Wars still continue to rage and particularly to grants as we speak today We are seeing casualties people are passing because of violence and conflict senseless conflict in just Between yesterday and today in she had we have at least about six people half a dozen people who have been murdered Just south of Nazareth, Adama We have half a dozen people just last night who have been murdered simply because they are childrens or people of origin of Tigray We need to stop this the United States the European Union and other International community need to put pressure on Abiyi to stop this The third is humanitarian assistance as you may be aware We have close to about six million people in Tigray who have been displaced Who were self-sufficient, but now need humanitarian assistance a substantive amount of ESAID money which is taxpayers money which have been provided and Facilitated to be delivered to humanitarian crisis Recipients and victims in Tigray and yet substantive amount of that has been diverted and nobody knows ESAID is trying to investigate what we need is immediate delivery of humanitarian assistance Directly the victims in Tigray and not just once every six months not once every year But every month the need for humanitarian assistance is immediate And we want to make sure that the USAID is following with that The third is remind about justice The State Department have made determinations that war crimes atrocities Mass atrocities Ethnic cleansing has happened in Tigray The perpetrators are Eritrea the government of Ethiopia And the Amhara militia and the Amhara armed forces It falls short of the determination that genocide has been committed in Tigray And we want to make sure the State Department follows through its reports and makes that determination Indeed genocide has happened in Tigray Number two that we want we want to make sure that Independent investigation continues to be happening in Tigray Journalists have not been allowed to move to Tigray Independent investigation have not been allowed to go through Tigray The reports that you have seen the determination that you have heard is based only on self-partisan testimonies if they were to go independent investigation to where to go to actually the places Where those crimes have been committed you can tell You can tell that of course they would make a determination genocide has really occurred So we demand an independent investigation by the international community and the continuation of the International Commission for Human Rights investigation in Tigray So 40 months number one Peace now Yes to peace yes to peace yes to peace yes to peace not to war Alright everybody Yeah, let's actually let's do a round of applause Say thank you to Allison and to those who are here and to all the reps Yeah, so let's just give them a say thank you I mean we're not done yet. We're gonna do a little chanting because I mean the reason why what you're here today is because I mean Everybody explained it, but we're demanding justice for the people of Tigray So we demand for you know justice for the people of Tigray because why a lot as they explained it a Lot of what crimes have been committed and crimes against him He might have been committed and no accountable accountability to this day And the Ethiopian government is trying to cover up this and just say you know what? Let's just forget the past and move forward that kind of that kind of mentality is not gonna help anybody because there are a lot of a lot of Children whose parents have been killed and shot with impunity and no no justice for them the children need justice the woman who are raped They need justice you cannot bury this and move forward. It needs to be addressed. Otherwise Like Allison was saying they will never be a genuine peace So we are here to say to the international community take action do independent investigation They could do it. They have the power But why are they so silent Because they they want to they choose to that's why we are here to demand them say take action take action now Take action now take action now Take action now Justice for Tigray Justice for Tigray Justice for Tigray Justice for Tigray We demand justice for Tigray now Men justice for Tigray now Justice for Tigray now Free Tigray now Shall we out of Tigray now? Every trail force is out of Tigray now I'm having fun out of Tigray now Tigray needs justice now needs justice now Tigray needs justice now What do we want? What do we want? What do we want justice now? Justice now Men justice now men justice now men justice now Men justice now We demand justice now Free Tigray now Free Tigray now Free Tigray now We also want to support our people in Sudan currently there is a civil war happening in Sudan a terrible war is Happening throughout the country. We are also on the on the side with them with the people of Sudan And we say stop the war with Sudan now Stop the war Sudan now Stop killing civilians Stop killing civilians Stop the war Sudan now Stop the war Sudan now Stop the war Sudan now Free Tigray now Free Tigray now Free Tigray now Justice for Tigray now Justice for Tigray now Justice for Tigray now Justice for Tigray now Justice for Tigray now Justice for Tigray now Justice for Tigray now Justice for Tigray now Justice for Tigray now Justice for Tigray now Alright thank you everyone Michael Barra needs to come here. He's going to say something. Hello everyone. Some of you know me and my name is Meron. I went to high school here, BHS, Burlington High School. I graduated here and then went to trade school in Boston and then after that started the grown-up life. What I wanted to say is thank you so much to all Burlington, all of you from press, from my family, from friends, all of you. We never, this is like my home here. We never got disappointed. We always get more notification, more support here than actually we live in Boston. So this means a lot to me, especially me and all of us here at UCS. We all have the bad news. We all lost family members. We all lost friends. You know it's very, very important all of you to take action by calling you senators to make sure Tigray does get justice what deserves. So please help us calling and making awareness of what's going on around us because what happens to our neighbors tomorrow will happen to us too. So let's be kind one to another and thank you for supporting us. We appreciate you. Tigray, sir. All right. We will be doing final prayer in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Dear God, we are here today gathered to ask for your help, to ask for the help of the people of Burlington, Vermont. And we are here today to ask you for the many times that we've asked, we've been asking for the past to help all the victims in Tigray, for they have been massacred, murdered, starved to death, sexually abused, deceived, and bombarded. We ask you, God, for you are the God of just, for you are the God of love, and for you are the God of peace. We ask you to help all the hundreds of thousands of people that we have lost to receive them to your kingdom. We ask all the women that have been raped and gone-graped to the tune of hundreds of thousands to help them to survive this heinous act and to bring them forth to be better people in their future for what had happened on them have devastated their lives, have devastated their family and have devastated our nation, our beloved Tigray. We also ask God to help all the people that have been starved to death and also being continuing to be starved. God, you have promised us that you will give us our daily bread and we ask in here by the fault of our enemies, all the people that had been working hard, their properties had been destroyed, their farms had been destroyed, all the factories, all the offices, all the businesses had been destroyed and Tigray had been left with nothing. All we ask in here is that for all the people in the world to understand our predicament, for the daily bread to be given to our people so they could survive the day. We also ask God for all the kids that have been born under this besiegement, they have been hurt in the kind of words that cannot be explained, they have been malnourished and all the diseases, all the troubles of health had been upon them. We ask you to heal them, to help them so they would become better citizens. We also ask God all the young men and women that have picked up arms and try to defend their people and who have become pretty much disabled. We want you to help them so they can, as they defend our sovereignty, as they defend our lives, as they defend our families, well-being, God, Lord, please help them out so they would have a better future. We ask you this through Jesus Christ, your son in the intercession of our beloved Mary, Mary of Zion, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. We are Tigrayans from the northern part of Ethiopia and we're from the New England area, state of Vermont, state of Maine, state of New Hampshire, state of Massachusetts and state of Rhode Island. Why we are gathered here is because in the past we've had two rallies in here and we've gotten a wonderful support from the Senators Patrick Leahy and Senator Bernie Sanders office and a lot of great statements that has come out from there has helped our cause a whole lot and for the third time here we are in Vermont, Burlington, city of Burlington and that is that is the reason why we're here and of course what we are opposing is war, besiegement, man-made famine, executions to the tune of hundreds of thousands, the worst trip has ever been recorded on history by the hundreds of thousands of litigers age five all the way up to old woman age 89 and these terrible people, the army of Ethiopia, the army of Eritrea, the army and militia and irregular army of the Amhara region and armies from Somalia who have come to our land and with the first time 600,000 boots and the second time about a million boots that came in and that pretty much came into our land where there are about seven to eight million people and they kill close to a million people that is about 13 percent of the population that they killed and we are opposing that and we really want the people of Burlington and the people of Vermont to help us with this cause because this is the worst in humanity that this 21st century has ever seen and we really thank you very much for your help. Okay well thank you as Miki said yes we are here today to advocate justice for our people in Tigray because yes a peace deal has been signed between the Tigray government and the Ethiopian federal government which is the right you know step in the right direction but what we need right now is accountability and justice but also we need all the invading for the remaining invading forces to withdraw from Tigray currently there are still Eritrean forces in Tigray and the remnant of Amhara militia found no soul in Tigray all these invading forces have to withdraw completely from Tigray in order to establish a genuine peace in Tigray and throughout Ethiopia so that's what we are here for we are here for the complete withdrawal of all the invading forces from Tigray that's one and two we need to address the accountability for all the raped victims in Tigray but also for civilians who were shot from house to house with impunity no mercy they've been killed these are civilians children would know they didn't do anything they were not they were not soldiers that they were killed by the Eritrean forces by the Amhara militias and found no so these work criminals need to come to justice so that's why we are here today we are here for justice and a genuine peace to be established and a real accountability to be to be done by the international community and for the UN to do its due diligence and do independent investigation I would also like to thank Kasha Ram the local senator she came last time and gave us her support like both of them said we need justice immediately without any delays we need basic assets there's still a places that they don't have access necessary that you know water food drink banks are still closed so we demand justice for all Tigray and for also peace to Sudan thank you well we would like we are here to demand justice we are here to demand end of war and for peace to reign in the region in Tigray the United States has been instrumental in providing humanitarian assistance which we appreciate it has also brokered a peace deal in November with a lot of flows in it but we want the peace to hold and yet close to about 600,000 people have been murdered the State Department did found war crimes did indeed happen in Tigray atrocities did happen crimes against against humanity did occur and also ethnic cleansing in western Tigray and other parts of Tigray the State Department fall short shy of saying and coming clear on genocide we want the State Department to make that determination importantly we would like to see the United States Department to make sure peace holds by putting pressure on the administration on ABE through diplomatic and other measures including sanctions to ensure that peace holds and to make sure independent investigation makes a determination that all these crimes did occur and someone is held responsible and accounted that to make sure journalists visit Tigray and make the evidence out so the world so the international community can see and make that determination on their own there are claims that both sides are responsible let the truth come out let the independent investigation come out let the journalists visit Tigray and make that determination we want the people of the United States to make sure the conflict in Tigray the conflict in Ethiopia the conflict in the entire Horn region does really affect them it's very important for Congress for State Department for Biden administration to put enough pressure attention as much as it puts pressure and priority in Ukraine we are sad the invasion of Russia on Ukraine we are saddened by what has happened to the people of Ukraine and we want peace in that region but we also want peace in Tigray we also want peace in the Horn of Africa the similar attention and support including resource and political will that's shown by the international community and by the United States should be shown also towards Tigray and towards Sudan as well we have been very encouraged by statements from Senator Sanders and others who is in Congress but we want the Biden administration to make more resources and more focus and priority given to Tigray thank you yeah good morning thank you very much cc tv for giving me this chance to express myself about what's going on in Ethiopia particularly in Tigray the northern part of Ethiopia today we are here to to demonstrate for peace and justice for for Tigray as you all know Tigray was under siege for the past two years war and humanitarian access was not there and rape and so on it's for those of past two years actually in the past six six months peace has come thanks to the government of the united states for helping inset this peace as they have done a lot and because of that at least now there is no war in Ethiopia in Tigray especially the northern part of Ethiopia it is true that peace is not there but as you all know the Tigray is is a big a big state the western part the northern part is still under the control of the Eritrean government and the Amhara panel this has to be to stop Tigray has to get free we are here in demand of the united states and its allies the europeans to help us bring the whole territory of Tigray into into account into up into peace and as you all know one of the problem in in Tigray is there is no humanitarian access forces have started but we need more this is a country which this is a state where they didn't get food salary and access to to health and so on the force so our our children has not been to school for the past three to four five years kids have to go back to school for the peace to be completed and then we we are here to ask that at the same time we have I have been and most of us here from Boston and Maine has been to Vermont for three four times I was very appreciative they have been very much helpful especially the senators and congressmen their voice was very much appreciated both in the diaspora and the Tigray they have done good job they have been listened by many of their comrades in the united states and we want them to continue they still do a good job but good job means when the job is done we want that to be completed but please pass our our our appreciation for whatever they have been doing and whatever they are going to do thank you very much thank you thank you for giving me the opportunity to express myself my name is Sandayo Gabriel I am the survivor of 1988 starvation or 1985 I should say I know what's like to have a war as a young child and you know survive that coming to America you attempt to try to forget what had happened this war brought a trauma that I had forgotten for so many years and today my cousins my sisters my brothers are in the same condition that they were that I was in 1985 justice for Tigaro it means we want justice for our sisters for our brothers for our kids that have not gotten justice peace is good for everything however the investigation independent investigation has to be there to find out what had happened to our sisters thousands of girls and women's had been raped and they need justice their pain has to be knowledge a government with guns go into a into a country to their homes and purposely disemain them rape them too for them to hate themselves so for the females here that you would hear my voice I need you to help me find justice for the girls and for the women's of Tigray that are suffering with no medication with no doctors to look at them and they they are losing hope because nobody is actually focusing on them peace comes when you heal peace comes when you acknowledge what you have done peace comes when you apologize or help the the people that have got hurt peace in word it sounds good but in reality the peace has to exist through trauma and you know a therapist and these females that had been raped they need to be acknowledged it wasn't their fault being female it's not a crime born in Tigray is not a crime so I just hear to be the voice for the people of Tigray that you know they don't have voices but they don't get the opportunity to make their voice and I want to make aware for everybody in the United States to help us to give international community and to investigate it you know I wish I could say more but I can't and I'm unable to articulate my word thank you very much