on behalf of the S&D Group . - Mr President, in Ethiopia two days ago Yonatan Tesfaye, spokesperson for the opposition Blue Party, was sentenced as a terrorist for comments he made on Facebook about human rights. Last November, Dr Merera Gudina, the Oromo opposition leader, was arrested and tortured under terrorist charges for the crime of participating in a public hearing here, at the European Parliament, with Dr Berhanu Negra, another opposition leader democratically elected in 2005, then sent to jail, now in exile, and also deemed a terrorist. Thousands of political prisoners languish in jail in Ethiopia, jailed by a totalitarian government which was never elected, and whose last farcical election emulated North Korea, with the ruling party winning 100% of the votes. The violation of human rights in Ethiopia is systematic and aggravated under the state of emergency, with excessive force against peaceful demonstrators, massacres like at Irreecha, brutalising victims of the garbage dump landslide last March, brutal repression against the Roma community and other ethnic groups, arbitrary arrests, torture, killings, and terrorist charges against those who dare to dissent.

In this resolution we call on the High Representative to mobilise members to support a UN-led inquiry into the killings in Ethiopia. The Commission and Council must stop the pretence that they are dealing with a respectful government in Ethiopia as justification for wasting piles of EU taxpayers' money on development aid, security capacity and the migration compact. They are, in fact, assisting a corrupt dictatorship which rules by terror, thus fuelling rebellion and insecurity. Ethiopia is indeed strategic. When Ethiopians revolt all Africa will tremble.