lic demonstrations, the Ethiopian students at home as well as abroad have reaped several victories against the regime and exposed to an ever wider public the real conditions in Ethiopia.
Especially during the year 1969 the struggle of students has reached unprecedented heights. In the month of February 1969, secondary and elementary school students in several provincial towns demonstrated against the restrictive educational policy of the regime anc the introduction of new school fees. Ir one provincial town not far from Addis Abeba, at least one student was killed by the police in cold blood and several severely injured.
In the subsequent weeks the students of the University opposed this brutal by its very nature, brought into the pic ture the entire political and economic set-up of the feudal system. The students drafted a set of demands. The demands include: the withdrawal of the recently instituted school and examination tees; a just and equitable distribution of scholarships granted by foreign nations; cessa ion of the use of American Peace Corp teachers; immediate termination of the vast expenditures on extravagant entertainment of foreign guests, on similar visits abroad by Ethiopian officials and on unnecessary embassies; the removal from office of those officials directly re sponsible for the state of the educational system; public trial of those officials res ponsible for the killing of students during peaceful demonstrations. In these demands and in the subsequent struggles. the students in the University were joined by secondary and elementary school students, parents, teachers, and other youths. The government retaliated by closing all schools and colleges and detaining some two thousand stud ts in concentration camps. When the government later ordered that the schools and colleges be reopened, the students decided to boycott classes until their demands were met, and those arrested unconditionally set free. Abroad, Ethiopian students have condemned the regime and expressed their solidarity with the compatriots at home, in such actions as the occupation of the feudal regime's embassies in Belgrade, London, Moscow, Paris, Stockholm, and Washington, DC, on 28th March 1969.
Throughout the continuing struggles, the government has employed the full force of its repressive machinery. In March (1969) the regime decreed a Detection Act setting a three-month imprisonment for any suspect, with the provision that the period can be extended at the discretion of the security arm of the government. Detention of innocent people without trial has always been practised by the regime. Now it has been leg ant struggles have become extensive: sus(From the World-Wide Union of Ethio pian Students) As 1969 drew to an end the eighty-five political prisoners still in Mexico City' ›ecumberr prison were continuing the hunger strike. The prisoners began thei action on December 10th to protest against arbitrary and unconstitutional confinement and the failure of the courts to observe the minimum judicia norms in conducting their trials.
Spokesmen for the protesters expec ted the hunger strike to continue into January despite the fact that many of the participants in the action were seri ously ill even before it began. Three E de Gortari, Jose Revueltas and Raul Be arano-are diabetics. Five others, incluc ing Manuel Marcue Pardinas, suffer fro epilepsy. As of the end of December, only the elderly Eli de Gortari had bee forced to abandon the hunger strike.
After refusing food for more than tv weeks, the prisoners declared that they intended to continue their strike until their demands were met, no matter wh the consequences. They have not been deterred by the brutal indifference of the government nor by a combination threats and political pressure.
The authorities have intimated that the granaderos, Mexico's riot police, mi be ordered to suppress the protest actic The hunger strikers have also been thre tened with isolation from other prisone ners. Political figures linked to the gov-ernment, like Luis Quintanilla, have vis ted Lecumberri in an attempt to persuade the participants to abandon their strike.
In an apparent attempt to dissuade moderates from supporting the Lecum berri protest, the state prosecutor's office issued a statement declaring that th hunger strike was "neither a proper nor legal recourse"
None of the government's attempts t block growing support for the hunger strike have succeeded. Many prominent liberals, including leading church figure have gone on record in support of the prisoners demands.
In the last two weeks of December hundreds of prominent Mexican intelle tuals and artists, including Carlos Fuentes, David Siqueiros, and Jose Luis Cuevas, petitioned President Diaz Orda to submit an amnesty proposal to the congress. The legislature adjourned, ho ever, without any such proposal having been submitted.
THE DEMANDS In a statement issued at the start of the hunger strike, the participants demande that the government drop its charges an release them.
The protesters cited the following grounds for their demands: (1) their trials have been in progress for more than a year, which exceeds the constitu tional limit; (2) the acts they are accuse of were pretexts for repression of the student movement, and in no way attri butable to them; (3) the trial hearings have been a farce; (4) no proof of any kind has been presented to show that they are responsible for the acts with which they are charged; (5) granting of bail has been made subject to specific political conditions and although many requests for bail have been made since last January, none have been allowed; (6) the political character of the arrests and jailing are obvious to all; (7) some political prisoners have already been granted asylum, possible only in cases c political persecution The prisoners wrote that they had de cided to resort to a hunger strike becaus the courts had arbitrarily declared their trials concluded although the prosecution had failed to present any credible evidence, and no adequate defence had been permitted Individuals and groups have appeale repeatedly to the government to respec the constitution in its treatment of the political prisoners without effect. The only response was a statement that "there are no political prisoners in Mex co"
Letters and telegrams supporting the prisoners' demands and protesting against the treatment they have receive can be sent to Lie. Gustavo Diaz Ordaz