At the Rally on  June 9  2005 ,a  petition was handed over to a representative of the Austrian Government .

On June 17 2005  Ambassador SCHEIDE Ralph Dr.iur, Department Head of Africa Desk at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, invited us to share with him our position and the Austrian government policy regarding the current situation in Ethiopia.

The meeting was held in a friendly and convenient athmospher, where we were able to present our concern over the present salutation in Ethiopia. Mr.SCHEIDE Ralph  described the basic principles of Austrian foreign policy under which the embassy in Addis has been working in cooperation with embassies of other European member states to defuse the situation. He mentioned the “10 point confidence building measures” which was also a result of their efforts.

Mr.SCHEIDE told us that the government of Austria was very concerned about the safety of the detained students, opposition leaders and supporters and others throughout the country. He also stressed that police and federal security forces should conduct themselves in accordance with international principles of human right and any arrested individuals should be released due process. Mr.SCHEIDE promised to closely follow the situation in Ethiopia.

Finally we kindly requested the government of Austria to exert their influence on the Prim Minister and the government of Ethiopia as follows:

a) That Austrian government urge the Prime Minister of Ethiopia to stop tampering with the election results, to accept the result of the May 15, 2005 and to refrain from efforts to cling to power at any cost by circumventing the will of the people and to take appropriate and peaceful measures to transfer power to the winning party or parties.

b) That the Ethiopian Government desists from intimidating, harassing and jailing local election observers, monitors and returning officers. We kindly ask such violation to stop immediately in order to maintain the sanctity of the democratic process of vote-casting and counting;

c) That the Prime Minister immediately lift his unwarranted state of emergency that he arbitrarily declared without provocation and justification, and allow opposition leaders, supporters and the general public to freely exercise their rights to free speech, peaceful assembly and demonstration;

d) That the Government of Ethiopia ceases harassing, arresting, imprisoning and killing opposition members and supporters. And it should immediately and unconditionally release those detained;

e) That the Government of Ethiopia stop monopolizing the electronic and print media and guarantee that government owned television, radio and newspapers are accessible to opposition parties;

f) At the same time we ask the government of Austria to give protection for the two pilots defected in Djibouti.