With a rally in front of the Ethiopian consulate about 50 demonstrators protested in Frankfurt today. Members of the Ethiopian War Resisters’ Initiative (EWRI) had invited to this rally considering the beginning campaign for the election in May 2010.

Auf seiner Veranstaltungsreise machte André Shepherd am 5. Oktober Station in Kassel. Bei einer gut besuchten Abendveranstaltung berichtete er vor einem sehr interessierten Publikum über seine Motivation, sich einem erneuten Einsatz im Irakkrieg zu verweigern und in Deutschland Asyl zu beantragen.

Am 6. September demonstrierten etwa 250 Personen in Würzburg gegen die Festung Europa. Mit dem Protest wurde zugleich gefordert, die Gemeinschaftsunterkunft in Würzburg aufzulösen: "Gemeinschaftsunterkünfte wie die in Würzburg, sind ein offensichtliches Kennzeichen der ras­sistischen Migrationspolitik in Deutschland. Menschen, deren einziges ’Vergehen’ es war, sich unerlaubt auf ’deutschem Boden’ auf­ge­halten zu haben, werden eingesperrt, bis ihre Abschiebung vollzogen werden kann." An der Demonstration nahmen auch zahlreiche Aktive der "Initiative der äthiopischen KriegsgegnerInnen" (EWRI) teil.

Four male teenagers were caught and killed by Eritrean soldiers after their attempt to cross the border to Ethiopia illegally beginning of 2009. This was reported on February 11. Due to this incident Eritrean civil organisations and opposition groups called for a funeral march which was held February 28, 2009, in Frankfurt/M. About 400 people attended the rally.

At today`s press conference declared AWOL US soldier André Shepherd why he applied for refugee status: "It is perhaps appropriate that I am applying for asylum in Germany, where the Nuremburg trials took place 60 years ago. One of the main things that were established during these trials was that one cannot defend one’s actions by claiming to have merely been following orders. If I had stayed in the U.S. Army and continued to participate in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, I could not legally argue that I was just doing my job. Here in Germany it was established that everyone, even a soldier, must take responsibility for his or her actions, no matter how many superiors are giving orders."