Senator Russ Feingold, Chairman of the Subcommittee on African Affairs, introduced a bill entitled “Support for Democracy and Human Rights in Ethiopia Act of 2008 ”.

According to the Coalition for H.R. 2003 , an alliance of groups committed to work collectively for passage of bill on Humans Rights in Ethiopia, the “findings” in the bill document a slew of human rights violations committed by the “Government of Ethiopia” in the aftermath of the 2005 elections, including the injury of “763 civilians,” the murder of 193 persons and detention of “thousands more opposition party leaders and their followers, “widespread violations of human rights and international law by the Ethiopian military in Mogadishu and other areas of Somalia, as well as in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia.”

The bill describes the use of “unjustifiably brutal tactics [by the government of Ethiopia] against its own citizens in Oromiya, Amhara and Gambella regions.”