This is not the first time that the TPLF murdered Ethiopians en masse in different parts of the country. The regime came to power through gun and maintained its grip to power by gun. It walked all its way to the Capital by killing and has kept up killing peaceful and civilian citizens as its way of governance. The atrocious acts of TPLF/EPRDF has affected every part of our country and there is not any region or village that has not been affected from north to south and east to west.
Just in the early days of its rule in early 1990’s, the TPLF/EPRDF started to pull out what it has in pocket one after the other. The first to taste the vicious and barbaric handling of the regime were members of the former armed forces, and we all remember what happened to them for defending their country. Next, the regime declared war in Oromia that resulted in arbitrary murder, detention and disappearances of several thousands of innocent citizens. The massacres in different areas of Eastern and Western Hararge and Arsi are good examples. Tens of thousands are still suffering in overt and covert prisons while many others have perished in prisons and detention centers. About the same time, the regime also embarked upon its other peculiar character – inciting conflicts between different sects of our society such as interethnic conflict. This has affected many in Arsi, Hararge, Borana, Goji etc.
Next the TPLF brutal hands reached Awassa (Loque) in May of 2002 when the regime solders fired at mass of peaceful demonstrators and gunned down some 70 innocent citizens cold blooded. This was followed by the Annuak massacre in Gambella region of December 2003 in which more than 400 innocent people were murdered in a single day by TPLF soldiers and by direct order from the them prime minister. However, we the Ethiopian people were not able to stand and respond together. In 2005 following the election crisis, the regime massacred hundreds of innocent citizens, of which the regime itself admitted to have murdered 193, in Addis Ababa alone. The Ogaden area has been under all out war and ethnic cleansing for years and we have been reading and hearing of cruel crimes against humanity in that region. Then came the case of our brothers and sisters who happen to be Muslims. Simply because they did not like the government’s interference in religious affairs consistent with the principles of the religion, we all witnessed the sufferings and ordeals they have gone through. Many Ethiopian Muslims were murdered in various places such as Wollo and Arsi (Asasa) while many others including religious leaders have been arrested and subjected to abuses. Moreover, The TPLF cruelty has reached various areas in Gojam, Gondar, Tigray, Afar and others. The attack by TPLF on Ethiopians is multifaceted and includes extrajudicial killings, detentions, displacements from lands etc.
However, in all of these incidents, we have never acted in unison to the extent that can make a difference. When injustice was done in one place or to one group of our society, the rest of us have not felt or shown equal pains. By doing that we gave the TPLF a very convenient ground so that it can do any thing it wants to without any problem. Moreover, by doing this we legitimized the TPLF’s divisive strategy.
How and why has this happened to us? Even at this very time when the regime is most hated in all regions, we are still not ready to deny it the chance to fool us. We have to confront this reality straight and discuss openly.
TPLF/EPRDF has carefully designed and implemented the divide- and-rule principle on us and the strategy has worked very successful. As a result the regime is harvesting the fruit. The regime is also confident that we remain divided and defeated, and hopes to continue this for indefinite time. I acknowledge the legitimate concerns emanating from the different political views and lines we pursue. However, TPLF has manipulated that difference to make it more productive for its own. This matter has given the regime an opportunity to play cards by adhering to one group when it deviates from the other. I urge us to move beyond this and focus on common enemy – the TPLF. Why? Because unless we come together and stand together, we will all remain preys for TPLF and be taken care of one by one. The other reason: there is no too dreadful political intention among Ethiopians of any view or ethnic group to my understanding. I assume it is all reconcilable. I also believe there is a consensus among all of us on the importance of being part of a bigger and stronger union in that sensitive region of the Horn of Africa at the end. I do not want to go into more politics in this piece of article.
The current question of the Oromo students is purely about democratic rights and freedom, and is not related to any political organization as the TPLF tries to portray. Their main question is why such a life threatening decision for millions of people around Addis Ababa was made without any consultation with them and where will the land grab and sale stops. Land grab and displacement of indigenous people is not new to Oromia. The students have practical information about what happens to those displaced from their lands. In addition, the cumulative effects of brutality, human rights violations, corruption, poor social services, racist policies, inflation and hard living conditions under this government have fueled the peaceful protests. All the major questions they were raising were relating to these and there is no doubt that these are the questions of the entire Ethiopian people. They raised our own questions. Questions deviating from this general trend were very few and only heard on limited occasions. Those things do not characterize student protest in any way. Partly, some of those things might have been done by the ruling party to incriminate the students while also some individuals might have used it to energize the base.
The student demonstrations were peaceful protests without any violence but they were met with brutality that included shooting, beating and detentions in unspecified place and number. In Ethiopia, we all know what an arrest in the hands of TPLF means- it means severe torture that results in permanent or life threatening disability and, in some cases, life long disappearance. International media such as the BBC reported that the town of Ambo only suffered 47 deaths and hundreds of injuries while local sources put the death toll to over 50. There are more causalities in Guder, Tikur Inchini, Nekemte, Haromaya etc. These are our innocent brothers and sisters who took penalties for trying to use their democratic and constitutional rights. We must unite for Ambo and rally together. We will be voices for those voiceless young school kids who were murdered in the streets and others who are detained en mass and demand that such vicious acts stop, all arrested people be released immediately and unconditionally, and the perpetrators and the commanders be brought to justice.
Déjà vu 1994 Rwanda in 2014 Central African Republic
Last week, the people of Rwanda began a solemn week of official mourning to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Rwanda Genocide. On April 6, 1994, Hutu extremist leaders in government, their political supporters and organized militiamen coordinated a systematic killing spree, which lasted over 100 days and consumed the lives of more than 800,000 mostly ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus. In 1994, Rwanda had a population of 5.5 million, of which 14 percent were Tutsi. Today Rwanda has a population of 11.5 million, of which the Tutsi population is less than 10 percent.
Last week, the people of the Central African Republic (CAR) continued to face their own “Rwanda-esque” nightmare of unspeakable horror. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was so disheartened by the ongoing “ethno-religious cleansing” in CAR that he declared, “The international community failed the people of Rwanda 20 years ago… And we are at risk of not doing enough for the people of the CAR today . . . Some say this is a forgotten crisis. I am here to help make sure the world does not forget… And we are at risk of not doing enough for the people of the CAR today… Atrocity crimes are being committed in this country. Ethno-religious cleansing is a reality. Most members of the Muslim minority have fled. We cannot just continue to say ‘never again’. This, we have said so many times. We must act concertedly and now to avoid continued atrocities on a massive scale…”
Twenty years ago when Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana, a Hutu, died after his plane was shot down, Hutu extremists who opposed a 1993 ceasefire agreement for power sharing Hutus and Tutsis for the creation of a power-sharing government launched their “final war” to “exterminate the [Tutsi] cockroaches.’ The “akazu” (top Hutu political leaders and elites) began hatching a concerted plan to exterminate Tutsis at least a year before the onset of the genocide. They set up their own radio station (Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines) and began a virulent and systematic campaign of demonization of Tutsis and moderate Hutus. At the onset of the genocide in April 1994, they used their radio station to embolden and encourage the killers. They read out the names of people to be killed and directed murderous militias (Interahamwe and Impuzamugambi) to different locations to commit horrific crimes. They repeatedly proclaimed on radio, “In truth, all Tutsis will perish. They will vanish from this country … They are disappearing little by little thanks to the weapons hitting them, but also because they are being killed like rats.” In 1994, there were about 120,000 people living in Nyamata, the largest city in Rwanda located 30 miles from the capital Kigali. In less than a month and a half, only 50,000 were left. Five out of every six Tutsis had been killed.
Today, CAR has exploded into sectarian and communal strife and civil war. In 2013, Seleka militia (an alliance of rebel militia factions that overthrew the CAR government in March 2013) launched “a murderous rampage that started in the north-east and spread out across the country, seizing the capital Bangui and ousting then-President François Bozizé. Over the following 10 months, Seleka forces killed countless civilians, burned numerous villages, and looted thousands of homes.” Although an estimated 90 per cent of CAR’s population is Christian including the ousted president Bozizé, most of the Seleka forces and their leader Michel Djotodia are Muslims. According to Amnesty International, Seleka “abuses spurred the emergence of the loosely organized “anti-balaka” militia (“machete proof” in Sango), made up of Christians and animists. In the last four months of 2013, anti-balaka fighters carried out horrific attacks on Muslim communities, particularly in CAR’s northwest.” The violence has continued to intensify and currently international peacekeepers have “failed to prevent the ethnic cleansing of Muslim civilians in the western part of the Central African Republic.” In the town of Yaloke, less than 150 miles from the capital Bangui, there were an estimated 30,000 Muslims with 8 mosques a year ago . According to Human Rights Watch observers, today there are fewer than 500 Muslims and one mosque left.
For the past year, the international human rights organizations have been ringing the alarm bells over the impending “ethno-religious cleansing”-cum-genocide in the CAR. In October 2013, Amnesty International issued a report warning of the “human rights crisis in CAR is spiraling out of control.” As the violence and carnage increased, a token force of several thousand international peacekeepers (2,000 French troops and some 6,000 African Union forces) was sent to CAR. Last week, the U.N. authorized the deployment of 12,000 peacekeepers to CAR but that force will not arrive until September 2014. Human Rights Watch issued a dire warning indicating that the extreme level of violence in CAR is “forcing entire communities to leave the country. At this rate, if the targeted violence continues, there will be no Muslims left in much of the Central African Republic.”
The parallels between 1994 Rwanda and 2014 CAR are chilling. In 1994 Rwanda, the Organization of African Unity and the international community including the U.S. and the U.N. turned a blind eye to the spiraling genocide. In 2014 CAR, the international community is giving lip service and performing window dressing with token military presence as tens of thousands of innocent civilians are being massacred and hundreds of thousands displaced in “ethno-religious cleansing”. For a full year, it was manifest to the African Union and the international community that a backlash in CAR was foreseeable and preventable. Amnesty International noted, “In power for nearly 10 months, the Seleka were responsible for massacres, extrajudicial executions, rape, torture, and looting, as well as massive burning and destruction of Christian villages. As the Seleka withdrew, the international forces allowed the anti-balaka militias to take control of town after town. The resulting violence and forcible expulsion of Muslim communities were predictable.”
Doomed by history?
Has Africa learned its lessons from 1994 Rwanda? Does the world care about Africa? Is Africa condemned to live in the long shadow of Rwanda? Are we witnessing Rwanda 1994 in CAR 2014? What is the difference between “ethno-religious cleaning” and genocide (the same difference between tomAto and tomayto)? Is CAR Rwanda redux? Was Rwanda the future of CAR, and CAR the future of Africa?
There is not a single country in Africa that is immune from the Ebola virus of communalism and sectarianism. Like Ebola, the initial symptoms of communalism and sectarianism appear to be not out of the ordinary. Those who claim to struggle against ethnic and religious oppression often proclaim righteousness. When they become the victors, they commit equally or more atrocious crimes that make a travesty of their cause and causes the deaths and suffering of millions. Like the Ebola virus, communalism and sectarianism are a deadly combination in the body politics of Africa. A vaccine must be found soon if Africa is to be spared the scourge of sectarianism and communalism.
The specter of genocide and crimes against humanity in Africa
In his “Communist Manifesto”, Karl Marx announced to the world that “A spectre is haunting Europe — the specter of communism.” In a metaphorical equivalent, “A specter is haunting Africa – the specter of genocide and crimes against humanity.” Marx declared, “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” Is the future of Africa going to be a struggle against genocide and crimes against humanity?
Article 5 (a) of the Rome Statute grants prosecutorial jurisdiction to the International Criminal Court over the crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity. Article 6 defines “genocide” to include specific “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” These acts include, among others, “killing or causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.
Article 7 defines crimes against humanity which includes “murder, enslavement, deportation or forcible transfer of population, imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law, torture, rape, and persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender.
Crimes against humanity and mini-genocides are commonplace occurrences in Africa today. With the exception of the international human rights organizations, few Africans (including leaders and members of the African intelligentsia) and fewer Western media and diplomatic communities are prepared to talk about the genocide and crimes against humanity taking place in Africa. In April 1994, when the Clinton Administration pretended to be ignorant of the unspeakable massacres in Rwanda, Susan Rice, President Obama’s current national Security Advisor, casually inquired of her colleagues, “If we use the word ‘genocide’ and are seen as doing nothing, what will be the effect on the November [congressional] election?”
Beginning in 2003, the Sudanese government exploited tribal/ethnic differences in the Darfur region pitting nomadic Arab herders against pastoralist African groups. The Sudanese government armed ethnic Arab militia groups, known as the “Janjaweed,” (not unlike Rwanda’s Interahamwe) to attack the ethnic African groups. As the government rained bombs from the sky, the Janjaweed burned villages, poisoned wells, raped and massacred over one-half million people and displaced millions more. In 2009, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and other officials for directing a campaign of mass killing, rape and pillage against civilians in Darfur. Bashir sneered at the ICC indictment, “Tell them all, the ICC prosecutor, the members of the court and everyone who supports this court that they are under my shoes.”
Uhuru Kenyatta, along with other co-defendants including his deputy president William Ruto, is currently facing trial in the ICC for his alleged role in masterminding the post-election violence in Kenya in late 2007 and early 2008. Over 1,100 people are believed to have died in that violence and 600 thousand displaced. Kenyatta is charged in a five-count indictment under the Rome Statute for crimes against humanity including murder, deportation or forcible transfer, rape, persecution and other inhumane acts. However, Uhuru Kenyatta will never see the inside of the ICC courtroom in The Hague. Truth be told, it is not only Kenyatta and his partners in crimes against humanity who have escaped justice. Many other “genocidaires” and criminals against humanity in Africa have thumbed their noses on the ICC and other tribunals and gotten away.
In southern Ethiopia, the indigenous people along the Omo River valley are facing extinction as a result of displacement and villagization caused by the construction of the so-called Gibe III dam. In August 2012, the world-renowned conservationist and paleoanthropologist Dr. Richard Leakey predicted that the Gibe III “dam will produce a broad range of negative effects, some of which would be catastrophic to both the environment and the indigenous communities living downstream.” Is the regime in Ethiopia culpable for genocide and crimes against humanity for constructing a dam that certainly damns the indigenous people of the Omo River Basin?
In western Ethiopia, the people of Gambella have lost their ancestral lands and homes to Indian multinationals. The regime in Ethiopia “leased” to an Indian corporation known as Karuturi “2,500 sq km of virgin, fertile land an area the size of Dorset, England” in Ethiopia for £150 a week ($USD245). To make way for Karuturi, tens of thousands of Ethiopians in Gambella were forced to move and become part of the regime’s villagization program. A UNICEF field study concluded: “ The deracination [uprooting from ancestral lands] of indigenous people that is evident in rural areas of Gambella is extreme. It is very likely that Anuak (and possibly other indigenous minorities) culture will completely disappear in the not-so-distant future.” Is the regime in Ethiopia responsible for genocide and crimes against humanity in its use of villagization policy in Gambella?
For nearly a quarter of a century, the regime in Ethiopia has been repackaging an atavistic style of tribal politics in a fancy wrapper called “ethnic federalism.” The regime has managed to segregate the Ethiopian people by ethno-tribal classifications and corralled them like cattle into grotesque regional political units called “kilils” (literally means “reservation”; semantically, the word also suggests the notion of an exclusion zone, an enclave). The ideology of “kililism” shares many of the attributes of Apartheid’s “Bantustanism”(“black African tribal homelands”). Both ideologies aim to concentrate members of designated ethnic groups into “homelands” by creating ethno-linguistically homogenous territories which could ultimately morph into “autonomous” nation states. “Kililistization” is “villagization” on steroids; it reduces Ethiopia to a bunch of glorified villages. “Kilils” are basically a kinder-and-gentler form of Apartheid-style Bantustans. Is “kililism” the seedbed of genocide and crimes against humanity?Is the regime in Ethiopia responsible for genocide and crimes against humanity for its “kililization” policy?
For over a decade, the regime in Ethiopia, despite claims of “ethnic federalism”, has mounted an indiscriminate counterinsurgency campaign in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia to suppress the Ogadenis basic demands for autonomy. The regime has adopted policies aimed at starving the Ogadeni population and economically blockade Ogadeni towns and villages. The regime has indiscriminately strafed and bombed Ogadeni civilians and cut off humanitarian aid to the region. Massacres, torture, rape and disappearances have been used as weapons of war by the regime against Ogadenis. Human Rights Watch issued a 130 page report entitled, “Collective Punishment: War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity in the Ogaden area of Ethiopia’s Somali Region” documenting the regime’s crimes. Is the regime in Ethiopia responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Ogaden?
In 2005, the regime in Ethiopia orchestrated the massacre of hundreds of unarmed protesters in the aftermath of parliamentary elections in May of that year. Police and security officials under the personal and direct command and control of the late Meles Zenawi and his top officials coordinated the massacres. An official Inquiry Commission appointed by Meles documented the extrajudicial killing of at least 193 unarmed protesters, wounding of 763 others and arbitrary imprisonment of nearly 30,000 persons. The Commission’s evidence further showed that nearly all of the 193 unarmed protesters were killed by the regime’s sharpshooters. The Commission further documented that on November 3, 2005, during an alleged disturbance at the infamous Kality prison near Addis Ababa, guards sprayed more than 1,500 bullets into inmate cells in 15 minutes, killing 17 and severely wounding 53. Was Meles personally responsible for crimes against humanity? Are those officials currently in the regime or others who participated but are no longer in the regime responsible for crimes against humanity in the 2005 massacres?
In May 2012, Meles hectored his rubberstamp parliament to justify his forced expulsion (or as some have described it “ethnic cleansing”) of Amharas from southern Ethiopia and zapped his critics for their irresponsibility in reporting and publicizing it. Meles said the “Amharas” or as he described them the “sefaris from North Gojam” (how humiliating to be called a “safari” or “squatter” in one’s own country!) had to be removed from their homesteads in the south purely out of environmental conservation concerns. There was not a scintilla of evidence that the removal was justified by environmental concerns. Was Meles personally responsible for crimes against humanity for forcibly removing thousands of “Amharas” from the southern part of their country?
Last April, the regime in Ethiopia authorized the forced removal of “Amharas” from the Benishangul-Gumuz region (one of the nine “kililistans” in Ethiopia) in act widely described as “ethnic cleansing”. Prof. Yacob Hailemariam, a prominent Ethiopian opposition leader and a former senior Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda commented that the expulsion of members of the Amhara ethnic group from Benishangul-Gumuz was a de facto ethnic cleansing. “The forceful deportation of people because they speak a certain language could destabilize a region, and if reported with tangible evidence, the UN Security Council could order the International Criminal Court to begin to examine the crimes.”
Large swaths of Ethiopia today are afflicted by famine and starvation which the regime has kept secret for a long time. In February of this year, the regime bureaucratically announced that 2.7 million of the 91 million people in Ethiopia are starving and in need of humanitarian aid. The total food requirement (which in the past the regime has low-balled) is estimated at 388,635 metric tons. The regions most affected by famine include Gambella (16.7%) , Somali (13.8%), Tigray (11.3%) and Afar (10%). The regime has budgeted only $51.6 million dollars, which represents only 12.8 percent of what is required. As the alarm over the impending famine was being broadcast, Hailemariam Desalegn, the ceremonial prime minster, was crowing about a “double digit economic growth”. Thousands of Ethiopians are dying from starvation every month unseen and unregistered because the regime maintains a complete chokehold on information coming from famine afflicted areas. Is the regime in Ethiopia responsible for genocide for the famine deaths by benign neglect and depravity for failing to properly budget when it had had full advance knowledge of the impending food catastrophe?
Since the regime in Ethiopia took power in May 1991, it has been engaged in inflammatory ethnic talk demonizing “Amharas” and others. As recently as a few months ago, the regime was coordinating and orchestrating a full-court press demonization and vilification campaign against Atse Menelik II, the Nineteenth Century Ethiopian emperor whose centennial is being celebrated this year (Ethiopian calendar). The regime was using Menelik as the straw man to methodically organize a campaign to incite hatred and ill-will between members of ethnic groups. The incitement campaign was conducted largely through regime lackey-proxies, stooges and puppets. Through its minions, the regime has used the most loathsome words, inflammatory rhetoric and repugnant imagery to describe Menelik’s alleged brutality. One hundred years after his death, the regime has tried to resurrect Menelik as the devil incarnate. What is the purpose of such propaganda? Is inflammatory rhetoric calculated to stoke the fires of ethnic strife a crime against humanity?
The late Meles Zenawi was a man of much intelligence (if his foreign cheerleaders including Susan Rice and Clare Short are to be believed) and little wisdom and common sense. He liked to play with the specter of genocide as much as little children like to invoke the mythical bogeyman to scare each other. In 2010, Meles not only defiled and desecrated the memory of the Rwandan Genocide victims but also tried to take political advantage by resurrecting through inflammatory rhetoric the ghastly ghosts of Rwanda comparing the Voice of America Amharic Service to Radio Mille Collines of Rwanda. Meles said, “We have been convinced for many years that in many respects, the VOA Amharic Service has copied the worst practices of radio stations such as Radio Mille Collines of Rwanda in its wanton disregard of minimum ethics of journalism and engaging in destabilizing propaganda.” Zenawi used the bogus “genocide” excuse to spend millions of dollars to jam broadcasts of VOA Amharic into Ethiopia, precious resources that could have been used to aid famine victims and provide health care and education.
Such were the outrageous words that dripped from Meles’ mealy-mouth.When Meles said “the VOA Amharic Service has copied the worst practices of radio stations such as Radio Mille Collines”, what was his real message, the message between the lines? Was he asserting that the Amharic service has called for a “final war” and the “extermination” of some Ethiopians like “cockroaches”, “vermins” and “rats”? Who are the “genocidaires” in the country being mobilized by the VOA transmissions? Was he saying that the Amharic service is directing and coordinating murderous militias and groups for genocidal activities to make sure that some Ethiopians “will perish and vanish from the country.” Meles was intentionally using the Rwanda Genocide for political purposes; in effect he was trying to convince Ethiopians and his foreign bankrollers that without him and his regime Ethiopia will be another Rwanda. Any regime that seeks to cling to power by invoking the specter of genocide must eternally be opposed!
Every African man and woman must struggle to invent a thousand and one reasons to hope
Genocide and crimes against humanity in any African country must be regarded as genocide and crimes against humanity in every African country.The Rwanda genocide is an African genocide. It is not a crime inflicted against Tutsis and moderate Hutus. It is a dastardly crime committed against all Africans and humanity. It is a crime that has left deep and indelible scars on the soul of every living African. Africans must remember, not despair. To paraphrase Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust Survivor and Nobel Peace Laureate, “All Africans must remember the killers. Each African must remember the victims, even as they individually struggle to invent a thousand and one reasons to hope. Because we remember, we despair. Because we remember, we have the duty to reject despair. Hope is possible beyond despair.”
The crucible for genocide and crimes against humanity is the human heart
The genocide in Rwanda did not begin on April 6, 1994 when machete-wielding thugs began roaming the streets. The seeds of that genocide were planted decades before in the hearts of misguided and spiteful Rwandans regardless of ethnicity. Hate and bigotry have neither race nor religion. Genocide slowly germinates in the minds of men and women who nurse hatred and anger and silently sizzle in frustration. Like mushrooms that grow in the darkness of the cave, the seeds of the genocide mushroom in the darkness of the heart. Africans must not despair; they must remember the message of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” Only the sunlight of truth can illuminate the dark heart.
Silence and indifference are the oxygen of genocide and crimes against humanity
Genocide and crimes against humanity are quintessentially crimes of silence and crimes of indifference. The great powers were silent witnesses to the genocide in Rwanda. They knew exactly what was going on beginning on April 6, 1994. They chose to remain silent. The African Union, the U.N and the European Union chose to remain silent, but they knew. The slaughter continued for over 100 days and cost the lives of 800 thousand people because those who could have stopped it did not care. Africans must not wait for others to save them. They must save themselves from themselves. That is why all Africans must be of a single mind in condemning those who promote ethnic hatred and religious intolerance; they must actively resist those who demonize individuals and groups on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, language, gender or any other pernicious classification.
Truth and justice before reconciliation
Jean Bosco Mutangana, a Rwandan prosecutor in charge of that country’s international crimes unit recently said, “In our lifetime we shall continue to pursue them, and those who come after us will continue to pursue them. You cannot have reconciliation without real, true justice being done.” That is a message for all Africans. Justice and truth/reconciliation are two faces of the same coin. Whichever way the coin is tossed, it shows only one face of human rights. Nelson Mandela said, “Reconciliation means working together to correct the legacy of past injustice.” Past injustices are what cast long dark shadows on the future and fate of Africa.
The responsibility to educate
Commemorating the victims of genocide in Rwanda and Darfur and condemning “ethno-religious cleansing” in CAR is not enough. Africa’s young people must be educated about genocide and crimes against humanity. Such information must be part of the curriculum in every African school, college and university. Ignorance is the fertilizer of genocide and crimes against humanity. Ban Ki-moon told the people of Rwanda, “We must not be left to utter the words ‘never again’, again and again”. These are empty words that come too late to aid the innocent men, women and children of CAR who have already lost their lives and those desperately fleeing to save their lives.
Instead of criticizing and antagonizing the international human rights organizations, African leaders should invite and challenge them to help create human rights education for young Africans who could in turn use their training and knowledge to empower their peer groups and communities with knowledge, skills and attitudes that promote universally recognized human rights principles. Human rights education is the sine qua non and a prerequisite for the resolution of conflict in Africa. Those who do not learn from the genocide and crimes against humanity of the past are doomed to repeat them.
Africa’s short men and their long shadows
Scholars say the problem of governance in Africa is “Big Man” rule where leaders privatize the state and use state resources to service their clients in the general population who in turn help them cling to power. I believe the problem of African governance is the opposite. An old saying teaches, “You know it is near sunset when short men cast long shadows.” There are too many short men in high offices in Africa pretending to be Big Men and great leaders. The short men of Africa are in fact leaders of wolf packs who prey on the people. They are small men of little intelligence and boundless malevolence. They are short men with little vision and infinite power obsession. They are small men with little compassion; they brim with hate and aggression. These short men in Africa are not only bad leaders but also bad men, bad human beings. They cast long shadows and have made Africa a “dark continent”. “Old sins cast long shadows.” The sins of the small men cast long dark shadows of war, genocide and crimes against humanity in Africa. It is the duty of every African to stand tall over Africa’s short men and obliterate their long dark shadows with the bright sunlight of love, truth, tolerance, harmony, justice and reconciliation.
I remember Rwanda 1984. I remember the Central African Republic 2014. Hope is possible beyond despair.
Professor Alemayehu G. Mariam teaches political science at California State University, San Bernardino and is a practicing defense lawyer.
Previous commentaries by the author are available at:
IPI and partners also call for immediate release of five imprisoned journalists
VIENNA, Jan 14, 2014 – Ethiopia’s use of sweeping anti-terrorism law to imprison journalists and other legislative restrictions are hindering the development of free and independent media in Africa’s second largest country, according to a report published today by the International Press Institute (IPI).
Dozens of journalists and political activists have been arrested or sentenced under the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation of 2009, including five journalists who are serving prison sentences and who at times have been denied access to visitors and legal counsel. The report, “Press Freedom in Ethiopia”, is based on a mission to the country carried out in November by IPI and the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA).
“Despite a strong constitutional basis for press freedom and freedom of information, the Ethiopian government has systematically used the anti-terrorism law to prosecute and frighten journalists, which has put a straight-jacket on the media,” IPI Executive Director Alison Bethel McKenzie said. “Our joint mission also found a disturbing pattern of using other measures to control the press and restrict independent journalism, including restrictions on foreign media ownership and the absence of an independent public broadcaster.”
The report urges the Ethiopian government to free journalists convicted under the sedition provisions of the 2009 measure. These journalists include Solomon Kebede, Wubset Taye, Reyot Alemu, Eskinder Nega and Yusuf Getachew. Mission delegates were barred access to the journalists, who are being held at Kaliti Prison near the capital Addis Ababa.
The report urges the 547-member lower house of parliament to revamp the anti-terror law to ensure that it does not trample on the rights of freedom of speech and assembly provided under Article 29 of the Ethiopian Constitution and further guaranteed under the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights and the U.N. Human Rights Covenant, which Ethiopia has ratified.
In addition, the report:
Recommends that Ethiopian lawmakers review laws that bar foreign investment in media, measures that inhibit the development of an economically viable and diversified market.
Urges the courts to ensure that rulings restrict press freedom only in cases of intentional incitement or clear participation in acts of terrorism, and that judges act independently to protect the public’s right to be informed about political dissent and acts of terrorism.
Urges Ethiopia’s journalists and media owners to step up cooperation to improve professionalism and independence, and to form a unified front to defend press freedom.
The joint IPI/WAN-IFRA mission was carried from Nov. 3 to 6, just ahead of the African Media Leaders Forum (AMLF) in Addis Ababa. The organisations’ representatives met with more than 30 editors, journalists, lawyers, politicians and bloggers, as well as associates of the imprisoned journalists. The delegation also held meetings with the ambassadors of Austria and the United States, a senior African Union official, an Ethiopian lawmaker and government spokesman Redwan Hussien.
The organisations urged Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn to free the imprisoned journalists, some of whom are suffering from deteriorating health. In a joint statement issued immediately following the mission, IPI and WAN-IFRA also expressed their commitment to helping improve the professionalism, quality and independence of journalism in Ethiopia.
While the report highlights a long history of press freedom violations in Ethiopia, including a crackdown on journalists and opposition politicians following the country’s 2005 national elections, it notes that the 2009 anti-terrorism law has given the government expansive powers.
“The 2009 anti-terrorism law gave new powers to the government to arrest those deemed seditious, including journalists who step beyond the bounds of politically acceptable reporting or commentary,” the report says. “Armed with statutory authority, the government has not shied from using the laws to bludgeon opposition figures and journalists. Dozens of journalists have been imprisoned or accused of sedition or fomenting unrest, forcing many to flee the country.”
The report notes other forms of pressure by the government. Independent journalists recalled being the target of smear campaigns by state-run media, while editors recounted that managers of the government-run printing press refused to print editions of newspapers containing controversial articles.
The report does note positive developments, such as the growth in advertising and readership for some of the country’s leading independent newspapers. Journalists and newspaper publishers also expressed a desire to improve professionalism, quality and solidarity; although they added that government pressure and laws continue to create hurdles to self-regulation and cooperation.
“We came away from Ethiopia recognising the tremendous potential for a highly competitive, professional and successful media market in Ethiopia,” Bethel McKenzie said. “But to make this happen, the Ethiopian government must remove the roadblocks, starting with the release of imprisoned journalists and then conduct a thorough review of the laws to ensure that reporting on legitimate criticism or dissent is not grounds for prosecution.”
For more information, contact Timothy Spence, senior IPI press freedom advisor for the Middle East and Africa, at +43 (1) 512 9011 or email tspence[@]freemedia.at
The Horn Times Newsletter
Report compiled by Getahune Bekele-South Africa
*Number of exhumed remains rising…
On Tuesday morning 31 December 2013, mortified Army chief-of-staff Gen Samora and Deputy PM D. Mekonen were spotted leaving the third battalion barracks, TPLF’s secret execution site for many years.
Despite the regime’s massive cover up campaign, intimidation and open threat of secondary mass grave for the accidentally exhumed corpses in order to avoid investigation or to conceal evidence of the mass murder; Ethiopians winced in terror when the news of the discovery of mass grave in Addis Ababa travelled across the vast nation exposing the savagery; atrocities and duplicity of the current ruling minority junta, – largely of Tigre coterie.
The gruesome discovery was made on Friday 27 December and Saturday 28 December 2013, between Sidist- Kilo and Ferensay- legasion areas at Jan-Meda, inside the barracks of the third army battalion when an excavator working for road expansion project pulled out two corpses wrapped in same color blankets and again another four corpses each wrapped in blankets of identical colors.
Eyewitnesses who got to the area and took the photos before the federal police cordoned off the vicinity told reporters that two of the corpses were still in hand-cuffs and one of the victims had his hands tied behind his back.
“I jumped into the ditch driven by emotion and although the remains were dismembered and co-mingled, I have counted four corpses on Saturday, all shot to the base of the skull. That is, as we all know a Bolshevik style execution practiced by the Stalinist TPLF warlords for years. These remains are undoubtedly victims of 22 years of TPLF repression and terror. The blankets, manufactured by the Debre Birhan blanket factory did not lose their original colors and labels. That indicates the executions were not carried out that long ago. ” A retired medical doctor living in Jan-Meda area of Addis Ababa told reporters, sobbing silently.
When contacted by an undercover reporter on January 1, 2014, the Debre Birhan blanket factory’s sales and customer service manager who gave his first name as Negasi, admitted supplying the correctional service authority of Ethiopia with more than 200,000 blankets similar both in color and design to those found in the mass grave in 2005, 2006 and 2007 financial years.
According to Negasi, the factory did so after legally won tenders.
The sales clerk’s admission is a damning proof beyond any reasonable doubt to journalists that the dead tyrant Meles Zenawi’s homicide squad known as the Agazit executed detainees and committed the war crime during the 2005 nation-wide anti TPLF insurrection.
“Well, grim reminders of the Meles Zenawi era, but how many more mass graves are we going to uncover in the coming years in this city purged by Tigre People Liberation Front with unparalleled audacity? It would be the biggest flagrant miscarriage of justice if the ICC chief prosecutor Madam Fatou B let the panicking TPLF warlords off the hook. It is incumbent up on her to send a team of investigators to Addis Ababa without any delay.
“ This blood curdling discovery has exposed the nation’s festering wounds and further complicated the dreadful ethnic fault line created by the ruling Tigre People Liberation Front/TPLF in May 1991. I personally know that then federal police boss; the snarling evil Workeneh Gebeyhu used the third infantry battalion compound as the headquarters of operations in 2005. He quit the post last year and where is he today? The nation is crying for justice.” A political analyst who is following events for the Horn Times from Addis Ababa explained.
“TPLF warlords thought they found a safe spot to store remains of the barbarically executed non-combatant, peaceful protesters. Mass grave right under the nose of the international community and the people of Ethiopia. This crime scene is full of the telltale fingerprints of the dead former ruler Meles Zenawi….” The political analyst added.
In addition, after getting fresh reports about the exhumation of more skeletons on Monday 30 December 2013, the Horn Times’ attempt to get comment from the junta’s top spin-doctor Shimeles Kemal regrettably proved unsuccessful. Moreover, as it is a norm in a totalitarian regime where the flow of information is government controlled, dreading being indicted for war crimes and extermination, not even ordinary federal police officials were willing to comment on this very sensitive matter with far- reaching consequences.
Currently, the army, using corrugated sheet has fenced off the killing spot. The public no longer observes the exhumation; hence, no one knows the exact numbers of corpuses recovered up to so far. According to a journalist the Horn times spoke to minutes before posting this piece, the Jan-Meda neighborhood remains tense with heavily armed federal police and the military manning several roadblocks in the area.
Shell-shocked residents nonetheless, are unanimous in their call on the ICC, the International Criminal Court to investigate the senseless genocide, a result of two decades of tempestuous minority junta rule in Ethiopia.
“Members of IAGS, International Association of Genocide Scholars, must rush to the crime scene to help with recovery and identification of the remains of possibly the 2005 election massacre victims, a dark chapter in our history.” Another resident of the area told the Horn Times reporter asking not to be named for security reasons.
Democracy has been a conglomeration of violence and brutal repression to the long-suffering people of Ethiopia. According to the opinions of several prominent Ethiopians, for the nation to move forward, western powers must disown the genocidal minority junta now and let justice take its course.
The members of the Ethiopian Muslims Arbitration Committee that have been detained since last year have said that they were ‘physically and mentally tortured’ in the Central Prison, Addis Abeba.
They said they were forced to stand for over 14 hours per day, were lynched wires until their skins bruised, shackling them, blindfolding them and beating the soles of their feet, denying them sleep and prayers, disrespecting their religion and grace, forcing them to shave their beard, denying them visitation by their families, solicitors, doctors and religious leaders, forcing them to do difficult exercises, struck their genitals, were threatened that their children will be killed, their wives will be tortured and a bottled water will be hand on his genital to castrate them.
The Committee members said in their statement that although article 18 Sub Article 1 of the Country’s Constitution states “ Everyone shall have the right not to be subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”, they have been tortured throughout the seasons and were forced to ‘admit, speak and sign’.
They said that had spoken out to the Court about the tortures they had gone through in prisons but it had continued as they returned to their cells from court. They said, when they asked for the respect of the Constitution and rights, the tortures responded saying “tear and throw the Constitution, we came here paying sacrifices”.
They said although it is imperative that their court proceedings have been open, they were closed.
The members of the Committee have said that the unity and respect among Muslims and between Christians and Muslims should be protected. They vowed to continue their peaceful struggle and pay all the sacrifices. They also said that they are ready for the next stage of the peaceful struggle.
The Committee also called on the government to stop the inhuman acts committed in central prisons and release prisoners’ of conscience.
Déjà vu 1994 Rwanda in 2014 Central African Republic
On Tuesday morning 31 December 2013, mortified Army chief-of-staff Gen Samora and Deputy PM D. Mekonen were spotted leaving the third battalion barracks, TPLF’s secret execution site for many years.
The Abyssinia Times 