Legendry heroes, Colonel Abdisa Aga and Zerai Deres, upheld the honor of the real Ethiopia flag on the Italian soil. Both are distinguished true sons of Ethiopia; the former is an Ethiopian of Oromo origin from Wollega and the latter hails from Eritrea.
Colonel Abdisa broke out from a high security prison and joined the forces of General Tito operating from a mountain hideout in Italy where he proved himself a distinguished guerrilla leader in his own right. He hoisted the tri-colour Ethiopian flag at his camp; upon return to Ethiopia, he kept it neatly folded and proudly showed it to his audience in several of his speeches at various forums. This writer saw that flag with his own eyes at one of those speeches which he had the rare honour to attend.
The famous Zerai Deres was taken prisoner to Rome by the Italian Fascist invaders. The Italians made a mockery of the Ethiopian Flag to his face. The patriot could not stand the sacrilege. He got hold of his sword with which he cut his enemies and eventually gave his precious life. The Zerai Deres Hotel at the Assab Red Sea frontier was named in honour of this magnificent hero.
Ethiopians are eternally indebted to the heroic deeds of Abdisa Aga and Zerai Deres, and indeed to all the patriots that paid the ultimate sacrifice in honour of the Ethiopian Flag – the sacred Green Yellow and Red (GYR) symbol of our independence.
The overwhelming popularity of the Ethiopian Flag and the resolve to defend its sanctity surely scare the tyrant Meles to date because there is nothing to suggest deeds of patriotism in his ancestry. Besides, the mammoth demonstrators clad with the marvellous Flag at the London G-20 Summit must have scarred him to death.
The tri-colour Ethiopian Flag is charismatic and awe-inspiring; tyrant Meles has none of these qualities. It is a symbol of the rule of law which Meles and his cohorts break arbitrarily. It is remarkably popular and beloved to the Ethiopian people – which honour the tyrant can only dream of. It is a symbol of independence and territorial integrity that shall outlive Meles on whose grave a prosperous and democratic Ethiopia shall be built where free people can provide three wholesome meals a day that he has miserably failed to provide.
Meles showed outright disrespect to the Ethiopian people by desecrating their GYR Flag immediately upon his entry to Addis Ababa with the assistance of a Western power and his agazi forces terrorizing and killing unarmed protestors during their push along the long trail of blood and rotting corpses. The people of Addis Ababa and its environs adamantly protested the abuse of their Flag and the attempted dismantling of the Statute of the Hero of Adwa, Emperor Menilik II. The cherished national symbols survived, but Meles seems not to have given up on his secret agenda of destroying everything of enduring value to Ethiopians so that history of the country will be counted from the date of his ascendancy to power.
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The emblem on the TPLF flag is an eyesore to the Ethiopian people. Day light robbery of the three colours bearing the said emblem by the illegitimate regime is categorically unacceptable to the cultured Ethiopian people which hold their Flag in reference and use it on occasions such as the ones below:
During the reign of the Emperor the Flag with emblem is displayed only at the Palace where the Monarch was present and was carried by the guard of honour at official functions at military parades presided by the Monarch;
The Flag without emblem is made to fly on masts in government institutions, schools, municipalities, provincial headquarters and so on;
Coffins of renowned citizens and military personnel with distinguished services were draped with the plain flag, which was then neatly folded and presented to the nearest family member of the dead; such practice is in effect in the USA and other western civilizations for example;
The plain Flag is reverently displayed at weddings and other functions by ordinary people;
It is true that in Eritrea during the colonial days coffins were draped with the Ethiopia Flag despite the displeasure of the colonial masters;
The Flag is a revered symbol of the rule of law; if one says in the name of the Bandira (the Flag) the other listens and obliges even when no witness is present; Ethiopians are civilized; it is a true story that a prominent ruler of the Afar people said once that even the camels know the Ethiopian Flag come to a stand still when they see it. Without suggesting that Meles is inferior to camels his disrespect and fear for the Ethiopian flag raises several questions.
Nightmare for Meles
How is the belligerent Meles going to enforce the law on the prohibition of public display of the tri-colour flag without the TPLF emblem? First of all our Ethiopian Flag is not identical to the one to be approved by the puppet parliament according to the instructions of the rubber stump cabinet chaired by tyrant Meles. It is a matter of common sense that the two flags are different, the one without emblem is the basic historical Flag widely used by the Ethiopian people at home and in the Diaspora. Prohibiting it from its wide utilization to which the Ethiopian people are accustomed is a deliberate design to stir unrest among the people by ignoring basic values represented by their Flag.
For the sake of argument, flags of three distinct colours (Green, Yellow and Red) can come in infinite combinations of sizes, order of the colours, and orientations. Therefore, creative Ethiopians and other world citizens such as the RAS Tafarians have unlimited number of chances (infinity minus one in mathematical jargon) of displaying the colours GYR on material objects of their choices. Is Meles going to issue a worldwide decree to prohibit such creativities? Are his Kangaroo courts going to pass criminal judgement on the basis of similarity of colours alone ignoring other factors governing the definition of his flag?
An exercise in permutations will show that the GYR in horizontal orientation as in the case of the Ethiopian Flag produces six distinct groups one of which is the exact reverse (RYG) read from left to right or from bottom to top preserving the horizontal orientation in tact. This is probably the only sample of its kind in the world. So the weaver in Ethiopia can make this design on the collar, edge of shirt sleeves, lower edge of skirts and other locations in clothes we wear. Those who see it would know it is a replica of Ethiopian Flag. These three colours are seen all over the world in different arrangements fitted on clothing, headgears, scarf ad infinitum.
Ethiopians are a creative people to take Meles to task on this one as well! Incidentally, this writer was unable to cite a country using this colours on its flag made in horizontal orientation.
Burning issue
Evil seems to visit ETHIOPIA in quantum leaps of 40 years. Forty years after the humiliating defeat at the Battle of Adwa in 1896, the Italians entered Addis Ababa in 1936. The Italian Fascists were beaten thanks to the determined resistance of our patriots for mounting guerrilla warfare unprecedented in Africa. In about the same number of years the agazi forces invaded Addis Ababa and committed atrocious crimes and colossal damage to our national interests in the last 18+ years of their misrule. The thugs have gone to the extreme limit of rendering us non-persons by denying us the right to honour and display our Flag – symbol of our dignity and independence. It is time to rise up and pay the ultimate price in the defence of our dignity, pride and bravery bequeathed to us by our forebears. The spirits of Abdisa Aga, Zerai Deres and thousands of other famous Ethiopian patriots expect of us the living no less than resolute defiance to the illegitimate regime seeking to impose its version of the illegitimate flag and the modality for its display. Who cares about the illegitimate TPLF flag anyway? The ruthless Meles regime shall be defeated just like the Italian fascist invaders before it.
Fellow Ethiopians, we have a duty to perform. The Lady of Truth, antithesis to the pathological liars holed up at Arat Kilo, is in prison. Teddy Afro is in prison for calling for peace and reconciliation. Thousands of prisoners of conscience are languishing in jail throughout Ethiopia. It is our solemn duty for the rest of us in the larger jail to secure the release of Birtukan, Teddy Afro and all political prisoners.
The zero-sum game player Meles knows no compromise in politics; he should have long gone from power. Our struggle is gathering steam at last; the tyrant who is on the wrong side of history will soon be gone for truth, faith in our noble cause and time are our allies in our pursuit of respect for basic human rights and the rule of law.
Judge Birtukan and all political prisoners shall be free!
Our tri-colour Flag GYR shall live forever!
