Behind the ethnic cleansing in Benishangul-Gumuz

The despicable and barbaric action of targeting, evicting
and deporting ethnic Amaharas from the Benishangul-Gumuz ethnic state in
western Ethiopia is a horrific crime and a crime against humanity by any
measure and the outrage of Ethiopians across the world is justified.  The stories we hear from the victims
themselves and the witnesses who saw it are heart wrenching.  Thanks to social media and communication technology,
we are hearing from the victims themselves and seeing some of their tragic pictures
in real time irrespective of where we live.  Thanks to the folks at ESAT TV and Radio
for the relentless coverage.  I have
even heard many supporters of the Ethiopian regime, at least those who live
outside of Ethiopia, condemn this barbarism.  They should be applauded for that.   

What kind of sane person cannot be
outraged when watching this replay of a Nazi pogrom that targets an ethnic
group who were literally frog-marched and, in the words of the victims
themselves, told to go to “their country” and “wherever their
ancestors were born”?  What do
you feel when you are told this nonsense in your own country, the country your fathers
and forefathers defended and died for? 
The victimized ethnic Amharas were beaten, violently dragged off their
homes and forced to pay for the trucks that packed them inhumanely, transported
them out of the Benishangul Gumuz state, and dump them at the edge of another
ethnic homeland without anything to help them stay even for a day.   The government has not even denied
or confirmed reports that one truck loaded with more than sixty people had
overturned at night and fifty nine deportees were killed.  We heard that women were giving birth in
the wilderness and children died of suffocation.   What kind of decent human being
would watch this unconscionable action of a government do this to its own
people, particularly to the most vulnerable and not get outraged?  

While we are at it, it is good to know that this is a
part of Ethiopia where even Sudanese nationals related to tribes inside
Ethiopia freely move in and out as they wish and depending on the season of
their comfort.  Note also that the
Amharas are not a minority in this ethnic region.  Based on the 2007 census, Amharas with
21.8% are the second largest ethnic group among six other ethnic groups
inhabiting the area. The largest ethnic group, the Berta, is only slightly
larger than the Amhara at 25.4%.  Important
to note is also that the Amhara are allowed only to elect officials to all
levels of government but cannot be elected themselves – democracy Ethiopian
style. And lo and behold, this is the area where we are building the huge Nile
Dam that we are being asked to contribute money for  and that Sudan and Egypt hate
like the plague.

Only the Ethiopian government media thinks it is hiding
this horrific story.    Embassies of Ethiopia’s donor
countries in Addis Ababa, who tirelessly tell us how they care for civilization
and human rights, have also chosen to look the other way.  This barbarism is theirs too as they are
underwriting it in so many ways. That may partly explain their silence.  The only silver lining I found in this whole
sad story is that the local, indigenous tribes and ethnic groups have not joined
the officials in this crime.  Many,
we even heard, were sympathetic to the victims. We all need to be proud of
them.  They have not lost their
senses even as their chiefs lost theirs. 

But here is the major point.  Many Ethiopians seem to miss the root
cause of this crime and get outraged at the chaffs.   The root cause of this ethnic cleansing
and the factor that created it is embedded in the vision set out for Ethiopia
by its rulers, the TPLF/EPRDF, as soon as they took power.   The officials of the Benishangul-Gumuz
state and those in Guraferda, Bench Maji Zone, in the Southern Ethiopia
Regional State, were executing a Grand Vision imbedded in the creation of the
ethnic homeland – the Killil.    That is why some officials
seem to be surprised by our surprise and were giving incoherent responses to some
media interviews.  In a way, you can
argue that the local officials who are doing this crime are also victims of the
Grand Vision which they were told was a good official policy.   

The Benishangul officials somehow failed to learn from
their comrades in the Southern Regional State in Guraferda Bench Maji who as we
speak are doing the same thing.   Had they done it a few victims at a
time, the outcry would have been easily muted.   In the Guraferda case, they seem to get
smarter after doing a massive eviction when they started out last year.    Now they are doing it on “a smaller
group of victims at a time” basis.  They seem to have learnt that the larger
their victims the louder the visibility and outrage.   Other than that, the local
officials are doing their job prescribed in the Grand Vision.

When Meles Zenawi said, “what is
Axum to the Wolayita and the Castles of Gondar to the Oromo”, he may have
spilled the beans quite early in his tenure, but he was not saying it out of
ignorance or saying anything outside of what he believed.   The suggestion was to create a psychology
among people that anybody born outside of your ethnic homeland does not belong with
you – that Ethiopia’s numerous ethnic groups are mechanically joined
units that share very little among one another.   The Grand Vision stipulates that the best
way to divide and rule Ethiopia, and fight age-old and powerful Ethiopian
nationalism that stood on their way, was to reduce it to divided units and inward-looking
ethnic nationalism.  Of course, this
was not an innovation by Meles or TPLF.    It was first invented by the Italians
who twice invaded Ethiopia and, to their unforgettable surprise, found out that
Ethiopian nationalism is more powerful to tear down, and that it is hard to
divide Ethiopians along their ethnicity and conquer their country.   A version of the current ethnic map is
first made by Italian strategists and visionaries, if you can call them that.   

Please don’t get me wrong.  I am all for the rights of ethnic groups
to promote their cultures, languages, etc., and believe that any attempt at
democratizing Ethiopia should do its best to do away with ethnic inequality in
the country.  I also know it is a
challenge for any government trying to address it.  I have monkeyed with Marxism- Leninism
when I was a collage kid.  When I
began to see and understanding my country fully, I found out that any solution
for Ethiopia’s ills can only be based by studying and understanding Ethiopia
and its complexities and devising indigenous solutions and not by importing
European ideas.  I believe we can
find our own solutions.

Anybody who thinks that the motive behind the
manufacturing of the “killil
state” by the TPLF/EPRDF was to empower ethnic groups and help them
promote their language, culture etc, and do away with ethnic inequality, was
apparently taken for a ride or has not paid attention to the philosophy
embedded in the formation of ethnic homelands – the killil.  The fact is you
don’t necessarily need the ethnic killil to make ethnic groups or so
called “nations” and “nationalities” and
“peoples” equal.   In
fact, for ethnic groups to be equal citizens in the country, you don’t
necessarily have put them inside a geographic enclave.  I am a student of geography.    I can make you digital maps
of ideal federal states that can be optimally used to help avoid inequality
between ethnic groups, fight poverty, and strengthen the Ethiopian union, all
at the same time, by crunching hundreds of variables on a computer.  It is even possible to avoid the current
ridiculous hierarchical classification of ethnic groups into
“nations”, “nationalities” and “peoples”
which inherently perpetuates inequality.  

The current practice only exposes the regime that it does
not have even a slight commitment to the rights of ethnic groups.  I know many have come to this conclusion
by looking at what the regime is doing to the Agnuak
in Gambella. 
 According to current
practice in Ethiopia, you will lose your citizenship rights, if you are a
citizen at all, as soon as you move from your designated ethnic homeland and
move to another.   Think about it.  In the country where I currently live,
the son of a Kenyan immigrant is the President of the country.  When I think of it, it painfully reminds
me of how far in the past my beautiful Ethiopia still lives in.   My children and grand children can become
presidents or senators in the country that gave me refuge.   My relatives who live outside of their
ethnic homeland in their own country are not allowed to run and hold even a
“kebele” office.   It is simply unconscionable that this is
happening in the twenty first century.   Has anybody wondered why
individuals of mixed ethnicity, which probably number more than thirty million,
are forced to choose between their father’s and mother’s ethnicity
when they are issued ID cards? Isn’t this a crime against an entire
people?

So please don’t tell me that the ethnic homeland
states of Ethiopia are set up with the good intention of helping ethnic groups
achieve equality.   Meles Zenawi and those who shared his Marxist- Leninist views
very well know that there cannot be a sustainable oppression of one group of
people by another without an economic basis.  The only economic basis with which the
ruling classes in Ethiopia in the past, be it Amahara or a multiethnic class,
was able to oppress another group for a long period of time was because of
unequal land ownership.   But
the dergue, Mengistu
Hailemariam’s government, has done away with that seventeen years before
the TPLF took over.  The dergue also
targeted Amharas and killed many.   In the absence of an economic basis
to point to as the basis of oppression, TPLF leaders have to manufacture some tool.
  The only tool they found in their
tool box was linguistic differences and the hatred of the “other”.    People were encouraged to hate one
another and feel their differences with others more than what they share in
common.   That was why they dismissed Ethiopia’s
long recorded history, the very thing that joins us in pride as Ethiopians as
“Teret” (folk tale).   I see many countries use even mythologies
to help them promote their union. In Ethiopia we are asked to despise even the
facts on our record.

It appears that this hate is bearing bigger fruits with
time and that is exactly what we are seeing in Benishangul Gumuz and Guraferda
now.  What we are reaping is what
has been sawn, and I am afraid this is not going to be the end of it and may
not stop at the Amhara.   We
are hearing that some of the Benishangul deportees are now allowed to return.
Most probably this is due to the need to mute the worldwide outcry and appease
some donors but not out of the realization of the wrong they did.  The damage is already done. I have no
idea how this traumatized people would live a normal and secure life even if
they are returned.   Some who are
very traumatized are even saying they will better die on
a street anywhere than return back.

If Ato Meles Zenawi was alive today, I am sure he would
pull all his word-craft to justify the crime in Benishangul-Gumuz.   He already did justify the deportation
from Guraferda in front of the “parliament” last year by saying
that the Amhara “settlers” were destroying forests and doing
unplanned use of land.   He didn’t
even care his justification run in violation of the constitution.  You see, in civilized communities across
the world, the constitution is meant to protect the people from government
excesses and the power government holds over people.  In Ethiopia it is only quoted when there
is a need to protect the government from the people and often to intimidate and
throw critics and opponents into the kaliti
dungeon.

The whole idea and talk about oppression of nations and
nationalities, as they call them, was propagated only to patronize the ethnic elites
and facilitate their cooperation in the Bantustanization of Ethiopia and reduce
the country to units manageable to rule. That was how you could manufacture
surrogate ethnic parties.  This was
the reason the multiethnic Ethiopian People’s Democratic Movement (EPDM)
was forced to become an ethnic Amhara party overnight, though it is obvious
that none of it looks like a party created to help Amharas.

Folks, whether you like it or not, this is the vision
that will definitely challenge Ethiopia’s survival as a nation in the
future.  And this is the vision that
all of Ethiopia’s officialdom and party cadres are swearing to preserve.  Be afraid not only for the Amhara, this
poison embedded in the philosophy of our government’s ethnic policy can destroy
Ethiopia if left unreformed.   This fire will catch more forests.  You ain’t seen
nothin’ yet, as my American friends would say.

Yes, we are witnessing a painful tragedy in progress and
I understand why many of you are crying.  I myself did shade some tears when
listening to the voices of the unfortunate.   But don’t let your tears cloud you
from seeing the real reason. There is a need for a huge change in Ethiopia.

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