Anti Amhara crime perpetrators should face justice

April 18, 2013

Anti Amhara crime perpetrators should face justice

By Zelalem Abate

April 18, 2013

Uprooted from his native soil, a father holds his baby high to his chest as he stares into an unknown future (Photo: Fenote Netsanet)

One may ask why rulers commit genocide, crimes against
humanity, and ethnic cleansing on the very people they rule. Although nothing
would justify, heinous rulers always provide bizarre and incomprehensible justifications.
The tyrants in Ethiopia, for example, say Amharas were evicted because they cut
trees. For them cutting trees is enough reason to commit ethnic cleansing and
crimes against humanity. As the world
knows, these kinds of despicable crimes have been committed in Rwanda, Liberia,
Sudan, Ethiopia and other countries. The star actors of genocide and crimes
against humanity in Rwanda, Liberia and Sudan are already facing justice. The
tribal and racist-primitive rulers who have been committing ethnic cleansing
and crimes against Amharic speaking people (the Amharas) for the last 22 years in
Ethiopia are still leaving lavish lives at the expense of the resources of their
victims-the Amharas.

“My country, Ethiopia

You are fool, deceivable

You feed your murderers

While you starve your martyrs!”

No single spot exists in the mountains, plains, low
lands, deserts, jungles, rivers and lakes, where Amharas did not spill their
blood to protect the national integrity and sovereignty of Ethiopia. A lot has
been said about the battle of Maqdala, Adwa, Mychew, and The Five-Year War with
Facist where Amharas gave their chest for bullets and their whole body for
mustard gas in order to transfer a proud and free country to us. Let’s just gaze at the very near past. It was
the Amhara peasants who broke the back bone of invader Siad Barre. It was the
Amhara militia who protected our natural sea ports until mama Ethiopia’s neck
and breasts were butchered by her traitor children. What is the gladiator
Amhara getting in return now? Systematic discrimination, frequent eviction,
endless displacement, repeated ethnic cleansing, chronic crime against
humanity, and genocide?

One of the leading Ethiopian online news papers on
Ethiopian affairs, Ethiomedia, covered on its March 17, 2013 front page, that
59 uprooted Amharas were killed by car accident in Benishngul Gumuz, western Ethiopia while they
were forcefully evicted after their property was confiscated. ^[1] Similarly the
Ethiopian Satellite Television, an independent news outlet, reported that more
than 3, 000 people were evicted from Benishangul area. ^[2] These crimes were also discussed in the Voice
of America Amharic program.^[3] The evicted people
and the deaths include children and pregnant women. Mind you, the victims only
crime was being born Amhara. Dr. Yakob Hailemariam, one of the Lawyers who investigated the Rwandan
Genocide, call this act of the TPLF lead government ethnic cleansing.
^[4]

In this 21^st
century human traits such as age, gender, and ethnicity are protected human
characters. In civilized societies (at least in theories), discriminating based
on these protected traits is illegal and immoral. However, concepts such as
legality and morality are not found in the dictionaries of the barbaric tribal
rulers of Ethiopia. Unfortunately, the ruling party’s fundamental policy in Ethiopia
dictates cadres to organize people based on ethnicity and the language they
speak. Furthermore, this backward policy (The Wild-animals’ law as the distinguished scholar professor
Mesfin woldemariam calls it)promotes the different ethnic groups to
discriminate each other based on human nature such as race, language, religion
and so on. The Amharas, who are mainly against this uncivilized jungle law, have been the prime victims of this brutal and
retarded policy since the racist Tigrai People Libration Front (TPLF) took
power through a Trojan horse- the Ethiopian Democratic Libration Front (EPRDF).

The Amharas are the second largest ethnic group in the
country. Some, in fact, argue that Amhara could be the largest group in the nation
if counted in unbiased manner. Ancient and modern history teaches that this population
group existed with other ethnic groups in Ethiopia and the surrounding East
African countries since humans started to live as society on this earth. However,
the Amharas have never claimed certain regions of Ethiopia as their own sole
state. Unfortunately, TPLF created a segregated area called Amhara killil (Killil
-a local term for segregation) for these grroups of people.

Many including former members of TPLF have stated that TPLF leaders have been labeling the Amharic speaking people as their enemies since they organized themselves as
communist Guerilla fighters in the early 70’s.^[5] The crimes
committed against Amharic speaking people since this rebel group (formerly
labeled as terrorist group by USA) took power are the practical applications of
this former communist Guerilla fighters’ racist-jungle manifesto.

As mentioned
above, systematic discrimination of Amhara has been on the making for more than
two decades. As soon as the TPLF took power in 1991, it cleansed more than 42
intellectuals (almost all of them Amharas) from the teaching positions at Addis
Ababa University.^[6] It
established a unique and effective contraception programs in the Amhara
communities to reduce the number of births. No sane Amharic Speaking individual with viable conscience is
allowed to take key positions in the government. Those individuals who claim to
represent the Amharas in the government are either non-Amharas or Amharas who
sell out their soul and conscience to money and other ephemeral
advantages.

About two years after the TPLF took power, thousands of
Amharic speaking people including women and children were massacred in the
eastern part of the country called Bedeno.^[7] It needs an outstanding historical film maker
to document how these unfortunate people were thrown away from the top of the
cliff as high as 100 meters. It takes Schindler’s
List film director to document the suffering of the children of these victims. It takes the skill of a horror film maker to
produce how women were repeatedly raped in front of their husbands during this
crime against humanity. Similar crimes have been committed against
Amharic speaking people in Central, Southern, Western and Northern Ethiopia. Such kinds of atrocities were relatively
abated by the formation of the All Amhara People Organization. Unfortunately,
this organization’s leader, Professor Asrat (the first surgeon in the country),
was incarcerated and died because he was denied access to medical care by TPLF
lead government.

As a continuation of “cleanse the Amharas motto”,
thousands of Amharic speaking people were forced to leave
from Gura Ferda (southern Ethiopia) in 2012.^[8] These
unfortunate people were forced to leave their houses and other property behind
and no one really knows who exactly has robbed their possessions. Many have suffered and died during this disgraceful
ethnic cleansing. Only God and the
victims know about what happen to the cleansed victims who are not dead at this
point. The officials who systematically conducted theses dreadful crimes still hold
higher positions in the States and Federal Government. Such is the case in the
current Ethiopia-you commit wicked crime, you get promotion.

Besides
being forcefully evicted from their homes at the different regions of the country,
Amharas also roam to different parts of the world even to the failed state
Somalia to escape the systematic discrimination and ethnic cleansing. During
this mass migration, Amharas die every day in hundreds from various causes such
as flood, wild animals, hunger, diseases, etc. Still among those who are able
to escape and live in the foreign land, many die of slavery and suicide.

In
summary, Amharas were not born Amharas by choice. Their ethnicity or language
is their protected identity. Above all, the evicted Amharas fathers’ and
forefathers’ have spilled their blood in every corner of Ethiopia to defend the
sovereignty and pride of our nation. The land currently cultivated by Indian,
Chines and Arab traders is enriched with Amhara’s blood and flesh. Despite this glorious history of their ancestors,
Amharas have been discriminated and cleansed by TPLF lead government which is
composed of disloyal and treacherous individuals who sold out our sea access and
fertile land. This act of the narrow-minded TPLF government is not just totally
immoral but absolute crime that should not happen in 6000 BC let alone in 21^st
century. If the TPLF lead rulers
continue the ethnic cleansing of Amharic speaking people with this rate, Amharas
will be endangered species in the near future. Therefore, those people who have
direct or indirect participation in systematic discrimination, evicting, and
ethnic cleansing of the Amharas or any other ethnic group should face justice
as soon as possible. Lawyers and Judges (especially of Ethiopian origin) have
professional, moral, ethical, historical and national responsibility to force
these horrendous criminals face justice.