The December 13th, 2003 genocide spearheaded by members of Ethiopian defense forces,
left 450 Anuaks civilians dead, 500 homes were burnt down, properties looted, and women were rapped in front of their children. The killing and rapping continued to rampant in Gambella town and its peripheries. Evidence to this is the attack by government soldiers on January 17th, 2004 in the village called JAWE located between Gambella Town and Bonga. Similar attacked continued throughout the month of February 2004 on Anuaks villages, BONGA,CHAM, PINYUDO, ELAHA, ABOBO, Jor district and others villages located in Gilo River bank. Current report indicated that the government forces are approaching the international boarder to Pochalla Sudan, to force back to Ethiopia the 23,000 Anuaks refugees.
The genocide convention outlaws the destruction of an ethnic group of people and Ethiopia was one of the first countries that signed the Genocide Convention in 1948 and ratified it in July,1949. The Ethiopian government also signed the UN Charter of 1945 and other Human Rights as well as other international instruments including the 1993, Vienna World Conference on Human Rights laws recommended by UN members states and the international community.
We believed that Ethiopian government led by Mr. Melse Zanawi is violated all these international laws when its forces killed 450 unarmed Anuaks civilians in Gambella town in front of their loved one and the children. The government forces mutilated the dead bodies and display them as they celebrate the mass genocide; making the atrocity to be the first kind of killing in Africa comparable to that of Adolf Hitler’s Holocaust against the Jewish people.
To our surprise, however, the leading world democratic nations such as the United States and the British governments gave a deaf hear at the time such genocide were committed, despite some of the victim were the United States citizens who happened to be in Gambellaa in their family visit. The press release issued by the U.S. State Department came too late to save the lives of innocent Anuaks civilians, and had little impact to stop the genocide campaign against the Anuaks by Melese Zenawi government. To this end, as it has been documented by the U.S. based Genocide Watch and the country leading Ethiopian Human Right rights, the EPRDF government is fully responsible for the mass genocide. Thus, we the GPUDF believed that the Ethiopian government (a perpetrator) can not conduct transparent inquiries to such matter, but to be investigated by international led independent inquiries.
As today, the government military forces are working day and night, exhuming mass graves and destroying the evidence before allowing the international community and independent investigators to Gambella. Reliable source coming from the genocide victims listed the deceased and the death toll to stands at 450 with over 300 wounded and 250 missing; this numbers are only that of Gambella town alone. The corpses were buried in mass graves at three locations around the town of Gambella. Some bodies were thrown into “Baro” River. Heart-broken with this physical and psychological trauma, we strongly condemn the stance of the government of Ethiopian for trying to cover-up the real nature of the genocide. We see the distortion of the facts on the ground by Melse Zenawi government officials such Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Embassy of Ethiopia as an addendum to the injuries inflected on Anuaks people.
ON DIMMA DISTRICT
The Dimma district of Gambella which the Ethiopian Foreign Minster alleged to have been committed by an armed Anuaks groups, is yet another misrepresentation of the facts aimed at misleading the international community, particularly the U.S. government. The incident of Dimma was a direct military clash between the government soldiers who went to the gold mine to disarm the Anuaks. During the fighting more than two hundred Ethiopian army were killed. On their way running to Dimma town, the government soldiers slaughtered and killed 170 civilians. Among the victims were, 40 Anuaks elected Dimma District government officials other were Sudanese refugees.
In its usual distortion and misleading, the Melese regime stated that “the atrocities were conducted by an armed group of over 200 people who claim to be the leaders of the Anyuaks and that the victims were from the neighboring Southern Nations and Nationalities and People’s State”. Tactically, this naked propaganda was aimed at the following objectives: at one hand, is to blame the victims, and to show to the British International Development Secretary Hilary Benn, who arrived in Addis Ababa and expressed the killing of Anuaks to Melese Zenawi government. To cover up, the government portrayed the “Dimma” clash as if it was the Anuaks who committed the killings of civilians, and therefore responsible for the conflict in Gambella. As such, the motive was intended to persuade Benn who was on the business of pouring more money to Melese regime as well as the U.S. government. Soon after, the EPRDF government deployed 15,000 troops to Gambella on the pretext of “Restoring Order” but to justify its campaign to kill more Anuaks. As we speak, the Ethiopian army are disarming, raping, and killing Anuaks in Gok and Jor districts.
As we stated in our first “Press release’, the EPRDF government goal is to divert the tension of the contested boarder of “Baddeme” of northern Ethiopia, from Ethiopian at large and the crisis within its own government. As such, the plan of the government is currently at working by setting a bloody contest between Ethiopian civilians living in Gambella who have lived peacefully for the last hundred years.
VIOLATION OF CONSTITUTION AND THE TAKING OVER OF GAMBELLA STATE ADMINISTRATION
On February 26, 2004 the office of Prime Minster of Meles Zanew released a press statement saying that “—the Prime Minister has accepted the request latter of the Gambella State Government and notified pertinent bodies to take measures accordingly”. The statement further goes on to say that “the state government has confirmed in its letter of request that the security issue in the state has been out of the control and the people in the state have lost confidence in the state government”. Which state government??. As far as we are concern, Gambella has never had legitimate elected government. The only public election ever held in Gambella where the indigenous people freely expressed their constitutional rights was in 1995, in which the Federal government intervened and immediately rejected the results of democratic elected governor by Gambella Council (legislatures) and forcefully appointed a hand-pick individual.
Since then, Gambella has been run by EPRDF hand-picked individuals who take their order from masters sent from EPRDF office. The state of Gambella President or governor has no indigenous people agenda, but to implement the EPRDF wishes. Therefore, it is worth mentioning here, that the EPRDF has violated its own constitution in Gambella and elsewhere in Ethiopia. In it desperate attempt, it government also released the so called “government apologies fro Gambella massacre”. As stated, “The government has apologized for not acting proactively and promised to stand on the side of the victims to see justice is done”. However, to the contrary, the military forces engaged in rapping and killings the Anuaks in villages outside Gambella town, while Dr. Gebrab placed a curfew at Gambella town. Currently, the government forces are terrorizing Anuaks population and committing more genocide.
As stand today, the Melese government is under pressure from the international community and has exhausted all the effort to divert the responsibility of his army atrocity. Example of such, was the attempt to force the Nuers to protest and claim the responsibly of the Anuaks genocide that the killing was done by the Nuers and not by the government. But the Nuers refused to do so. Currently, despite, intensive military increase and campaign waged against the Anuaks, the government is unable to control the situation in Gambella. Thus, we believed that the problem is escalating and the solution is not military but political settlement.
We the GPUDF believed that the Anuaks and other Ethiopian living in Gambella are the victims of undemocratic policies of the EPRDF government. What we knew, is that the Anuaks are asking the rights to govern themselves according to the law of the country. And that, the Anuaks are not a threat to national power of Melese Zanawi, nor they are requesting anything more than their rights to development, self-rule, the right to god given land, and culturally to be respected as any Ethiopians. The Anuaks are not rebelling to overthrow the Melese government, nor, they have the capacity to do so.
The government of Ethiopia, instead of pacifying the situation by consoling the victims is keeping on lying to its own people and the international community, an act which exposes its secret plan of genocidal atrocities against the Anuaks, adding an insult to injury. Despite being the victims of genocide, the government still hunting for the remaining few educated Anuaks accusing them and arresting them. Therefore, we call upon the government of Ethiopia and its accomplices to refrain from distorting the facts on the ground and bring before the law, the culprits of Genocide.
We also urge the U.S. and the British governments, the European Community, the U.N. and other human rights organizations to:
1. Hold Prime Minister Melese Zenawi government accountable for committing mass genocide and killing against indigenous Anuaks; an act that is prohibited by international laws and urge his government to bring to justice those responsible.
2. We urgently asking for independent international inquiry to such matter to quickly establish a fact finding body and investigate the matter according to international law pertaining to mass genocide.
3. We call upon the international community to help rehabilitate the victims of genocide families particularly the children, widows, and the elders; and that must hold Prime Minister Melese Zenawi government accountable for direct compensation of the genocide victim families.
4. We call upon Ethiopian government to search for political solution rather than military solution as it currently pursuing. We urgently, urging the international community to intervene and pressure the Ethiopian government from inflecting more genocide against the Anuaks.
5. We urge the Ethiopian government to immediately and without conditions to release all Anuaks political prisoners held in Addis Ababa and Gambella prison.
6. We also urge the international community to call on Ethiopian government to release all genocide victim families detained for the purpose of hiding them from telling the truth to the international community and human rights organizations investigating the genocide.
Gambella People’s United Democratic Front (GPUDF) Leadership
