I am elated, humbled and mesmerized by the heroic deeds
of the young patriots who had never met before converging from distant places on
the soil of Tigray to fight the Fascist invaders and showing mercy to captured
soldiers of the ruthless enemy. The grand question is what kind of a formidable
force brought Abichu, Amdetsion, Gashu, Haptom and Worku together to accomplish
such unimaginable feats? What motivated the bare-footed, ill-trained, poorly
equipped Ethiopian militias, including those from as far as Kembatta, to travel
for six to seven months mostly on foot to Tigray and give hell to Marshall Marshal Badoglio
– supreme commander of the invading Italian Fascist Army?They all vowed in the name of Immiye
Menelik II to crush the Fascist invaders hell-bent on enslaving the Ethiopian
people. For more information, readers are referred to my article titled
“Top patriot Abichu & his wartime heroic compatriots” dated 24
February 2012 and posted on most democratic websites.
The people of Ethiopia spontaneously and enthusiastically
responded to the call of Immye Menilik to mobilize for the Battle of Adwa; and
similarly to the call of leaders during the war with Somalia and Eritrea, subsequently.
This phenomenon has been enigmatic to political scientists accustomed to
hearing Ethiopians mention the name of their region of birth as their country
when asked where they are from.
In view of the paragraphs above, Ethiopia is one country
and we are one people with unbreakably intertwined cultural diversity. Culture
is dynamic and will change in favor of strengthening our bond – for our
common humanity transcend our ethnicity. Ways we do things change with progress
in science and technology; new words infiltrate our languages and enrich our
vocabularies; some languages die and new ones are created – the case in point
being for example:the relatively
recently created Swahili is lingua franca in East Africa; Latin and Geez are
limited to liturgical prayers church services; few in our generation know that
Aramaic, the language of Jesus Christ, is almost dead although He has over a
billion followers and counting. It is predicted that far fewer languages will
be spoken in our world by the turn of this century. But Zenawi wants credit by
fooling nationalities as their defender to remain with harmful cultural
practices that may not stand the test of time.
One man one vote is our best choice to live together in
harmony, dignity and prosperity. The one and only one challenge for all of us is
how we can pull ourselves out of abject poverty with inclusive democratic participation
of all ethnic groups.The point is
that we have to be prepared for and be willing to accept change for it is
inevitable. Let graduates of Dedebit stay fossilized in their worn out theory
of Nations and Nationalities, which its author Stalin himself refused to honor
but instead sent secession seekers into internal exile or prison in Siberia.
Unrewarded contribution to world peace & national liberation
Ethiopia fulfilled her mandates in Korea and the Congo as
part of her obligations under collective security of the United Nations.
Ethiopia actively opposed secession in Africa advocating
status quo to colonial boundaries for the sake of forming the OAU
It is a matter of record that Ethiopia played vanguard
roles in rendering genuine assistance to liberation movements in almost all
black African countries except Liberia, which was independent. Students from
liberation groups from Angola, Kenya, Nigeria, Somalia, South Africa, Tanzania,
Zimbabwe et al received training in Ethiopia. The irreplaceable Prime Minister
of Ethiopia, the late Aklilu Hapte Wold, strongly argued in favor of
independence for Somalia. The Dergue regime strongly supported the independence
of Djibouti; it gave substantial support and training to freedom fighters of
Zimbabwe and Angola. What did Ethiopia get out of all the positive
contributions aforementioned except morale satisfaction? Isn’t Ethiopia
still a victim of global injustice? Didn’t Siad Barre incessantly accuse
Ethiopia as a colonizer – eventually invading our motherland at a time he
considered propitious immediately after the fall of the Imperial regime taking
advantage of internal division within our country and the execution of top
officials by the Dergue regime?
As usual,
however, Ethiopians set aside their domestic differences and dealt a heavy blow
to the invading army of Barre that eventually led to his downfall.
Zenawi went to the extreme in ethnic cleansing
The tyrant has reached a point of no return in his
heinous crimes. The recent ethnic cleansing of the Amharas from Gura Ferda in
Southern Ethiopia is yet another shocking addition to his already repugnant
similar heinous crimes well known to and condemned by the international
community. This bestial act in the long list of terrorism perpetrated by the
TPLF regime requires urgent retaliation to stop it by pulverizing the inner
kleptocratic clique of Zenawi. Thereafter, a lean and cost-effective government
must be constituted to replace the bloated administration of the of TPLF regime
feeding 5.7 million parasitic cadres.
The international community has so far failed to reciprocate
for what Ethiopia has contributed to world peace and the liberation of black
African states. Our country is on the verge of destruction. Ethnic cleansing is
a sure thing rearing its ugly head. We are alone in our fight for freedom,
dignity, and sovereignty in this troubled world where moral laws have been
shoved to the backburner.
At this critical time of fast approaching the dead end
for a peaceful democratic change, there is a lesson for us in this quotation by
Sir Winston Churchill: “If
you will not fight for right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you
will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to
the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a
precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to
fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to
live as slaves”.
So,
my fellow Ethiopians, let us admit that we had, due to lack of unity, forfeited
many a time our golden chance when victory could have been sure and not too
costly. Nevertheless we must without further delay meticulously plan, organize
and mobilize in order to launch a highly coordinated thunderous civil
disobedience nationwide at home and to hold protest demonstrations in the
Diaspora including making diplomatic representations for our just cause. And do
so not forgetting that Ethiopians as young as Abichu, Amdetsion, Gashu,
Haptom, Worku and the leader of the 15,000 strong militia from Kembatta chose to
fight Fascist Italy fiercely with determination to die than live in slavery.
The young patriots created their command structure, formed a team, and chose their
commander Abichu. This concept of centralized command was one of the decisive
factors for their success.
What do you say folks? Is it not our turn to emulate the
example of our heroic militia?
Mobilization requires resources in manpower and logistics.
Remember our heroic militia had to provide resources of their own to travel for
up to 6-7 months to meet the Fascist enemy in Tigray. Ask whether we are not
better off to unite similarly and hit back at tyrant Zenawi who had publicly
called us his enemies by snapping our call for peaceful change through
civilized dialogue? Don’t you think it is time that the opposition chose
a transitional leader?
Scholars live in trepidation; their exodus is rampant; wide
spread corruption is crippling economic growth and degrading moral; the youth
are forced to live under the umbrella of a single party; most unemployed youth have
become drug addicts; health services are so poor and unable to check the spread
of disease; the making of a
personality cult is soaring. We
must therefore act as a united people to get out of the quagmire to which our
inaction has put us into.
Let us make a solemn pledge that in all cases where any
ethnic group is a Zenawi-sponsored victim of terrorism, eviction or
intimidation each of us is a member of that group. The Amharas were victims of
genocide in Arbagugu once and they are victims of cleansing now in Gura Farda;
so I am an Amhara of Oromo origin. The Anuak were once victims of genocide and
now they are victims of eviction from their ancestral home; so I am an Anuak.
The Ogadenese are victims of carpet bombing and artillery barrage; so I am an
Ogadeni. The Afars are victims of eviction from their ancestral home; so I am
an Afari. Ancient Christian Monasteries such as Waldba, Zequala and Asebot are
under threat of extinction; so I condemn the unholy act in the strongest term
in much the same I would have done for holy sites of Judaic and Muslim religious
faiths.
LONG LIVE THE EXEMPLARY PATRIOTIC
SPIRIT OF ABICHU AND HIS COMPATRIOTS!
LONG LIVE ETHIOPA!!!
Release all political prisoners in
Ethiopia including Andualem Aragie, Iskinder Nega, Nathnael
et al
