However, we noticed that the writer has two basic misconceptions about the current drama and the actions that led to it. First, either knowingly or unknowingly, the writer tried to present the Sidama demand for regional status (self determination to use his term) as an initiative of TPLF after the May 15, 2005 election panic. This is pure distortion of the fact and a clear contempt on the Sidama people. The fact is that the Sidama people had emphatically rejected the illegal dissolution of 5 independent regions in southern and southwestern part of the country to form the so-called Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’ Region (SNNPR) by Bitew Belay, the then close confidant of Meles Zenawi, in 1993.

We rejected such regional arrangement not only because they represented a blatant breach of the constitutional right of our people to regional status but also because they entailed systematic arrangement for economic exploitation, and social and cultural subjugation. Because of the continued opposition by the Sidama people against such administrative arrangement, the Sidama Zone has been the most unstable administrative zone in Ethiopia since TPLF took power in 1991. The following is the shocking evidence of such political instability: Between 1993 and 2005 alone, 10 presidents of the Zone have been removed from their positions. These are (beginning from the earliest to the most recent): (1) Tuffa Doyichcha, (2) Seifu Taddesse, (3) Wakayo Damassa, (4) Asfaw Dingama, (5) Legesse Wolde, (6) Birru Balle (7) Girma Chuluke, (8) Petros WoldeSenebt, (9) Adane Dingama, (10) Geremewe Garje, and (11) Ake Hidana (currently in power).

Therefore, the recent drama in Awassa is the usual TPLF response to such ongoing political turmoil in Sidama that was exacerbated by the May 24, 2002 massacre of over 70 innocent antigovernment demonstrators and massive human rights abuses that followed the unrest and that continues until today. As opposed to what the writer tried to portray, events that led to the recent drama in Awassa can therefore be described as follows:

1) Following a humiliating defeat in May, 2005 elections, which the regime reversed by a massive post election vote rigging, Meles Zenawi met 100 representatives of the Sidama people in his office in Addis Ababa and agreed to restore the Sidama regional status after a referendum in June 2006.

2) However, after he managed to crush the major opposition party and put its elected leaders in jail, with limited or no opposition from the international community, Meles Zenawi began to plan for another drama on the Sidama regional question.

3. Accordingly, after returning back from the meeting of “progressive governance” held in South Africa, Meles Zenawi met the representatives of the Sidama community for the second time in Awassa. In a sharp, but a usual u-turn from his earlier pledge, he told the representatives of the Sidama community this time that their demand for regional status would not be accepted.

However, in order to detract the attention of the people from their basic goal, the Prime Minister proposed some petty changes which the writer believes are “TPLF favouritism to the Sidama ethnic group against the other ethic groups in the South’’. This is the writer’s second misconception about the recent drama in Awassa. Let us now return to this misconception. The first “favouritism” mentioned by the writer refers to the appointment of Shiferaw Shigute, the former vice president and an ethnic Sidama, as the president of the region. The Sidama people are not impressed by the appointment of this person as the vice president of the region. The Sidama people believe that both Haile Mariam Desalegn and Shiferaw Shigute are responsible for the May 24, 2002 massacre of the Sidama people and should be brought to justice and not be promoted to any position at any capacity.

The second “favouritism” refers to the systematic appointment of ethnic Sidamas to key positions in the regional offices. This is rather outrageous and a blatant lie. Since the recent unrest following Meles Zenawi’s rejection of the Sidama regional question, in addition to imprisonment and torture of thousands of Awassa university students and civilians, the regime has been hunting down many Sidama intellectuals and has been removing them from their positions in the region and in the Zone. Ethnic Sidama intellectuals are being hunted down and being thrown in to jail through out the country. The recent removal of Abera Doba, and Dukale Lamiso from their positions in Awassa for no reason and the arrest of a well known Sidama scholar, Desalegn Garsamo, who works in USAID based BESO project in Addis Ababa are shocking proofs to our testimony.

The third “favouritism” refers to changing the name of a university in Awassa into Awassa University and allocation of pieces of land and investment licenses to the ethnic Sidamas in and around Awassa town. Although the measures do not impress the Sidama people and will never detract them from their main objective, we would like to mention that a university should have never been named in a geographic direction in the first place. The writer should note that there are no eastern, western or northern universities in Ethiopia and there cannot be one such university in Awassa. On other hand, we have never witnessed allocation of land and investment licences exclusively to ethnic Sidamas in and around Awassa at any time. Before such provocative information is posted on reputable web sites like Ethiomedia they must be authenticated. The Sidama people are the most accommodative people in Ethiopia. Such provocative statements from other ethnic groups living in Sidama will be an insult to their age-old hospitality and friendliness and would only promote resentment and friction among different peoples living in Sidama.

Finally, we have a bit of advice to scholars and intellectuals from the South. The so-called SNNPR is an amalgamation of the vast land that includes major cash crop producers such as Sidama and Gedeo who supply over half of washed coffee to the central government and hunter-gatherers in many remote areas of the region. If we are serious about the plight of these people, we should all work for a better regional arrangement that can create a conducive environment to address the needs of these forgotten people. We all have to work for the reinstatement of the former five regions as soon as possible. If a hand full “representatives” of these people fight to live a better life in Awassa, thousands of kilometres away from home where their people live in a permanent darkness, history will never forgive them. The TPLF regime has been treating the people in the South as guinea pigs. It is time that the intellectuals of the region put their selfish interests aside and make real contribution to changing the plights of their peoples languishing under poverty and illiteracy by posing credible challenges to the brutal regime of TPLF.

To obtain more information about the situation in Sidama visit: www.sidama.org, www.sidamaconcern.com, and www.sidamanational-liberation.org