We Accuse Graziani of Genocide and Object His Worship by Italian Neo-Fascists

Introduction

Put
bluntly, Nazism and Fascism are two parts of the same ideological coin. Both
are 20^th Century political phenomena, and what Hitchens calls
“man-made structures of inhumanity” that have bloodied the world, as
totalitarian allies during World War II. The Nazi criminals were held
accountable at the Nuremberg Trials. Meanwhile, the blood trails of Graziani’s crimes run from Libya, Somalia to Ethiopia and
remain unaccounted for. This is the crux of the problem for us. Namely, Field
Marshal Graziani never stood trial for the genocidal
crimes he committed in Ethiopia.

Field
Marshal Graziani was a member of Mussolini’s Fascist
High Command and served at Il Duce’s pleasure. This arrangement paid off
quickly in terms of promotion. By the early 1930s Graziani
had become vice governor and military commander of Cyrenaica or Eastern Libya.
By February 1935 he was appointed governor and military commander of Italian
occupied Somalia. This position allowed him to participate in the invasion of
Ethiopia from the South-East. By 1936, he
became Viceroy of Italian East Africa and
Governor-General of Shewa/Addis Ababa. This was the
practical culmination of his villainous phrase:

“The
Duce will have Ethiopia, with or without the Ethiopians.”

Carrying
the strategic logic of this sentence to the final conclusion can only lead to
concentration camps and genocide. We still hear about Auschwitz Treblinka and
other Nazi concentration camps in Eastern Europe, but never about the Italian
Fascist prisons and concentration camps at Nocra, Danane, Asinara, where Ethiopian
“prisoners of war” suffered indignity at the hands of fascist Italy. At any
rate, to achieve his murderous intent, Graziani had
several divisions of heavily mechanized troops, supplemented by Eritrean Askaris, Somali irregulars, Arab auxiliaries from Libya and
Yemeni troops recruited from across the Red Sea. Di Bono, the governor of
Eritrea, commanded the other invasion force from the North. He had, under his
direct command, a force of nine Army divisions in three corps: The Italian I Corps, the Italian II Corps, and the Eritrean
Corps. Di Bono emphasized the fascist military’s idea of full-scale war
– a strategy of war perfected as Blitzkrieg by the Nazis. Graziani emphasized deadly
and systemic counterinsurgency methods or techniques of “systemic terror” for
pacifying “natives.”  Both were rabid
racists. In other words, they believed in racial theories that have been
refuted innumerable times. Such theories pose supposedly different “races” of
people into an ordinal hierarchy that is biologically arbitrary. They deny that mankind is of one race.

In
addition to this enormous invasion force and doctrinal detestation, Graziani would use chemical weapons and gas to
crush/overwhelm any Ethiopian patriotic resistance to the Italian Fascist supremacist
agenda in the region. A communiqué from Rome
dated October 27, 1935 from Mussolini to His Excellency Graziani
reads “The use of gas as an ultima ratio
to overwhelm enemy resistance and in case of counterattack is
authorized.”(Campbell). Evidently, Graziani had
freely used the internationally outlawed phosgene (poison gas) as a weapon of
war, both on humans and livestock. This is genocide, pure and simple.
International silence about this period is proving extremely painful to us
Ethiopians. The question remains: what are the responses/ responsibilities of
the international community, the UN and International Criminal Court of Justice
at The Hague, in such horrendous events?

The
Anatomy of Genocide

In
1934 Il Duce Mussolini decided to invade and brutalize/exploit Ethiopia to
expunge the humiliation of defeat “civilized” Italy had suffered at the battle
of Adowa (1896). The Italians had returned to avenge the decisive and
humiliating Adwa (1896) defeat that Ethiopians and Emperor Menelik
had inflicted on the overall white supremacist imperialist-colonial project in
Africa. The repercussions were worldwide and lasting. No European colonizing
army had ever been so thoroughly crushed in Africa. The Adowa victory forced foreign powers to recognize Ethiopia’s very
existence in the modern world’s inter-state system, its sovereignty and
independence included. Also, Ethiopia’s victory had inspired Marcus Garvey’s
Back to Africa Movement and awakened Black -and Pan-African consciousness.

Ethiopia
thus emerged as a beacon for anti-colonial and anti-imperial struggles.  Italy, on the other hand, had become a
laughing stock.  Europeans had questioned
Italy’s fitness to colonize, and mocked its imperial pretenses. All told, at
the Battle of Adowa, Ethiopians exposed the mass of lies, untruths and “negrophobic” hatred and racial inferiorization
of Africans at the heart of 19^th century imperialism. This victory
was unprecedented in the archives of modern imperialism and the famous scramble
for Africa. The Spectator of March 7, 1896 set the tone and observed
mournfully: “The Italians have suffered a great disaster – greater than has
ever occurred in modern times to white men in Africa. Adowa was the bloodiest
of all colonial battles”. Also, the racial dimension of the struggle was
unmistakable to the European world.

One thing is incontrovertible about the “second coming” of the
Italians, this time in fascist guise. In the 1880s Crispi spoke of a “place in
the sun,” and plenty of free agricultural land for his army, Fascist
propagandists in 1935 spoke of all that and “happy black faces” that await
Italian victory. Graziani was a perpetrator of
genocide in Ethiopia and is directly responsible for 760,000 human losses,
according to Angelo Del Boca (The
Ethiopian War 1935-1941). Del Boca cites a 1945 Memorandum from Ethiopia to
the Conference of Prime Ministers to underline his point. Oral historians put
the number of dead, raped and disabled at well over a million. Either way, to
achieve this impressive
body count, Field Marshal Graziani had presided over
“One of the more sadistic and shameful episode of modern times” writes Ian
Campbell. The sadistic orgy of violence was speeded up by the failed
assassination attempt on Graziani in Addis Ababa on Yekatit-February 1937. This scenario provides the
background for Campbell’s narrative. My contention here is that the genocide
begun long before the assassination attempt on Graziani
by Mogus and Abreha; in
fact, it was the modus operandi of the whole conquest and occupation period.
From the start, the air dropped leaflets prove this intent to committing
genocide and promoting fratricide among Ethiopians. The genocidal and fratricidal logic of the following leaflet is as
clear as the intent. This particular message is addressed specifically to
the people of Tigrai (Adolf Parlesak/Mekonnen, 114, translation
mine) reads as follows:

The
Almighty God has sent us to bring peace, civilization and prosperity/development
to you. However, the Amara and Oromo oppressors have armed their cruel and
man-eating forces to prevent us from achieving this blessed objective.

Dear
respected people of Tigrai, should you encounter
these savage bandits, strictly refrain from feeding or providing them with hambasha and water at any cost. Instead, eliminate them
like dogs. Show no sympathy whatsoever. Beware too that we have our people
among you, and should anyone dare to provide or sell any kind of sustenance to
these Amara-Oromo “shifta” soldiers, the
entire village will be mercilessly erased by our airplanes.

Here
we enter the discourse of Genocide, namely the premeditated identification and
demonization with “intent to destroy” a specific people and/or ethnic groups
deemed disposable. Genocides do not occur in a vacuum as it were. The
“Amara-Oromo” people they have targeted constitute the vast majority of
Ethiopians. This historically
forgotten genocide or holocaust perpetrated against Ethiopians from 1935-1941,
was a historic product of Fascist Italy’s war of colonial conquest in Eastern
Africa. It attempted a forced psychological and political detournement in the identity and
perception of Ethiopians. The ultimate object was to destroy
Ethiopia/Ethiopians and create a pseudo-Roman Empire in Eastern Africa, African
Orientale Italiana (AOI). What is more, the so
called “international community,” of the time, apart from imposing some
symbolic sanctions, was morally indifferent if not complicit in this criminal
colonial war of conquest and genocide. It was certainly not moving to stop it,
nor held the Fascists rigorously accountable as did the Nuremberg trials with
the Nazi hierarchy and the Tokyo trials with the Japanese. Despite Graziani’s well-documented crimes of genocide against
Libyans and Ethiopians, his major offense in the end seems to have been his
bloody pact with the Nazis against the British.

Though
the Ethiopian genocide happened well into the twentieth century, it was as though
the international social contract-League of Nations, the laws of civilization
and human rights (the sanctity of life) did not apply to Ethiopians and
Africans in general, both on the continent and in the wider Diaspora. The
concept of genocide was not in circulation. Actually, Italy’s invasion of
Ethiopia was blessed by the Catholic Pope and lauded by European statesmen and
prominent French intellectuals as “an honorable extension of France’s and
England’s project of civilizing the uncivilized through colonization” (Yves
Rene Marie Simon). So reads “the Manifesto of French Intellectuals for the
Defense of the West” issued by about a 1000 prominent French intellectuals,
almost half of them were members of the prestigious Academie
Francaise.  The
“intellectual” signatories to this Manifesto thus defended the Fascist invasion
and colonization project, and condemned even the threat of feeble sanctions
against Fascist Italy “under the pretext of protecting in Africa the independence of an amalgam of
uncivilized tribes.”  This amounts to a
blatant and racist denial of Ethiopia’s statehood and independence i.e.
Ethiopia’s “expulsion from history,” and the obliteration of its proud people’s
sovereignty and national identity. It was both an intellectual and psychological
warfare waged against Ethiopians and the entire black “race” deemed uncivilized
and unworthy of basic human rights and statehood. Poet Aime
Caesaire rightly commented that with the holocaust
occurring in Europe, Europeans finally discovered that the colonial crimes they
routinely inflicted against Negroes, Coolies, Arabs and so called Orientals
are, in fact, crimes of genocide when practiced against Europeans. Hence, the
concept of genocide was coined in 1948.

Genocide
has been called the “Crime of Crimes” as it is premeditated, ideologically
rationalized, racially/ethnically tinged, impersonal and directed against a
whole “people” deemed  different,
“inferior” and somehow a “peril” to society or Western Civilization. A state
practicing genocide becomes in effect – criminalized.  While a precise definition varies among legal
scholars of the subject, a working definition is found in the 1948 United
Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
(CPPCG) and the more recent ICC and the Rome Treaty. Simply stated, Genocide is “the deliberate and systematic
destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national
group” though what constitutes enough of a “part” to qualify as
genocide has apparently been subject to much debate by legal scholars. In this
case, evidence shows that the ideology of genocide permeated virtually
everything Graziani said and thought about
Ethiopians. There is no doubt that Europe’s entrenched “scientifically
underwritten racism” created the necessary conditions for tolerating the
heinous crime of genocide among certain populations. The question for
Ethiopians now is: how can neo-Fascists build a monumental mausoleum to “honor”
war criminal Graziani? This is neo-Fascist revisionism
at its best. Graziani and the entire Fascist
hierarchy never brought “honor” to Italy, only shame and defeat in what came to
be known as World War II.

“Wholesale
and Indiscriminate Execution”

Graziani was a cruel and prolific mass killer
whose major “killing fields” were in Ethiopia. Fortunately, the oral history of
the Ethiopian genocide handed down to us has been validated in recently
published books. The crucial events may be presented as follows. Following the famous
Yekatit-February 1937 grenade-driven assassination attempt on Graziani
at the Palace, a bloody and indiscriminate repression followed.
Terrified by an imminent insurrection, the panicking Italians opened fire
indiscriminately unleashing terror throughout Addis Ababa. It was an “orgy of
murder, bloodlust and mayhem” writes Campbell. The indiscriminate massacres,
hangings and burning of people, homes/villages lasted for several days. To be
sure, the dead have never been really counted, continues Campbell, but are
estimated at 30.000 Ethiopian martyrs in three days. That is ten thousand
Ethiopians every day!

Authoritative
witnesses were not lacking either. The Acting British Consul General reported
the atrocities as a “wholesale and indiscriminate execution” of Ethiopians
found in the neighborhood of the Palace and elsewhere in an expanding cycle of
death. In every case, the crime was one of being Ethiopian.  Party Federal Secretary Guido Cortese declared to well-armed Fascists and Blackshirt troops “For 3 days I give you carta blanca
to destroy and kill and do what you want to Ethiopians.” In those days
mutilated corpses littered the streets of Addis, ostensibly “to make an
impression on the native mind” as the Viceroy grew fond of saying. All told,
hyenas and dogs fed on the mutilated corpse of Ethiopians. The American
Consul-General wrote that there have been mass executions of wretched people,
in batches of 50 or 100, although they could not have any possible part in the
attack on Graziani. The diplomat wrote “I have seen
no display of unbridled brutality and cowardice since the Armenian massacres.”
The parallel is instructive, although Consul-General did not yet conceptualize
it as genocide. The military-political objective of the “mass executions” was
to colonize Ethiopia by any means
necessary, including (poison gas) and fratricide. It is high time the
international community acknowledge that genocide was indeed perpetrated by
Mussolini’s Italian fascist state in an effort to conquer, plunder and colonize
Ethiopia.

Qualsiasi Mezzo!

Obviously,
the second time around in 1934, Italy’s fascist invaders came prepared and with
the most modernized and automated machinery of war, including internationally
banned weapons of mass destruction. This time around, failure was not an
option. Mussolini’s motto was Qualsiasi Mezzo! or win by any means. The result was arguably the most unjust
and brutal asymmetrical warfare of the 20^th Century. Italians were
masters of the sky and poured a “rain of iron and poison” on /defenseless
Ethiopians at will. Ethiopians had no air force to speak of and limited modern weaponry.
The bulk of the peasant soldiers were shoeless. The four Oerlikon
anti-aircraft guns and twenty bullets at the Ethiopian army’s disposal were ineffective
antics and relics of the Adwa war of 1896. They could not prevent the steel,
poison gas and fire of death raining from the sky.

No
wonder Graziani became known as “the Butcher of Addis
Ababa” in addition to his designation as “Butcher of Libya” and the “Hyena of
Cyrenaica.” His designations speak to his bestiality, not to mention his
predatory instincts and deadly intent. To illustrate the genocidal intent and
aspects of his crime further:

He
declared war on Young Ethiopians and ordered the liquidation of an entire
generation of the literate youth and foreign educated elements in society. The
Ethiopian intelligentsia of the time was found to be “particularly poisonous”
and “dangerously xenophobic” and outright inimical to the Fascist Master Plan for
Ethiopia’s dissolution into the new AOI-Roman Empire. During the occupation,
close to 80% of Ethiopia’s literate population was eliminated.

Graziani ordered the eradication of patriots
and members of the Black Lion Resistance movement on sight. Furthermore, Graziani gave a carta blanca order to “shoot all Amhara notables and ex-army officers.” In his own words, he
ordered that “the extermination of all the Amhara
chiefs, great or small must be speeded up, none to be spread out of feeling of
false pity.” Some 300,000 patriots were summarily
killed on that order.

In the predominantly Muslim areas of
Ethiopia, populations were instructed to “kill everyone carrying the cross,”
thus singling out Christian Ethiopians for extermination.

Graziani authorized the massacre of the monks
of the ancient monastery of Debre Libanos,
including the large number of pilgrims who had traveled there to celebrate the
feast day of the founding saint of the monastery. The legendary monastery and
place of traditional higher learning was deemed “a den of murderers, brigands
and monks, absolutely opposed to us.” It was, therefore, visited with two mass
executions. Graziani’s personal order in this regard,
was to “execute summarily all monks without distinction.” After eliminating the
targeted population, he wrote “no more trace remains of the Debre
Libanos Monastery.” This amounts to admitting to
physical and spiritual genocide.

The
fascist army ordered the despoliation and looting of some 2.000 Orthodox
churches and over half a million homes and all schools throughout Ethiopia.
Ethiopians were to be “educated” for some three years in Italian Fascist “Balila” schools and serve Italians. Graziani
also presided over the killing of 14 million animals and the methodical
poisoning of fertile agricultural lands and contamination of rivers that
sustain life. According to Del Boca some 24,000
civilians were killed by air force alone. These examples suffice to prove the
point. Graziani is the leading architect of genocide
in Ethiopia.

Upon
his recall to Rome in Dec 1937, Graziani was deemed
an embarrassment to the Italian “Civilization Mission” and diagnosed as
mentally unstable. He was replaced by Duke of Aosta,
presumably a milder fascist. As Italy finally descended into civil war with the
advance of the Allies, Field Marshal Rodolfo Graziani served as a loyal fascist military commander and
followed Mussolini till his disastrous end-by-hanging. Graziani,
however, was arrested and sentenced to 19 years’ imprisonment by the victorious
Allies. This was punishment for his part in war crimes atrocities and for
“collaborating with the Germans,” and was released from jail after serving only
two years. After his release, he resumed active political life with the
neo-fascist Movemento Social Italiano
(MSI), and even served as its President. The MSI is the movement that nurtured
contemporary neo-Fascists like long-time Italian President, and present day contender,
Berlusconi. Graziani died in 1955 of old age, while his victims continued to
suffer in pain. Instead of persecuting the leading Fascist war criminals, the
victorious powers were busy grooming leaders from the Fascist ranks, allegedly
for establishing a bulwark against the rising tide of Communism in Italy.

Fellow
brothers and sisters, who else is going to hold the Italian fascists
accountable for this Great Crime of genocide against Ethiopia?
Justice demands that all Ethiopians and fellow Africans everywhere make their
voices and objections heard on this decisive issue for the Ethiopian-African
people and humanity as a whole. Indeed, it is our human obligation not to turn a blind eye to such a crime. Show up and
support the February 19 demonstrations organized by the Global Alliance for
Justice: The Ethiopian Cause. 

Reference

Campbell,
I, The Plot To Kill Graziani,
Addis Ababa University Press, 2010.

Parlesak, A. (translated by Mekonnen, T.J.) Ye Habesha Jebdu,
Addis Ababa University Press, 2010.

Mennasemay, M. The Ethiopian Campaign and French Political
Thought. International Journal of Ethiopian Studies.
Vol.V,
No.1, 2010.