At first, the Ethiopian Parliament denied the request, but later agreed to set up a Commission of Inquiry. The chairman of that inquiry was Kemal Bedri, who was the head of the Woyanne Supreme Court and Chairman of the Ethiopian Election Board who later helped hijack the election. Because of his close position to Meles, most people were not surprised when a whitewashed report came out. All this happened before the 2005 election and before the creation of the Kinijit. You or the reader may wonder why I am saying this. The reason is that I want people to know the background of what gives me the legitimacy to write an open letter to the Kinijit leaders.

At the beginning, I was only speaking for the Anuak. We set up the Anuak Justice Council to protect the rights of the Anuak, wherever the Anuak were found. We realized that the survival of the Anuak in Ethiopia was in question, especially as their own government who was supposed to protect them was instead killing them. Also, when they were massacred, their fellow Ethiopian citizens were silent, making the Anuak realize that unless they spoke for themselves, no one else would do it. I believed that my mission was mainly to speak for the Anuak; however, after the May 2005 election, my work began to broaden to include other Ethiopians because of what happened in Addis Ababa at the time of the killing of protestors. I could understand the pain of losing loved ones because it was something that I had already gone through on December 13th.

This was when most Ethiopians from every corner of the world came out in protest and condemned the killing. However, I saw the difference between the reaction to these killings and the indifference to the suffering of the Anuak who were clearly outside of the mainstream culture who had been victims of an even more horrific killing. Yet, despite knowing the indifference, I never forgot that God had created us equal and that all lives are valued the same in His eyes. I also knew that even though the Anuak looked different from those in the dominant culture, because the British gave their ancestral land to Ethiopia, they were now Ethiopians and that there was really nothing they could do about it. Even though their government denied them their rights and opportunities, they still remained Ethiopian.

The May election in Ethiopia brought hope to me and to some of the Anuak because they realized that there was hope for change here and that a new government could not only bring those who committed atrocities to justice, but could help bring to a halt the ongoing human rights abuses. Even though we did not read the Kinijit Manifesto, the fact that there was an Ethiopian opposition who opposed the government, was like a light of hope in our darkness. Hearing that there was a chance that this opposition might win, was like hearing a beautiful song in our own Anuak language.

When we heard that it was a coalition of different organizations, including UEDF or Hebret and different Ethiopian ethnic groups, to us and to some of the Anuak who lost their loved ones, the hope of such a party was like a medication that would help reduce our pain and dry our tears. It could calm down the ethnic hatred that had been spread by this government since they had come to power, which had culminated in the massacre of our loved ones. Even though the CUDP did not have an office in Gambella at all, some of the Anuak in Gambella had seen them to be like a cloud filled with promises of life-giving rain. Many Anuak in Gambella had hope in the CUDP and I am one of those people.

At the time, waiting for May 15th to come was like the farmer waiting for the dawn of new day—to see the first rays from the sun crack the dark night with its powerful source of light, enabling him to see things that I would never be able to see in the darkness. That was my hope even though I never read the manifesto and knew none of you CUDP leaders at the time. However, I believed that you could be different and that you could help bring justice and opportunity to the forgotten people of Ethiopia. But when the election was stolen from you, my hope was stolen. The darkness continued and the… continued on next page >>