By Kiflu Hussain
This is a letter hastily scribbled with reference to a latest gross miscarriage of justice meted out against Colonel Berhanemeskel Haile, Col. Girma Asfaw, Lt. Col. Solomon Kebede and Captain Kifle Woube, all former Ethiopian Air force pilots who’ve been languishing in the notorious Kaliti concentration camp for over 14 years.
In the name of “trying” others in absentia, TPLF’s Kangaroo court, driven by vengeance, didn’t even spare those ace pilots, such as Captain Alemayehu Esattu, who died in exile long ago from condemning him to death for “the second time.” As the ex-officer died of an aircraft crash while working as a charter pilot in Uganda, his untimely death at the time had been covered both by Ugandan and independent Ethiopian press. Unfortunately, getting one’s facts straight is anathema to Kangaroo courts. In any case, typical of a Kangaroo court, TPLF’s hirelings condemned the officers mentioned above from 19-25 years of imprisonment. It’s also highly unlikely that they would be granted parole, particularly, Colonel Berhanemeskel, who had been subjected to all kinds of humiliation and torture to break his invincible spirit and recalcitrant nature.
What TPLF’s strongmen and its hirelings should remember, though, is this: Their role in using civilians as shield, conscription of children for their treasonous war as Trojan horse for EPLF and destruction of infrastructures, will not be glossed over by farcical trials like this. Although there were some excesses, the war fought for the sovereignty of Ethiopia was holy and a just one. Had there been rule of law, the first people who would be held accountable for victims of Howzen and the like would have been Meles Zenawi & Company. Those who had been privy to TPLF’s devilish council and who now profess to have distanced themselves, have a moral obligation to tell the truth as to how they supplied the disinformation to Dergue to provoke it to the point of carpet bombing Howzen so that Tigrayans revolt against it and join TPLF en mass. Also, how was it possible to have it filmed footage by footage unless known beforehand that the bombing would take place and to use it for the consumption of mass hysteria.
At this juncture, it’s imperative to remind those tribalists who’ve been brainwashed by TPLF’s propaganda that TPLF is making suffer these officers not on account of Tigrayans or victims of Howzen. Had it not become awkward for Meles & Company due to the 1998 fallout with its erstwhile comrade-in-arms, EPLF, the fate of those pilots rounded up with Col. Berhanemeskel et al would have been the same on account of the battle taken place in Eritrea.
This is not the only treason that TPLF had committed against Ethiopia and Ethiopians. It had also incarcerated a brilliant infantry commanding officer, Brg. General Getaneh Haile, for about seven years, alleging he committed a crime of genocide against Ethiopian Somalis during the 1977 war whereby a decisive action was taken against fifth columnists (SERGO GEB) who committed unspeakable crime by even slicing open pregnant Ethiopian women with knives. The list can go on like this.
The bottom line is: that day will not be very far where all records will be straightened out and true sons and daughters of Ethiopia shall be exalted. I for one still regard these gallant officers as POWs to whom I will always be giving a smart salute.
————————-
The writer can be reached at [email protected]
7 thoughts on “A smart salute to the air force POWs”
they weyane kangoro court will be responsible for their crime against ethiopia’s pilots. TPLF has committed so many crimes against the nation. ethiopia’s pilots have defended their country from the foreign mecernaries who are in power now. so those ppl made such shameful decision will be taken to court at the end of the day.
Thank you Kiflu for raising some serious questions about the actual role of the TPLF leadership in the mass onslaught of a whole crowd of innocent ordinary people in Howzen.
There are legitimate reasons to believe that TPLF had in deed set up the scene for the horrendous mass murder never before seen in our country with the sinister intention of enlisting the support of ordinary Tigrayans in its destructive fight to dismantle Ethiopia.
These band of traitors sitting at the helm of power in Addis today have repeated similar scenes of massacre when they willingly allowed Shabiya’s stolen helicopter gunships
to shred into pieces the bodies of primary school children in the heart of Mekele following Eritrea’s invasion of 1998.
Every crime committed during a war should not be justified as a legitimate crime committed by soldiers whose missions are to destroy enemy lines and to win the war at any price, human or property. If there is such a thing as a crime during a war, the person who is responsible for such a crime should be the head of the state, not the ordinary soldiers or the army generals. The soldiers are ordered to go to war and defeat the enemy by destroying the villages with their young and old men and women inside and burning them to the ground, using airplanes or tanks or navy ships or poison gas, and that is how war had been conducted before and being carried out today in our time. For example, who is responsible for the 9/11 crime in New York City? Bin laden is responsible, and who was responsible for World II? Adolf Hitler was responsible for that destructive war. Who is responsible for destroying the Somali, the Ogaden, the Amhara, and the Oromo people? The Woyanne ordinary soldiers and generals are not responsible; Meles Seitanawi is responsible for destroying human lives in thousands and properties in billions.
Therefore, these four Ethiopian super pilots – Col. Berhanemeskel Haile, Col. Girma Asfaw, Lt. Col. Solomon Kebede, and Captain Kifle Woube – should not be held responsible for their actions under order against their adversaries. They did what they had been told to do, so the Meles Seitanawi-appointed fake court is absolutely wrong in jailing these four Ethiopian heroes for fourteen years without tangible evidence they are criminals.
Meles Seitanawi put these four Ethiopian pilots in jail purposely for such a long time because he is afraid of them, for they have a superior intelligent to his nebulous intellect; if he let them free, he is afraid they may galvanize the Ethiopian people and overthrow him; he doesn’t like educated people, and that is why he has surrounded himself with such idiot kangaroo courts, cabinet members, army generals, church officials, and many non-Amharic speakers prison guards. Meles is running the country with his wife whom he trust by avoiding those he suspects are too intelligent and jailing them or exiling them; in doing so, he has bankrupted Ethiopia not only of its resources but also its intellectuals; many of them are in diaspora, and they may never go back as far as this terrible and contagious plague – Meles Seitanawi is there, destroying the Ethiopian people.
Enemies of Ethiopia hated the men and women of Ethiopians who courageously fought against Shabiya, Woyanae, and other internal enemies to protect and defend the motherland and the future generation thereby to pass on Ethiopia intact, loved and united forever.
Members of woyanaetplf robbers hated Ethiopians for what they stood for since creation into the unending future.
Woyanaetplf criminals and looters had intended to hurt Ethiopia since they were , hatched out of the filthy eggs, then crawled into the green Ethiopia and lived on sucking the blood of Ethiopians.
Today, they are not only the most hated enemies of all millions of Ethiopians, they are wealthy beyond the limit and are more cruel beyond what words describe.
When they came out of the caves that they were hiding in and marched into Ethiopia, they had nothing in their pocket but had a lot of guns and bullets; they were cowards yet drenched in blood from years of murdering Ethiopians of all walks of life.
Mark our words, Ethiopians are certain about these murderes,looters, and enemies of Ethiopia shall be captured dead or alive and will receive the most punishing justice any notoriously criminal and sinfully murderer would ever receive in the history of the world sicnce God created the earth and the heaven. Amen and Amen.
Members of the crimefamilies and their associates will have no escape route and will not even walk upright while they are too burdened by the crime they piled up since they came into Ethiopia form Nakfa cave. Their own bitter death shall definitely outsmart them in front of millions of Ethiopians.
Godd Bless you#3.You said it all.Those Ethiopian heroes should’nt be accountable for what they did 17 years ago.They did their job.Melese and his gangs killed many people in the name of liberatation ( fake liberation).They should be taken to court not our heroes.I hope The Lord will fight for them.
I have read and re-read the article above along with the subsequent comments by those who read the article like me. We know or at least we should suspect that TPLF and its godfather TPLF might have a hand somehow in that unfortunate day’s incidence where many many innocent shoppers fell victim to fatal fire that rained upon them from the skies. As a religious man, I believe their innocent blood that shed that day still cries to the Heavenly Father for a just and fair reciprocation. The participation of the TPLF group in setting up such carnage is not clear or at least it is shrouded in mystery and will remain that way until someone who used to be a member or close to the inner circle of TPLF or EPLF gets the courage to come out and tell us about it. That may never happen. The best evidence one may have on TPLF’s involvement will remain to be sketchy and circumstantial. These guys are very very smart in blurring out their incriminating steps. Even Seye will never divulge such barbarous conspiracy. On the other hand, there may be no question either under order or not that these pilots did what happen that day. If they did not believe in their mission, they could have divert their mission and flee to Djibouti or Kenya. There were several pilots who had done just that. But they still should not be given the death sentence. They should be treated just those prison guards who were dedicated followers of fascism but participated in some of the crimes they were ordered to commit on the unarmed prisoners. So, we have to be careful in what are saying here because those peasants perished on that sad day were just innocent people and need justice. They are precious Ethiopians too. It will be very beneficial if the court make the result of the investigation that led to the sentence make it all public. By the way, if the pilots are really guilty in enthusiastically following through their orders, they should be released now considering the time they spent in custody to date.
What more can one say? The Hawzen fiction is the best story manufactured by the Tigraian – TPLF – to create more discord among Ethiopians.
“Had there been rule of law, the first people who would be held accountable for victims of Howzen and the like would have been Meles Zenawi & Company. Those who had been privy to TPLF’s devilish council and who now profess to have distanced themselves, have a moral obligation to tell the truth as to how they supplied the disinformation to Dergue to provoke it to the point of carpet bombing Howzen so that Tigrayans revolt against it and join TPLF en mass. Also, how was it possible to have it filmed footage by footage unless known beforehand that the bombing would take place and to use it for the consumption of mass hysteria.”