According to many of your request, here is the English translation of the Tigringa/Amharic version interview of Fitawrari Gezai Reda, a resident of Tigray region, northern Ethiopia.
Let me start my view by quoting from an article I read a few years back from Ethiopian Register magazine, under the topic: “Understanding the Machine of {www:Woyanne} Politics and How It Works.” In that commentary, the writer tried to show how the Ethiopian people were trying to identify the regime of Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF) [or commonly known as Woyanne] and the nature of it.
The writer says, “As critics and opponents of Meles Zenawi’s regime, we often look like those fabled individuals who try to identify a large animal blindfolded. One character touches the animal’s head, another its back, still another its legs, each one giving an account of the whole beast by the part of the beast it has felt.”
Similarly, opposition parties and groups describe the Woyanne political creature in various limited ways. Some say TPLF rules are similar to an Apartheid-like ethnic tyranny. Others draw parallels with a Marxist-Leninist clique. Still others equate TPLF with a shifta (banditry), two-faced par communist, par capitalist, political entity. We also mark the regime as a worari (occupying) force, clever at operating behind tribal lines, reminiscent of colonialism, yet quick to resort to frontal assault on dissidents, citizens, and communities to bolster its monopoly of power.”
Each of these outlines of TPLF rules is right, but only partially. Each depiction highlights a particular feature or element of the Meles dictatorship in Ethiopia.
Indeed, as the writer above tried to show the different features of TPLF, each one of these taken separately, or as a mere sum, the depictions do not, however, yield an adequate picture of the gangsters of Woyane Tigray. Even as mercenary as it is, stating Meles and his groups as group of “Banda”, still we can’t describe the nature of the political beast! The nature of the gangs should be interpreted in ways worse than what has been said for years. Can I simply say, “These are beasts dispatched from hell?
Many of us may not have the detail understanding and information how Tigrian farmers and citizens were the subject of these beasts for solid seventeen years. Because of our frustration, many of us blame the Tigrians for harboring the beasts for seventeen years, but in reality the Tigrian farmers and people have suffered more than all of us can imagine.
Leaving the weakness and the failure of the flamboyant members and sympathizers of the beasts, and leaving aside for a moment, the ugly record of the Tigrian intellectuals and all walks of Tigrians who defended and supported the cruel nature of TPLF leaders and their Bado Shidushte (06) (the notorious security apparatus of TPLF) for many years, without any doubt, the majority of the Tigrian people, particularly “farmers,” were the direct victims of TPLF savagery more than any society in Ethiopia.
In this report you will read a very shocking history from an elderly man from Tigray. Ato Gezai Reda was tortured and released after paying Birr 15,000 ($7,500.00), after he was captured by TPLF guerrilla fighters in 1969 EC (about 1976/1978), and recently exposed the cruelty and injustice done to the Tigrian farmers and citizens by the so called leaders of Woyane Tigray in his interview with Dejen radio, produced by my friend, Hailemariam Abebe. I am working on the full translation of the interview in Amharic, to be published in one of the national papers. Till then, take the idea home, weigh the gruesome and utterly despicable nature of TPLF, the mass murders and tortures it inflicted on thousands of Tigrians. As usual, please bear with me when it comes to my “proficiency” of the English language.
Here is the short summary of the interview:
Ato Gezai Reda is originally from Enderta (around {www:Mekelle}), but worked and spent most of his life in Shire Awraja (Enda-Selassie). He was an employee of the Ministry of Interior before his ordeal. Ato Gezai expresses his thanks to Dejen radio for having him as a guest, and for getting the opportunity to expose the crimes of TPLF to the Ethiopian people, after keeping them with him for many years for lack of a free forum.
Ato Gezai Reda, after briefly explaining about his life history, directly goes to his narration. In the mid-’70s, he was a member of “Teranafit” (a group established in shire district before it merged with Prince Mengesha Seyoum’s armed rebel group – the Ethiopian Democratic Union – EDU). He said TERANAFIT at first had no intention of fighting against TPLF. Teranafit was established to fight against then military Junta in power – the “Derg.” But TPLF accused members of Teranafit of being “rivals” in recruiting the Tigrian youth. Because of this, he said he and other Teranafit members came under the focus of TPLF hostility.
Ato Gezai Reda was captured in March 1969 (1977/78) when he and others were traveling by bus to Axum to celebrate the religious holiday of Hidar Tsion. TPLF fighters threw hand grenades and ambushed the bus in the vicinity of “Af Gah-gah”. Held at gunpoint, the rebels ordered three passengers to get down, and those were: Ato Gezai, Ato Feseha, and Ato GebreTsadik Woldu.
The three “captives” were taken to a locality called Mai Demas, where they were thrown into a closure, and spent a bitter cold night along with livestock.
The next day, says Ato Gezai, “we were taken to Badme. Along the way, every village we passed by, there were many young farmers and elders who were being rounded up by TPLF as Teranafit accomplices.”
Ato Gezai and other 50 prisoners were taken to a place called Ginbot (near Badme). Ginbot was lush green, and had several springs that watered the site. “Upon our arrival,” says Ato Gezai, “all of us were ordered to roll over a field covered with ash which was so thick and over a feet or two high. We did as ordered, but fell to severe coughing, sneezing, itching. Once our introductory lesson was over, we were thrown into a tiny cell, joining other prisoners who had lost their hairs due to inhuman conditions. Those who were imprisoned before us were seriously emaciated, like they have been starving for a long time. Parts of their bodies were burned with fire, and their skins had turned yellow. With their sunken eyes, they looked like skeletons. Their legs were swollen, and their voices coarse.”
Some of the young men whom Ato Gezai saw in that prison cell were students from Adi-Awala, Adi Dairo in Shirre. The other victims included individuals who suffered from “manic depression,” and had already lost their minds, understandably from the complication of constant exposure to cruel torture and loss of hope in life.
The next morning Ato Gezai was interrogated as an accomplice of the Teranafit rebel group which TPLF saw as a sworn enemy. On the second day, they woke Ato Gezai up, took him out, and tied his hands behind his back against a tree, and set a pile of firewood between his legs. He was fixed to a tree trunk as the TPLF guys used tight ropes and wires to wrap him by.
They started the fire between his legs, and Gezai Reda’s long journey into the world of hell controlled by TPLF starts in earnest. As a thick smoke chokes Ato Gezai, the fire has already created blisters all over his body. Out of desperation, he shouted “Kidus Michael! Kidus Michael…” His torturers heard what he said, and started to make fun of him. The torturers picked up two small rocks and rubbed the stones against each other and, mockingly, asked their victim: “Can you see your St. Michael in these stones?”
(At this moment on the Radio, Ato Gezai is overwhelmed with emotions of grief, and slips into silence)
He comes back on air, and continues his narration. “The fire was too much painful,” and I cried out: “The fire Is Hell!”, and said, “My brothers and sisters! I can’t move left or right. I am being eaten up by the fire. You bet Hell is better than enduring this cruelty!”
My hands were tied behind me to a tree; there is no way one can escape from the chocking smoke and the flames of the burning wood. My body started to swell like a balloon. My body was covered with blisters, containing water under the swollen skin. And at one time, my skin burst and gushed out water from my entire body. Then my torturers ordered a break, using the military code “erefti!” (Recess/ break!).
After this unbelievable torture of burning and roasting my body with fire, they took me away from the fire, and untied my hands. I was lying on the ground, from where I slipped into unconsciousness. I can’t remember how long I was in a state of shock. I only knew when they woke me up again, and ordered me to stand, walk, and sit back to the burning fire. I couldn’t move my body! I was burned, numb, and roasted; my throat and lungs were coarse like burned; I couldn’t talk either. Practically, my body was turned into the size of a monster; my eyes were hanging out of their sockets. My tormentors also knew I that I couldn’t move. They looked for other means. They burned a bunch of figs, and threw the fire onto my body.
After a few days, I woke up, and tried to make sense of where I was (mind you I was still in severe pain and mentally devastated). But once more, they took me out in that bad shape, when I was looking just like an invalid. I was asked if I’d learned anything from my being tortured. The interrogator asked me if there was something I could make as a confession. I said: “Other than being a member of Teranafit, I have nothing to confess; I did nothing wrong that harmed TPLF; if there is anything, please show me any evidence of wrongdoing than torturing me for a crime I know nothing about.” I begged them to tell me if I’d done anything wrong to them.
Ato Gezai went on to say, “The interrogator didn’t whet his thirst of cruelty, and told me, ‘You still didn’t learn a lesson after all that?!” He then ordered the torturers to take me back to the torture chamber, where I was hung upside down, and the interrogators started to beat my bare feet with a rubber stick. My body started to burn like I caught fire: I shivered, vomited, moaned with unbearable pain. By the way, I still have difficulty walking, and I often feel pain in my feet.”
“Those are not Tigrians, those are not Ethiopians; those are some evil creatures from hell! They have no respect for even the old. They were educated by us, by the Tigrian parents; they were schooled by the farmers’ and tax-payers’ money, they were armed by Tigrians but turned their back on us, and humiliated us in a way difficult to express in words.”
Dejen radio – Other victims?
Ato Gezai – There were many of them. At least eight people were being executed every day. Every morning, many young ones from among the prisoners would be called out by their names. The prisoners knew they were being taken to be murdered. The young ones would cry, scream, saying, “tell my parents and families that I am executed…goodbye Tigray! Good bye folks!”
Mass murder was routine. I can tell you a few more agonizing stories as to what extent TPLF’s cruelty stretches. The crimes of TPLF that I saw with my own eyes are chilling.”
“There was this elder who was highly respected in Shirre Endaselassie. His name was Gebrelibanos Mezgebo. He was a chief accountant employee of the Ministry of Internal revenue. He and a few other respected individuals like him were selected by the people of Shire and surroundings to go to TPLF bases, and meet with TPLF officials over how to peacefully resolve the war with the Derg. The idea was proposed by the Derg officials. The Derg explained to the elders of Shirre that war was killing the nation, and such peaceful plan was also being executed in Eritrea. Eritrean elders were also elected by residents to go to the mountains to meet the rebels over a possible dialogue with the Derg. The Derg proposed they can solve their differences with EPLF-ELF for the sake of peace to the war-torn country. Likewise, the elders from around Shirre went to TPLF-held areas so as to meet and discuss the issue with them.
“Mind you!” says Ato Gezai Reda “…these are respected elders, who know nothing about politics, or who have never been members of any political group. But since the Derg officials ordered them to do something to resolve the conflict, they went out as peace envoys, shouldering responsibilities both by the people and the Derg. The residents also gladly agreed to try the strategy if that would work out for the sake of peace. The elders met TPLF leaders, but they were unlucky: they were thrown into prison immediately.”
Dejen radio – And then?
Ato Gebrelibanos and the other elders were murdered.
Dejen radio : How come?
Ato Gezai – Well, it is a very sad and shocking scene to witness such tragedy taking place in ones presence. One night EDU rebels came to the vicinity with their full military might. Subsequently, TPLF “firing squads” rushed to where we were being held. And we heard the interrogators saying loudly, “Let us Kill them! Let us finish them!” Immediately, they opened the door and ordered us to line up. They wanted to carry out the execution there and then but they changed their mind, and rushed us to a gorge covered with thick forest. However, they delayed the execution for reasons we did not know.
“Let me take you back for a second, to the question of what happened to Ato Gebrelibnos Mezgebos. As I said earlier, we were told EDU rebels were encircling the area. At that moment they tried to kill all prisoners. But later on, they decided to rush us somewhere else. However, Ato Gebrelibanos was badly burned and tortured like myself. He was a sad sight to the eye. He had open wounds on his back and his legs. He was almost crippled from torture. The TPLF decided he should be put to death. THEY FIRED THREE SHOTS INTO HIS BODY AND MURDERED HIM where he was lying!”
“With him, there was also a very handsome young man who was their member, a “guerilla fighter,” who fell sick with severe malaria. He was shivering with high fever, was unable to walk. He was lying under a shade from the outside of the prison cell that housed us. He was there just to rest and get some medication. He too was shot to death by the firing squad in his sleep. They executed him on the spot because he was unable to walk with the rest of us. This young fighter was from a village called Enticho (Adwa). They pumped three shots into each of the two victims in a cold-blooded murder.
Dejen radio – Why did they do that?
Ato Gezai – They didn’t want to carry them.
Dejen radio – They shot and killed their own fighter too?
Ato Gezai – Yes, they were cold-blooded murderers who had no value for human life. I have no idea how such youngsters came out from the womb of Tigrians and turned into some despicable monsters!
Dejen radio – And then?
Ato Gezai – We left the two murdered gentlemen behind us as we were rushed to a place called Maay Lam (Mereb). It was very hot, humid, and sand. Many of the prisoners had a difficult time dragging themselves along a very hostile terrain. Many of us never had any exercise, let alone overcome long journeys atop our tortured bodies. We had no power at all. Many of us had headaches, dizziness, and were thirsty and exhausted. Those who were limping and had fallen behind, the rebels pulled them like they were animal carcasses to be disposed of. Rebel harassments were rampant against those who staggered on the way. Among the weak prisoners, I remember there was a respected elder, Balambaras Tilahun. He was from Deki Awuaala. They wanted to riddle his body with bullets. Fortunately, when they were ready to do just that, some higher official of the organization came to the scene, and the firing squad asked the official if they could kill the man whom they saw as a burden. The official asked them if his interrogation was finalized. They said “no.” He told them to first get over the investigation. The old man was spared, and was suggested they somewhat carry him. However, they tied him tight to a single long stick (It was supposed to be a stretcher). They went away rocking the old man left and right his body tied/hooked with that single stick. Finally we reached a place called “La’e-Lai Barka (may be close to Eritrea border), and it was time to spend the night there. On the same night, they told us there would be assignments, and they split us in two: Group A and Group B (the reason was one of the groups would go to the Red Cross for check-ups, while the other would take other assignments. That was what they said). We formed long columns, but we were worn out. Immediately everyone was asleep. But again in the same night, they woke us up, and called the names of 25 individuals. They took them to a nearby ravine, and in an outburst of gunfire, the 25 were murdered en masse. That day was Ethiopian Easter holiday.
The way how the gentlemen were killed was really frightening to human mind. They told the victims to line up like soldiers but they machine-gunned them down all at once. The killers didn’t even bother to bury the victims. Their bodies were later found by Eritrean cattle herders. When the cattle came closer to the sight, they began to retreat as if they had seen predators. This alerted the herders who became curious why their cattle were frightened, and suddenly saw the bodies of 25 Ethiopians murdered at one go. “It is really heart-wrenching to recall such tragedies despite the passage of a long time,” says Ato Gezai.
He mentioned some of the executed individuals by name. Among them:
Ato Tewolde Gebresilassie (a town council official from Endaselassie – Shire)
Ato Abebe Gebre-Mariam (an old man from Adi Beiray, Deki-Awala)
Wodi Goshim, a 16-year-old from Endaselassie.
Mohammed, a 12-year-old boy from Adua who came to the Selekleka to visit his aunt. In prison, the boy always cried, saying he wanted to go to his mother and his Aunt and would often ask them “what am I doing here? I want to go to mom”. Altogether with the kid, 25 people were slaughtered.
By the way, after the herders discovered the mass murder, they immediately notified ELF fighters. The ELF men were shocked, and held an official meeting, and expressed their disappointments by the gruesome murders TPLF committed. ELF told TPLF to move out of their territory. TPLF fighters who were guarding us shared the secret with us. Some of the fighters were very close to us and sympathized with our condition. It was their closeness and sympathy that helped us to get the information that TPLF had differences with ELF with that incident. Unfortunately, many of the prisoners were murdered, (even after the ELF ordered TPLF, move out itself and its prisoners from their area). Those murdered, were murdered in the same fashion: “summary execution!”
After they relocated us, there were killings as well. There were prisoners like Haleka Tilahun (Adi Hagerai?) , Yigzaw Hailu (I think if I am not mistaken he was the son of Kegnazmach or Dejach Hailu Aduwa). Yigzaw was unique than the rest. He was a strong man. He killed one of the executioners, and stabbed another with the executioner’s own knife, and fled on foot. They pursued him with a barrage of machinegun fire. They shot him, but could not find him, dead or alive. After a week, however, his death was confirmed when vultures were spotted, and they were scavenging on the corpse.
Dejen radio – What happened to you finally?
Ato Gezai – I was told I could bail myself out by paying them Birr 15,000 (then the equivalent of $7,500 U.S. dollars). They ordered me to write a letter to my wife to make the payment. I pleaded for lesser settlement. They told me “TPLF is not a market place for bargaining.” Finally, I wrote a letter to my wife and they took the letter to her, and she sold our hotel (the only source of income we had to support my children and my wife at that time while I was under TPLF custody). My wife had no other choice, and she sold our property, met one of the agents, and paid him 15,000 Birr. I was released but there was a string to it: If I talked about TPLF brutality, I would be hunted down. No mercy. And they had these so-called fedayeen, (disguised TPLF snipers who infiltrate towns either to kidnap victims, or else, murder them.)
Dejen radio – We have heard many people lost their finger-nails, and fingers and limps were being pulled off the bodies of victims during torture. And we heard TPLF was forcing its victims to dig their own graves before they were shot dead. It that true?
Ato Gezai – Many despicable things have befallen too many innocent people. One day, they decided to kill me. My hands were tied, and I was watching when they were digging my grave. They dug it themselves because I was too weak to do anything. I was tied very tight, and asked them: “My hands are tied and it is hurting me badly. Can you please loosen the rope?” One of my guards got upset and said: “This is your grave; in our law, you were supposed to dig your own grave. But because you have no muscle to do that, we are doing you a favor. Therefore, you better shut up and get ready to enter your warm grave!”
I was put down in the grave. Then, the firing squad gathered and started to lower down their heads to the ground with their formal whispers (prayers par communist zealots), called “zikri sema’atat” (in memory of our martyrs). When they prayed their version, I was also praying loudly: “ABUNE ZEBESEMAYAT… (Oh, our Heavenly Father…) at that moment, one of them by the name “Mesele” asked me, “what are you chanting for?”
When he was asking me this very question, another messenger called Alemseged came running and screaming so loud towards us. They said, “who is that guy?” He screamed so loud from a distance, and told them, “wait, wait! Don’t do anything! Don’t kill him!” Alemseged told them higher officials were saying that the prisoner had more interrogations and should be spared of the execution. The amazing thing was a member of the firing squad was my neighbor’s son by the name “Nuguse Lilai”. This young man was a promising soccer player in Shire Enda-Selassie, back in the good old days. At that time, I used to encourage him and his friends to pursue their sports. Occasionally, I used to support them financially. I also used to take their pictures, extending some form of fatherly help. He was the first one who jumped into the grave, and pulled me out, by cutting the rope that had tied my hands. I saw him and his friends beaming with joy in the presence of the executioners who were suddenly ordered to delay my death.
However, I felt like they were playing with me like a toy. I begged them to finish me off. I asked them why they were playing with my soul, and asked them to fire a single shot, and get over with me, instead of taking me back and forth to the same hellish life. They replied, “We have orders that you have more interrogations.” So to answer your question, “Yes, they used to make us dig our graves before they killed us. Indeed, they were evil, anti-Tigray, anti humanity, anti their own family, anti Ethiopia, generally they were demons from devil knows where.”
Dejen radio – Ato Gezai, you have seen and witnessed all these nightmares, and the unbelievable evilness of TPLF. I think to my understanding hearing this shocking story, do you think you considered them as Tigrians? This is barbaric. Their action is even worse than Fascist Mussolini’s atrocities. How were you judging them at that time?
Ato Gezai — Oh! We took them as the disciples of Satan. Given their lack of humanity, I could only say I was saved by the power of God! They were cruel. They fed us very salty food so that we would feel thirsty, and they would punish us by denying us water. They added gasoline to the injera and soup so that we would suffer with hunger. It is hard to explain their cruelty. They kept prisoners in dungeons; there were dungeons in Kalema (Jihanem) near Gondar, another one in one of the Tekeze River hills, and another in Tembien. Those underground prisons were dug beneath the hills. I heard it was very hard for strangers to tell if there were underground prison chambers or not.
Dejen radio – Have you had children at the time? Did they ever know where you were?
Ato Gezai – I had young children, all of them under seven. They didn’t know where I was till my release.
Dejen radio – After your wife sold the hotel and paid TPLF the money they had asked, how did you end up going back to EDU? What forced you to leave town?
Ato Gezai – Let me tell you, whether I like it or not, they could have taken the money anyway.
Dejen radio – How is that?
Ato Gezai – What they did to many innocent families, they could have done to my wife too. There are more and more sad stories. For instance, they execute their victim. By the way, they cover the heads of their victims with some sort of garment. Then they execute them. After that, the TPLF prepares a letter as if it were written and signed by the victim. TPLF would write as though the victim was alive, and was a dedicated fighter. In the letter, they would write as if their victim would tell his family that he would never abandon TPLF, and for his cause, he was dedicating the family property to his organization – TPLF. So when the family gets the letter, given the reign of TPLF terror in the area, would be forced to hand over the property. Don’t forget TPLF has already killed the individual. Many families were robbed of their children and property by such sordid TPLF crimes. They never cared that their victimized family had kids, and would perish to hunger.
Let me tell you about the fate of one promising businessman in Adi Hagerai, Adiabo. His name was GebreTsadik Tsige, the son of Haneta Tsige. They were of Eritrean origin that lived as good Ethiopians. The young businessman had heavy-duty trucks and over a thousand heads of cattle. They killed him. On top of that, they ordered his wife to pay Birr 12,000. She said she had 6,000 Birr to pay right away, and not the entire sum of money. She asked them to give her more time. They demanded she had better paid the full amount right away. When she could not find the money, they took the trucks, 500 heads of cattle from the family ranch.
Now, let me go back to your question and answer what happened to me after I was released. I gave my hand to Colonel Kale-Kristos Abai, then regional governor of Tigrai province.
I visited the colonel’s office, where I was interviewed by the governor himself and other attending senior officials. Upon hearing my harrowing stories of tortures and mass killings, they were heart-broken, shocked and truly disoriented. On my part, I begged them to keep the stories to themselves. “If the stories leaked and reached TPLF,” I told them, “they will kill me. No doubt about that.” But the officials were overwhelmed with the gruesome murders TPLF was carrying out against innocent people. They immediately called for public meeting with the residents of the town. They began to tell the people the crimes being committed by TPLF. At that moment, they wanted an eye-witness, and called my name to testify. I heard them calling my name, but I kept quiet. I did not want to risk my life for I knew TPLF would murder me. In the first place, I didn’t want to disclose TPLF crimes to the Derg. But the Derg was also another problem, and I had no choice but to tell them what I went through. Immediately on the third day, TPLF sent me a “death warrant.” They sent one old man relative of my family. The letter told me to get prepared for my death any time. I prepared myself in a few days, kissed my kids and my wife good-bye, and after a long trek through the jungle, I joined EDU combatants.
Dejen radio – Dear Ato Gezai: You have seen TPLF in detail. TPLF is anti Tigray, anti Ethiopian culture. They changed everything, even the names of villages and hamlets. They devalued the honor of our mothers, they chopped away our territories, and ports preserved by our forefathers. Would you share your views with us on these points?
“TPLF is insane; they are evil, anti Christian, anti religion and anti our culture. They went against Tigrian culture. They desecrated churches. They smoked cigarettes inside churches. They turned churches into dancing halls. They tore down holy church garments and used them as sacks for stolen goodies. They used Medhani-Alem churches in Sheraro as their dancing floor for their “artistic troupe.” They forced elderly priests to lead their dances. They forced priests to throw their crosses, and made them carry guns and forced them to shoot. This was the most disturbing time in the history of our country. After having been an EDU combatant, I was forced into the world of exile, and I will never be able to visit my country until I make sure TPLF is removed and gone forever.”
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR:
Who is Ato Gebrelibanos Mezgebo? I am his son in law. Ato Gebrelibnos Mezgebo is from Yeha, near Adwa. His wife, Woizero Yeshi, is from Adwa, Yeha. Woizero Yeshi, an elderly mother is still alive with her 7 children and many grand children. Justice will reveal, murderers who killed elders and young children as old as 12 years would one day face the wrath of justice.
The cold-blooded murderers can fool the fools pretending like they are peaceful individuals and peaceful leaders. Regardless of their camouflage, their blood-soaked life would one day end up in front of the court of justice. I thank Ato Gezai Reda from my heart, and Dejen radio in behalf of the family. The family may not question TPLF currently for fear of persecution. We the family are many and we are everywhere to challenge the thugs and murderers. Justice will prevail! There will no more be a mystery. The curtain that had covered the criminal and murderous nature of TPLF is uncovered for all to see, and for all to add their voices they had up to day kept for themselves for fear of being added to the long list of the thousands of men and women TPLF firing squads murdered in the quiet fields of northern Ethiopia. In Recent interview, Fitawrari Gezaie Reda exposed his torturers and prison chiefs who sent many young kids and elders to their death chamber as Abebe Teklehaymanot (filed name Usman) he was the ETPLF/EPRDF Air force chief. Awalom Weldu (real name Tiku Weldu- the brother of Abay Weldu currently Abay Weldu is TPLF’s CC) – he was the first TPLF/EPRDF Ethiopian Ambassador to Eritrea. (Currently, Ass/chair and CC of Gebru Asrat’s “Arena” party). Mesele was also the x-Derg Lieutenant Officer, who later fled to TPLF and became one of the executioners. The story will be published in book version for history to document it. Any one who is interested or have any question to contact Fitawrary or about our family already executed in the field by TPLF while in his asleep (or about other TPLF victims),- contact me on the following address.
By Getachew Reda
By Yao Graham | The Ghanaian Journal
Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie and Ghana’s founder and first President Kwame Nkrumah during the formation of the Organization of African Unity in Addis Ababa. [Getty Images]
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While many African leaders have aspired to inherit Nkrumah’s mantle as the visionary and driver of Pan-Africanism and continental unity, writes Yao Graham, a gaping political leadership vacuum remains at the heart of the continent’s collective expression. From an age when there were a number of outstanding African leaders, among whom Nkrumah was preeminent, Graham argues that the African Union’s election of Gaddafi as its leader is a statement of a collective failure of leadership and underlines the crisis in which the Pan-African project is currently mired at the inter-state level. Where, asks Graham, are the African leaders who see opportunities for change in the current crisis, and who are ‘ready to dare and look beyond guaranteeing the sanctity of aid flows?’
In February Ghana’s new President John Atta-Mills announced that Nkrumah’s birthday in September will be observed as Founder’s Day and a national holiday. The long and tortuous national rehabilitation of the man who led the country to independence and remains an inspiration to Africans all over the world had taken yet another important step in the centenary year of his birth.
In the years after Ghana gained independence, Nkrumah’s life and work was dominated by two primary concerns, one international, the other domestic. Internationally Pan-Africanism as a project of political and economic freedom, unity and structural transformation linked to the issue of Africa’s place and voice on the world stage was dominant. Inside Ghana the main issue was the structural transformation of the mono-crop dependent colonial economy bequeathed by the British into a balanced and internally linked one that offered improved and secure livelihoods to Ghanaians. The domestic and international concerns were of course closely linked in Nkrumah’s pronouncements and practice. He hoped that any achievements in Ghana would serve as a model as well as a unit in the economy of a united Africa. Nkrumah was ready to incur the wrath of the major imperialist powers of the day in pursuit of what he believed was in the interest of the African people.
David Rooney concluded his critical biography of Nkrumah with the acknowledgement that ‘His hopes were encapsulated in his ultimate goal of a United Africa in which its rich natural resources would be used for the benefit of all its people and would not be filched from them by foreign financiers and other exploiters. It may take centuries for Nkrumah’s goal to be achieved, but when it is, he will be revered as the leader with the dynamism and intelligent imagination to take the first brave steps’.
From an age when there were a number of outstanding African leaders, among whom Nkrumah was preeminent, the continent currently confronts the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and a host of other challenges such as the situation in and international political play around Darfur without a rallying figure.
Nkrumah’s leadership and rallying role in African affairs went well beyond his vision and theorising. Importantly it included support for national liberation movements. This support embodied a unity of his Pan-Africanism and commitment to anti-colonial independence as a necessary precondition for the continent’s unity and progress. The activities of the Bureau of African Affairs which oversaw support for national liberation movements and the training of their cadre in Ghana with support from the Soviet bloc and China led to Cold War accusation that Ghana was a base for communist subversion in Africa. Two events however stand out in Nkrumah’s readiness to support the national liberation struggle as well as defend its unity with the Pan-African cause, even when face to face with much more powerful countries. These are the financial aid Ghana gave to newly independent Guinea in 1958 and Ghana’s stance and action in support of Patrice Lumumba’s government during the Congo (DRC) crisis of the early sixties. Developments in the two countries soon after independence offer credence to Cabral’s argument that ’so long as imperialism is in existence an independent African state must be a liberation movement in power, or it will not be independent’.
As France stared defeat in the face in Algeria at the hands of the National Liberation Front (FLN) – a prospect made all the more difficult to countenance because of the humiliation inflicted by the Vietnamese in 1954 – it sought to re-package its colonial control by offering its African colonies membership of a French community. All French African colonies, except Guinea under Sekou Toure, agreed to the new colonial package. In an unforgettable act of vindictiveness, the departing French stripped Guinea of anything they could carry, leaving the country on the brink of collapse. Nkrumah stepped in with a £10m loan to help the newly independent country avoid collapse. This was a considerable sum in those days and big sacrifice by a small country like Ghana.
Nkrumah’s brave and sustained but ultimately doomed support for Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, the unity of Congo and his faith in the UN in the face Western plotting and intrigue marked a high point of his willingness to assume international leadership on African causes. The outcome was also a stark statement of what could not be achieved without a concerted African engagement in the face of powerful external forces. Nkrumah maintained a consistent line during the Congo crisis. He insisted that the country should solve its problems with the support of other African countries within the framework of the UN without the meddling of global powers, especially the NATO bloc. He assumed that the UN framework would give international legitimacy to the African led process. Nkrumah sent troops to support Lumumba using Soviet planes much to the anger of the USA. On 23 September 1960 Nkrumah used the platform of the UN General Assembly to make the case for Congo’s unity, Lumumba’s leadership and for an African solution under UN auspices to the crisis in the Congo. The appeal failed to gain traction, mainly because the UN auspices also provided perfect cover for the US and its NATO allies to carry out their plans in the Congo.
It is now a public fact that even before Congo’s independence on 1 July 1960, the American CIA was getting ready to put its puppets in power. President Dwight Eisenhower issued a national security order for the killing of Prime Minister Lumumba within six weeks of Congo becoming independent. Congo’s fate as a Western plaything in the Cold War was sealed and its long and tragic descent into what it has become today had begun. The gulf between Nkrumah’s intentions and his weakness in the situation was tragically highlighted by how Ghana’s contingent in the UN military force became detached from Nkrumah’s political objectives and acted as accessories to actions against Lumumba.
Nkrumah’s lonely and heroic but ultimately futile stance on the Congo crisis contrasts sharply with the flabby collective African approach on Somalia and Darfur. The former process has lurched from crisis to crisis with ever diminishing credibility and capacity of the transitional government. The situation was further compounded by the readiness of Ethiopia, the host country of the African Union, to act in concert with the Bush administration in pursuit of their particular national interests that converged in Somalia. Old Ethiopian imperial pretensions meshed with Bush’s war on terror. All these fuelled the discrediting, resistance to and delegitimation of the AU’s role in that country.
The Darfur crisis and its escalation around the indictment of Sudan’s President Bashir by the International Criminal Court has provided a grave test for Africa’s collective ability to deal with African issues which are heavily intermeshed with international dimensions and interests. The UN/AU hybrid peacekeeping operation in Darfur (UNAMID) continues to face various difficulties. Joint UN-AU as well as Arab League mediation and peace initiatives do not appear to be making much progress. The indictment of Bashir and the issuing of a warrant for his arrest has further complicated the situation. Having failed to exert a decisive influence on the course of events in Darfur, including on the behaviour of the Sudanese government and the evolution of the ICC’s pursuit of Bashir, the African Union has taken a critical stance towards the implementation of the arrest warrant. As the internationalisation of the Darfur conflict widens, the purchase of the African Union on how it is likely to be resolved shrinks.
In recent years Pan-African structures, institutions and processes have proliferated. The mechanisms of the AU have been undergoing refinement since it took over from the OAU as the premier continental institution. Alongside these phenomena, many African leaders have aspired to inherit Nkrumah’s mantle as the visionary and driver of Pan-Africanism and continental unity. A gaping political leadership vacuum however remains at the heart of the continent’s collective expression.
Earlier this year the AU elected Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi as chair of the Union. In recent years, he has emerged as the most forthright spokesman for the urgency of creating a United States of Africa. How best and how quickly to move forward to a union of African states was the main item on the agenda of the 2007 AU summit, fittingly held in Accra during Ghana’s 50th year of independence. The debate was inconclusive but the exercise underlined Gaddafi’s stature as a leader of the Unity Now! camp.
The African Union’s election of the unpredictable Gaddafi at this grave moment in history is more a negative than a positive. It is a statement of a collective failure of leadership and underlines the crisis in which the Pan-African project is mired at the inter-state level. His seemingly radical stance on African Unity notwithstanding, the sad truth is that Gaddafi is not the successor to Nkrumah that the continent currently and urgently needs. He does not offer a coherent vision or leadership practice of pan-Africanism in keeping with the needs of the age. These shortcomings are compounded by his unpredictability and histrionics. Some of his views and pronouncements show him up as a man deeply marked by his years as an authoritarian leader. Among his many bizarre acts is his current self-designation as king of Africa’s kings, a reactionary assertion out of tune with the democratic logic on the continent’s national liberation struggles.
The African people want democracy not monarchs. If there is one element of Africa’s post-colonial history that the masses want behind them it is the years of despotism. In Black Star, his deeply sympathetic study of Nkrumah’s life and times, Basil Davidson, who devoted his life to supporting Africa’s national liberation struggles, pointed to the decay of internal party democracy and the gradual ascent of authoritarian use of power in Nkrumah’s Ghana as a key contributor to the erosion of mass support for Nkrumah’s efforts to transform the economy for the benefit of ordinary people. ‘The view for tomorrow is that Nkrumah’s aims were the right ones and their realisation will become increasingly possible as conditions ripen and as other strategists take up further struggles for liberation. These strategists will succeed… in the measure that they undertake and carry through the work of building democratic organisations which become the vehicles of mass participation as well as mass support: movements in which the mass of ordinary people really make, enshrine and uphold the fundamental law of the land’.
The African delegation to the London G20 summit was led not by Gaddafi the chair of the AU but by Ethiopia’s Meles Zenawi, who is chair of NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa’s Development) and a good friend of the West. NEPAD is at best a substructure of the AU and Zenawi’s presence is illustrative of the ease with which many outside Africa are able to pick and choose how to deal with the continent. During the Beijing China Africa Forum the Chinese were able to deal with African countries as individuals while the AU was treated as observer.
Processes of restructuring of global leadership are underway in the international level responses to the unfolding economic crisis. One strand of these is the emergence of the G20 as a key site of global economic leadership, the effective downgrading of the G8. This process mirrors the way in which the old wholly Western quartet of leading powers in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has been replaced by a new quad of the US, EU, Brazil and India. The seating around the G20 table reflects the power of individual Asian and Latin American economies with South Africa the only African country there as an individual member country. Realistically the most effective way African countries could have optimised their voice would have been through effective prior preparation and definition of positions and South-South diplomacy ahead of the meeting, as well as having a collective representative of their own choosing.
The continent’s response to the global crisis has so far lacked urgency and the sense that this is an opportunity to make a break with some of the discredited policies which have failed to deliver transformative growth over the past couple of decades. The main line in the global fora has been to plead for Africa to be remembered and for the security of aid budgets. As African leaders traipse around international fora, the glaring absence of leaders who see opportunities for change in the current crisis stands in sharp relief.
The current global crisis has validated what critics of neoliberalism have been saying for years. In the last few years the annual Economic Report on Africa (ERA) published by the UN Economic Commission for Africa has been gently putting out its critique of the experience of the neoliberal agenda in Africa. Years of growth had failed to effect either transformation or the much touted poverty reduction. The current crisis had again brought to the fore the fundamental structural problems of Africa’s economies which the recent years of growth had masked, especially in countries exporting oil or benefiting from the commodities boom.
Nkrumah reportedly broke down in tears when confronted with the news that the collapse of cocoa prices had cut the ground from under his plans for the economic transformation of Ghana. In the years since Nkrumah’s overthrow, the cyclical movement of cocoa and gold prices have been the determinant factors in the health of the Ghanaian economy, tempered in recent years by the substantial aid that the country receives. For some years now Ghana has been a model of the type of economy and economic policy that has been proclaimed as the way forward for Africa but which has failed to deliver over a generation and has been exposed as bankrupt by the global crisis.
During the last six or so years of his rule Nkrumah attempted to transform the colonial economy he inherited. Many leaders of his generation – Nyerere in Tanzania, Kaunda in Zambia, and many others – recognised this to be a primary task of post-colonial economic policy. Despite the claims that Nkrumah’s difficulties were because of his socialist policies, the truth is that for a long time he was a good pupil of the dominant economic theories and ideas of his day as purveyed by leading thinkers in the West. His later attempt to learn from the development strategies of the Soviet Union as well as China and Yugoslavia showed a readiness to take risks and try uncharted paths. In retrospect it clear that many mistakes were made and offer rich lessons for today, but he dared.
In the 15 years Nkrumah was in power a leading role for the state in the economy was the norm in both communist countries and the West where Keynesian economics prevailed. The experience of the Soviet Union offered lessons in rapid industrialisation, which India had started learning before Ghana came along. The relative success of import substituting industrialisation in Latin America had made that strategy a respectable one by the time of Ghana’s independence. The Labour party was undertaking extensive nationalisations in Britain when Nkrumah first came to power. Nkrumah’s Pan-Africanism was powered by a grander vision and ambition than the modest European Coal and Steel community, which has flowered into the European Union, but they were united by a recognition of the benefits of regional integration.
Using existing resources, Nkrumah rapidly expanded education, health and infrastructure and aided other newly independent countries such as Guinea. With additional borrowing, industrial and agricultural investments were made. Many of the agro-industrial projects, not all well conceived, were in their infancy when he was overthrown. He inaugurated the Akosombo hydroelectricity dam, the centre piece of the Volta River project, which he saw as powering Ghana’s industrialisation a month before his overthrow. The creation of a local raw material base was not properly scheduled with the new factories that were built in the period before the 1966 coup. By that time the crisis in the international price of cocoa had wrought considerable damage to revenue and growth projections, putting pressure on imports and consumption.
The turn towards the Soviet Union and China was an economic as well as political act. Nkrumah’s anti-imperialism meant that he did not believe he could rely on the West for full support for his transformational project especially given the centrality of African unity with its implication for existing colonial spheres of influence as well as US intrusions into the continent.
One of the key lessons from Ghana’s development experience under Nkrumah is linked directly to his commitment to a pan-African solution to the challenges of under development. Nkrumah’s works are replete with warnings about the limits of what small ‘balkanised’ African countries can do on their own. Faced with the absence of a larger political economic unit he sought to transform the small economy and market of Ghana into an industrialised economy at a fast pace. The post-Cold War global economic framework has made the regional and continental even more key in any serious African project of economic transformation.
Sadly even in the face of the global crisis many African governments are looking only outwards towards their ‘development partners’ rather than exploring the opportunities for deepening regional and continental cooperation and integration. The IMF is offering its pernicious advice that not much needs to change and there seem to be many in African leadership ready to listen. Meantime in the global North, pages are being torn from the rulebooks by which African economies have been run from Washington. The norms which have driven the negotiating positions of the West in fora such as the WTO have been called into question by domestic policies in those countries.
All these offer important opportunities for a new agenda for economic transformation in Africa. Where are the African leaders ready to dare and look beyond guaranteeing the sanctity of aid flows? Wanted: an African ‘leader with the dynamism and intelligent imagination to take the first brave steps’.
(Yao Graham, an activist and writer, is the head of Third World Network Africa, a pan-African research and advocacy organization based in Accra, Ghana.)
By Wondwossen Mezlekia
An internal feud between Ethiopian private exporters and the government caught the media spotlight recently but, as usual, limited journalism coverage derailed the attention off the fundamental issues.
On March 25, 2009, the government seized 17,000 tons of coffee beans from six exporters, and revoked their licenses. The government is now considering selling the seized stocks itself on the international market. The licenses of additional 88 independent traders had also been cancelled for failing to heed the authorities.
This happened after Prime Minister Meles Zenawi accused some coffee exporters in January of having been reluctant to sell stocks through the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX). He warned them of conspiring and disturbing the integrity of the ECX system by supplying and then buying back their own coffees to sell coffee meant for export on the domestic market, threatening to “cut off one of their hands” if they did not behave.
The exporters deny these accusations.
When the media picked and wagged a thread, the news spilled over to global markets and sent a shockwave across the specialty coffee community. Some importers of specialty coffees got worried that the new coffee law may put an end to direct sourcing of beans and severely impacted the already scant traceability of Ethiopia’s coffee beans.
In all this, the farmers’ voice is drowned out and their concerns left unnoticed.
As it happens, the recent development in Ethiopia’s coffee sector has more ramifications to the national economy than on the specialty coffee industry. Importers and roasters interviewed for this report confirmed that their sourcing is unaffected while the feud continues.
To understand the underlying reasons for the private exporters’ frustrations and the government’s heavy-handed actions, one needs to look at the history of coffee in Ethiopia and what changed in recent years.
Political Crop
Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee, is the sixth largest coffee producer and the seventh largest exporter worldwide. It is the largest coffee producer and exporter in Africa. Exports between March 2008 and February 2009 were 2,679,155 bags of coffee beans, a share of 2.73 percent in global coffee trade.
The fine quality of its coffees and the distinctive features of the sector, including its genetic resources, abundance of wild coffee trees, and the organic coffee production, earned Ethiopia a unique place in the global coffee marketplace.
Coffee is the backbone of Ethiopia’s economy. In the 2007/2008, coffee export fetched more than 525 million dollars, accounting for about 60 percent of the country’s hard currency earnings. Moreover, coffee provides an important source of income for a large portion of the population and is an important source of tax revenue to the government.
Coffee holds a strong political significance in Ethiopia because of its tremendous importance in the economy and its political purposes for the regime. The ruling party ensures the centralized collection and controlling of foreign currency in order to stay in power.
Currently, the government is strapped; its foreign currency reserve is at its lowest level of $850 million, enough to cover only a month’s imports. The foreign exchange shortage was exacerbated by declines in global coffee prices, poor harvest, and contraction of sales following the loss of Japan’s market due to the ban imposed in May 2008 by Japan after finding “abnormally high” pesticide residues in a shipment of the beans.
Under these circumstances, coffee can be extremely appealing to the government.
The Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX)
The Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX), a government owned central trading system, meant primarily for grains, began trading coffee in December 2008. Launched in May 2008, the trading platform was set up to replace the murky auction system often abused by market participants.
During the ECX rollout, which happened to coincide with the global economic turmoil where domestic and global prices were sharply rising, there was severe shortage of grains flowing through the exchange.
Although it is authorized to trade in both spot and futures contracts, ECX announced in April 2008 that it intends to start off with only spot contracts for immediate delivery (as a strategic driver of the ultimate futures trading) and impose compulsory delivery of grains.
In August 2008, the government swiftly enacted a new coffee law in order to provide ECX with the necessary legal framework that would enable it, among others, to impose compulsory delivery of coffees. This law requires all coffees to be traded through the ECX – the only outlet to international markets.
The New Coffee Law
The new coffee law, as some call it, is believed to be what sparked the outcry among private exporters in Ethiopia and the specialty coffee community. Outside Ethiopia, there is confusion on whether or not the law prohibits direct sourcing of single origin coffees.
The law, formally known as the Coffee Quality Control and Marketing Proclamation (No. 602/2008*, declares all coffee trade “shall take place in lawful coffee transaction centers.”
More specifically, Article 10(1) reads:
“Any person involved in the roasting and grinding of coffee for selling shall purchase the coffee for such purpose only from auction centers, the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange or wholesalers.”
But Article 11 appears to be leaving room for direct sourcing:
“Any coffee producer shall: 1/ without prejudice to Article 6(1) of this Proclamation, have the right to directly export coffee from his own farm, only after submitting the same to the coffee quality liquoring and inspection center for grading before and after processing for export; and 2/ sell coffee by product in auction centers or the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange only upon examination and approval of the coffee quality liquoring and inspection center.”
This provision makes it easier for coffee farmers’ cooperatives and marketing unions to transact with importers directly. Some of the cooperatives and unions that are reasonably equipped and well positioned to handle export orders will hopefully reap the benefits of direct marketing.
Meanwhile, farmers that are not organized in cooperatives, which constitute the majority of the farming community, are disadvantaged, as dealing with importers from thousands of miles away would be challenging, if not impossible. However, importers do have the option and abilities to initiate and enter into contracts with all producers and access their favorite coffee origins by establishing direct relationships with producers. This approach helps the poor farmers dig themselves out of the traps of poverty and eternal exploitation.
The law abolishes the old practices by some exporters of handholding coffee bags from farm gate to export. Now, they will have to compete with other exporters if they need to buy specific bag of cherries supplied by suppliers or “akrabis.”
In this respect, the Coffee Quality Control and Marketing Proclamation and ECX call for segregation of duty at all levels of the value chain. It appears, though, the government is now in violation of this noble code of ethics.
Conflict of Interest
The present-day domestic marketing chain in Ethiopia is as old as the export trade itself. The bean passes through numerous market participants before arriving at the central auction centers: collectors or “sebsabis” collect the beans at local stations from rural merchants or farmers and sell it to suppliers or “akrabis”; akrabis deliver the coffee en masse to the auction centers; private exporters or local distributors buy from auction centers. Suppliers and exporters are not allowed to bypass the auctions and exchange directly.
With the introduction of the new exchange system the auction centers are replaced by the ECX, while all other participants continue to function as is, but with one fundamental change: transparency. The previous auction system was marred with loopholes that seem to have allowed some exporters holding dual licenses to purchase back their own coffee in the auctions, thereby enjoying too much control over coffee prices. Supposedly, ECX’ introduction of rules of trading, warehousing, payments and delivery, and business conduct principles will seal off those loopholes. This seems to have upset a few exporters and fired back at by the government accusing them of engaging in conflict of interest.
But the government’s reactions were even more troubling. It not only confiscated coffee beans from the exporters but also tasked the state owned Ethiopian Grain Trade Enterprise (EGTE) with exporting of coffee.
This measure throws privatization and domestic market liberalization out in the window.
Ethiopia’s coffee market has always been a relatively private business, with the exception of limited government interventions to enforce quality standards, etc. This was true even during the days of the communist regime that “nationalized” almost every sector in the nation.
EGTE’s slated assignment marks a detrimental precedence in the nation’s history. The government’s engagement in exporting beans produced by smallholder families while it controls almost all means of production in the country, including the distribution of farm inputs, capital, and the land, is inconsistent with principles of a free market system.
Drowned Out Voices
As usual, when those up in the value chain fight, in this case the government and private exporters, it is the farmers that suffer most. In Ethiopia, smallholder farmers produce about 95 per cent of the nation’s total coffee production and these farmers rely on the sale of their cherries for their families’ mere survival.
For generations, Ethiopian coffee farmers have been at the mercy of their marauders. In the long and inefficient marketing chain, each participant marks up their prices weighing down the burden on the farmers’ shoulders. Ethiopian farmers receive barely a small fraction of the value their produce is worth, currently around 40 percent of export prices, much less than the 70 percent that their counterparts in Central and South America receive.
A transparent and efficient exchange market system nurtures competition and benefits everyone in the value chain, from bean to cup. Farmers producing the finest quality coffee can get rewarded for their hard work as well as suppliers and exporters whose innovation and smart marketing skills pay off.
But, if given the choice, farmers in Ethiopia would choose direct marketing over a chain of licensees that add little value to the product. To that effect, ECX would be more beneficial to the farmers if its processes support and facilitate for more farmer-importer relationships.
Looking Ahead
The role of a centralized modern commodity exchange is indispensable for developing economies, such as Ethiopia.
The country’s coffee sector is highly dependent on international prices and the export is affected by the structure and workings of the world coffee market. The market participants need to understand that Ethiopia is competing with countries that have the abilities and the will to easily adopt innovative low-cost production and marketing systems.
The current bickering and prejudice will only affect coffee quality, weaken the country’s brands, deter potential importers, and put the sector at risk. The government needs to exercise restraint, listen to and address the concerns of all participants, from farmers to importers. Its obligation to protect the farmers from exploitation includes itself as well. Replacing private exporters by EGTE won’t lessen the burden on poor farmers.
The interests of all participants can be better served if the market functions, in the words from ECX’ mission statement, “based on continuous learning, fairness, and commitment to excellence.”
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AFP) — Ethiopia’s dictatorial regime will boost arms production to cut weapons imports and save its dwindling foreign exchange, the tribalist junta leader Meles Zenawi has said.