A Tribute to a Fallen Hero: Hyelom
Tecola W. Hagos
Ethiopian Review, April 1996
Hyelom Araya died in a shower of an assassin’s bullet in an alleged common brawl at a bar. How I wished he died in one of the numerous battle fields he fought starting from his ancestral home in Shere all the way to Harer, his last command-post before he was shelved by Meles and his conspiratorial group to a toothless post and under short leash at the Office of the Prime Minister. Hyelom was a nationalist who fought for the liberation of oppressed Tygreans and Ethiopians. He fought for justice and freedom in the best tradition of his patriotic father Dejazmatch Araya Gebre Egzeabher and equally patriotic mother W/o Roman and his many relations who chose to fight the Italians for five years forming their own resistance movement in cooperation with like minded Ethiopians from Wolkiet-Segede, Shere, Enderta, Armacheho and Yeju area after their leaders such as Ras Seyoum and Dejazmatch Ayalew Biru and others submitted to the Italians, and became agents and bootleakers of the Italians.
Unlike the present leaders of the Ethiopian government, Hyelom’s ancestry is impeccable. A man who grew up in a household of heroic leaders and more importantly decent human beings. He was a leader unparalleled for his courage and commitment by anyone in the TPLE or any other movement. He was loved by the freedom fighters of the TPLF and respected by freedom fighters from other movements, young and old alike. He never fitted the type of manipulative scheme Meles and his patron, the Eritrean leaders, were putting in place. When Meles started to consolidate his power in the TPLF in late 1991 by replacing veteran commanders and leaders and also appointing ex-officials of the brutal Mengistu to high posts in the new Ethiopian Transitional government, Hyelom was very much opposed to replacing veteran and seasoned leaders in the TPLF with younger and recent recruits who had not bonded with the older leaders of the TPLF. At times, it is reported that his objection has lead to frontal clash with Meles and his group on several meetings of the leadership of TPLF. There was a growing frustration due to the undemocratic and increasingly dictatorial manner the Ethiopian government was being lead by Meles and his group.
In the last one year, friends who knew him well have stated that he was increasingly opposed to the type of bureaucratic stratification of the government of Meles with elites (aradas) and the children of feudal leaders who had not contributed anything to the struggle. He was also very much opposed to the type of lopsided relationship of the Ethiopian government and the Eritrean leaders and Eritrean citizens living in Ethiopia and taking tremendous advantage of the Ethiopian population. Hyelom was an upright man, in the best tradition of great warriors and leaders. He was not a narrow nationalist or a fanatic of ethnic adulation. He hated injustice and despotic rules. He was unassuming and honest to a fault.
From all report available it seems that Hyelom was a loving father of two wonderful young boys, and a husband of a young mother, now an extremely grieving widow. Ethiopia lost a great man who could have helped in the healing process of the horrible wound being inflicted by the new dictators and sycophantic opportunist officials of the government of Meles. He was the one man who could have changed the despotic tide engulfing Ethiopians at this point. He could have lead the TPLF into a democratic format of leadership and help build and guide the national ethos of Ethiopians toward political and economic independence and national reconciliation. It is now all the more our responsibility to see to it that the cancerous growth of the leadership of Meles Zenawi is incised and his destructive government derailed. We have to work much harder in order to create the necessary atmosphere whereby the true sons and daughters of Ethiopia who had sacrificed much lead our country into an independent and self sufficient state.
In conclusion, I dare say that every Ethiopian ought to grieve the untimely death of this man of the people. Meles and his group are responsible for the death of such a hero by creating an atmosphere where an “Eritrean” from the Bogos could dare shoot a hero of the people. This is not something that happened on the spur of the moment. Meles and his political program has allowed for the fermentation of this type of contempt by foreigners, like the assassin who is more a Sudanese from Bogos more than anything else, to take such unheard of liberties with the rights of Ethiopian nationals. In the first place, the assassin has no right to carry a gun in a host country. He has breached the sanctity of our integrity and national pride. The consequence of this cowardly act may have heralded the starting fire for the salvation of Ethiopia sooner than later. For the rest of TPLF leaders, all what I can say is beware of Meles, and remember what Mengistu did to his co-conspirators! Power in the hand of a megalomaniac is an instrument of destruction. And once more the sacrifice of Hyelom will be the liberation of Ethiopia from the evil grip of the current leaders of Ethiopia. To Hyelom, I say with humility and sorrow: Requiem. There is no one like him. Period!
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