THE INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY COMMITTEE
FOR ETHIOPIAN PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE (ISCEPC)
North American office: P. O. Box 53022, Medford MA 02153. U. S. A
UNRAVELING HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES IN ETHIOPIA: WAYS AND MEANS OF
ALLEVIATING THE PROBLEM
Human rights week observance and electronic mail conference
Dates: 3-8 March, 1997
Dedication: To past and present Ethiopian men
and women who gave up their freedom, family, friends and career
to struggle for a democratic Ethiopia
Prisoner: ASRAT WOLDE-YES,
Professor veteran surgeon, former dean of faculty of medicine at
the Addis Ababa University (AAU), and president of AAPO.
imprisoned on false and fabricated charges since 1992. Almost 70
years old, sentenced for 5 years. Determined to keep him locked
for a long time, the government
is reportedly preparing another charge. Declared prisoner of
conscience in 1992 by AI.
FROM THE SURGICAL WARD TO THE POLITCAL
FIELD :
REFLECTIONS ON THE LIFE AND WORKS OF
PROFESSOR ASRAT
By
Assefa Negash, M.D.
Amsterdam (Holland), March 1, 1997
I – Personal Biography and Profile of Professor
Asrat
Professor Asrat Woldeyes was born in Adddis
Abeba, on June 20, 1928. When he was barely three years old, his
family moved to the south eastern Ethiopian town of Dire Dawa
(1). He was an eight year old boy when Italian Fascist occupation
forces of Mussoloni invaded Ethiopia. Following the attempt on
the life of the Italian fascist general Grazianni in Addis Abeba
on that fateful day of 19 February 1937, his father, Ato Weldeyes
Altaye, was captured and brutally murdered along with thousands
of other civilians and patriotic Ethiopians by the invading
Italian fascist forces and their Eritrean mercenaries. His
grandfather, Kegnazmatch Tsige Werede Werk, was one of the
Ethiopian patriots who was deported 2 to Italy and stayed there
for three and half years along many other Ethiopian resistance
fighters. As if the unfortunate death of his father was not
enough, the future surgeon was struck by bouts of another
misfortune i.e the loss of his mother W/o Beself Yewalu Tsige,
who died of bereavement caused by the untimely and brutal death
of her husband. In spite of having been struck by a paroxysm of
traumatic events at such prime age, the future surgeon diligently
struggled on to find his bearing and maintain his gait through
the tumult and insecurity created by the sudden loss of his
beloved parents at such youthful age when he needed their
emotional support and parental guidance.
Following the defeat of the Italian fascist
occupation forces in 1941, the future surgeon came to Addis Abeba
to pursue his education. In 1942 he joined the then prestigious
Tafari Mekonnen School. He was an outstanding student and in 1943
he was rewarded a camera for having been the best student of the
school in that academic year. From Teferi Mekonen school, he was
sent to Egypt to pursue his education at Victoria college.
Subsequently he was sent to UK where he joined the Medical
Faculty of Edinburgh University and studied medicine. He was the
42nd student from among the Ethiopian students that were sent
abroad in the post-liberation period. Untempted or untitillated
by the glitter and glamour of western life, he immediately
returned to his native country upon completion of his medical
studies in 1956. After having served his country as a general
practitioner for 5 years in the former Prince Tsehai hospital of
Addis Abeba, he returned to Edinburgh (Scotland) where he
specialized in surgery. He was the first Ethiopian surgeon in the
post-1941 period. Professor Asrat is the founding member of the
Ethiopian Medical Association (EMA), Fellow of the Royal College
of Surgeons of Scotland (FRCS Edinburgh) and FRCS (England),
member of the British Medical Association (BMA), the East African
Surgical Association (EASA) and International College of Surgeons
(USA). Since his return to his beloved country Ethiopia,
Professor Asrat Woldeyes has given extraordinary medical service
to his country both as a practicing physician and professor of
surgery at the Addis Abeba University Medical Faculty in the
establishment of which he played an important role. The medical
school, in which he subsequently served as dean and professor of
surgery, came into existence in 1965 as part of the Haile
Selassie I university (as it was then called).
II – The Disruption of Educational Development
in the 1936-1941 Period – A Negative Legacy of Fascist Italy’s
Occupation of Ethiopia.
Fascist Italy’s occupation of Ethiopia deprived
the country a generation of fledgling modern intellectuals. The
few hundred Ethiopian intellectuals the country produced prior to
1935 were the primary targets of Italian fascist occupation
forces and were accordingly hunted down and physically decimated
for fear that they would serve as potential leaders of the
resistance movement against Italy (2) . When the Italians left
Ethiopia after 5 years of unsuccessful occupation, there was no
trace of an Ethiopian intellectual elite to man or run the modern
administrative machinery and shoulder the responsibility of
reconstructing the war-ravaged country. Ethiopia had to wait 12
years after liberation before the first graduated nurses appeared
on the scene and wait another 14 years (after liberation) before
the first Ethiopian medical doctor (professor Asrat Woldeyes) has
to appear on the scene (3). He was one of the first educated
Ethiopians to appear on the scene in a country where the manpower
vaccum created due to the unfortunate, if outrageous,
extermination of Ethiopia’s few intellectuals by Italian fascists
and their 100,000 strong Eritrean (4) bandas (as these soldiers
of fortune are called by Ethiopian patriots) or askaris between
1936-1941 meant that Ethiopia has to start ex nihilo trying to
produce anew its educated elite. It also meant a painful, if
intolerable, dependence on expatriates during the two decades
following the liberation of Ethiopia. Expatriates had to devise
plans and set up priorities for Ethiopia about which they knew or
cared to know little. This surrender of decision making process
to expatriates has had many untoward or negative effects on a
developing nation’s life like that of Ethiopia. It was these
foreign experts, a good number of whom had no concern for the
interest of Ethiopia, that decided what was good or bad for
Ethiopia (5).
More often than not, it was the views of these
“omniscient” expatriate experts which had an overriding
role
or sway in shaping the national developmental
policies and setting priorities of Ethiopia. Perhaphs nowhere was
the ill-advised policies of these “omnisicient”
international experts and advisers so evident as in the area of
Ethiopia’s public health problems. These experts advised Emperor
Haile Sellase’s government on the non advisability and
impracticality of establishing a medical school in Ethiopia. Of
course any sane person can understand the implications of such
advice. It implies not being able to produce nationals locally
who can best solve their country’s problem head-on. It implies a
humiliating and continued dependance on expatriate medical
doctors who could not even directly communicate with the
Ethiopian people they are meant to serve due to the language and
cultural barrier such an encounter would entail. In a field like
medicine, the medical professional’s knowledge and mastery of the
language, culture and social background of his/her would-be
patient remains to be an important asset in understanding,
diagnosing and treating this patient. The few Ethiopian
professionals like professor Asrat had to fight hard to overcome
these obstacles that were being put on their way by foreign
expatriates who tried to block or delay the establishment of a
medical school in Ethiopia.
III – Service as a Medical Practioner and
Professor of Surgery
Professor Asrat vigorously struggled along with
his few Ethiopian colleagues to create the first medical school
in the country. This medical school came into being in 1965. And
since its opening, the school of medicine has produced hundreds
of medical graduates. Thanks to the effort of medical
professionals like professor Asrat and his colleagues such as
professors Ededmariam Tsega, Paulos Quana’a, Nebiyat Teferi,
Demisse Habte, etc the school of medicine has begun to locally
train various medical specialists in such fields as Surgery,
Internal medicine, Gynecology and Obsteterics, Opthalmology and
Pediatrics. This is an achievement we owe primarily to people
like Professor Asrat and his few colleagues who have dedicated
their time to create such fine national institutions that can
serve the needs of their population. It is all the more
surprising, though, that such national figure of extraordinary
caliber has to be dismissed from the University along with 41
other senior lecturers and professors because of his political
opinion. In present-day Ethiopia, where might becomes right;
omnipotent ex-rebel leaders and misfits of society can become
“omniscient academics” that can evaluate, dismiss and
lay off at will independent-minded and “incorrigible”
intellectuals. The present anti-intellectual campaign of the
EPRDF government parallels that of fascist Italian period in its
methods, in its anti-Ethiopian goals and, particularly, in its
anti-Amhara overtones. In its drive and cruelty, EPRDF’s current
action surpasses the anti-intellectual campaign of the Chinese
Cultural Revolution of Mao Tse Tung and Cambodia’s Pol Pot in
that the latter two were motivated by communist ideological
infatuation (directed against Chinese and Cambodian intellectuals
irrespective of their ethnic origin) while EPRDF’s
anti-intellectual campaign is motivated by an ethnic hatred
directed against non-Tigrean Ethiopian intellectuals in general
and Amhara intellectuals in particular. Until his outrageous
dismissal from the Addis Abeba University medical school and
teaching hospital in March 1993, Professor Asrat had served his
country for 38 solid years.
IV – The Dergue Period (1974-1991)
In the hey days of ideological infatuation
through which my generation passed, many issues of national
concern had to be decided by ideologically motivated cadres that
had hardly any grasp of practical issues. Ethiopia became a
country where the decision-making process came to be dictated by
the all pervasive ideology in wide currency then i.e socialism.
Ideology assumed supremacy over professional competence and
merit. This pervasive ideological supremacy over professional
commitment was also to encroach upon the health sector.
Ideologically-motivated, inept cadres who were for the most part
people that knew little about the country’s health problems tried
to revise and rewrite the medical school curriculum and define
priorities regarding Ethiopia’s health manpower training. Few
summoned up their courage to challenge the diktat of these
ideologists. True to character, it was individuals like Professor
Asrat who had the courage to challenge such sweeping and
ill-advised revisions at a time when such opposition amounted to
an act of defiance against socialism and the revolution – two
sacred concepts in the Ethiopia of the mid and late 1970s. Since
Ethiopian national interest was at stake, Professor Asrat never
yielded to the blackmails nor the diktat of these cadres who
tried to dictate terms regarding the medical curriculum or health
manpower training issue in Ethiopia. Speaking on this important
issue of health manpower training in Ethiopia when he addressed
the eleventh Annual National Conference of the Ethiopian Medical
Association (EMA) in 1975, Professor Asrat had the following to
say :
“It is, however, unfortunate that this
important theme (the issue of health man-power training and
medical curriculum of Ethiopia) has dwindled to an adulteration
as it is being used by some self-styled intellectuals, to cover
their own failures in life and promote their selfish motive and
cover up their defects. In appearing to be saviors of the common
man, they (these cadres) tell them he only needs more medical
health workers that are trained in a short period. Such a concept
is not knew and this was what the colonial powers in Africa did
and preached. In the French colonies, the African could only go
as high as the level of “medecine Africaine” or
Assistant d’etranger (African Doctor or the Foreigner’s
assistant). Such cadres of workers were to function as
paramedicals to help and assist the well trained European master
who forever occupied the position of the unattainable. The very
people who preach such doctrines for their countrymen, have no
hesitation of employing doctors irrespective of their competence,
as long as they come from other countries”(6) .
Such principled stand on issues of national
interest has earned Professor Asrat and his few colleagues the
then popular label “die-hard, conservative, bourgeoisie
reactionary intellectual, etc”. This was an insult
courageous people like him had to bear or stomach because of
their professional defiance against an inept regime and system
that tried to impose its own diktat on the medical profession and
system. Few Ethiopian professionals have shown such professional
defiance which, in those terrible days, amounted to risking one’s
career, and above all, one’s life at a time when ideologists and
cadres dictated terms and opposition to their diktat amounted to
national treason. Contrary to the allegations of the groups that
are currently in power, professor Asrat was not a yes-man that
appeased and is willing to appease those in power – past or
present. He has always been a man who spoke out his mind
regardless of the consequences which such “defiant”
behaviour would entail.
If readers need more proof about professor
Asrat’s determination to defend the truth without any regard for
its consequences, here is one more example of his confrontation
with the Dergue regarding the the circumstances around the death
of the late emperor Haile Selassie. Here is what professor John
H. Spencer wrote in testimony about the courage of professor
Asrat in his monumental book entitled “Ethiopia At Bay : A
Personal Account of Haile Selassie’s Years”.
Spencer wrote :
“The Dergue announced that Haile Selassie
had been found dead in bed and that it had immediately summoned
the former emperor’s physician Dr. Asrat Woldeyes. With
considerable courage, the doctor publicly denied any such
summons. He had been at home all day and no such call had ever
reached him” (7) .
In 1980, at the height of the war in the north,
professor Asrat was sent to the northern town of Mistswa (which
is since May 1991 part of the Eritrean state). Here he had to
treat war causalities that fell on both sides of the warring
factions. For the Tigrean elites who are currently in power in
Eritrea and Ethiopia, professor Asrat’s service in Mistswa was an
act of cooperation with the defunct former military regime. As
such following EPRDF’s assumption of power in Ethiopia, professor
Asrat was subjected to an intense campaign of character
assassination by EPRDF controlled newspapers and magazines like
Efoyta, Maleda, Abiyotawi Democracy, Addis Zemen, the Ethiopian
Herald, etc. Answering to these outrageous charges in 1993,
Professor Asrat stated that :
“According to medical ethics and the oath
any medical doctor swears, it is the duty of every medical doctor
to treat all those who present themselves with medical problems.
In this sense, in my capacity as a medical doctor, I have treated
the late Emperor Haile Selassie and the family of Mengistu Haile
Mariam in the yester-years. At the same time, through out my
life, I have been treating many poor Ethiopians who could not
afford to pay anything for their medical care. And I am still
doing that and it is my duty to treat all those poor who
helplessly lie on the streets and come to seek my professional
help. I am duty bound to treat any one that comes to my attention
to the best of my ability and expertise. If it is their wish I am
also prepared to treat members of the present ruling groups
(EPRDF/TPLF) when and if they need my help since it is my
professional duty to treat and help them (irrespective of their
political views, etc) should they need my help (8) “.
V – Altruisitc Service and Medical Ethics
(1956-1993)
In spite of his extensive surgical skills and
knowledge, professor Asrat has never been tempted to use his
skill and knowledge to enrich himself or neast his feather. He
was not one of those medical doctors who set up private clinics
to line up their pockets. Had that been the case, today he could
have been one of the few Ethiopian millionaires par excellence
and his place would not have been in the verminated prison cells
of Kershele at such an advanced age (he is currently 69 years
old). But he is not a man that runs after money or self
aggrandizement. He is a very God-fearing and ethical surgeon who
leads a very inconspicuous, simple and humble life. It was these
altruistic qualities and his life-time professional service and
commitment to the Ethiopian people that earned him a glorious
name worthy of respect and panegeryisim among the people of
Ethiopia of all ethnic and religious groups who have come from
all corners of Ethiopia to seek his professional help. This
simplicity endeared him to all his colleagues and his patients.
VI – The Leap From the Realm of Medicine Into
that of Politics (1991-1997)
Professor Asrat Woldeye’s name was catapulted
to the fore in the realm of Ethiopian politics when he
participated at the so-called July 1, 1991 “national peace
conference”. This was a conference organized by the
EPLF/EPRDF duo in an effort to give a semblance of legality to
their military seizure of power. It was a conference in which all
major Ethiopian political parties and organizations that upheld
the rule of law and democratic unity of Ethiopia were
deliberately prevented from participation with the acquiescence
of USA and other western patrons hat were behind this so-called
“national peace conference”. Professor Asrat Woldeyes
(along with another delegate) was a participant in the conference
representing the Addis Abeba University – as the only delegate
who was elected by a constituency i.e the university community.
He was the only person at this highly stage-managed conference
that came out to defend the national interest of Ethiopia and
Ethiopians by declining to give his blessing to the sinister and
divisive Charter (9) that came to pass as a supra-legal document
governing the transitional period.
VII – The Amharas As the Bete Noirs In EPRDF’s
Ethiopia
At the July 1, 1991 conference the Amharas who,
according to a national census carried out in 1984 (by the
Ethiopian Central Statistical Office, CSO) (10), constitute
nearly a third of the Ethiopian population, were deliberately
left out of the transitional government that was set up during
this conference of “oppressed nations and
nationalities”. A feverish anti-Amhara propaganda was
launched by the EPLF-EPRDF duo and their trusted junior partner –
the OLF (Oromo Liberation Front) (11) all of which tried to blame
the Amharas for all that befell Ethiopia. Amharas were demonized
through the mass media. Their humanism was denied; their language
(Amharic) castigated as a dirty language (Afan Ajawa) by groups
like the OLF/OPDO; the positive contribution of Amharas and their
struggle for the democratization of Ethiopian society in past and
recent Ethiopian history were denied and the Amhara people
equated with the Dergue – a regime which goes down in Ethiopian
history as one of the most brutal regimes Ethiopia has ever seen.
The Dergue was a regime, which for the most part, wiped out a
whole generation of the Ethiopian elite. The irony about the
demonization of the Amhara is the fact that a significant
percentage of those who were physically decimated by the Dergue
were the very Amharas that were later (at the July 1, 1991
Conference) equated with the Dergue by all those ethnic elites of
“oppressed nations and nationalities”. The anti-Amhara
hysteria and demonization which sought to identify Amharas with
the brutal former military regime was stretched to its absurd
limits when the so-called EPDM (later christened as Amhara
National Democratic Movement or ANDM) led by the now disgraced
Tamirat Layne (former prime minister in the Transitional
Government of Ethiopia) traveled to Eritrea to apologize on
behalf of millions of Amharas. In the words of AAPO’s president
professor Asrat :
“To present the Amharas as colonial rulers
in Eritrea and to attribute the war waged there to the Amharas, a
self-appointed team was sent to Eritrea to apologize on behalf of
the Amharas for what had happened there under the former military
regime” (12) .
The anti-Amhara hysteria was not only limited
to verbal attacks and demonizations. All the non-Amhara
population of Ethiopia were prodded or called upon to rise
against the Amharas who were henceforth dubbed colonialists,
expansionists and neftegna chauvinists etc and were made to bear
responsibility for of Ethiopia’s past and present ills. Soon the
anti-Amhara witch-hunt began in earnest and began to claim human
lives. In areas like Bedeno (13) , Girawa, Kurfa Chele (14) ,
Lange, Kersa, Soka, Deder, Hirna, Kuni (15) , Messela, Galeiti,
Doba (16), Habro region (17) (Boke, Bedessa, Gelemso, Mechara),
Arba Gugu (18), Arsi Neghele (19), Wellega (20), Gojjam (21) ,
etc Amharas and Amharic speakers (Gurages, Kembatas, Hadiya,
christian Oromos, etc) were hunted down like wild animals and
herded into various prisons where they were subequently exposed
to tortures, and in some instances, forced labour and later
mercilessly murdered and dumped in ravines by the forces of the
OLF/IFLO/OPDO(EPRDF). Some of these precipices or ravines in
which these victims were dumped are located in localities such as
Gara Kufa and Chefe Bante both of which are located near my home
town of Hirna in Western Harrarghe. Today the ravines into which
the bodies of these innocent Amhara cvilians (many of them
peasants) were dumped are popularly referred to by the local
people as Haleya Amhara (Amhara ravines (22) or precipice i.e
Haleya means ravine or precipice in Oromo language). In Dire Dawa
city alone, 37 Amharas were brutally killed in one day and many
others wounded when forces of the OLF/IFLO were allowed to go
berserk against unarmed civilian Amharas in this city in the
summer of 1991 right after the July 1, 1991 “national peace
conference” – a conference that had the international
backing of major western powers (23) and was publicized by
western media moguls. The soldiers of the Tigrean army of TPLF
who were watching this drama were laughing when Amharas were
being brutally killed by the OLF/IFLO forces that were armed by
the Tigrean regime – a regime which armed the rationals
(OLF/IFLO, etc) and disarmed the irrationals (24) (the Amharas).
Surprisingly it was the Issa Somalis of Dire Dawa (who were later
publicly exhorted by Tamirat Layne to beat and punish the Amhara
chauvinists and neftegas) who were revulsed by these deliberately
instigated pogrom-like anti-Amhara campaigns in Dire Dawa city
and sent a telegram asking the TPLF/EPRDF government officials in
Addis Abeba to immediately intervene and stop the bloodshed. The
Issa Somalis of Ethiopia threatened the government in Addis Abeba
saying that should the EPRDF government fail to intervene and
stop the carnage of Amhara civilians, they (the Issa Somalis of
Dire Dawa) would directly intervene to stop the blood-shed (25) .
Subsequently it was these Issa Somalis who came to the rescue of
the defenseless Amhara civilians of Dire Dawa and assured them
their safety since the Amharas were disarmed and were not allowed
to defend themselves against the OLF/IFLO thugs who were armed
and encouraged to attack Amharas by the Tigrean regime. This
solidarity which the Issa Somalis showed to the Amhara civilians
of Dire Dawa will go down in history as a great example of human
compassion in times of distress and need. No political group
inside (except this Issa group in Dire Dawa) or outside Ethiopia
that is worth its salt protested the wanton killings of Amharas
in such places like Araba Gugu, Hararghe, Wellega, etc until the
All Amhara People’s Organisation (AAPO) appeared on the scene in
January 1992 and began to voice the plight of the Amharas (26) .
In the north western Ethiopia region of Gonder such as Humera,
Dansha, Armachiho, Wolkayit, Tsegede hundreds of respectable
Amhara elders were executed by EPRDF soldiers. Many of these
Amhara elders were executed in places like Kabtiya and Adi Goshu
(27). Many others, among them, the famous Ethiopian patriot
Fitawrari Yeshi Wendem Nadew, were taken to Mekele prison after
they protested against the forceful annexation of their fertile
region to Tigrai in 1992. While the Amharas in the countryside
were being subjected to ethnic cleansing by the EPRDF/OLF/IFLO,
etc thugs; the Amharas in the towns and cities of Ethiopia
experienced ethnic cleansing of a different sort. Here in the
towns and cities, highly experienced, educated and qualified
Amharas were being dismissed and sacked from their jobs. These
vacant places have since been filled mainly by drop-outs and
cadres of Tigrean and Eritrean extraction. In the face of all
these assaults, the Amharas were defenseless. It was this
situation which precipitated the emergence of the All Amhara
People’s Organisation (AAPO) that was founded by professor Asrat
and few dedicated Amharas. AAPO publicly announced its legal
existence on January 14, 1992.
VIII – AAPO Under the Leadership of Professor
Asrat Woldeyes
“Andebet Lata Hizb Kaltenagerulet Wenjel
Ayhonim Wey Wegenu Negn Malet (28) *”
“If one cannot speak on behalf of the
muzzled, Is it not a crime to claim that one is part of this
muzzled people ?*”
As stated above AAPO was founded at a time when
the incumbent government and its erstwhile coaliton partners like
OLF/IFLO, etc embarked upon a campaign of displacing and
distablizing the Amharas by subjecting innocent civilian Amharas
in the countryside and in provincial towns to indecent assaults
and mayhem. Horrendous atrocities were perpetrated on Amharas
where girls were subjected to an orgy of group rape (29), women
abducted and forced to live with their abudctors, pregnant women
disemboweld and men skinned off (30) like animals. AAPO called
for the cessation of such atrocities against defenseless Amhara
and Amharic speaking civilians. It called for a peaceful
settlement of the country’s problems. It insisted on the right of
the Amharas and Amharic speakers to live in every part of
Ethiopia as Ethiopians without any descrimination. AAPO does not
subscribe to the ethnic federalism currently being pursued with
religious zeal by the incumbent government and its lilliputian
cadres. Unlike many of the July 1, 1991 Charter signatories, AAPO
believes in the supermacy of individual rights over group or
ethnic rights. It upholds the principle of one man one vote and
rejects the concept of Bantustanized ethnic enclosures or
frontiers as is now the case. It does not subscribe to the
notioin of the so-called Amhara, Oromo, southern, Somali, etc
ethnic homelands or Killils. It is against the criminalization of
the Amhara ethnic group as being responsible for the ills of all
Ethiopia’s past. It upholds the right of any Ethiopian to live
and work anywhere in Ethiopia without any descrimination based on
one’s ethnic, regional, linguistic background or religious
persuasion. It upholds the composite identity of all Ethiopians.
It adheres to peace and peaceful settlement of the country’s
outstanding political problems. It realizes the damage wrought to
Ethiopian society by incessant wars and is accordingly committed
to the peaceful settlement of Ethiopia’s problems. However,
inspite of all these peaceful efforts, AAPO and the Amhara
people, whose interest it seeks to defend and promote, have been
subjected to increasing wave of repression. The displacement and
destablization of the Amhara people continues unabated. Amharas
lead an insecure life, (this is also true of all Amharic speakers
from other ethnic groups who live outside their designated ethnic
enclosures of Killis) particularly in regions where they are
considered outsiders or aliens. Amharas are harassed by the
soldiers and cadres of the present government in the country side
and towns. Amhara peasants who are not loyal to the political
line of the incumbent government have been deprived of their plot
of land and evicted from their land in areas like northern Shoa,
Gondar, Wello and Gojjam (31). In the southern and central parts
of Ethiopia, Amharas are subjected to constant bullying by the
icumbent government and its satellite ethnic organisations such
as the OPDO, Harari (Adare) League, etc. The untold and
undocumented suffering of Amharas in areas like the city of
Harrar are still continuing.
Although the AAPO has a legally recognized
status and is registered as a legal political organisation, its
members and sympathizers are harassed, killed and subjected to
untold suffering. It was against all these reprisals that AAPO
was peacefully protesting. It organized rallies, wrote appeal
letters, campaigned on behalf of Amharas and Amharaic speakers
who have become victims of the ethnic cleansing in post-May 1991
Ethiopia. AAPO set up branch offices in various parts of the
country. In northern Shoa alone, more than 40 offices and more
than 130 AAPO basic committees were set up within a short span of
time. Similar efforts were made in areas like eastern Hararghe
(Dire Dawa), Arba Gugu (Arsi), Bahir Dar (Gojjam), southern
Wello, Northern and Southern Gonder (Debre Tabor, etc), Arsi
Neghele and Nazareth (located in southern and eastern Shoa
respectively), etc. Thanks to AAPO’s emergence as a leading voice
of Amharas, Amharas who at the end of the 1991 and beginning of
1992 (a period during which the anti-Amhara hysteria reached its
zenieth or peak) were otherwise afraid to speak their language in
public places, taxis, buses, etc gradually began to assert their
rights as human beings and Ethiopians. This was clearly witnessed
in the many public rallies which were successfuly organized by
the AAPO. When the president of the AAPO, professor Asrat
Woldeyes, addressed a public rally in the northern Shoan town of
Debre Berhan on December 20, 1993, thousands of Amhara peasants
(from the surrounding area and far flung areas such as Yifat,
Merhabete, Menz, etc) turned up to attend the meeting. This was
in stark contrast to the low turn up and attendance (just some
120 people) enjoyed by the rival government-supported ANDM or
EPDM at a meeting it held some times prior to the AAPO meeting at
which professor Asrat spoke. This sent a shock-wave to the EEPRDF
authorities. They panicked and they have to take measures to
silence AAPO and its Amhara and Amharic supporters from other
ethnic groups. To illustrate the regime’s apprehension and worry
about the growing influence and preponderance of AAPO, it
suffices to just quote the regime’s strong military figure and
former defense minster Mr. Seye Abraha who uttered the following:
“Forget colonel Goshu, forget all those
who make war declarations from abroad. Concentrate on the biggest
challenge here at home i.e professor Asrat. If we under the
Dergue had got the chance which professor Asrat enjoys today in
organizing and mobilizing his AAPO followers, it would not have
taken us 17 years long to topple the Mengistu regime” (32) .
This was a clear statement and shows how AAPO
and its charismatic leader were deeply resented and feared by the
Tigrean regime. AAPO and its leadership proved to be serious
challengers to the regime. This was why the regime had to throw
professor Asrat and the AAPO leadership into prison by contriving
trumped-up charges of “incitment to war” and falsely
accusing AAPO leaders of encouraging “armed resistance”
against the EPRDF regime. Professor Asrat was accused of being a
war-monger because of the public speech he delivered at Debre
Birhan. Far from inciting people into war, in reality his speech
was replete with references to the destructive role of wars in
our long history. Here is what professor Asrat stated about
AAPO’s peaceful struggle at this same public rally held in Debre
Birhan town on December 20, 1993. Ironically this is part of the
speech of which he was accused as a war-monger and sentenced to 5
and half years of imprisonment.
“We believe in the supermacy and
decisiveness of the people. Hence, we take great care to prevent
these mighty people from once again being forced or pitted into
an all-out war. Because the Amharas know more than anybody else
the harmful nature of war and realize the fact that any military
victory will only lead to vengeance. We shall not hurry for war
nor shall we make any special preparation for it. It is true that
AAPO has no armed soldiers or a liberated land. Its liberated
land is none other than the free heart of the Ethiopian people.
We also want to remind them that our army is the Ethiopian
people. An organisation that beleives in the supermacy and
decision of the people and is part of the people, as AAPO is,
does not try to gain power by running to the caves and engaging
in banditry. The basis of a popular struggle is not the bush or
the cave or the peak of a mountain but the people themselves. In
some places military operations were openly conducted against
Amharas and the people were subjected to brutal treatment because
of their support to AAPO. The people should know that many AAPO
supporters were imprisoned, plundered and dislocated in
consequence of this campaign. You know that here in Debre Birhan
itself, a boy’s belly was torn with knife and disemboweld in an
attempt to make him tell where his father had hidden his gun. As
we have proved with sufficient evidence and is being witnessed by
the world, despite the attempts to portray them as war-mongers
and chauvnists and despite the murder and plunder they have been
subjected to in their own villages, the Amharas have remained
patient and law-abiding. We demand that this patience and loyalty
to the law be given due respect and value by the authorities of
the Transitional Government of Ethiopia (33) “.
IX – The Crack Down On AAPO And It’s Leadership
(1992-1997)
Since the end of 1992 AAPO and its leadership
were subjected to intense harassment (34) . Abductions, killings
and imprisonment were carried out against AAPO activists and
leaders as a matter of routine. One of the first victims was Mr.
Melaku Yirdaw, head of the AAPO regional office in Dire Dawa city
(south eastern Ethiopia). He was was abducted by EPRDF soldiers
on September 11, 1993 and was not heard of ever since. He is
presumed dead. Between September and July 1993, 41 AAPO central
committe members and regional representatives of Gonder, Gojjam,
Wello, Hararghe, Arsi, northern Shoa, were abducted or imprisoned
(35) . During much of 1992, 1993, 1994 and 1995 hundreds of
innocent Amharas were abducted and killed by EPRDF forces in
areas like eastern Gojjam, northern Shoa, northern and southern
Gonder and southern Wello for no other reason than just being
sympathizers or supporters of AAPO (36) .
Scores of AAPO activists were gunned down in
broad day light in areas like northern Shoa, Dire Dawa (37) ,
Gonder, Gojjam, etc. In additon to these, currently 7 of AAPO’s
central committee members are in the Kershele priosn. No legal
charges have been brought against many of them some of whom are
already in prison for more than 4 years. Others like professor
Asrat have been sentenced to 5 and half years of imprisonment on
false charges of “inciting people to war”. And more new
charges against him are pending at the court for allegedly
inciting peasants of Gojjam and Gonder aginst the EPRDF
government. Amnesty International has stated that the
imprisonment of professor Asrat and his four AAPO colleagues was
made “on the basis of slender and dubious evidence and
without direct proof of the alleged conspiracy” and added
that “it believes all five men to be prisoners of conscience
who should therefore be immediately and undonditionally
released” (38) . Since his imprisonment professor Asrat has
appeared in court on more than 120 occasions. Each time his case
is adjourned – deliberately and as a means of punishing him
psychologically. He was sentenced to two years of imprisonment on
June 27, 1994 and later sentenced to another three years prison
term on December 18, 1995 (39). In his prison cell repeated
efforts were made by the cadres of the incumbent government to
subject him to intense psychological pressure and stress.
Professor Asrat suffers from a chronic heart problem and is
supported by a pace maker. Prison offcials and cadres of the
ruling Tigrean regime organize lumpensih elements from among the
common criminals held in prison and exhort them to denounce him
and accuse him of false charges. To deny him social contact with
other inmates and force him into a state of loneliness, they
punish or threaten inmates who are on good terms with him and
talk to him in prison. Those inmates who maintain contact with
him are warned to stay away from him and told not to approach
him. The relatives and friends of professor Asrat and his AAPO
colleagues are subjected to the most grueling body searches
before they are allowed to see him and his colleagues. Especially
female relatives and friends are subjected to very dehumanizing
and humiliating body searches by the insensitively vulgar cadres
and guards of the Kershele prison. Unlike many other political
prisoners, professor Asrat can receive visitors (relatives and
friends) only twice a week and that is just for half an hour each
time. He is currently held in custody with juvenile delinquents
(40). More often than not, he is not allowed in books and
newspapers. Another AAPO leader, Mr. Wendayehu Kassa, suffers
from Asthma and is since his imprisonment held in a dark, rather
cold and humid underground prison cell. This is the worst place
to be in as far as the Kershele prison is concerned. According to
my informant, Mr. Teferra Asmare, who was himself a prisoner in
the Kershele prison for three years, these prisoners in this
underground section of the prison, have nearly bleached for lack
of sunlight. According to Ato Teferra Asmare, in addition to the
AAPO leaders (such as Ato Wendayehu Kassa, Ali Indris, Mr. girma
Enquo Selassie, Major Getachew Mengiste and Colonel Getahun
Ejigu), OLF members are also similarily suffering in these
underground cells together with the AAPO leaders. What is more
these AAPO leaders such as professor Asrat have all been denied
their penison rights to which they are rightly entitled by virtue
of their long professional service to the Ethiopian society.
X – Combining Intellectual
Integrity-Cum-Courage
Professor Asrat is a man who put his career
and, even more importantly, his life at stake for the cause of
justice. He is not a man who is after hedonistic pursuits of
material wealth nor some one who is interested in personal
advancement. Unlike many intellectuals in our society, he did not
pander to his personal pleasure nor needs of his family alone. He
chose to put maximum preimum upon the collective interest of
Ethiopian society. He is a man with a powerful personality for
whom the incumbent state or those at the helm of power in
Ethiopia are not too big or too imposing as not to be opposed or
criticised whenever they go astray. This is what he actually did
and that is what brought him on a collison course with the
incumbent ethnocratic governmet. Unlike some of those timid and
uncommitted intellectuals of our society who barricade themselves
behind academic walls and institutions and acquiesce to gross
human rights violations in their midst, professor Asrat
demonstrated to his society and the world that rare quality of
the intellectual i.e the ability to go beyond his narrow interest
and articulate and represent the suffering, passion and hope of
his people even when that meant sailing against the conventional
political current and time-honoured political dogama such as the
concept of ethnic enclosure or Killil which is the political
stock-phrase and flagship of the ethnocratic EPRDF regime.
Unlike many of the non-committed Amhara elites,
he did not want to sit idly by and witness the continued
genocidal campaign directed at Amharas in the 1991/1992 period
when the whole Amhara ethnic group was subjected to a barrage of
criminalizing propaganda by groups like OLF and OPDO(EPRDF)
leaders like Mr. Hassan Ali (president of the Ormomia region)
were speaking of “de-Nazification of the Amharas”.
Asrat Woldeyes was a man of deeds and not a pedant. He had no
time for those ivory-tower intellectuals who were too timid to
even protest the wanton killings of innocent children and mothers
in areas like Arsi and Hararghe, etc. Being a man who has been
trying to save the lives of sick people all his life, he could
not tolerate the physical decimation of healthy people because of
their ethnic group to which they belonged by chance and not by
choice. Enough was enough and he has to put aside his surgical
knives and get to grips with the defense of the rights of a
marked and targeted group of people whose existence was in
danger. This he did by throwing his moral and professional weight
behind AAPO. For this professor Asrat Woldeyes would continue to
be remembered by the present and future generation of Ethiopians.
One enduring quality of professor Asrat is also
his deep sense of awarness of Ethiopian history and
self-reliance. Unlike my generation who looks beyond the
frontiers of Ethiopia for many of Ethiopia’s ills, professor
Asrat insists that we should not look for Ethiopia’s redemption
at the corridors of power in the White House (Washington),
Atlatna Carter Centre (Atlanta), Whitehall (London) or Partis.
While addressing an AAPO founding conference in the Yeka zone of
Addis Abeba city in 1992, a middle aged woman raised her hand and
asked why he and his organisation AAPO do not appeal to western
governments so that these western governments would stop the
mayhem and genocide against the Amharas by bringing immediate
pressure to bear upon th incumbent government. Professor Asrat
having listened to the woman carefully, cleared his throat and
answered to her querries as follows :
“During the now defunct Dergue military
regime, Western governments and institutions used to locate and
see a small needle at night (even when it was dark) in Ethiopia.
Today they cannot see or observe an elephant even in broad day
light. So should we beg westerners to see the elephant in broad
day light (41) ?.
Having said that he smiled and looked at the
woman. Hopefully both the woman and the audience gathered there
have understood the message and taken to heart the futility of
wasting time trying to appeal to the western powers who are aware
of what is going on in Ethiopia. For those who doubted the
veracity of what professor Asrat had to say about the west’s lack
of sensitivity to what is happening in Ethiopia, what transpired
two years later when 17 western embassies (42)
singed a joint communique supporting the new “democratic
consitution” of Ethiopia should serve us all as a good
lesson. The moral of this story is that to solve our problems, we
have to primarily rely on ourselves and not run to Washington or
London in search of solutions to Ethiopia’s problems.
Self-reliance is a strong quality of professor Asrat – something
which the western embassies and so-called peace institutions like
the Carter Centre resent since such self-reliant leaders do not
pander to the narcisstic ego of self-styled “peace
makers” like Jimmy Carter (42). After six years of street
demonstrations, appeal letters, etc today we have learned the
bitter truth of counting on our own resources – something which
professor Asrat was hammering home 5 years ago.
Professor Asrat’s defense of the collective
interest of Ethiopia as a single dissenting voice at the
“historic” July 1, 1991 “Peace Conference”
that initiated the fragmentation of Ethiopia and his subsequent
emergence to defend the very existence of millions of Amharas and
Amharic speakers who have been demonized and branded as the devil
incarnates or bete noirs of Ethiopia, is a clear testimony to his
intellectual defiance against what he believes is unjust and
wrong in the present day scheme of things in Ethiopia. Such rare
intellectual courage and defiance involves risks, and not
infrequently, it is fraught with dangers and makes one
susceptible to the assault and unpredictable whims of dictatorial
and ruthless regimes like the current Tigrean regime – a regime
whose very essence is premised on hate, intolerance and violence.
As an intellectual and political leader, professor Asrat was very
able at reconstructing, concatenating and articulating the
historical experience of the Ethiopian people and particularly
the Amharas both under fascist Italy’s occupation and under the
present ethnocratic regime. For many Ethiopians like myself many
of the practices of the present government are mirror images of
fascist Italy’s experiment with Ethiopia albeit with one
difference (i.e this time though the perpetrators happen to be
local people who are Ethiopians and speak an Ethiopian language
unlike the white footsoldiers of Mussoloni who spoke Italian and
came from Europe). Such historical reconstruction and
concatenation of the historical experience of the past with the
present as was deftly articulated and presented by professor
Asrat in his famous speech at Debre Birhan on December 20, 1993
touched the raw nerve of the minority Tigrean regime of EPRDF.
Hence EPRDF’s decision to lock him up and silence him. As of June
1994, professor Asrat finds himself in prison on trumped-up
charges of “incitement to war”.
All those who have read the book of the Italian
historian Alberto Sbacchi (43) cannot fail to see the historical
continuity of fascist Italy’s polciy of pax Italiana with the pax
Tigrigna policy of the incumbent EPRDF regime of today. Both the
pax Italiana of fascist Italy and the pax Tigrigna of EPRDF are
based or premised on the divide et impera policy of the apartheid
system of ethnic homelands or ethnic enclosures and frontiers
popularly known as Killils in the Ethiopia of today. Both
represent the ethnic fragmentation of Ethiopia. Let me pen up my
reflections on the life and works of this great Ethiopian by
saying that my generation has a lot to learn from the selfless
dedication, intellectual energy, patriotic courage and altruistic
service of professor Asrat. In front of my computer hang one
A4-sized photograph of professor Asrat and another A3-sized
colour photograph (courtsey of EHRCO) of Mr. Abushu Deme Hamda
(an Ethiopian peasant of 32 years of age from the Shasemene area
of southern Ethiopia). The left lower arm and hand of Mr. Abushu
Deme have to be amputated and his right arm and hand have been
paralyzed and atrophied after he, along with 4 of his peasant
colleagues, was subjected to a terrible physical torture for
hours on end. This happened after his hands and feet were tightly
tied by a plastic rope for more than 30 hours. This was
perpetrated against this pitiful Ethiopian compatriot and his 4
colleagues by the EPRDF soldiers in the summer of 1991. This
young peasant is married and a father of many children. The
piercing, if inquiring, eyes of these two victims of human rights
(professor Asrat and Mr. Abushu Deme Hamda) whose photographs
hang on the wall of my computer room looking at me every time I
sit in front of my computer remind me the fact that the task
ahead of us all in making Ethiopia a better and hospitable place
for the present and future generation is indeed giantic !!!. In
fact what we are currently doing to bring change in our society
pales in significance when compared to the commitment of the
incumbent government and its local and international supporters
in blocking any effort that leads to the emergence of a better
future for ETHIOPIANS suffering under their rule. Hence the need
to redouble and coordinate our efforts for the liberation of our
country from the clutches of the ethnocrtaic regime of EPRDF
!!!!.
————————SHINE——————————
Foot Note
1-Ethiopian Register Magazine, August 1996
Issue
2-Educated Ethiopians like Benjamin Workneh-son
of the late Hakim Workneh (the first Ethiopian medical doctor)
and the two sons of the Ethiopian foreign minister Hirouy
Wolde-Selassie who were studying in England were among the scores
of Ethiopian intellectuals that were hunted down and brutally
murdered by Italian Fascist forces.
3-Asrat WoldeYes, Manpower Training in the
Field of Health in Ethiopia, Ethiopian Medical Journal, Vol. XII,
pp.104, 1975
4-100,000 Eritreans fought against Ethiopian
patriots by siding along the Fascist forces of Italy during the
1936-41 occupation of Ethiopia. Only 445 Eritreans fought
alongside Ethiopian patriots. For details see United Nations
“Documents de L’Ethiopie, 1948).
5-We should note that among Expatriates, there
were also men and women who selflessly served Ethiopia. For
example expatriates like the Dutch pediatrician the late Dr.
Dekker had served Ethiopia with exemplary dedication for more
than two decades.
6-Manpower Training in the Field of Health in
Ethiopia, Asrat Woldeyes, Dean and Professor of Surgery, Faculty
of Medicine, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopian Medical Journal,
Vol. XIII, 1975.
7-John H. Spencer, Ethiopian at bay: Personal
Account of the Haile Selassie Years, 1987.
8-Quoted from a speech made by Professor Asrat
at an AAPO founding conference in Bahir Dar on June 20, 1992.
(translation to English mine). As Professor Asrat was not able to
be physically present at this meeting, he had to travel to USA
and Europe during this time.
9-The July 1, 1991 Charter was an instrument
meant to impose Pax Tigrigna by Bantustization of Ethiopia into
ethnic homelands or enclosures, thereby allowing the ruling EPRDF
to pull all political strings and guarantees the supremacy of a
minority Tigrean ethnic group over the rest of Ethiopia.
10-See the 1984 Population and Housing Census
of 1984, Transitional Government of Ethiopia, 1991.
11- The OLF is an organization which considers
Ethiopia as a “colonial state” and the Ormos as
“colonial subjects” of Ethiopia. OLF struggles for the
“decolonization” and secession of the so-called
“Oromia” nation from what it calls the “Ethiopian
Empire”. In the 1991/92 period, it formed part of the TGE
and was the second largest political group in the TGE. It left
the TGE in June 1992 and since then finds itself in opposition to
the EPRDF government. In an interview with the Dutch daily
newspaper called the NRC Handelsblad in 1992, Lench Letta,
OLF’s secretary had the following to say about Ethiopia and
the ‘colonized Oromo land”:
“Ethiopia is a unique contry in Africa.
Not an European but rather an African power (Ethiopia) colonized
Oromo land. The decolonization process that began 30 years ago in
the whole continent of Africa has yet to take place here in
Ethiopia now”, translation of the text is mine’. For
colonial thesis of OLF, see the publications of Oromo
ethnonationalists like Mohammed Hassen, Sissay Ibssa (see for
example his book entitled: “The Invention of Ethiopia”,
1990 and OLF Publications like the Journal of Oromo Studies,
Oromo Commentary, etc…
12-See Professor Asrat’s public sppech on
December 20, 1993 in Debre Birhan.
13-154 people, the majority of them Amharas
were killed by OLF soldiers and dumped in a precipice known as
Inquftu in a region called Bedeno in Hararge. See Amnesty
International’s Annual Report, 1993. See also Africa watch
Report 1993.
14-See Mr. Betre Mussie’s article:
“Ye-Harargew Inkoklish”, Addis Zemen, May 1992.
15-In 1992 in a locality known as Kuni which
lies some 7 Kms outseide Asebe Teferi in Western Hararge, Amhara
peasants who came there on a market day were beaten naked after
their clothes were taken off by OLF soldiers. An Amhara girl by
the name of Beletetch Negussie, wgo refused to marry an OLF
soldier as a spy of the ruling EPRDF and beaten naked in the
market place by OLF soldiers. Far from spying for the EPRDF, it
was this same EPRDF which allowed OLF a free hand to perpetrate
any kind of crime against the Amharas-the mortal enemies of the
EPRDF. For details, see the May 30 issue of Addis Zemen newspaper
(miaza 23, 1984).
16-See an article entitled “netsa mewtat
weys dem meqabat” that appeared in the Addis Zemen
newspaper, May 5, 1992 written by Mr. Mohammed Beshir. This man,
who is himself an Oromo, was writing about the mayhem that OLF
was perpetrating against Amharas in Hirna, Doba, Weberra etc.
17-According to the EHRCO 1-st report, 46
christians were killed in this region. December 12, 1991.
18-According to the vice-chairman of the AAPO,
Kegnazmach Neka Tibeb Bekele, in Arba-gugu alone some 32,000
Amharas and Amharic speakers were displaced in the 1991/92
period, see the now defunct Mahilet Amharic magazine, 1993
edition. For details about the genocidal campaigns of the
OLF/OPDO groups against Amharas and Amharic speakers, see the
following issues of SHINE:
– The Hidden Massacre of Amharas and Christians
in Arsi, December 10, 1992.
– The Inter-Ethnic Conflict Instigated by
EPRDF-led Government Continues to Claim Human Lives and
Precipitates Destruction of Property, SHINE July, 1992.
-Professor Asrat’s Appeal Letter Regarding
the Continuing Massacre of Amharas and Amharic Speakers
(translation to English by SHINE), October 1992.
19-According to EHRCO’s third report
(dated July 16, 1992), 60 people have been killed and 60 others
wounded and properties belonging to non-Ormois destroyed when
Arsi Oromos attacked non-Oromos living in the area. This was
disclosed to EHRCO by representatives of the victims of these
attacks who happen to be people from the Kembata and Amhara
ethnic group living in the Arsi Neghele region.
20-In the Mugi town of Wollega, more than 200
Amharas were murdered by the OLF forces in 1992. This was
communicated by a surviving victim to a field worker who traveled
to this area at the beginning of 1993. On a related note, in the
Wollega region in a locality known as Genji, scores of people
were imprisoned by the OLF in February 1992. On one fateful
night, some 7 Amharas and Amharic Speakers were taken from this
prison and lined up on the edge of a precipice or ravine and shot
dead. (For details of the Genji killings, see Mr. Moti
Fridisa’s article (from Ghimbi, Wollega) in the May 2, 1992
issue of Addis Zemen Newspaper.
21-According to EHRCO’s third report dated
July 16, 1992, 60,000 Amhara Muslims were displaced, many men
burnt alive and many catrated and about 270 shot dead and killed.
185 schools and mosques and 6833 houses burnt following an attack
by the Beni Shangul ethnic army.
22-Personal communication by surviving
relatives of victims in the area.
23-It should be remembered that dozens of
Western envoys were present at the july 1, 1991 conference
thereby adding colour and decor to the EPRDF stage-managed
conference. The irony of all this drama was the fact that the
majority of Ethiopians who really were not allowed any
representatives.
24-See Meles Zenawi’s interview with Times
of November 1991.
25-Personal communication by a relative of mine
who used to live in Dire Dawa.
26-Of the non-political human ight groups
inside and outside the country, EHRCO was the only human rights
organization that brought to light the carnage perpetrated
against Amharas in Western Hararge and Arba Gugu region in Arsi.
For details, see the 1-st report of EHRCO, Decemeber 12, 1991.
27-See the appeal letter written by Gondar
Development and Cooperation Organization (GDCO) to Amnesty
International, June 15, 1992.
28-A couplet coined by one of the greatest
living patriotic Ethiopian writer and poet who has indefatigably
struggled for the empowerment of Ethiopians for well over three
decades. Mr. Hailu (alias Gemorraw) currently lives in exile in
Stockholm, Sweden).
29-According to AAPO, 474 Amharas were killed
of which 87 were literally slaughtered like animals and 300
others were wounded and left in the bush without access to food,
shelter or medical care. 56 girls were raped and subsequently
forced to live with their abductors. 76 women were subjected to
an orgy of group rape and forced to live with their abductors
after their husbands were killed. These became pregnant after
repeated sexual assaults. For details see, Professor Asrat’s
Appeal letter to the EPRDF government, Ethiopian Review, April
1992. All these was perpetrated by the OLF army which was
operating in the area and formed part of the TGE.
30-An Amhara elder by the name of Mr. Getu
Tegegn who used to live in the Lapis peasant association of the
Arsi Neghele district was killed by machete and spear and his
body skinned off just like a wild animal and his abdomen
disembowled on April 10, 1993. This gruesome act was perpetrated
by some extremist individuals from the Oromo ethnic group who
were encouraged by the local EPRDF authorities to do whateverer
they like against the Amharas living in the region. For details,
see the appeal letter of the All Amhara People’s
Organization (AAPO) to the incumbent government, dated May 19,
1993.
31-Currently similar harassment are also carrie
dout against other Ethiopians such as the Oromos, Southern
Ethiopians, Ethiopians in the Ogaden, etc for being supporters of
OLF, SEPDC, ONLF etc..
32-According to my informant, he heard this on
a radio broadcast in 1993. Why should Seye Abraha who said that
“TPLF/EPRDF not only wins wars but also makes wars”
should be so much alarmed by an elderly man committed to peaceful
struggle? The answer to this is any body’s guess.
33-See Professor Asrat’s speech made at a
public rally in Debre Birhan on December 20, 1993.
34-For a list of abductions of AAPO members by
EPRDF soldiers, refer to the press release of SHINE entitled
“A New Stage in EPRDF’s Anti-Amhara Hysteria”,
dated January 24, 1993.
35-See the AAPO’s Fact Sheet of July 8,
1993 that was presented to the American delegation led by
Congressman Harry Johnston, chairman of the House Foreign
sub-committee on Africa the latter’s visit to Ethiopia in
July 1993.
36-For similar killings which took place in the
1994/95 period, see the various publications of AAPO’s
official organ known as Andinet newspaper (1994, 1995 issues)
which has compiled such reports under the heading “Sekokawe
Amara” literally meaning the “Cry of the Amhara”.
37-For example, Ato Mindaye H/Selassie,
AAPO’s representative in Dire Dawa region was shot dead by
EPRDF soldiers in front of his house in 1994. Ato Mindaye was
head of a family of 7. Similarly Captain Aschenakie, head of the
financial department of AAPO at its Dire Dawa branch office was
killed in broad day-light in November 1995. He was a father of 6
children.
38-See Amnesty International Press Release,
July 1, 1994.
39-For details, see the Tobiya weekly
newspaper, Vol II, No 4, December 27, 1994.
40-Personal communication by Mr. Teferra
Asmare, former prisoner of Kershele prison.
41-Public address of Professor Asrat in Addis
Ababa, 1992.
42-For details, see the joint communique (dated
December 18, 1994) of the 17 western embassies based in Ethiopia
who congratulated the EPRDF government for its newly adopted
“democratic constitution”.
43-For an account of the destructive role of
Jimmy Carter against Ethiopian national interest, I refer the
interested reader to a well-documented paper prepared by a
Lund(Sweden)-based Ethiopian grfoup called “Ethiopian Unity
Organization”, Spring 1994.
Regarding his involvement with Ethiopia and his
so-called “peace initiative” this is what Jimmy Carter
said during a PBS interview in November 1996:
“The Carter Center negotiated for years
trying to resolve a problem between Ethiopia and Eritreans. Then
along came a Tigrean-his name is Meles Zenawi-who overthrew
Mengistu, who is a communist dictator in Ethiopia. Now there is a
wonderful little nation of Eritrea and a growing democracy in
Ethiopia, still struggling along making good progress on their
own without any outside interference.”