By Assta B. Gettu
A moving, inspiring, and galvanizing speech by Dr. Gregory Stanton, President of Genocide Watch, is a blessing in disguise for all of us Ethiopians, especially for some of our Tigrean brothers and sisters who are intentionally or unintentionally ignoring our every day calls to them to openly denounce the most oppressive government of Meles Seitanawi (Zenawi) and join the solidarity movement without hesitation.
Dr. Gregory Santon’s advice [watch the video here] and warning to the Tigreans are simple, direct, and clear: Meles Zenawi is vicious, barbaric, criminal, and greedy; he wants to colonize the entire country of Ethiopia, using the old tactics — divide and rule, and at the same time exposing those Tigreans who support his goal for their own selfish benefits to a precarious situation.
Dr. Gregory, as a president of Genocide Watch, has the first hand knowledge about human tragedies in Ukraine, in Burma, in Ghana, in Sudan, in Uganda, in Ruanda, in Cambodia, and in many other parts of the world, and such wide range of knowledge and experience of his has enabled him to unequivocally predict what is going to happen to those Tigreans who are looting the country, selling its fertile lands to foreigners, and amassing great wealth for themselves and for their friends, leaving the other Ethiopians hopeless and desperate.
Since he knows very well what happened in Rwanda between the Tutsi and the Hutu tribes, Dr. Gregory expresses his innermost fear of such genocide may happen in Ethiopia against the minority tribe, the Tigreans unless they stop their support for the oppressive regime of Meles Seitanawi (Zenawi). God forbids, if genocide takes place in Ethiopia, it will first, Dr. Gregory foretells, destroy the Tigrean political elites who are now enjoying life to the fullest and send thousands of them to jail and many of them to exile.
Knowing the strength, the wealth, the greed, and the cruelties of dictators of our world, Dr. Gregory sends a strong message to all political opposing parties that such powerful dictators such as Meles Zenawi, who is armed to the teeth, will not easily be removed from power unless the opposing political party is well organized and united, regardless of ethnicity, religion, and geographical location. And the best place, Dr. Gregory suggests, for organizing solidarity movement is Washington that has attracted thousands of Ethiopian politicians. It was from this great city of ours, Dr. Gregory says, that the Ghanaian politicians were able to overthrow the dictator of Ghana, and from this Washington city the Ethiopian solidarity moment could bring down Meles Zenawi from his power.
Having freely offered to his, mostly, Ethiopian audience the techniques how to bring down Meles from power, Dr. Gregory denounces the atrocities Meles have committed on his own people, especially the genocide on the people of Gambella in 2003 in which over 1000 people were murdered; he recalls what happened in the 2005 election where Meles was defeated, but angry about the outcome of that election, Meles murdered over 100 Ethiopian civilians and sent to jail thousands of people on suspicions of opposing him.
Angry by the deaths of so many Ethiopians under Meles the dictator, Dr. Gregory recommends that we must track of each killer, and when these criminals come to Washington, they can immediately be caught and sent to jail. He believes democracy is the solution for genocide; genocide occurs when people are excluded from voting, and he firmly attests that women are the best for defeating genocide and bringing peace to the world. Of course, he is not talking about Jezebel (Azeb Mesfin) or about the wives of Al Amoudi here; he is talking about the great women such as the Burmese Aung San kyi,
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, and many other noticeable women who advocate democracy and the rule of law for their people in their respective countries.
Finally, his perfect message to all Ethiopians and particularly to the Tigreans who adore Meles Seitanawi (Zenawi) is related to Martin Luther King’s statements: “I think we all have moral obligations to obey just laws. On the other hand, I think that we have moral obligations to disobey unjust laws because non-cooperation with evil is just as much a moral obligation as cooperation with good.”
I agree with him that Ethiopia has the most ancient civilization, and I may add to his factual statement that the main factor for that ancient Ethiopian civilization is the existence of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church, which he calls the Coptic Church. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church has an absolute right to build a Church in Gambella or anywhere else in Ethiopia. Its mission is to spread the word of God to all people by building Churches, church schools, hospitals, training theologians and missionaries.