The following is a letter from Bereket Simon, the propaganda chief of Meles Zenawi’s brutal dictatorship in Ethiopia, to the author of “Journalist’s Memoir,” Tesfaye Gebreab. Seiko Toure is Bereket’s nom de guerre.
From: [email protected]
Date: 2009/2/2
Subject: testimony of betrayal
To: [email protected]
Hi! I have read your recent book. I don’t want to comment on what you have written about me. What I want to tell you is that I was consistent on my belief regarding you. Finally you have admitted that you were not in our domain, starting the first day!
This country had given you more than you have contributed. The EPRDF was so generous to accommodate you and give you the authority and wealth you abused it. Hiwot, Tsigereda, Zufan… loved you, though you were pretending that you loved them. Finally you lost everyone! You betrayed all!
Now you are coming back with a story to resurrect desperately your fatally damaged identity. You are opting for a struggle for which you are not created. I tell you, for the rest of your life, you will fight to abandon the pursuit of your guilt. But you will not be able to escape. You will remain unsatisfied and in a continuous and desperate act of insulting those who are making history, at least to satisfy your ill fated mind.
For us, regardless our weaknesses, we have got an objective which is changing the whole of Ethiopia, including the Yerer and Kereyu Oromo peasants you pretend loving them. We are writing history which can’t be destroyed by any kind of force; forget your testimony of betrayal. Though we don’t have the right to be remembered positively in history, I think, we may have a dignified share of appreciation for our heroic struggle for the betterment of this great nation.
Seiko