By Belayneh Abate
It is with a deep grief that I watched the body of a toddler slaughtered with a spear that penetrated his belly and passed out through his lower back in Metekel. This tragedy tests our humanity, brotherhood, sisterhood and parenthood. We are becoming parents, sisters and brothers who cannot protect our children, sisters and brothers. Even birds and chickens do whatever it takes to protect their chicks from predators. The Amara people must protect its community from predators that bite more bizarrely than the rabid beasts.
As we know, the Amaras have been massacred and displaced in every corner of Ethiopia for the last 42 years. The massacre and the displacement of Amaras has continued in greater magnitude, but many including some impotent Amara elites blame ethnic politics and the newly established defendant Amara groups for these atrocities. Because ethnic politics and the victimized Amaras are always blamed for these atrocities, no one is held accountable for the tens of thousands of lives perished, and the millions of innocents tortured, sterilized and displaced for 42 years.
I do not think anyone can adequately defend the feasibility of Ethnic politics in any society. However, preaching about the harmful effects of Ethnic politics has never halted the massacre, torture and displacement of Amaras for the last 42 years.
Christianity has been preached for more than 2000 years, but only a few (if any) strictly follow the routes of the faith. Similarly, we have been preaching about the catastrophic effects of ethnic politics for decades. Despite our preaching, the cyclones of ethnic politics covered the Ethiopian sky and fractured the land and the people in ethnic lines. Recovering from the cyclones of ethnic politics cannot be achieved within decades even when there is a firm determination to ban ethnic politics.
Banning ethnic politics today may have significant impact after decades, but it has little immediate effect to protect Amaras who have been the prime targets of Ethnic politics for decades. Thinking that ethnic politics will fade like summer fog if it is banned today is a gullible thinking that lacks the knowledge and the understanding of how cultural and behavioral changes come into effect. It took us more than 123 years to immerse our bodies into the quagmire of ethnic politics: It will take us decades, if not centuries, to come out of it.
After the glorious victory of Adwa, the Europeans designed Ethnic politics for us because our forefathers decisively defeated and embarressed them in their first attempt of colonization. The wounded and humiliated colonizers drew the maps of Ethnic administrations and attempted to put them in place during their second invasion in late 1920’s. This futile attempt was defied by our gladiators, but it was unfortunately materialized in the mid 1980’s by the bandas they baptized.
In other words, ethnic politics started to walk on its foot in 1980’s after it was borne from the wombs of bandas that delightfully received the European sperms of ethnic politics 123 years earlier. The sperms these bandas received had anti-Amara codes in their DNA chains. Slicing these anti-Amara genomes is not an easy task as it has been shown for the last 60 years. It would take decades of unwavering effort to take out this cursed genes and reverse the course of ethnic politics.
Dictated by the anti-Amara genome, the affected groups preached anti-Amara ethnic politics to the non-Amara segments of the Ethiopian people for many decades. As a result of this unholy preaching, a cursed fig trees of anti-Amara ethnic politics were planted in the minds of the non-Amara youth. These cursed fig trees have grown long roots and numerous braches in the minds of the non-Amara youth. It needs strong effort and the help of God to uproot these cursed trees from their minds. These cursed trees cannot be removed just by performing radical mastectomy on sculpture of “Annolle” or below knee amputation on the monument of “martyrs”.
Similarly, this cursed tree cannot be destroyed immediately by cursing ethnic politics non-stop or placing a beautiful Jano on the shoulders of the addicted “Lemma Team” or praising and bowing below the knees of the spy and the criminal “messiah”.
Some shallow thinkers believe that ethnics politics will vanish if the former servants of the Tigre People Libration Front(TPLF) declare that ethnic politics is banned. They relentlessly beg the unborn again spy pastor to ban ethnic politics that he was baptized with. They think Ethnic politics can be treated like addiction of tobacco , opiates or street drugs in 3-9 months. However, treating addiction of Ethnic politics requires extraordinary effort and decades of rehabilitation treatment.
The addiction of ethnic politics has been endemic in certain families since the time of the colonization era. This endemic ethnic politics became epidemic when a mafia group sponsored by the West and Arabs replaced the unitary central government. This mafia group shared its Anti-Amara manifesto to other proponents of ethnic politics.
Eradication of ethnic politics require rehabilitation programs for the promoters of anti-Amara ethnic politics, who are dictated by anti-Amara gene codes, and convincing the West that encoded the genes in these promoters in the first place. It takes decade(if not centuries) to complete the rehabilitation treatments and to convince the West that Amara is not a threat for their interests. Lately, understanding these facts, the Amaras started to come together and defend themselves from the habitual promoters of anti-Amara politics.
As we know, the Amara people was predisposed to ethnic cleansing because it refrained from organizing itself in ethnic line unlike others. It refrained organizing itself in ethnic line because it understood the culprits of ethnic politics. On the other hand, the promoters of anti-Amara ethnic politics strengthen their ethnic organizations established within the last 60 years.
Although these 40-60 years old organizations continued to massacre and displace the Amaras in direct or indirect way, many including the traitor Amaras are blaming the newly formed defendant Amara groups. It is upsetting to see opportunists and traitors that always sing for the powerful blame the newly formed defendant Amara groups for the current massacre and displacement of Amaras.
Would these opportunists blame the newly formed Amara organizations for the atrocities committed on Amaras for the last 42 years as well? Would the traitors blame the newly formed defendant Amaras for the massacre and displacement of Amaras in wolkait and Raya for the last 42 years? Would these opportunists blame this newly formed defendant Amara groups for the Amaras thrown in the deep canyons of Bedeno*? Would these unjust people blame these newly formed defendant Amara groups for the lives slaughtered in Arba Gugu, Arsi Negele, and Wolega decades ago**? Would these opportunists blame these newly formed defendant Amara groups for the thousands of Amaras displaced by Legesse Zenawi and Shiferaw Shigute years ago***?
Blaming the victim and empowering the victimizer is not only unjust but also an encouragement to perpetuate and promote horror. The Amara people has been the prime victim of the victimizers for at least 42 years. As facts on the ground demonstrate, the Amara people has been marginalized from political, social and economical participation for almost three decades. It has been systematically excluded from educational opportunities and accesses to healthcare.
This 42-years ethnic cleansing of Amara has to stop! This ethnic cleansing can be halted only by the Amaras supported by the power of God who condemns penetrating the belly of a toddler by a long and sharp spear. The Amara Ethnic cleansing can be halted only by Amara People supported by the power of God that reproaches throwing innocents in to the grand canyons, shooting children with ammunition, amputating genitalia with knives, and displacing infants and pregnant mothers from their homes.
Those of you who relentlessly blame defendant Amaras, please unwind and revise the massacre and displacement of innocents for the last 42 years. Ask yourself about what the Amara people should do when it continues to experience massacre and displacement although it waited with patience for three decades defying ethnic politics? Ask yourself what the Amara resistance groups should do when they see their kin get killed with spears, ammunition andmenchaslike wild animals everywhere?
It is saddening to see many websites, radios, news papers, magazines and televisions ( the one time ardent critics of EPRDF), now giving deaf ears to the massacre and displacement of Amaras in every corner of the country. Websites, news papers, radios, televisions, magazines, individuals, please use your voices to halt the misery of the victims and to seek justice instead of throwing the guilt to the victims’ defendants. Please be conscientious and stop blaming the defending Amaras and predisposing the Amaras to continue perishing in every cities and rural areas. Thank you.
End note
*Amara Genocide in Bedeno Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcZJIfUkx9M
**Amara Masscre in Arba gugu video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3v9jcDAmDI
***Amaras displaced from everywhere ESAT Radio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMw4dzDFRvU
The writer can be reached at abatebelai@yahoo.com