ኦሮሚያ ውስጥ በሺዎች የሚቆጠሩ ዜጎች በገፍ እየታሰሩ እንደሆነ ተገለጸ

በኦሮሚያ ክልል እየተካሄደ ያለውን ተቃውሞ ተከትሎ በቅርቡ ተጨማሪ 3ሺ ሰዎች ከተለያዩ የክልሉ ከተሞች በቁጥጥር ስር መዋላቸው የኦሮሞ ፌዴራሊስት ኮንግረስ ረቡዕ ገለጠ።

ባለፈው ሳምንት ከሃገር እንዳይወጡ የታገዱትና የኮንግረሱ ሊቀመንበር የሆኑት ዶ/ር መረራ ጉዲና የመንግስት ባለስልጣናት ለተፈጸመው ግድያና ወከባ በቅርቡ ይቅርታን ቢያቀርቡም እስራቱ ተባብሶ መቀጠሉን ለኢሳት በሰጡት ቃለ-ምልልስ አስታውቀዋል።

ይኸው የእስር ዘመቻም በወለጋ፣ አምቦ፣ አርሲ፣ ምስራቅ ሃረርጌ እና ሌሎች የኦሮሚያ የክልል አካባቢዎች መፈጸማቸውን ዶ/ር መረራ አስረድተዋል።

በቅርቡ ለእስር የተዳረጉት 3ሺ ሰዎች በአሁኑ ወቅት ያሉበት ሁኔታ እንደማይታወቅና በቤተሰብም ዘንድ እንደማይጎበኙ የኦሮሞ ፌዴራሊስት ኮንግረስ አመራሩ በወቅታዊ ጉዳዮች ዙሪያ በሰጡት ቃለ-ምልልስ ገልጸዋል።

በዚሁ የኦሮሚያ ክልል ተቃውሞ ማክሰኞ ዘገባን ያቀረበው የፈረንሳይ የቴለቪዥን ጣቢያ (ፍራንስ 24) በክልሉ ያለው ተቃውሞ ተጠናክሮ መቀጠሉንና ነዋሪዎች በፍርሃት ውስጥ መሆናቸው መዘገቡ ይታወሳል።

ይኸው ውጥረት ተባብሶ መቀጠሉን ያረጋገጡት ዶ/ር መረራ ጉዲና በነዋሪዎች ዘንድ ቅሬታን አስነስተው የነበሩ የፌዲራል የጸጥታ ሃይሎች አሁንም ድረስ በተለያዩ ከተሞች ሰፍረው እንደሚገኙ አመልክተዋል።

የአለም ትኩረትን ስቦ የሚገኘው የኦሮሚያ ክልል ተቃውሞ በትንሹ ለ200 ሰዎች መሞት ምክንያት የሆነ ሲሆን ቁጥራቸው በአግባቡ ሊታወቅ ያልቻለ ሰዎችም ከባድ የመደብደብ እና የሰብዓዊ መብት ጥሰት እንደተፈጸመባቸውም የሰብዓዊ መብት ተቋማት የፓርቲ አመራሮች ይገልጻሉ።

የመንግስት ባለስልጣናት ተቃውሞ እልባት አግኝቷል ቢሉም ችግሩ አሁንም ድረስ በተለያዩ አካባቢዎች መቀጠሉን ከሃገር ቤት የተገኘ መረጃ አመልክቷል።     source ኢሳት (መጋቢት 21 ፥ 2008)

Ethiopian scholar warns country’s overstretched economy risks collapse

by Andualem Sisay | Africa Review

The Ethiopian government’s growing reliance on foreign loans is posing a serious risk of economic collapse, a paper presented Friday by a renowned local economist says.

“Take for instance China, which has loaned over $17 billion to the Ethiopian government for infrastructure projects. Our total investment is 40 per cent of GDP. Our savings rate is between 10-20 per cent of GDP. We import $13 billion and export $3 billion. They (China) are the ones who are filling all these deficit gaps,” said Alemayehu Geda, economics professor at Addis Ababa University and London University.

He was presenting a paper in Addis Ababa on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to Ethiopia and credit financing. This was at the launching of a two-year series of public dialogues by Forum for Social Studies – a local civil society group partially financed by the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DfID).

“What will happen if they (China) stopped such funding tomorrow? What if for instance the Chinese government tomorrow says sell for me Ethio Telecom or sell to me Ethiopian Airlines or give me some share or buy my airplanes or I will stop such credit financing? The country will collapse, I guarantee you,” he said.

“About 77 per cent of our imports are strategic imports. Fuel only accounts for a 25 per cent share of the total import bill. As a result, even if we want to decrease imports, we can’t. Ethiopia needs to minimise its strategic vulnerability,” Prof Alemayehu said, mentioning as an example how Koreans avoided such dependency risks when they used to source 75 per cent of their imports from the United States some decades ago.

Vulnerability

“The Koreans came out of such vulnerability risks after analysing their situation properly, discussing the issue with their intellectuals and setting long-term plans,” he said, advising the Ethiopian government to invest in quality education, quality skilled labour and have in place well-designed policies.

Official estimates show that Ethiopia’s economy has been growing by double digits every year for the last decade and has now reached $54 billion, but some independent scholars doubt this.

In his paper, Prof Alemayehu indicated that Ethiopia’s external loan includes $17.6 billion from China for various infrastructure constructions, around $3 billion from Turkey and close to $1 billion from India.

In addition, he pointed out, from 2012 to 2016 the country had taken loans totalling close to $6 billion from the World Bank.

Last year, Ethiopia also accessed a Eurobond worth $1.5 billion.

Statistics also show that in addition to loans some $3 billion more annually comes to the country in the form of donor aid.

Insignificant

When it comes to the FDI coming from China, India and Turkey, close to 71 per cent of their investment in Ethiopia is in the manufacturing sector.

Meanwhile the results in terms of job creation, technology transfer and export contribution is insignificant for Ethiopia, which has over 90 million people dominated by youth with a 16 per cent unemployment (the official rate), according to Prof Alemayehu.

Between 2003-2012, there were 93 Chinese companies which had reportedly invested $600 million creating around 69,000 permanent and 79,000 temporary jobs for Ethiopians, but with very little contribution to technology transfer and foreign currency generation through exports.

According to the scholar, during the same period Indian investments in Ethiopia created 24,000 permanent and 26,000 temporary jobs while 341 Turkish companies operating in Ethiopia created a total of 50,000 jobs.

Though much is talked about Chinese investment growing in Africa, the Chinese have less than 4 per cent of total share of FDI in Africa; out of the total of Africa’s $554 billion FDI inflow in 2010, the majority of the investments were from Western companies, claimed, Prof Alemayehu.

Slowing growth

Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn this week told local media that Ethiopia’s GDP growth will not be expected to grow by double digits this year and will likely drop to around 7 per cent. However, his special economic adviser, Dr Arkebe Equbay, reportedly was telling Bloomberg media that the country is expected to grow by 11 per cent this year.

Now the government is faced with the puzzle of why the economy is not performing as well as previous years despite all the generous incentives to investors and huge infrastructure investments dependent on local and external loans.

And that is not to mention other priorities that call for attention, like feeding millions in drought-stricken regions as well as dealing with political unrest in Oromia region and Gondar in Amhara region.                                                                          source http://ecadforum.com/

Ethiopia: The Ethio-Norway Forced repatriation agreement four years later

Posted by: ecadforum March 27, 2016 0

by Samson Seifu

It is to be recalled that Norway (the previous Red-Green coalition government) and the repressive regime in Ethiopia (which is in power for over 25 years) signed a five years bounded memorandum of understanding in January, 2012 with the aim of forcefully repatriating the Ethiopian asylum seekers in Norway.  This agreement has been met and contested with fierce protests from a number of angles such as among others:

1. The asylum seekers themselves through their association called ‘’Ethiopian Asylum Seekers Association in Norway’’;
2. The Ethiopian Community in Norway;
3. The Task Force against Forced Repatriation of Ethiopian Asylum Seekers in Norway;
4. A court case initiative by Professor Girum Zeleke against the Norwegian government both in Oslo, Norway and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, France;
5. The Norwegian Organization for Asylum Seekers (NOAS);
6. Association of January 12;
7. Amnesty International, Norway;
8. Norway based Ethiopian oppositions’ support organizations and
9. Ethiopians all over the world.

These protest voices played a very instrumental role in preventing the implementation of the infamous forced repatriation of the Ethiopian Asylum Seekers to one of the world’s worst repressive regime.  As a result of all these efforts, up to the present time no meaningful implementation of the agreement has been effected.

However; what has become an eye brows raising matter once again is the recent appearance of the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Justice, Mr. Joran Kallmyr, in one of the country’s TV, Radio and internet broadcasting agency called NRK where the minster pinpointed his successful working visit (9 February 2016) in Ethiopia in connection with the reinstating of the already signed agreement which has been ineffective so far. As a result of the mutual communique between the two, it has been mentioned that the two sides agreed to begin the forced repatriation.

Honoring Dictatorship and Repression

The new incumbent conservative government which is a coalition of the two far right parties of the blue party (Høyre) & the progressive party (FrP) as its foreign policy considers Ethiopia its focus country for aid-recipient, contrary to its previous promises to focus on the regime’s basic human-rights violations.  The prime minister’s party, i.e. the blue party’s representative in 2013 had promised his parties commitment to challenge the human rights abuses of the regime in Ethiopia in a public debate with the then incumbent government’s representative where he criticized the unjust practices of the then government when it comes to Ethiopia. But what is being observed and practiced is the opposite of what has been promised that is rewarding the human-rights abuses of the TPLF regime in Ethiopia once again by the new government.

The political Situation in Ethiopia

The TPLF regime after having claimed a 100% victory in the 2015 country-wide parliamentary election, which is an embarrassing improvement from the previous parliamentary election in 2010 where the TPLF regime claimed a 99.6% victory, has completely controlled the country. The regime among a number of other evil doings has:

1. Opened fire and killed peacefully demonstrating people,
2. Incarcerated journalists, bloggers, political activists and religious activists on bogus accusations,
3. Closed down all critical free-presses,
4. Prevented the different opposition political organizations from holding public meetings and peaceful demonstrations,
5. Stifled political opportunities to the people,

The opposition seems to have lost all hopes for a fair political playground and completely abandoned the so called peaceful and legal opposition and opted for other means of struggles like armed resistance.

The Role of the Ethiopian Diaspora in Norway

The TPLF regime is getting it extremely difficult to pursue its diaspora politics to what it calls ‘’the silent majority diaspora Ethiopian community’’ due to a strong political opposition from the Ethiopian diaspora. Especially in Norway, it has almost been impossible to conduct any fundraising event by the regime’s operatives thanks to the fierce resistance waged by the Ethiopians residing in Norway in which the Ethiopian asylum seekers are a part and parcel.

The regime’s operatives living in Norway tried two failed fundraising activities in 2013 both in Oslo and Stavanger for the so called ‘’Nile renaissance dam project’’.

The task force set up by the ‘’Democratic Change in Ethiopia Support Organization, Norway (DCESON) mobilized Ethiopians and successfully thwarted the planned fundraising events in Oslo and Stavanger (20 and 28 April 2013 respectively).

TPLF agents were furious to retaliate the failed fundraising events for ‘’the Grand Millennium Dam Project on the Blue Nile River’’ they planned to organize in Stavanger and Oslo in April 20 and 28, 2013 respectively. This time they planned to sabotage the fundraising event organized by the opposition support organizations in Norway to support the armed resistance against the regime in Ethiopia.

The TPLF agents bluffed the Nordberg Church administration by threatening to stage a huge protest demonstration at the church compound if the fundraising event is allowed to be conducted as planned. They also fabricated a false story to a daily newspaper called Vårt Land in order to get it published just a day before the event day with the news of the cancellation of the fundraising event as confirmed by the administrator of the Nordberg church, Olav Lende. The TPLF agents’ website known as ‘’www.abesha.no’’ published the cancellation of the fundraising event stating and siting the story covered on Vårt Land internet newspaper (http://www.vl.no/troogkirke/leide-menighetshus-for-a-samle-inn-penger-til-krig/). It was the TPLF agents who tipped off the misleading information to the news outlet Vårt Land Avis in the first place.

The Task Force in anticipation of the possible attempt to sabotage and thwart the fundraising event by the TPLF agents and operatives in Norway had a second plan (Plan-B) which had been kept secret until the event day i.e. 28 September 2013. The fundraising event was successfully conducted without any disruption at a venue envisaged as per Plan-B at Galgeberg Meeting Hall.

The successful accomplishment of the fundraising event was broadcasted to the Ethiopian People both at home and in Diaspora by ESAT Radio and Television both in headlines and full reportage. The famous anti-Government Paltalk media ECADEF and Zehabesha.com have also posted about the fundraising event on their websites.

• http://ethsat.com/video/esat-fundraising-event-for-g7-popular-force-in-oslo-oct-6-2013-ethiopia/

• http://ecadforum.com/blog/ginbot-7-popular-force-fundraising-task-force-in-norway/

• http://www.zehabesha.com/amharic/archives/7924

The TPLF agents and their handful of supporters in Norway did not have the political will and the moral courage to come to the arrangement venue and protest out in public and hinder the fundraising event that was successfully conducted as per ‘’plan B’’ the way DCESON successfully disrupted at theirs planned fundraising events for the Grand Millennium Dam Project.

Norway needs to reconsider its policy of co-operating with the repressive regime

The regime in Ethiopia employs all forms of brutal means in order to cling on to power. The ‘’forced repatriation of Ethiopian asylum seekers’’ is one of the means to silence the Ethiopians’ opposition to the miseries being committed by the repressive regime.  These asylum seekers are very active in exposing the regime’s atrocities to the Norwegian public in particular and the world community in general thereby playing a pivotal role by becoming a voice for the voiceless Ethiopians at home who are suffering in the hands of their brutal rulers.

The Norwegian government has a moral responsibility and an obligation of respecting the international human rights law of not putting the lives of Ethiopian asylum seekers into danger by forcefully surrendering them to a regime which is very well known for its brutal deeds against its opponents in the last 25 years.

TPLF ethnic apartheid rebels went to the bush to liberate their ethnic group not Ethiopia

by Obang Metho

When the ethnic apartheid rebels of the TPLF went into the bush, they were motivated to do so in order to liberate their own ethnic group and region. The TPLF did not fight for the interest of Ethiopia, to liberate Ethiopia or for the well being of the Ethiopian people, but only for their own tribal interests.

Their cousins, the Eritrean Peoples’ Liberation Front (EPLF), did the same. The EPLF went to fight for the interest of Eritreans who wanted to divide their region from Ethiopia. Many other groups were the same; for example, the Oromo Liberation Front fought for the interests of the Oromo. The same was duplicated by the people of Gambella, the Ogaden, Benishangul, Afar and elsewhere.

When the Dergue fell, had there been a body that represented the national interests of all Ethiopians, these self-appointed TPLF tribal leaders would have not had such an easy time to take over. The people of Ethiopia missed their opportunity and the tribal interests took over and remain in competition with everyone else.

Over the last 25 years, the TPLF have been promoting their tribal agenda and are not there for the national interests of the Ethiopian people. As a result of their narrow ethnic apartheid policy, they have not only put themselves at great risk of downfall, but in doing so, when they fall, if it is done in the wrong way, it could jeopardize all of the people of Ethiopia. This makes it imperative for the people of Ethiopia to come up with the body that cares for the well being of the entire people so we might make a way for a different kind of transition. No one ethnic group will be free until we all are free.

Right now, Ethiopians have been divided by tribe; people don’t talk to each other, but only about each other. As previously mentioned, Ethiopians from all over the world express their fear that Ethiopia could turn into a Rwanda. This is the fruit of the tribal policy—its inevitable conclusion.

May He help us to see the beauty of the God-given humanity in others for then we will not be limited by our differences.                                                                                                            source  http://ecadforum.com/

Dima Nego says the growing public uprising in the country help bring Ethiopian unity

ESAT News (March 24, 2016)

Vice president of the Oromo Democratic Front (ODF), Dr. Dima Nego said in an interview with ESAT that the growing public uprising in Oromia, Gondar, Konso and in various regions in the country would help bring unity among the people of Ethiopia.

The former chairman of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) said there has not been a public uprising in the country with such vigor like the one in the Oromia region since the 1974 revolution. He said the world has not seen  participation of farmers in such huge numbers in an antigovernment protest like the one in the Oromia region.

Dr. Dima, who spoke at length on the significance of the uprising in the Oromia region, called on the people in the rest of the country to support the struggle of the people in the Oromia region for economic and political rights.

He said he believes the uprising in the Oromia region, which is well into its fourth month, and the recent uprisings in other regions of the country would unite the people and the country.                                                                 source http://ethsat.com/ 

This is the Ethiopia that is killing us, No more!

The ethnic apartheid regime of the TPLF/EPRDF has become like a mafia-style gang of thugs. Instead of feeding hungry Ethiopians, educating Ethiopians and protecting the people, they are killing the country while draining its resources. Ethiopian people, one by one, are being hurt. When one Ethiopian is wounded, let us all feel the pain and stand up in their defense.

We need to change from an Ethiopia, when someone is imprisoned, killed or persecuted from outside our own political group, ethnic group, region or religion, we turned away because they were not considered to be “part of us” or “part of our group.” This is the Ethiopia that is killing us. No more!

Mr. Obang Metho

It is also time for Ethiopians in the Diaspora to stop complaining, accusing and attacking regarding the division of our political leaders. It is time to put aside the old and come forward believing in the principles of humanity before ethnicity and that no one is free until we all are free. Despite TPLF’ intimidation and arrests, he will not stop us if we come together to uphold truth, morality and the value of each member of our society.

All of us must stand up against the arrest of those who took a brave stand for truth, the arrest of musicians whose strong and soothing songs have brought tears of joy in a land where most tears are tears of pain and misery, the arrests of our Oromo brothers and sisters who were unjustly rounded up only a few months ago, the attacks against the Ogadeni who are severely suffering in our southeastern region and the continued imprisonment of many thousands of Ethiopian prisoners of conscience from the east to the west from the north to the south. Until all of these people are free, we will not be free!

We know that TPLF is bringing death to Ethiopia, but we should know that the killers are few and that we, the revivers, are many. May our God help us to rise up and to stand, side by side, as humans first, and as Ethiopians second. Let us trust in God for his help as we come together in action.

Let us also pray for the protection and strengthening of those who have defied the darkness with the light of truth. As we Ethiopians stand up together in solidarity with one voice we can show that we are ready to free our country and to create a true government of the people. May God bless Ethiopia!                                                     source  http://ecadforum.com/

የሉቴኒያ ኩባንያ የኢትዮጵያ ተዋጊና እቃ-ጫኝ አውሮፕላኖችን ሊጠግን ነው

ኢሳት (መጋቢት 9 ፥ 2008)

መቀመጫውን በቀድሞ ሶቪየት ህብረት ስር በነበረችው ሉቴኒያ ያደረገ አንድ የአውሮፕላን ቁሳቁሶች አቅራቢ ኩባንያ የኢትዮጵያ አየር ሃይል ተዋጊና እቃ ጫኝ አውሮፕላኖች ለመጠገን ስምምነት ፈፀመ።

ይኸው ኤፍ-ኤል-ቴክኒክስ (FL-Technics) የተሰኘው ተቋም ኤሮ L-39 የተሰኙ የመለማመጃ ጀቶች እንዲሁም ሁለገብ ለሆኑ አንቶኖቭ አውሮፕላኖችና ተዋጊ አውሮፕላኖች መለዋወጫ እቃዎችን እንደሚያቀርብ ገልጿል።

የተደረገውን የገንዘብ ስምምነት ከመግለጽ የተቆጠበው ኩባንያው እድሜ ጠገብ የሆኑ አውሮፕላኖች ለመጠገን የሚረዳው የመለዋወጫ ቁሳቁስ በቀጣዩ ሁለትና ሶስት ወራቶች ውስጥ ወደ ኢትዮጵያ ተጠቃለው እንደሚገቡም ባወጣው መግለጫ አመልክቷል።

የመለዋወጫ ቁሳቁሶች ይቀርብላቸዋል የተባሉት የኢትዮጵያ አየር ሃይል የተለያዩ አውሮፕላኖች ስሪታቸው በ1960 እና በ1970ዎቹ ውስጥ በአሁኗ ሩሲያ መሆኑንም ከድርጅቱ መረጃ ለመረዳት ተችሏል።

ከኢትዮጵያ ጋር የተደረገው ስምምነትም በቀጣይ የሚደረጉ ትብብሮችን እንደሚያጠናክርና በኢትዮጵያ መከላከያ ሚኒስቴር ዘንድ እምነትን ለማግኘት የሚረዳ እንደሆነ የኩባንያው የበላይ ሃላፊ የሆኑት ዚልቪናስ ላፒናስካስ አስታውቀዋል።

የተወሰኑ የመለዋወጫ እቃዎች ወደ አዲስ አበባ መድረሳቸውን ያወሱት ሃላፊዎች የተቀሩ ቁሳቁሶችም ከዋናው መስሪያ ቤትና በሌሎች ሃገራት ከሚገኙ ቅርንጫዎች ተሰብስቦ ለሃገሪቱ እንደሚቀርብ ገልጸዋል።

በኢትዮጵያ አየር ሃይል ውስጥ በማገልገል ላይ ያሉ አብዛኞቹ የጦር ጀቶችና የወታደራዊ እቃ ማጓጓዣ አውሮፕላኖች አብዛኞቹ እድሜ ጠገብና ሩሲያ ሰራሽ መሆናቸው ይነገራል።

እነዚሁ አውሮፕላኖች ጥቅም ላይ ለማቆየት መንግስት በሚሊዮን የሚቆጠር ዶላርን ወጪ እንደሚያደርግም ለጉዳዩ ቅርበት ያላቸው አካላት ይገልጻሉ።

ጥገና ይደረግላቸው የተባሉ ሁለገብ አንቶኖቭ አውሮፕላኖች መካከል AN-32 የሚል ስያሜ ያለው ሲሆን ይኸው አውሮፕላን ዋጋው ወደ 10 ሚሊዮን ዶላር እንደሚደርስና የመለዋወጫ እቃዎቹም ውድ እንደሆኑ መረጃዎች የመለክታሉ።                                                                                       source ethsat.com

The Fast Growing Economy? Ethiopian Leader Calls for More Foreign Food Aid Amid Drought

(AP) — Ethiopia’s leader on Thursday urged the international community to donate more toward emergency food aid for millions of people amid a drought.

Ethiopia “should not be neglected by any means despite all the other crises that are going on elsewhere in the world,” Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn told The Associated Press in an interview.

“My country deserves more support because we are also sheltering some 750,000 refugees from neighboring countries that need food aid,” he said. “If something goes wrong, it is the international community who has not come in. The aid provided to us so far is very little and it often came very late. I urge organizations like UNICEF to come in if they think this is a worst case scenario. Just talking is not a solution.”

Aid agencies and the Ethiopian government say more than 10 million Ethiopians need urgent food aid and more than $1.4 billion is needed to deal with the crisis, with only half of that secured so far. The U.S. has been the biggest donor, giving more than $532 million in humanitarian assistance to Ethiopia since October 2014. The Ethiopian government has also spent about $380 million of its own money.

The drought was brought on by the El Nino climate phenomenon that affected seasonal rains, causing crops to fail and killing livestock.

Ethiopia was devastated by a drought in the 1980s exacerbated by a civil war that killed hundreds of thousands. source http://ecadforum.com/

Ethiopia: Political Responsibility (Not Vague Apology) Should Come First

 

Addis Standard Editorial

Save for yesterday’s vague ‘apology’ from Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, the ruling party in Ethiopia is dead silent on the scale of the tragedy that gripped Ethiopia recently. But it only takes a simple drive through villages within 100 -300km radius and a sit-and-talk session with villagers to understand that what happened in the last four months (and is happening to a lesser extent) has, by and large, left an ugly rupture in Ethiopia’s already wobbly state-citizen relationship.

The “Oromo Protests”, as it came to be popularly known, has left families reeling from the inexplicable pain inflicted upon them. The lives of young men and women on whose future the nation depends on are left hanging in the balance; and precious inter-religion and inter-ethnic bonds are left wondering on how exactly to mend a frightening rift. All this is owing to the state excesses in exercising what should have otherwise been exercised judiciously, with political maturity and caution.

Despite the unnerving silence by the state and its staunch supporters, however, the question of “what should be done next?” can fairly be summarized as the nation’s question. It is a troubling (and at the same time the only right question).

It is troubling because the answer to it directly points a finger at the political responsibly the governing coalition in Ethiopia must take as the first step to undo the mess its security apparatus is leaving behind. And it is the only right question because no state-citizen relationship in a democratic country (which the government in Ethiopia claims to be one) has ever escaped unscathed to last for long after similar damages; not at least since the early 1980s. (In 1983 President Raúl Alfonsín of Argentina created a truth and reconciliation commission called the National Commission on the Disappearances of Persons. He did so in an attempt to heal a nation that was devastated by the previous regime’s program of the National Reorganization Process).

Save for the controversies surrounding the end results, in Africa similar attempts made by the governments of South Africa in the wake of the collapse of the Apartheid regime, Rwanda and Kenya in the wake of the 1994 genocide and the 2007/8 post-election massacre respectively are but few examples that need reckoning.

Informed by history, it should be said, more and more countries that adopted their constitutions since the early 1980s have included passages that hold state-led excesses accounted for judicial procedures.

Despite it being undermined by cracks mostly attributed to its making it was exactly for this reason that the makers of Ethiopia’s current constitution included Article 12 of the constitution that provided the bases for conduct and accountability of the state.

It is a token of tribute to acknowledge that the countless young men and women who paid the ultimate sacrifices in the wake of the recent protest in Ethiopia have done so not only demanding what is rightfully theirs, but also in an act of bravery to protect the very constitution from a government that claims to have mothered it. They died not only fed up with state excesses but also demanding that the conducts of the state be answerable to the supreme law of the country.

Break the chain

This may be the first time that a sitting prime minister appeared vaguely apologetic on behalf of the federal government but this is not the first time that Ethiopians are ailing from a state inflicted pain. Since the establishment as a Federal Democratic Republic more than two decades ago (since the guns that defeated generations after generations of Ethiopians were supposedly silenced), countless young men and women have been killed in the hands of state security forces – all at peace times. From those who were killed protesting against Eritrea’s referendum in 1994, to those who died in early 2000 protecting academic freedom in state universities; from those who were killed opposing post Ethio-Eritrea political settlement in 2001 to those who were shot dead in broad day light in post 2005 election massacre; and the killings in 2014 which is as fresh in our memories as the killings that trailed it in the recent protest. Ethiopia is soaked with the blood of its own children killed in the hands of those who were supposed to protect them.

But in all these the only investigation of a sort into state-led killings Ethiopia has ever seen was the post 2005 killings inquiry commission. Tasked with investigating the wrongdoings, the inquiry commission delivered its verdict a few years later only to see its top inquirer become an asylum seeker after fleeing the country for his safety. (The inquiry commission already suffered withdrawal of credible individuals in protest against the state’s manipulation.)

Be that as it may, Ethiopians have not seen their government taking any responsibility (political or administrative) even after the inquiry commission delivered its verdict implicating the state in excessive use of force against unarmed protesters.

It may be fair to say that Ethiopians are resilient survivors; after each tragedy of a similar sort they have picked themselves up, dust themselves off and have started all over again. But what happened in recent months is testing the nation’s fortitude.

It is going to take more than a head in the sand and a deafening silence followed by a vague apology (as good a gesture as the later may be) to repair the rupture in state-citizen relation the recent crackdown left in its wake. It will take a brave political responsibility to heal the wounds cracked open by the lives of hundreds who were killed; to repair the shattered lives of thousands; and to return the countless numbers of young men and women sent into prison.

The ruling party in Ethiopia should understand that doing so is going to do it good than bad. source     ecadforum