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Moresh Amhara’s Wholesale
Allegation of Tigrayans: Chaining Victim with the Villain? Selam Yiheyis (PhD),
Canada 04-10-16 1. Introduction This article
seeks to deconstruct the sensational Moresh manifesto
authored by Ato Tekle Yeshaw published in Ethiomedia in
(February 2016) bent on tarnishing the images of the Tigrayans.
After hesitating for some time between challenging it and ignoring as something
unworthy, I decided to challenge the author’s divisive discourse head on. This
is mainly because, as it stands, Moresh manifesto has
invented facts that conflated the distinction between the plaintiff and villain.
It tends to misinform the audience and serve as a propaganda tool to stirrup
ethnic conflicts. One strange
institution/practice in Ethiopian history that Lij Eyasu(r.1913-1916) got rid off was called the kuragna system that
involved chaining the murderer together with a closer relative of the victim in
order to keep the criminal under the rule of law in the absence of the police
force. At least this was the more formal type of prison system handed down from
the Middle Ages up to the turn of the 20th century. The trouble with
this crude policing system was the further attrition that it inflicted upon the
relatives of victims due to epidemics, contagious diseases or even from lack of
hygiene. This is what is exactly happening to Tigrayans
in present day Ethiopia. All the Tigrayans are
holistically held accountable for all the excesses perpetrated throughout
Ethiopia for whatever the EPRDF government is failing, including on the Tigrayans themselves. There no any logic to this accusation
because the whole set of blame emanates from the simplistic assumption of
taking TPLF/EPRDF as being synonymous with Tigrayans The
worst mockery is that Tigrayans are still to blame
for any kind of administrative and governance deficits and corruption in self-governing
regions Oromia, Amhara, Harari, Gambella or any other
regions where Tigrayans are entirely absent from
governing positions of the regional states. Ironically, the 1990s saw Tigrayan
professionals being progressively cornered by the locales from all regions and
were compelled either to move to Addis by abdicating their jobs or repatriated to
Tigray through professional reassignment scheme. No one sympathized with the Tigrayans because their presence was often suspected with
secret services. Most of them were assigned during the Derg period and had had good old days with their
hosts. It does not matter though! It is not an exaggeration to claim that Tigrayans were practically more disenfranchised now than
ever before, even compared to the Derg period. Their
major sin-nothing but few members of the TPLF elite have been noted in federal
government and policy making positions and in the army. Thus, it appears that Tigraynas are bound with criminals to watch them, like the kuragna system, while
they were still constant fodders to be chained with other similar victim
citizens from other undesired “outsiders” in any region and hence were chased
out. However, no one bothered to recognize the Tigrayans
holistic state of victimhood. The idea of spreading gossip against Tigrayans was initially spearheaded by the Amahara elite and noisy remnants of the Derg regime. Both
sought vengeances against Tigrayan political/military
activism in the armed struggle and for setting bad examples of dissent for
other ethnic groups. This sense of belligerence has continued unabated and has
gradually gained momentum to the extent now it has spilled over to other ethnic
groups whose new ethnic capitalist elite had kept on
looting public resources kept on externalizing their crimes upon poor
physically distant Tigrayans. Now what is left to
blame? The Tigrayans
are responsible for El-Nino? The subsequent fabricated story telling by Moresh Amahara may be no less
different than this kind of illusion. 2. A Critique of the
Moresh Manifesto: “Lam kalwalechibet
Kubet Lekema?” ( Lit. Beating Around
the Bush) While elite
competition for power was part of the long legacy of Ethiopian history, some
Amhara elites have irresponsibly gone too far to stage a coordinated character
assassination campaign against the entire Tigrayans
to hold them responsible for all excesses and gross violation of human rights
in Ethiopia (from 1991-2015). A case in point is the release of a chilling account of human
rights violations against the Amhara ethnic group by Moresh must have an added impact to the entrenchment of the
fears. The Moresh Amahara Organization
(former Prof.Asrat’s All Amhara Peoples Unity Organization)
very detailed documentation of a gruesome account of displacement, torturing,
persecution, killing and disappearances of fellow Amhara Ethiopians that needs
to be denounced. If all what has been documented there has really occurred,
which needs careful verification by independent sources, that whole act is very
painful for Tigrayans, who experienced such excesses
in their long history, as it occurred to the Amaharas.
I can sense that the report, composed by a certain Tekle
Yeshaw, has irresponsibly disseminated outrage and
ethnic xenophobia among several members of the Amhara community who shared the
document through the internet. Leaving detailed
critics aside, three glaring problems explain why it’s dissemination as highly
irresponsible, untimely, unethical, and biased and incites hate that threatens
Ethiopian values of mutual coexistence. First,
its tendency for putting the entire blame squarely on Tigrayans,
even when the very document itself has in so many, if not most, cases suggested
the perpetrators to have been OLF nationalists and/or other emergent sadist elite
capitalists from Bench-Maji, Gambella
and Benishangul Gumuz who
sought to perpetuate their narrow selfish and/or group interests at the expense
of other Ethiopian citizens. This casts serious doubts on the credibility of
the author and his underlying motives. Why would he holistically falsely accuse
Tigrayans for all the mayhem unless he sought elite
political gains from mobilizing the Amharas against
the Tigrayans? If so, that is cynical and sadistic.
In fact, though detailed studies have yet to come, Tigryans
were as equally victims as the Amharas in most of the
cases, where such parochial ethnic
social mobs demanded the expulsion of
any “outsiders” or “ethnic others”. Do
you know that in some of the accounts of violence against the Amhara in Gambella you documented that members of Tigrayans,
Guraghe and Kafficho ethnic
groups were equally being targeted for ethnic cleansing in several districts?
Why would you ignore to say a word about them?
Besides, do you know about 400 Tigrayans have just
recently been dislocated in Mettema, Quara district, Amhara region, with their properties
ransacked and their life still under police protection in a local station? They
have not yet been restored to their homes either? Do you know that many more others
were pushed out of border areas of northern Gonder,
in such areas as Abreha Jira? What was their crime as
a group? Nothing except being poor Tigrayans! If you
are fair and impartial, why would not you raise and denounce this heinous act
in a single sentence? Like that of the Amahara settlers
everywhere you referred to, resource conflicts are partly to blame for ethnic
prejudices and violence. This is mainly because continued decline in agrarian
productivity, demographic pressures and continued ecological stress in their
respective villages had constantly pushed masses of Amahara-Tigrayan
communities into migrating across the rest of Ethiopia to meet ends throughout
the 20th and 21st centuries. Mother Nature was hardly
fair for the two communities. And this is an ever increasing trend. This common
national problem needs shared vision, policy and action to address rather than
disseminating ethnic hatred. Second, EPRDF is
a multinational coalition party that drew members from the entire country and
from across diverse ethnic groups, including thousands, if not millions, of
Amhara. It is not exclusive to Tigrayan ethnic party
membership; even if for historical reasons the TPLF has been a core part of the
coalition. It doesn’t take empirical research to understand the fact that not
all Tigrayans are TPLF members. Thus, whatever
problems occurred to the Amhara communities or Oromos
or other ethnic groups during the EPRDF rule or anything wrong done by members
of the EPRDF are not necessarily perpetrated by the Tigrayans.
I am even very much skeptical of the idea TPLF as a predominant dominant actor
within the EPRDF coalition, particularly these days. You need to make a careful
scrutiny. Third, Tekle hardly acknowledged the measures the EPRDF government
had taken on several instances, however limited it might appear to impress victims.
Fourth, Ato Tekle has overstretched the validity of conspiracy theory
with regard to ethnic cleansing rather than trying to see it discretely from
local resource competition perspectives. And such a problem requires concerted
action to end poverty across the Ethiopian nation. Fifth, it seems rather
controversial whether the document can be research output, as its claims or a
political organization’s manifesto. Neither is the aim of compilation clear
enough. Is it sought to incite ethnic conflict between the three major
Ethiopian ethnic groups, the Oromo, Amhara and Tigrayans
or just to defend the rights of the Amahara ethnic
group per se without regard to others. Logically, you cannot defend the rights
of your respective ethnic unless you recognize other ethnic group’s right to
freedom. The Tigrayans who are often holistically branded as the most privileged
and beneficiaries of the incumbent government have perhaps the worst grievances
of all other Ethiopians, perhaps more than the Oromos
or Amharas.
Who does not have an issue in any multicultural and multinational
country like Ethiopia? Ethiopians from all corners were demanding their
democratic rights and development opportunities and a call for reform in
governance and anti-corruption measures. They are displaying their grievances,
like many other nationalities, within the national political framework. If the government fails to address genuine
concerns, the Tigrayans, like any other Ethiopian
nationalities, will put heavy pressures on the government to expedite reform
and political-economic transformation that lives up to people’s expectations.
This can be better attained more through the constructive engagement by
prioritizing national interests ahead of sectarian or elite political
interests. Unless there is any hidden agenda of vandalizing, why would citizens
destroy churches, investment schemes, farms and infrastructure to express our
grievances in a country that installed those rear amenities through heavy
foreign debt? Is that real concern for the nation? Aren’t there another
simpler, modern or more effective ways of demonstrating civic protest? Tigrayans are watching!
Their history shows that they were not getting anything extra favour of
successive regimes, including from the EPRDF. Instead, they were targets of
massive propaganda campaign to silence their voices. They never yield in. Neither
were they intimidated by Derg’s urban Red
terror nor by waves of detentions simply for their Tigriayan
identity. They were resilient even with nature induced disasters and never seek
favour from any organization, any party, any government or any media outlets. In
the late 1990s, they never surrendered to bombshells and waves of military
operations of the Fascistic Derg and Shaebiya. They recognize and are indebted to the
historic solidarity and symbolic partnership shown by the whole ranges of
Ethiopian nation/nationalities and ethnic groups who resolved in defending
Tigray, and hence Ethiopia, against the heinous fascist Shaebiyan
occupation. Likewise, Tigrayans have happily bled and
died in the thousands in defence of their motherland Ethiopia all the way from
Tigray across Guna Mts and
Oromia, all the way dawn Magadishu, Somalia in the
interest of Ethiopia and Ethiopians. They have always been conscious of their
merits and values of identity, local and national. They will keep on fighting
in all fronts to maintain their self respect, national pride and boast Ethiopian
identity. Likewise, Moresh Amhara leader, Tekle Yeshaw and his co., should
clearly know that Tigrayans are not intimidated by
the lame allegation. Don’t be afraid to assign the right blame for the right
actor. Rest, it will sound like the Amharic adage: Ayt bebla dawa
temeta or ahyawin fertew dawlawun. Please either
revisit your biased manifesto by commissioning the study to an independent
researcher or be courageous to put the right blame at the right criminal. You
cannot settle all past and current political deficits on Conclusion Probably the
simplest and reckless task on earth is one of destruction and fomenting
destructive propaganda. As the Amharic adage has it: “Jiboch bekededut wushoch
yigebalu”. Moresh Amhara should either give the right devil its due or
mind more on the existentialist threat hovering over the country at large. It
took few years to destroy Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Yemen what it took them
centuries to build. Somalia is our neighbour that is at conflict with its own
people for over two decades now. Kenya is not safe either. South Sudan never
recovered from protracted ethnic conflicts. The worst case is Eritrea that is neither
at peace with itself nor with all its neighbours. Never forget Ethiopia is
strategically ill-placed in the midst of a political oven, being at the hot
spots of Horn of African sub region (conflict magnet), lying between the Red
Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, the Sudan and Eastern Africa. At the centre of the Horn of African politics
lays Egypt, the single most beneficiary of Horn of African power contests and
ethnic ploys. It is very much regrettable that Ethiopia had lost millions worth
in properties and, even more tragic, the priceless dozens of Ethiopians over
the last four months. This can reflect to us how the toughest job is to pull
the country out of poverty by putting the right policy in place for political
stability and investment, by creating feasible political structure and
political institutions, recognizing participatory social order and embracing
diversity, multiculturalism and citizens’ rights and by promoting realistic
foreign policy that puts national interests above group or elite interest. |