Friday, January 23, 2015

ተጋብዘዋል፦የአርበኛው አቶ አንዳርጋቸው 60ኛ ዓመት የልደት በዓል!

የነጻነትና የፍትህ ታጋዩ አርበኛው አንዳርጋቸው ጽጌ በወያኔ ትውልድ ገዳይና ሰው በላ መዳፍ እጅ ከወደቀበት ቀን ጀምሮ ኢትዮጵያውያን በእልህ፣ በቁጭትና በቁርጠኝነት ከበፊቱ በበለጠ ትግላችንን አጠናክረን እንድንቀጥል አድርጎናል።ዘረኛውና አረመኔው ወያኔ አንዳርጋቸውን በመያዝና በማሰር የነጻነት ትግሉ ወደ ኋላ ይገታል ብሎ የቅዠት ህልም ቢያልምም አገር ወዳድ ኢትዮጵያውያን በሙሉ ግን ሁላችንም አንዳርጋቸው ጽጌዎች በመሆን የቆመለትን ዓላማ  ከግብ ለማድረስ ተግተን ተነስተናል።
ይህንንም ለማረጋገጥ ለኢትዮጵያ አገራችን ነጻነትና ፍትህ ለማስፈን የህይወት መስዋትነትን እስከ መክፈል ድረስ እየታገለ የሚገኘውን የነጻነት ተምሳሌት የጀግናው አንዳርጋቸው ጽጌ  ፷ኛ ዓመት የልደት በዓልን በዓለም አቀፍ ደረጃ በደማቅ ሁኔታ ለማክበር በዝግጅት ላይ እንገኛለን። 

ስለዚህ ዲሞክራሲ ለውጥ በኢትዮጵያ ድጋፍ ድርጅት ኖርዌይ በወጣቶች ክፍል አዘጋጅነት በኖርዌይ ለምትኖሩ አገር ወዳድ ኢትዮጵያውያን በሙሉ ፌብሯሪ 14/2015 ከ16፡00_ 22፡00 ስዓት በልደት በዓሉ ላይ ተገኝታችሁ ለአንዳርጋቸው የአላችሁን አክብሮት ትገልጹ ዘንድ ተጋብዛችኋል።

በዝግጅቱም ላይ 
  • የአርበኛው አንዳርጋቸው ጽጌ ለኢትዮጵያ ነጻነት ያደረገው አስትዋጾ በዝርዝር
  • የትግል ዓላማውና ለኢትዮጵያ ያለው ራእይ 
  • ሥነጽሁፎችና ስሜት ቀስቃሽ አገራዊ የኪነ ጥበብ ዜማዎች እና ሌሎችም ይቀርባሉ
የአንዳርጋቸውን ራእይ እውን እናደርጋለን! ወያኔን ከህዝባችን ጫንቃ ላይ እናወርዳለን! የኢትዮጵያን የክብር ትንሳኤ እናያለን! 

ሁላችንም አንዳርጋቸው ጽጌዎች ነን!

ድል ለኢትዮጵያ ህዝብ!

የዲሴሶን ወጣቶች ክፍል

Monday, January 19, 2015

“When Will You Be Satisfied?”

                                                                   By Professor Alemayehu G. Mariam

When Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. [MLK] gave his “I Have a Dream Speech” in August 1963, he asked the “devotees of civil rights” a simple rhetorical question: “When will you be satisfied?”
Professor Alemayehu G. Mariam
One of his answers was particularly poignant. “We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.” He empathized with those who have been “battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality.”
Dr. King was deeply concerned about the plague of police brutality gratuitously visited upon black men throughout the country. He had seen and experienced police brutality firsthand. In the Spring of 1963, he witnessed  Eugene “Bull” Connor, the rabidly racist police commissioner of Birmingham, Alabama, “Cry ‘Havoc!’, and let slip the dogs of war” on unarmed citizens demanding the right to vote. Connors unleashed his police officers to viciously and mercilessly attack non-violent anti-segregation protesters with high-pressure fire hoses, police dogs, billy clubs and tear gas. But the protesters kept on coming in waves chanting, “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around”.
A number of prominent white Southern clergymen expressed disapproval of Dr. King’s nonviolent tactics inMLK: “When Will You Be Satisfied?”demanding their constitutional right to vote, but applauded Connor’s brutal methods to “maintain law and order.” In April 1963, Dr. King, in his “Letter From Birmingham Jail”, challenged the moral ambiguity and absurdity of their position and their skin-deep commitment to racial justice. He exposed their willful ignorance and hypocrisy before the court of public opinion. He argued that those who “warmly commended the Birmingham police force for keeping ‘order’ and ‘preventing violence’” would have come to a different conclusion had they “seen [the] dogs sinking their teeth into unarmed, nonviolent Negroes… observed their ugly and inhumane treatment of Negroes here in the city jail… watched them push and curse old Negro women and young Negro girls… slap and kick old Negro men and young boys… observe them refuse to give us food because we wanted to sing our grace together.”
In March 1965, during the “Bloody Sunday March (click here for video)”,  Alabama State troopers and a posse of police-recruited Klansmen on horseback savagely brutalized civil rights marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge as the world watched in horror. Dr. King personally led the second march on “Turnaround Tuesday” with 2500 marchers in tow. Connor’s police withdrew from the bridge to let the marchers continue and avoid a confrontation. Dr. King held a short prayer session as the police looked on from the sidelines. In a dramatic display of self-control and demonstration of the principles of nonviolent resistance, Dr. King turned back and walked his marchers back to town. Within days, Dr.  King led some 25 thousand marchers and successfully completed the 54-mile march from Selma to the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery with the protection of thousands of soldiers from the U.S. Army, federalized Alabama National Guardsmen, FBI agents and Federal Marshals. There he delivered a soul-stirring speech: “The end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience. … I know you are asking today, “How long will it take?” I come to say to you this afternoon however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long…”
All of the police savagery was visited upon the Selma marchers simply because they demanded their constitutional right to vote guaranteed them under the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. President Lyndon B. Johnson later declared, “The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men.”
Dr. King understood police brutality was not limited to physical beatings and atrocities. He was acutely aware of the debilitating effects of the psychic brutality of segregation reinforced by ruthless police forces. The police were the sledgehammer and axe in the hands of Jim Crow (the metaphorical name for racial segregation laws enacted in Southern United States after the American Civil War and remained in force until 1965). They were the first line of “defense” against any efforts to desegregate public schools, public places and transportation, restaurants, restrooms and drinking fountains.
Dr. King was acutely aware of the psychic brutality of racism that destroys the very soul of a human being and leaves the body a shell of shame, fear and self-hate. He understood that a physical injury, even a bullet wound, will eventually heal, though the scar will remain as a permanent signature of the crime committed. But the victim of psychic brutality “finds himself suddenly tongue twisted and stammering to explain to [his] six year old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people…”  The victim of psychic brutality has to “concoct an answer for a five year old son who is asking: ‘Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?’”
Dr. King understood the psychic brutality of being “humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading ‘white’ and ‘colored’; [having one’s] first name become “nigger,” [one’s] middle name become “boy” (however old you are) and [one’s] last name become “John,” and [one’s] wife and mother never given the respected title “Mrs.” He understood the psychic brutality of racism and what it means to be  “forever fighting a degenerating sense of nobodiness”. That’s why he declared Black people could no longer wait for change because “there comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair.”
Dr. King understood the psychic injury to the dignity of man and woman will never heal unless given large doses of love (agape). Without love, the psychic brutality of racism, to paraphrase the poetic words of Langston Hughes, will only continue to “fester like a sore– / And then run? /… /… it just sags/ like a heavy load… [and in the end]… explode…”
The spark that set off the powder keg of racism came in the person of a frail 42 year-old seamstress named Rosa Parks. On December 1, 1955, Parks said she was no longer going suffer the slings and arrows of racist psychic brutality inflicted on her as she boarded the buses. She resolved to stand up to the daily humiliations, degradation and dehumanization of segregated public transportation. If she is going to pay her bus fare at the front of the bus, that’s where she was going to sit. When Parks refused to follow the bus driver’s instruction to go to the back of the bus, she stood her ground and would not back down. The police swiftly arrested and jailed her.
“A riot is the language of the unheard.” MLK
Dr. King once told a journalist that “A riot is the language of the unheard.  And, what is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the economic plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last few years.”
That was not all. America had also failed to hear the cries and whimpers of her black children wilting under the blows of police batons. She had turned a blind eye to the lifeless bodies of victims of police brutality in the streets and deaf ears to the bootless cries of young black men begging the mercy of rogue police officers with huge chips on their shoulders.
The most severe “race riots” of 20th Century America were triggered by acts of police brutality. (I am not sure why such unrest is called a “race riot”. It is factually more accurate to call it “riots against police brutality”.)
The July 1964 “Harlem, N.Y. Race Riots” were sparked when a 15-year-old African American teenager was shot and killed by a police lieutenant  in the presence of the teen’s friends and several other witnesses. Thousands of people rioted for nearly a week in the New York City neighborhoods of Harlem and Bedford-Stuyvesant resulting in one death, 118 injuries and over 450 arrests along with significant vandalism and looting.
The “Harlem Riots” set off other riots. The Rochester (N.Y) Race Riots” of July 1964 flared when that city’s police attempted to arrest a 19-year-old African American man in the street. Rumors alleging police brutality spread in that city’s African American community resulting in angry reaction. In the ensuing riot, several people were killed, hundreds injured and nearly a thousand protesters arrested along with significant property damage.
The “Philadelphia Race Riots” of August 1964 exploded after prolonged complaints over numerous  allegations of police brutality. In several days of rioting, 341 people were injured, 774 arrested and 225 stores damaged or destroyed in several days of rioting. Similar riots took place in various cities in New Jersey and Chicago.
The August 1965 “Watts Riots” or “Watts Rebellion” were triggered after two white policemen tussled with a black motorist.  An angry crowd joined the fray causing a riot that lasted for nearly a week.  By the end, 34 people were dead, 1,032 injuries, 3,438 arrests and incurring over $40 million in property damage.
The 1967 “Detroit Riot” was sparked when police raided an unlicensed bar and rumors spread that the police had murdered several African American men. That riot lasted for nearly a week and according to Time Magazine became “one of the deadliest and costliest riots in the history of the United States.” During the “long hot summer” of 1967 some 159 riots erupted across the United States.
The National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (“Kerner Commission”) was established by President Lyndon B. Johnson to investigate the causes of the 1967 riots and to provide recommendations for the future. The Report’s most famous passage warned, “Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white—separate and unequal.” The Report pointed an accusatory finger at white racism as one of the major causes of urban violence in America. The Report recommended, among other things, the hiring of more diverse and sensitive police forces.
Police brutality-sparked riots continued in the late 1960s and 70s in various American cities.
The Orangeburg Massacre (in Orangeburg, South Carolina) of February 1968 occurred on the campus of South Carolina State University as students tried to desegregate a local bowling alley. South Carolina Highway Patrol Officers fired into a group of African American students killing three and wounding 27. That was the first time police committed atrocities on an American college campus, over two years before the Kent State University shootings in May 1970.
In the 1970s, riots triggered by police brutality continued to occur from Augusta, GA to Jackson, MS. By 1980, another major riot had occurred in Liberty City, a Miami neighborhood after four police officers were acquitted in the death of an African American man. After three days of rioting, 18 people were dead, scores arrested and over $100 million in property damage incurred.
In April 1992, massive riots erupted in Los Angeles after a jury acquitted four police officers of assault charges in the 1991 beating of Rodney King. Fifty-five people died and 2,000 were injured and over 10 thousand people arrested in several days of rioting. Over 1,000 buildings were damaged in the Los Angeles area at a cost of over $1 billion.
“Police Riots”?
The 1968 Democratic National Convention was as much a battleground as a political convention to nominate a president. A number of “counterculture groups” coordinated to disrupt that convention. The law-and order mayor of Chicago, Richard Daley, unleashed his police on protesters to “maintain law and order”. That led to pitched street battles in the streets for several days.
The National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence appointed Daniel Walker, an Illinois lawyer and politician, to head the Chicago Study Team to investigate and prepare a report on the violence during the Democratic National Convention. The Walker Report (“Rights in Conflict”) made the controversial conclusion that while protesters had deliberately harassed and provoked police, the police had responded with indiscriminate violence against protesters and bystanders. The report accused law enforcement of engaging in a “police riot”. The Report determined many police officers had committed criminal acts, and condemned the official failure to prosecute or even discipline those officers. The Report stated:
… That [police] violence was made all the more shocking by the fact that it was often inflicted upon persons who had broken no law, disobeyed no order, made no threat. These included peaceful demonstrators, onlookers, and large numbers of residents who were simply passing through, or happened to live in, the areas where confrontations were occurring.
Newsmen and photographers were singled out for assault, and their equipment deliberately damaged. Fundamental police training was ignored; and officers, when on the scene, were often unable to control their men. As one police officer put it: “What happened didn’t have anything to do with police work.” . . .
As a lawyer, I wonder if some of the incidents we witnessed in the riots sparked by police brutality in 2014 could be fairly classified as “police riots”?  I wonder if Eric Garner had died at the hands of police officers in California (instead of N.Y.), the officers involved in his death would have been prosecuted for “police riot”?  According to California Penal Code section 404 as “Any use of force or violence, disturbing the public peace, or any threat to use force or violence, if accompanied by immediate power of execution, by two or more persons acting together, and without authority of law, is a riot.” If those officers had been found in California to have engaged in an unreasonable and unlawful use of deadly force (“without authority of law”) such as employing an illegal chokehold causing a death, could they have been charged for committing a homicide in the course of a “police riot”?
The “quiet riots” of Barack Obama  
In June 2007, presidential hopeful Barack Obama spoke at Hampton University Annual Ministers’ Conference in Hampton, Virginia. He spoke of the “quiet riot” taking place in Los Angeles and in Black America:
… A few weeks ago, I attended a service at First A.M.E. Church in Los Angeles to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the LA Riots. After a jury acquitted 4 police officers of beating Rodney King-a beating that was filmed and flashed around the world- Los Angeles erupted. I remember the sense of despair and powerlessness in watching one of America’s greatest cities engulfed in flames…
… Many of the folks in this room know just where they were when the riot in Los Angeles started and tragedy struck the corner of Florence and Normandy. And most of the ministers here know that those riots didn’t erupt over night; there had been a “quiet riot” building up in Los Angeles and across this country for years.
If you had gone to any street corner in Chicago or Baton Rouge or Hampton — you would have found the same young men and women without hope, without miracles, and without a sense of destiny other than life on the edge — the edge of the law, the edge of the economy, the edge of family structures and communities.
On January 20, 2015 when President Obama delivers his State of the Union speech in Congress, I would like to get his take on the “quiet riot” that has been taking place in the Black community since he became president. Perahps the “quiet riots” quietly disappeared with the Bush Adminstration.  I don’t know.
I would like to know if President Obama had been back to street corners in Chicago, Baton Rouge or Hampton lately (I mean in the last six years). If he had, I would like to know if he had seen any of the young men and women he saw in 2007 “without hope, without miracles, and without a sense of destiny” still hangin’ and chillin’ out there.
After he delivers his speech, I would like to ask President Obama a hypothetical question: What happens to an unrequited “quiet riot”?
“Does it dry up / like a raisin in the sun? /Or fester like a sore—/ And then run? /Does it stink like rotten meat? /Or crust and sugar over– /like a syrupy sweet?/ Maybe it just sags /like a heavy load./ Or does it explode?”
A nation of two societies, one black, one white—separate and unequal in 2015 or just one United States of America?
In his keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, Senator Barack Obama stole the show by declaring: “Well, I say to them (those who are preparing to divide us) tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative America – there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America – there’s the United States of America.
In 1967, the Kerner Commission warned, “Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white—separate and unequal.”
I ask myself, “What is America to me?”
Is it a land ruled by the rule of law or a land of a few misguided men who rule because they believe they are above the law, indeed believe themselves to be the personification of the law because they carry a badge to enforce the law which they mistake as a license to kill and abuse citizens.
Is not America the land of the brave and home of the free?
The Presbyterian Minister and poet Henry Van Dyke had an answer. “…So it’s home again, and home again, America for me! / My heart is turning home again, and there I long to be, / In the land of youth and freedom beyond the ocean bars, / Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars!…/
Langston Hughes disagreed, “America never was America to me.” Hughes demanded that we “Let America be America Again” for those who feel “America never was America to [them]”.
In passionate soul-stirring words Langston  Hughes  demanded, “Let America be America again./ Let it be the dream it used to be./Let it be the pioneer on the plain/Seeking a home where he himself is free… / Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed–/Let it be that great strong land of love/Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme/That any man be crushed by one above…/ O, let my land be a land where Liberty/ Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,/But opportunity is real, and life is free,/Equality is in the air we breathe…/
I join Hughes. Let’s “Let America be America Again” to those who feel “America never was America to [them].”
Can we get satisfaction in 2015?
On the occasion of Dr. King’s 86th birthday, it is time for us to ask his soul-searching questions once again.  “When will you be satisfied?” When will we be satisfied?
The answer in 2015 must be the same as the answer given in 1963. “We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.” We can never be satisfied until those “battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality” find a safe harbor, a haven, in the embrace of the Constitution of the United States of America!
In 2014, there were some gusty winds of police brutality. Michael Brown, an 18-year-old black man, was fatally shot by Darren Wilson, a 28-year-old white police officer in Ferguson, MO. Eric Garner, a 43-year-old black man died in Staten Island, New York, after a police officer put him in a chokehold. Grand juries in both cases refused to charge the police officers. There were numerous other incidents throughout the country publicly reported and unreported alleging police brutality.
The Brown and Garner deaths sparked massive street protests. Famed African American televangelist Bishop T.D. Jakes told worshipers that black men should not be “tried on the sidewalk.”
Police Chief Chris Magnus of Richmond, California stood on the sidewalk carrying a sign that read “Black Lives Matter” to show his solidarity with those protesting police brutality.
An organization called “Black Life Matters” was launched to coordinate national grassroots action on police brutality. Several St. Louis Rams players protested on the filed by displaying the “hands up don’t shoot” pose on the field. “I Can’t Breathe,” became the rallying cry against police brutality.
The Rolling Stones sang, “I can’t get no satisfaction… Cause you see I’m on losing streak…”
We must reverse the losing streak of 2014 in 2015. As Americans we must rise up, lock arms and stand together to withstand the battering storms of persecution and let the gentle breeze of justice and the rule of law blow in our faces and take up permanent residence in our souls. In 2015, let’s “Let America be America Again” to those who feel “America never was America to [them].”
An ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure. Dr. King taught us that we must be quick to negotiate and slow to confrontation. In 2015, we must negotiate a long and hazardous road littered with the injustices of police brutality. We must negotiate with and convince our fellow citizens who feel battered, betrayed and persecuted by law enforcement and judicial systems that they are fully protected by the American Bill of Rights. We must negotiate to de-escalate tensions between the community and the police, and escalate our creative engagements on issues of the rights of man and woman as human rights.
Police and citizens are not mortal enemies. There are some rogue police officers who believe police power comes from the barrel of the gun. They are mistaken. There are some citizens who believe the police are demons. They are mistaken too. The police should know that they are the servants of citizens. Their professional creed and oath is “to serve and to protect”.
Citizens have a civic and moral duty to treat their servants with respect and appreciation, and without scorn. They must appreciate their servants for doing a thankless, difficult and dangerous job every day.
All police officers wear a badge of courage, but the rogue ones also carry huge chips on their shoulders. We should appreciate all police officers for their courage and sacrifices; but we must also insist that they proudly wear their badges of professionalism and integrity at all times.
The police sometimes use the metaphor of the “Thin Blue Line” to suggest that they are the last line of defense of the citizenry from the criminal elements. In 2015, we need to draw a broad red, white and blue line to protect all Americans from all unlawful official use of force.
Dr. King often dreamt about the “Beloved Community” where poverty, violence, injustice and racism in all its forms will not be tolerated. In his Beloved Community, disputes are resolved by “creating a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation”.
In Dr. King’s “Beloved Community”, negotiation is not about one-upmanship, gamesmanship, showmanship or brinksmanship. It is simply about truth and reconciliation. The negotiators are guided by a single principle: Focus on the positive in every action and statement the opposition makes.
In 2015, I hope Americans will have not only a national “conversation on race” but also a negotiation to begin the creation of the Beloved Community of Dr. King’s dream. It must NOT be a negotiation between good and evil. It must be a negotiation between good people to get rid of evil.
I hope it will be a negotiation that will NOT end up demonizing and criminalizing one side or the other but humanizes all sides. I hope the negotiations will produce police accountability and citizen civility.  I hope that negotiations will lead to the liberation of people hopelessly trapped in an evil system of hate and dehumanization.
There is one non-negotiable issue. We must insist on the unconditional surrender of an evil system that thrives on man’s inhumanity to man and the deprivation of the divinely ordained rights of Americans to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
As we celebrate Dr. King’s 86th birthday in 2015, I can imagine him asking us the following haunting questions: When will you be  dissatisfied with the bloodletting?   Dissatisfied  with your demonization of young black men and the police? Dissatisfied with your finger-pointing, teeth-gnashing, heart-aching and gut-wrenching about evil systems that thrive on man’s inhumanity to man? Your endless soul-searching when the truth is standing in your faces with the tears of the suffering? When will you be dissatisfied with your hypocrisy, cowardice and window dressing of injustice? When, when will you begin to negotiate?
In 2014, protesters against police brutality adopted the rallying cry, “I (We) can’t breathe.” It is time for all Americans to exhale in 2015. It is time for us to take a long deep breath of the fresh air of justice and righteousness. Because if we can’t breathe together, we will choke separately.  Even at age 86, Dr. King would have admonished and even chastised us, “All lives of God’s Children matter!”
I highly recommend the motion picture “Selma” to all of my readers. It is a must-see, a magnificent triumph of cinematic storytelling. I just can’t wait for the DVD to come out!


Wednesday, January 14, 2015

በኢትዮጵያ ሕዝብ አርበኞች ግንባርና የግንቦት 7፣ ለፍትህ፣ ዴሞክራሲና የነጻነት፣ ንቅናቄ መሀል የተደረገውን ውህደት በተመለከተ የተሰጠ ጋዜጣዊ መግለጫ!

በዛሬው ዕለት፣ ጥር 2 ቀን 2007 ዓ.ም የኢትዮጵያ ሕዝብ አርበኞች ግንባርና የግንቦት 7፣ ለፍትህ ለዴሞክራሲና የነጻነት፣ ንቅናቄ፣ ድርጅቶች፣ ተዋህደን “አርበኞች ግንቦት 7፣ ለአንድነትና ዴሞክራሲ፣ ንቅናቄ”፣ በሚባል ሥም መጠራት መጀመራችንን ለመላው የኢትዮጵያ ሕዝብ ስናበስር፣ እጅግ ከፍተኛ ደስታ ይሰማናል።
የኢትዮጵያ ሕዝብ፣ ባለፉት በርካታ አስርተ አመታት፣ለፍትህ፣ ለእኩልነት፣ ለነጻነት፣ መብትና አንድነት፣ ከፍተኛ ትግል ሲያካሂድ ቆይቷል። በአደረገውም ትግል እጅግ ከፍተኛ መስዕዋትነት ከፍሏል። ለከፈለው ከፍተኛ ዋጋ የሚመጥን ግን ምንም ዓይነት ውጤት አላገኘም። እንዲያውም ከጊዜ ወደ ጊዜ የመብት ረገጣው፣ አድሎው፣ ማስፈራራቱና ማዋከቡ ተጠናክረው መቀጠል ብቻ ሳይሆን፣ ሀገራችን ኢትዮጵያ እንደ ሀገር ልትቀጥል የማያስችል ከፍተኛ የመበታተን አደጋ አንጃቦባት ትገኛለች ።
በሀገራችን ላይ ላንጃበበው ከፍተኛ የመበታተን አደጋ ምክንያት የሆነው በሥልጣን ላይ ያለው የወያኔ የአምባገነን ቡድን ነው። ይህ ዘረኛ አምባገነን ቡድን በሀገራችን ታሪክ በሥልጣን ላይ ከመጡ የገዥ ሃይሎች ጋር ሲወዳደር ሀገርን ለከፍተኛ አደጋ በማጋለጥ፣ ሕዝቧን በማወረድ፣ ተወዳዳሪ የማይገኝለት ዕኩይ ሃይል መሆኑን በበርካታ ተግባራቶቹ ያለ ምንም ጥርጣሬ አረጋግጧል።
በሌላ በኩል ለቀድሞቹም ሆነ ለዛሬው ዘረኛው የወያኔ አምባገነን ገዥ በሕዝብና በሀገር ላይ በደል እየፈጸመ በሥልጣን መቆየት የቻለበት ምክንያት፣ በተቃዋሚነት የሕዝቡን ትግል ለመምራት የተንቀሳቀስን ድርጅቶች፣ የተቋቋምንበት ዓላማ መለያዬት ብቻ ሳይሆን፣ አንድ ዓይነት ዓላማ ያለንም ብንሆን፣ ከድርጅቶቻችን ጠባብ ፍላጎቶችና ስሜቶች ባለፈ፣ የሀገርና የሕዝብን ጉዳይ በማስቀደም በጋራ መሰባሰብና መታገል ስላቃተን ነው። በዚህም ድርጊታችን የራሳችንን ብቻ ሳይሆን የወገናችንንም የመከራ ዘመን እያራዘምን እንገኛለን ።
ይህ ሁኔታ በተለያዩ ተቃዋሚ ድርጅቶች መሀል ከፍተኛ ጥርጣሬና ፍርሀት ከመፍጠሩ የተነሳ በምንም ዓይነት ሁኔታ፣ ተቃዋሚ ድርጅቶች በጋራ በሀገርና በሕዝብ ደረጃ ትርጉም ያለው ስራ መስራት አይችሉም፣ የሚለው አመለካከት የበላይነት እንዲያገኝ አድርጎታል።
በዛሬው ጥር 2 ቀን 2007 ዓ.ም ወደ ውህደት የመጣነው፣ የኢትዮጵያ ሕዝብ አርበኞች ግንባርና የግንቦት 7፣ ለፍትህ፣፡ ለነጻነትና ለዲሞክራሲ ንቅናቄ፣ መዋሃድ መወሰናችንን ፣ ስንገልጽ በተናጠል ከሚደረጉ በጋራ የሚደረጉ የትግል ጥረቶች ውጤታማ ይሆናሉ በሚል ብቻ ሳይሆን፣ የተቃዋሚ ድርጅቶች፣ በምንም ዓይነት ሁኔታ በሀገርና በሕዝብ ደረጃ ትርጉም ያለው ሥራ በጋራ መስራት አይቻሉም የሚለውን፣ አስከፊ ተመክሮና አመለካካት ለመስበርም ነው።
በእኛ እምነት ከትናናሽ ድርጅቶች ዙሪያ ከሚሽከረከሩ ሀሳቦችና ስሜቶች ለመውጣትና ሀገራዊና ሕዝባዊ የሆነው ጉዳይ ለማስቀደም የወሰነ ማንኛውም ድርጅት፣ አርበኞችና ግንቦት7፣ የደረሱበት የውህደት ውሳኔ ወይም በሌሎች በጋራ ሊያሰሩ በሚችሉ ስምምነቶች አብሮ ለመስራት መወሰን የማይችልበት ምንም ምክንያት አይታየንም። በወያኔ አድሎ ስርዓት የተንገፈገፈና ትግሉን ለመቀላቀል የቆረጠ ማንኛውም ዜጋ፣ የተገኘውን አጋጣሚ በመጠቀም ትግሉን መቀላቀል ይችላል፣ የኢትዮያ ሕዝብ በአንድነት የተነሳ ቀን ደግሞ፣ የወያኔ ግብዓተ መሬት ይፈጸማል፣ ብለን ከልብ እናምናለን።
ይህም በመሆኑ፣
ለተቃዋሚ ድርጅቶች፣
ዛሬ በአርበኞችና በግንቦት 7፣ የተጀመረው ጉዞ ውጤታማ በመሆን ሀገራዊና ታሪካዊ ትርጉም እንዲኖረው፣ ሌሎችም በተግባር የምትንቀሳቀሱ ተቃዋሚ ድርጅቶች፣ ወያኔን የማስወገድንና ብሎም ሀገር የማረጋጋቱን ሀላፊነት በጋራ እንድንወጣ የሚያስችል መቀራረብ እንድናደርግ ፣ በውህደት በመሰረትነው፣ በአርበኞች ግንቦት 7፣ ለአንድነትና ዴሞክራሲ፣ ንቅናቄ፣ ሥም፣ ጥሪያችንን እናቀርባለን።
ለወታደራዊና የፖሊስ ሠራዊት አባላት፣
የወያኔ ዘረኛና አምባገነን ቡድን ዕድሜን ለማሳጠርና ሁላችንንም በእኩልነት የምታስተናግድ ሀገር እንድትኖር ፣ በየቦታው የሚደረገውን ትግል፣ የሰሞኑን ቆራጥ የዓየር ሃይል መኮንንኖች ያሳዩትን ዓርያነት በመከተልና በተገኘው አጋጣሚና ሁኔታ በመጠቀም፣ እንድትቀላቀሉ በውህደቱ ድርጅት፣ በአርበኞች ግንቦት 7፣ ለአንድነትና ዴሞክራሲ፣ ንቅናቄ፣ ሥም፣ ጥሪያችንን እናቀርባለን።
የተከበርከው የኢትዮጵያ ሕዝብ ሆይ፣
በረጅም ታሪክህ አይተሄው ለማታውቀው፣ ውርደት፣ ክፋት፣ የመከፋፈልና የመጋጨት አደጋ፣ የመብት እረገጣና አፈና፣ ሀገርና ሕዝብን የማራከስና የመሸጥ፣ ዕኩይ ተግባር፣ የተጠናወተው ወያኔ እና የግብር አበሮቹን፣ ጠራርጎ ለማስወገድ በተጀመረው የጋራ ትግል ውስጥ በቀጥታ እንድትሳተፍም ሆነ በምትችለው ሁሉ እርዳታ እንድታደርግ፣ በዛሬው ጥር 2 ቀን 2007 ዓ.ም የአርበኞችና የግንቦት 7 ውህደት በወለደው፣ በአርበኞች ግንቦት 7፣ ለአንድነትና ዴሞክራሲ፣ ንቅናቄ ሥም፣ ጥሪያችንን እናቀርባለን።
ድል ለኢዮጵያ ሕዝብ!!!
አርበኞች ግንቦት 7፣ ለአንድነትና ዴሞክራሲ፣ ንቅናቄ፣

Thursday, January 1, 2015

“We Shall Persevere, Ethiopia!” – by Professor Alemayehu G Mariam

I shall persevere!” wrote Eskinder Nega, the imprisoned and preeminent defender and hero of press freedom in Ethiopia, in a letter smuggled out of the infamous Meles Zenawi Prison in Kality, a few kilometers outside the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.“How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!”, decreed Maya Angelou, the great African American author, poet, dancer, actress and singer.
Eskinder was not merely writing about himself when he declared, “I shall persevere!”. He was also writing on behalf of his fellow imprisoned journalists, bloggers, human rights advocates and other political prisoners. After all, no prisoner of conscience, no political prisoner, can persevere alone. I would venture to say Eskinder was indeed writing about the quiet perseverance of ninety million of his fellow Ethiopians held captive in an open air prison that Ethiopia has become under the thumbs of a malignant thugtatorship called the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). Ethiopia shall persevere and prevail!
I want to ring out 2014 by celebrating my personal hero Eskinder Nega and she-ro Reeyot Alemu, and through them all of the other Ethiopian heroes and she-roes — the prisoners of conscience in the war on press freedom in Ethiopia and the political prisoners held captive in defending freedom, the cause of free and fair elections, democratic governance and human rights advocates. In celebrating them, I proudly declare, “You have persevered as political prisoners! We have persevered! Ethiopia has persevered as one nation under the Almighty. We shall persevere until those who have coerced us into persevering can no longer persevere. Victory is guaranteed to those who persevere!”
Shakespeare wrote, “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ‘em.” I think the same can be said of heroes and she-roes. Citizens like Eskinder and Reeyot (symbolically representing all of the other prisoners of conscience in Ethiopia) have become heroes and she-roes because heroism was thrust upon them by extreme circumstances. When they met the defining moment of their lives, unlike most of us, they did not flinch or cringe. They did not grovel or beg. They did not offer to sell their souls for a few pieces of silver. They did not cut and run; they did not back down. They stood their ground. They chose to live free in prison than live in an open air prison under the rule of bush thugs.
Eskinder and Reeyot were offered their freedom if they got down on their knees, bowed down their heads, apologized and admitted their “crimes”, licked the boots of their captors and begged to be “pardoned”. It was the same “pardon” offered to so many others before them by the late Meles Zenawi and his disciples. It is the same “pardon” offered to Swedish journalists Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye who were sentenced to eleven years on bogus charges of “terrorism”.
A public confession of false guilt was the ultimate humiliation Meles exacted on his victims. He did it with the dozens of opposition leaders he jailed following the 2005 election. He did it twice to Birtukan Midekssa, the first woman political party leader in Ethiopian history. He had a cadre of pardon peddlers who went around prisons convincing innocent victims into admitting crimes they did not commit and beg Meles’ pardon. Public humiliation of his adversaries gave Meles the ultimate high; it nurtured his sadistic soul wallowed in it. The offer of “pardon” for Eskinder and Reeyot still stands today. But they don’t want it. In turning down the “pardon” offer, they sent a clear message: “You can’t pardon an innocent man or woman… Take your pardon and shove it…!”
Christopher Reeve, Hollywood’s “Superman” who became a quadriplegic in an accident said, “A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.” Eskinder, Reeyot and the others were ordinary citizens who found the strength to persevere and endure despite overwhelming obstacles. That’s why Eskinder, Reeyot and all Ethiopian political prisoners and prisoners of conscience are heroes and she-roes to me. They have all persevered and endured.
Courage is the stuff of which heroes and she-roes are made. Robert F. Kennedy once said, “moral courage is… the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world that yields most painfully to change. Each time a person stands up for an idea, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, (s)he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”
Eskinder Nega, Reeyot Alemu and all of the other hero and she-ro political prisoners had true moral courage. They stood up for ideas of press freedom and free expression; for democracy and human rights. They stood up for the principle of the rule of law. They stood up to TPLF thugs. They persevered and in the process sent tiny ripples of hope to 90 million of their compatriots.
As we ring out 2014 and usher in 2015, I want all my readers to join me in celebrating, honoring and thanking Eskinder Nega, Reeyot Alemu, Woubshet Taye, Andualem Aragie, Bekele Gerba, Abubekar Ahmed, the “Zone Nine Bloggers” including Atnaf Berahane, Zelalem Kibret, Befeqadu Hailu, Abel Wabela, Mahlet Fantahun, Natnael Feleke, Asmamaw Hailegeorgis, Tesfalem Waldyes and Edom Kassaye. Let it be known that these heroes and she-roes are only the public faces of the tens of thousands of unnamed, unknown, unsung and unbowed heroes and she-roes of the Ethiopian struggle for equality, justice and dignity languishing in prisons ranked as among the absolute worst in the world. I salute them all as they persevere in the infamous Meles Zenawi Prison in Kality and other branch locations throughout Ethiopia.
I celebrate and salute Reeyot Alemu, the 36 year-old undisputed she-ro of Ethiopian press freedom condemned to 14 years in prison by the late Meles Zenawi. Reeyot has been internationally recognized as “Ethiopia’s Jailed Truth Teller.” The Committee to Protect Journalists reported Reeyot was jailed for telling the truth, for writing a “scathing critique of the ruling political party’s fundraising methods for a national dam project, and for drawing “parallels between the late Libyan despot Muammar Gaddafi and Meles Zenawi.”
I celebrate my hero Woubshet Taye, a journalist and editor, who is condemned to 14 years in prison for standing his ground and using his newspaper as a watchdog over the TPLF’s abuses of power and empire of corruption. The innocent words of Woubshet’s five year-old son Fiteh (meaning “justice”) keep ringing in my mind, “When I grow up will I go to jail like my dad?”
I celebrate and salute Andualem Aragie, who prior to his imprisonment, was rising opposition leader. Andualem is among a new breed of young Ethiopian political leaders, journalists and civil society advocates who are widely respected and accepted. In the months leading up to the May 2010 “election” in which Meles Zenawi claimed a 99.6 percent victory, Andualem demonstrated his unflinching commitment to democracy and the rule of law. With breathtaking clarity of thought, razor-sharp intellect, incredible courage, mesmerizing eloquence, piercing logic, stinging wit, masterful command of the facts and steadfast adherence to the truth, Andualem made mincemeat out of Meles Zenawi’s vacuous lackeys in several televised pre-“election” debates. It was truly a sight to behold!

I celebrate and salute Abraha Desta, the young, fearless and extraordinary Ethiopian blogger. In his very last Facebook post on July 7, 2014, before being jailed by the TPLF, Abraha vigorously defended the freedom of expression of the TPLF itself on his own Facebook page! “The reason I do not unfriend or block TPLF cadres on my Facebook is because I believe it is important for us to know the intellectual depravity and bankruptcy of the TPLF. We assess a person’s capacity to think and reason by listening to what they have to say. By reading what they write. Therefore, let the cadres write. Let them reveal who and what they are. Let us also read. Let us know them well. To defeat them, it is necessary for us to know them. It is valuable to know your adversary. It is so!” Abraha is in prison with little to eat, but has he left us a harvest of food for thought?!
I celebrate my young heroes and she-roes, the “Zone Nine Bloggers”. These young Ethiopians armed with computer keyboards and inspired by ideas of freedom have struck terror in the very heart of darkness, the Tigrean Peoples Liberation Front. “Hiding behind an abusive anti-terrorism law to prosecute bloggers and journalists doing their job is an affront to the constitution and international protection for free expression,” declared Human Rights Watch in its demand for the “immediate” dismissal of charges against the young bloggers. I celebrate and salute Atnaf Berahane, Zelalem Kibret, Befeqadu Hailu, Abel Wabela, Mahlet Fantahun, Natnael Feleke, Asmamaw Hailegeorgis, Tesfalem Waldyes and Edom Kassaye.
I celebrate and salute my heroes Bekele Gerba, Abubekar Ahmed and so many others who are suffering the slings and arrows of the vicious TPLF because they stood up to defend the liberty of religion and conscience, the right to assembly and association and the right to free expression.
Bekele Gerba is deputy chairman of the Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement and taught English at Addis Ababa University. He was arrested for belonging to a “terrorist” organization and sentenced to 8 years in prison. Bekele criticized the TPLF as a retrograde regime without the capacity to govern. He argued there are four classes of citizens under the TPLF regime: “the first-class citizens are those who are in power to give away land; the second-class citizens are those who receive land; the third-class are those who are reduced to observer-roles of such illicit transactions; the fourth-class are those whose land is taken away from them by force.” The day before his arrest, Bekele told Amnesty International representatives that he was being framed by the TPLF on bogus terrorism charges.

Bekele Gerba

Abubaker Ahmed is a strong advocate of religious freedom. In articulating his demands, Abubaker proved his adherence to the rule of law: “We are not opposed to any administration. All we are asking for is that the Constitution be respected. All we are saying is those bodies that say they respect the Constitution actually respect the Constitution.”
Above all, I celebrate and salute all of the tens of thousands Ethiopian political prisoners – the unnamed, the unknown, the unaccounted for and the unsung heroes and she-roes – for standing up for the cause of freedom, democracy and human rights in Ethiopia.
They shall all persevere and endure!
“I shall persevere!”, declared Eskinder Nega defiantly
In May 2013, my brother and esteemed friend Eskinder Nega wrote a letter entitled, “I shall persevere!”. That letter was smuggled out the infamous Meles Zenawi Prison in Kality.
“I Shall Persevere!” is only 7 simple paragraphs long, but its message could last for seven, and even seventy, long years. “I Shall Persevere!” is a defiant letter. It is a hopeful letter. It is an inspiring letter. It is a prophetic letter. It is a letter written from the heart. It is a letter written with cerebral power. It is a letter addressed to his family, his wife and son. It is a letter addressed to the people of Ethiopia. It is a letter addressed to the Diaspora Ethiopians. It is a letter addressed and time-capsuled for delivery to future generations of Ethiopians. It is a plea for freedom and human dignity. It is a letter about one man’s yearning for freedom, the right to be free to raise his child, to be free with his wife and family. It is a letter about individual freedom and the individual’s right to practice one’s chosen profession. Ultimately, “I shall persevere!” can be reduced to one thing: The truth. To persevere is to stand up for the Truth for the Truth shall make one free.
Allow me to digress for a moment and be personal. I have read “I shall persevere!” many times over. I have read it when I felt creeping doubts gnawing my mind. My doubts vanished; I persevered. I have read it when I was on the verge of losing heart over the thought that the road to freedom is too long, too winding and too tiresome. I persevered in my absolute conviction that no walk for freedom is too long. I have read Eskinder’s Letter when I was at a loss for words, “I am fresh out of topics for Monday Commentaries. I have nothing to say.” Instantly, I am overwhelmed and overflowing with ideas till my cup runneth over. Every time I feel down for the count, I read Eskinder’s letter and I am up and about. Eskinder’s voice may be the sound of silence to those who have ears but have willfully become deaf-mutes. To me his silenced voice resonates with me everyday, “I shall persevere! I Shall Persevere! I SHALL PERSEVERE!”
What did Eskinder mean when he proclaimed, “I shall persevere!”? Did he mean he will simply persevere — just survive day to day — chained in the dungeons of Meles Zenawi Prison in Kality? What does it mean to “persevere” for someone like Eskinder, Reeyot and the others?
I don’t think I need to speak to Eskinder to figure what he meant when he wrote, “I shall persevere!”. His words speak to me loud and clear. He meant exactly what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. meant by “persevere”. Over one-half century ago, people used to ask Dr. King, “How long can we persevere? How long must we wait to be free?” (Of course, the people had a more earthy way of asking that question: “How much longer do we have to put up with this bullcrap?”) Dr. King told them, “not long”:
I know you are asking today, “How long will it take?”….
I come to say to you this afternoon, however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long, because truth crushed to earth will rise again.
How long? Not long, because no lie can live forever.
How long? Not long, because you shall reap what you sow….
How long? Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.
How long must Eskinder, Reeyot and the rest persevere? How long must Ethiopia persevere? Not long, however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long because the TPLF shall reap what it sowed. Victory is guaranteed to those who persevere.
Eskinder wrote in his Letter, “Individuals can be penalized, made to suffer (Oh, how I miss my child) and even killed. But democracy is a destiny of humanity which cannot be averted. It can be delayed but not defeated.”
Justice can be delayed, but not defeated. Criminals against humanity may sneer, thumb their noses and flip their middle fingers at Lady Justice, but they should beware what Lady Justice has in the hand not holding the scales. The end point of human history, the destiny of humanity, is freedom and democracy: freedom from oppression, freedom from the tyranny of ignorant thugs, freedom to enjoy one’s divinely ordained human rights, freedom to think, to create, to be free.
Eskinder pines for his son. “Oh, how I miss my child” he agonized. His son’s name is Nafkot, which means “to miss someone by separation”. How ironic and prophetic! Nafkot was born in Meles Zenawi Prison in Kality in 2005 when his parents were jailed there without cause and acquitted of all charges sixteen months later. The cruel and wicked Meles Zenawi personally ordered Nafkot be denied medical care as a “premie” (premature baby). The evidence of Meles’ involvement is incontrovertible. Meles was hell-bent on exacting revenge on Eskinder and Serkalem by causing the death of their days-old infant son. Meles wanted to see Eskinder and Serkalem totally crushed by witnessing the death of their child in prison. Meles was a sadist who enjoyed not only publicly humiliating his adversaries in public but also in inflicting extreme pain and suffering on them out of sight of the public. Those who knew him closely will testify to that. Eskinder and Sekalem later wrote their son Nafkot’s survival could only be explained as a divine miracle.
When the late Meles Zenawi was scheduled to speak at Columbia University in New York City in September 2010, Eskinder and his wife Serkalem (a renowned journalist in her own right and recipeint of Women’s Media Foundation 2012 Courage in Journalism Award) sent a letter to the university president in protest. They explained their opposition:
Severely underweight at birth because Serkalem’s physical and psychological privation in one of Africa’s worst prisons, an incubator was deemed life-saving to the new-born child by prison doctors; which was, in an act of incomprehensible vindictiveness, denied by the authorities. (The child nevertheless survived miraculously. Thanks to God.)
Shakespeare wrote, “The evil that men do lives after them…” One of innumerable evil deeds done by Meles lives to this day over two years after his death in the depraved inhumanity he showed to Eskinder, Serkalem and Nafkot. In his death, Meles remains the apotheosis of EVIL, a man who would stoop lower than a snake’s belly to destroy his opponents and get his personal revenge.
Eskinder and his family persevered by the grace of God. Meles did not escape the wrath of God. I am sure Eskinder would say, “Never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’” It is written the wrath of God will be visited on the decaying and crumbling Meles empire. I have no doubts Eskinder will reunite with his family, God willing.
Eskinder wrote in his Letter, “No less significant, absent trials and tribulations, democracy would be devoid of the soul that endows it with character and vitality. I accept my fate, even embrace it as serendipitous. I sleep in peace, even if only in the company of lice, behind bars. The same could not be said of my incarcerator though they sleep in warm beds, next to their wives, in their home.”
That was exactly how Nelson Mandela accepted his fate and persevered for 27 years in apartheid prisons. Like Mandela, Eskinder felt in free and at peace in prison. Eskinder, like Mandela, showed he has an unconquerable soul. Like Mandela, Eskinder’s head has been bloodied but is still unbowed. Eskinder is unafraid. Eskinder is the master of his own fate. Eskinder perseveres, as did Mandela, inspired by William Ernest Henley poem, “Invictus”:
Out of the night that covers me, /Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be/ For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance / I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance / My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears / Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years / Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate, / How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate: / I am the captain of my soul.

Vivat, ESKINDER, INVICTUS!

Eskinder wrote in his Letter, “The government has been able to lie in a court of law effortlessly as a function of the moral paucity of our politics. All the great crimes of history, lest we forget, have their genesis in the moral wilderness of their times.”
I know exactly what Eskinder is writing about. In my very first critique of the TPLF kangaroo justice system in 2006, I wrote a 32-page analysis titled, “Keystone Cops, Prosecutors and Judges in a Police State.” That piece was intended to be a critical analysis of the trial of the so-called Kality Defendants consisting of some 130 or so major opposition leaders, human rights advocates, civic society activists, journalists and others in the aftermath of the 2005 election. That TPLF show-trial was little more than a third-rate theatrical production staged to dupe the international community. That “court” was an elaborate hoax, a make-believe tribunal complete with hand-picked judges, trumped up charges, witless prosecutors, no procedures and predetermined outcomes set up to produce only one thing: a monumental miscarriage of justice.” The TPLF’s kangaroo/monkey court has not changed to this day.
That was what Eskinder meant when he wrote, “The government has been able to lie in a court of law…” A government of lies on the bench in kangaroo/monkey courts stringing Truth on the scaffold and human rights trashed by a government of wrongs, that is the present crisis in Ethiopia. In James Russell Lowell’s poem “The Present Crisis”, the Lie sits on the bench and Wrong on the throne:
When a deed is done for Freedom, through the broad earth’s aching breast
Runs a thrill of joy prophetic, trembling on from east to west,

Careless seems the great Avenger; history’s pages but record
One death-grapple in the darkness ‘twixt old systems and the Word;
Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne,—
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.
Thugs on the throne forever? Never!
Eskinder wrote in his Letter, “The mundane details of the case offer nothing substantive but what Christopher Hitchens once described as ‘a vortex of irrationality and nastiness.’ Suffice to say, that this is Ethiopia’s Dreyfus Affair. Only this time, the despondency of withering tyranny, not smutty bigotry, is at play.”
Eskinder was referring to Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a French Army General Staff officer who was falsely accused and found guilty of treason in a secret military court-martial in 1894. Émile Zola, the famed French author penned his famous open letter “J’accuse”, accusing the President of France and the French government of falsely convicting Dreyfus motivated by anti-Semitism. Dreyfus persevered and in the end was fully exonerated.
In time, Eskinder, like Captain Dreyfus, will also be exonerated. It will be shown that Eskinder was falsely convicted of treason by a “withering tyranny” choking on its own crimes against humanity.

Eskinder perseveres! J’accuse!

Eskinder wrote in his Letter, “… Stalinism in the [19]30s tortured you not to force you to reveal a secret, but to collude you in a fiction. This is also the basic rationale of the unfolding human rights crisis in Ethiopia. And the same 30s bravado that show-trials can somehow vindicate banal injustice pervades official thinking—wont to unlearn from history, we aptly repeat even its most brazen mistakes.”
Stalin once said the death of one man is a tragedy; the death of millions, a statistic. But Stalin did not kill millions of his people just by himself. Evil cannot occur without millions in silent or active collusion. Those who face Evil and say, “It’s none of my business”, are in collusion with Evil. Those who say business and the politics of justice don’t mix are in collusion with Evil. Those who are in denial of Evil are in collusion with Evil. Those who apologize for and justify evil are in collusion with Evil. Those who are willfully ignorant of Evil are in collusion with Evil. Those who live by the principle, “See no Evil, Hear no Evil, Speak no Evil” are in collusion with EVIL.
Eskinder wrote in his Letter, “Why should the rest of the world care? Horace said it best: mutate nomine detefabula narrator. ‘Change only the name and this story is also about you.’ Whenever justice suffers our common humanity suffers, too.”
Eskinder quotes Horace [Quintus Horatius Flaccus], one of the greatest Roman poets known for the audacity of his words. Eskinder echoes Pastor Martin Niemöller who expressed his outrage over the silence of German intellectuals following the Nazi rise to power. Niemoller asked the same question. Why should anyone care? Because YOU are next!
First they came for the communists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.
Then they came for the socialists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me.
Eskinder asks, “Why should the rest of the world care?” I ask, “Why should Ethiopians care about Eskinder, Reeyot and all of the other political prisoners?” Is there anyone left to speak for Eskinder, Reeyot and all of the political prisoners in the Meles Zenawi Prison Complex system?
I point my index finger at Ethiopian intellectuals for their silence, and some for their complicity and collusion, in the TPLF’s rise to power. J’accuse!
The heroes and she-roes long walk to freedom
Eskinder wrote in his Letter, “I will live to see the light at the end of the tunnel. It may or may not be a long wait. Whichever way events may go, I shall persevere!”
Prof. Joseph Campbell, the famed author of “The Power of Myth” and other original works, described the hero’s journey from light into darkness and back to light. It is an arduous journey of perseverance and endurance. The hero inhabits the ordinary world until he is beckoned to undertake a challenge, an adventure in an alien and uncharted world of mysterious powers and events. If the hero accepts the call, he is set to face trials and tribulations alone or with others in the mysterious world. He will face extreme challenges in his journey that tests his inner core. If the hero survives the challenge, he is rewarded with a great gift, a “boon”, of enlightenment and self-knowledge. The hero must then decide whether to return with this “boon” to the ordinary world. He will face many more challenges on the return journey. If the hero succeeds, he will have the opportunity to use the “boon” gifted to him to improve the world. Thus, Campbell wrote, “We’re not on our journey to save the world but to save ourselves. But in doing that you save the world. The influence of a vital person vitalizes.”
Such is the journey, the adventure, that Eskinder, Reeyot and the others are taking in the underworld of Meles Zenawi Prison. They will persevere and return to the world of light from the world of darkness with their bountiful “boon” to share with the rest of us. Perseverance is one of the “boons” they have sent to us ahead of their arrival from inside the belly of the beast known as Meles Zenawi Prison.
“I will live to see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Eskinder declared. Eskinder and his fellow prisoners of conscience will complete their long and arduous journey out of the world of darkness into a world of light. That is the foreordained destiny of all heroes and she-roes.
The TPLF’s war on Ethiopian journalists and bloggers is a war on truth itself. For the past 23 years, the TPLF has been the victor in all of the battles and skirmishes. But there will be a final decisive war between thugs who swing swords and brandish AK47s and enlightened journalists and bloggers who wield pens and computer keyboards. That war is and will continue to be waged in the hearts and minds of the Ethiopian people. I have no doubts whatsoever that the outcome of that war is foreordained. In fact, I believe that war has already been won. For as Edward Bulwer-Lytton penned in his verse, in the war between sword holders and pen holders, final victory always goes to the pen holders:
‘True, This! –
Beneath the rule of men entirely great,
The pen is mightier than the sword. Behold
The arch-enchanters wand! – itself a nothing! –
But taking sorcery from the master-hand
To paralyze the Caesars, and to strike
The loud earth breathless! – Take away the sword –
States can be saved without it!’

What perseverance means to me

I know many of my Ethiopian brothers and sisters are asking themselves, “How long must we struggle before we see the fruits of our labor?” I have asked myself, “How long…?” Others have asked me, “How long will you continue to write and speak truth to power and those who abuse power? Don’t you ever get tired?
There may be some in the Ethiopian human rights struggle who are ready to throw in the towel. They feel they are spinning their wheels. But I tell them, “Hold on! Hold on just a little while longer.” I tell them the struggle for freedom and democracy and against tyranny is a 26-mile marathon run, not a 100-meter sprint. In May 2011, I wrote a commentary entitled, “The Great Ethiopian Run to Freedom”. In that commentary, I tried to argue that Ethiopian human rights advocates and activists, opposition elements and others should develop the perseverance and endurance of our invincible long distance and marathon runners:
… The 10-kilometer run is just a down payment for a long and difficult Marathon for Freedom. That is why each one of us must develop the defining quality of the marathon runner: Endurance. As she pounds the pavement for miles, the distance runner knows the route to the finish line is long, grueling and hard. But she is prepared to give it her best and endure for the long haul. The marathon runner does not say, ‘It is too long, too difficult… I could never do it.’ He maintains a winner’s state of mind and never gives into self-pity and defeatism. He does not use his energy in bursts of speed, but in sustained steps and calculated spurts. The marathon runner has a plan to win and paces his every step along the way to achieve his goal. The distance runner does not allow herself to be overwhelmed by the miles she has yet to cover. She is committed and focused on the next milestone, the next hill and the next bend in the road until she reaches the finish line. Some of us would much prefer the race to be a quick sprint to the 10-kilometer finish line. We are discouraged and dispirited by the very thought of a long distance run. We are tired and ready to give up before taking the first step. But the Marathon to Freedom does not have a finish line. As Mandela said, “After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.”
That is what perseverance means to me, running the marathon and climbing one great hill only to find there are many more great hills to climb! We must keep on climbing until there are no more hills, no more mountains left to climb!

We won’t back down and WE WILL PERSEVERE! WE SHALL PREVAIL. WE SHALL OVERCOME!

My heart aches and breaks for my heroes and she-roes languishing in Meles Zenawi Prison. It breaks my heart thinking that Eskinder will face the menace of 18 years in prison in Meles Zenawi Prison. But I am heartened because Eskinder is unafraid; his head is unbowed. My heart aches at the thought of Reeyot spending her days and nights in place of wrath and tears known as the Meles Zenawi Prison. But I am uplifted by the thought that she would rather face whatever punishment her captors can dish out than surrender her dignity.
I celebrate and salute all the hero and she-ro political prisoners in Ethiopia. I celebrate them and thank them for their sacrifices; for inspiring me to persevere. They have strengthened my resolve; and they have and continue to revitalize me as I persevere to imitate their sacrifices. I can only imitate their courage, audacity, endurance, grit and fortitude. I can only aspire to their perseverance. I celebrate and salute them from the bottom of my aching and broken heart.
Eskinder wrote, “I shall persevere!” in deep philosophical tone. When I break it down into everyday language, I believe Eskinder meant exactly what Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers sang in their defiant lyrics in “I won’t back down”:
Well, I won’t back down/ No, I won’t back down
You can stand me up at the gates of hell/But I won’t back down
No, I’ll stand my ground, won’t be turned around
And I’ll keep this world from draggin’ me down
Gonna stand my ground and I won’t back down…

We won’t back down! We Will Stand Our Ground! WE SHALL PERSEVERE! WE SHALL PREVAIL! WE SHALL OVERCOME!

Wishing all of my readers throughout the world a Happy and Prosperous New Year… May the Force be with you in 2015!

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH ETHIOPIAN POLITICAL PRISONERS!

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Will you help free her husband? (Amnesty International UK)
A letter from Eskinder – By Girma Kassa
Martin Schibbye’s acceptance speech on behalf of Eskinder…

Source: Zehabesha