By Leenjiso Horo | November 2014
Note: In discussing the crimes that the Abyssinian regimes committed against the Oromo people, some Oromo individuals focus on just one story, one event, one decade or one era. Others take a broader view and try to cover it all, from the past to the present. Here, I only focus on the Tigrayan aspect of fascism as represented by Ras Mikael Sehul in the 18th century, Emperor Yohannes IV in the 19th century and Meles Zenawi in the 21st century. My aim here is to provide a synoptic sketch of the story of Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) fascism, its cruelty, savagery, and the genocide that it has been committing against the Oromo people since it seized political power in the Ethiopian empire in 1991.
As stated above, the substitution of the military dictatorship by the
cruelest fascist dictatorship of the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front
(TPLF) took place in 1991. With this, the evil of all times, the cruel
and savage beasts descended upon the empire. Then, Meles Zenawi with the
help of the Eritrean Liberation Front (EPLF), established the hegemony
of Tigrayan elites in the Ethiopian empire. Meles Zenawi was a
tyrannical terrorist, a monster of cruelty whose primary purpose was and
had been the destruction of Oromiyaa, the Oromo people and their
institutions. He showed unfit to lead the empire, favoring fascistic
rule and authoritarian despotism. His regime’s repressive action,
brutality and the extent of its cruelty and crimes committed against the
colonized peoples of the South have been unparalleled in the history of
the Ethiopian empire.
Many scholars have written that the first the seeds of fascism were planted in Italy and its variety – Nazism – in Germany. It was also in general agreement among scholars that the European Fascism was a rejection of the 1789 French Revolution and its slogan: “Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.” Its end was social justice; its means were to establish sovereignty of the people and to eliminate social, political and religious inequalities.
The concepts of these slogans have been defined as:
It is, therefore, clear that Fascism is the antithesis of liberty,
equality, fraternity, justice, liberation, democracy, dignity of the
people, and the right of nations to self-determination. Fascism is the
enemy of mankind and so is the TPLF fascism. The Oromo people have been
fighting a war against fascism for over a century. In this war against
the fascist regimes of Ethiopia, millions perished as victims of
fascism. Today, the Tigrayan fascist regime of TPLF is the most vicious,
the most savage, heinous, and the most destructive than all of its
predecessors combined. Its unique aspect of fascism is its aversion for
the colonized peoples of the South, particularly its strong hatred for
the Oromo people and its ruthless drive to attain and hold state power
and use of organized state violence to impose its views and will on the
others and to eliminate oppositions. Its plague of fascism, state
terrorism, torture, repression and mass murders are consuming the
population of the empire, and in particular the Oromo population. Its
forces of the secret police, death squads and its fascist militia –
Defense Force/Agazii, have been unleashing their terror against
the Oromo population. Agazii is and has been the licensed mass murderer
paramilitary organization of the TPLF.
The world community has seen many fascist regimes that sprout throughout history – the old and new fascist regimes. The new fascist regimes were/are the Third World fascists. The Third World fascist regimes had been sponsored by the powerful Western governments. Without the powerful external support, the Third World fascists cannot stand on their own, and so cannot the fascist regime of TPLF. For instance, it was under the disguise of the London “Peace” Conference, the governments of the United Kingdom and the United States sponsored TPLF and imposed it on the peoples of the empire. It is in this regard, Dr. Wondimu Mekonnen an academic and opposition figure to the Meles Zenawi regime in addressing the House of Common-UK has to say this:
Yesterday’s Third World fascist regimes, such as Augusto Pinochet of
Chile, Rafael Trujillo of Dominical Republic, Mohammed Suharto of
Indonesia, Mobutu Sese Seko of Democratic Republic of Congo (former
Zaire) and etc., were sponsored and supported by the West in the name of
the threat of Communism and socialism, but today’s fascist minority
Tigrayan regime is sponsored, supported, financed, trained, armed and
legitimized by the Western governments in name of the threat of
“terrorism,” even though there has never ever been a trace of terrorism
in the Ethiopian empire. There are no terrorists in the Ethiopian
empire; the only terrorist is the fascist TPLF regime. During the
previous Ethiopian regimes, Ethiopia had been categorized as ‘the prison
house of nations and nationalities.’ Today, the Tigrayan fascist regime
has turned that ‘prison house’ into the genocide chamber of colonized nations and nationalities.
Here, the Tigrayan fascist regime is efficiently and effectively hiding
from the world communities the genocide it has been and is committing
by insulating itself in its friendly relation with the world’s big
powers.
Furthermore, the TPLF fascist regime has suffocated the peoples in the empire by controlling every means. It controls all powers – legislative, executive and judiciary as well as other institutions, such as the banks, insurance companies, transportation, industries, import and export, land, telecommunications, including mass media, and so on.
Their difference is, while European fascists intertwined religion with the state, the Tigrayan fascist lacks the support of religious institutions. Hence, it has been and is unable to intertwine religious institutions with its fascist state. However, despite its failures it has been attempting to divide Christians as well as Muslims for this purpose. Again while, the Europeans fascists were independently developed, TPLF fascist is created by foreign powers to serve their national interests. The European fascists were dependents on and protectors of their local corporations, while the Tigrayan regime of TPLF solely depends on and serves the Multinational Corporations and serves the interests of powerful governments. Hence, the TPLF fascist regime is a dependent one; it cannot stand on its own, without the support of external powers. The European fascist had local public support, while the Tigrayan fascist of TPLF has no public support. The goal of European fascists was to acquire more empires, while the TPLF is to maintain the already existing empire. The aim of the European fascists were to dominate the world and plunder the world resources, while the aim of the Tigrayan fascist regime is and has been to dominate the peoples of the empire, loot, plunder and plague their country.
The Tigrayan fascism has a lengthy history, it extends back to Ras Mikael Sehul of the 18th century and Emperor Yohannes IV of the 19th century. Both sowed seeds of fascism to which Meles Zenawi and his TPLF are heirs or inheritors. Authoritarianism, hero-worship, justification of political violence, insatiable lust to commit crimes against humanity, coalesce behind a single individual and a single fascist organization are in their culture. Looking at these, it seems nothing is un-Tigrayan. At the end of the 18th century, a Tigrayan warlord Ras Mikael Sehul rose to power in Tigray. Later Emperor Iyoas-I summoned him to Gondar and appointed him “Ederase”/Governor General of Gondar. Ras Mikael Sehul went to Gondar with his huge Agazii army as the TPLF did in 1991. It was said Ras Mikael Sehul was a cruel man with fascistic orientation. As soon as he got the position of ‘Enderase-ship,’ it has been said that Ras Mikael Sehul played a game of political intrigues and conspiracy against the emperor. Then, he deposed the emperor and arranged his murder; executed emperor’s supporters, relatives and associates. Using his power as “Enderase”, he was said to have enthroned a prince to succeed him as Emperor Yohannes-II. Shortly after, again Ras Mikael Sehul murdered the new emperor, too. Then, he enthroned a third one as emperor. Following this, he filled all political offices with his own families, relatives, associates, cronies and all in all with Tigrayans. He became the leader of Amhara-Tigrayan against Yejjuu Oromo. Having become leader, he declared war on Yejjuu Oromo in Wollo. He raided and burned down Oromo villages after villages, massacred, men, women, children and their supporters with aggravating cruelty cutting off their fingers and pulling out their eyes.
In the war with Yejju Oromo, Ras Mikael Sehul was said to have killed Oromo prisoners of war and then peeled their skins off; made the skins into sacks; then he filled those sacks with straw and displayed in public to be seen in Gondar. His purpose was to establish himself as the incontestable leader through the creation of fear in the minds of public and to force the nobility to accept him as such a leader. It was said his action shocked and terrorized the whole population; terrified the nobility – who were already humiliated by him. The public reaction was against what “Enderase” Mikael Sehul wished for. The terrified Yejju Oromo, Amhara, and the nobility united and rebelled against him and fought him. In the fight, his Agazii army was defeated. Ras Mikael Sehul was captured, stripped off his “Enderase-ship,”, was chained on his hands and legs, and then was imprisoned. He died in 1771 at the age of 88 in prison. It was in this way, ‘Enderase’ Mikael Sehul, a power-hungry monster whom absolute power had corrupted absolutely, finally destroyed. And the same fate is waiting for the neo-fascist Tigrayan elites.
After the elapse of 101 years, in 1872, another Tigrayan fascist – named Kasa Marsha, crowned himself as Emperor Yohannes IV. It was said, he was a zealot, deeply fanatic religious man. It was said he made a declaration that all Muslims to be converted to Christian; build churches and pay tithes. He was said to have used “force, fire, and sword” to eliminate Oromo Muslims and Waqeftaa in Wollo unless they were converted to Christianity. Following the declaration, many Wollo Oromo were forced to go to the nearby Churches and baptized. Those who refused, their hands, noises, tongues, ears, and breasts were cut off, and the rest were massacred. Others were escaped to the areas off search by Yohannes’ rule to Arsii, Jimma, Sudan, and as far as Tanzanian. Those who escaped to Sudan organized themselves and fought back the army of Emperor Yohannes IV at the battle of Metema with the logistical support of the Mahdist of Sudan. In the fight, the heroic Oromo nationals who were driven from their homeland – Wollo – killed the Emperor and cut off his head. The cutting off the head was a revenge. The Abyssinians never tell the true history. Always, they twist history and tell lies as history. The Mahdists had never fought Abyssinia because they were already involved in two wars – one with the British colonialist and the other with Egypt, and so they did not have manpower to fight a third one with the Abyssinia. And so, the Mahdists were not willing to open a third war with Abyssinia.
Again after the elapse of another 102 years, another Tigrayan neo-fascist Meles Zenawi and his TPLF, appeared on the scene of history in the empire with more sharpened and refined cruelty than their predecessors. It is a rebirth of radical contemporary Tigrayan fascism in the era of globalization. It is the new type of Third World fascist regime supported by the global big powers.
Meles Zenawi was said to have been obsessed with the exercise of power and in the domination of others as his Tigrayan predecessors – Ras Mikael Sehul and Emperor Yohannes IV. First, he established a monolithic political structure. He filled the structure with the Tigrayans and his fabricated satellite “Peoples’ Democratic Organizations” (PDOs) that comply with and conform to his policies. In this structure, he left very little room for the free and open discussion or debate of competing ideas even within his own PDOs and none at all for the expression of social or political discontent from without. Then, he unleashed unbridled terrorization, repression, and violence against the Oromo people and the others who questioned his policies. He projected his power through political confinement, imprisonment, intimidation, harassment, and violence against the legal oppositions.
Here is the very fact that one should not overlook. It is the role of the “Oromo People’s Democratic Organization” (OPDO) in the Tigrayan regime’s crime against the Oromo people and Oromiyaa. In 1989, OPDO was created by Meles Zenawi from the captured soldiers of military regime while they were fighting in Eritrea and Tigray, and then organized them as a foot soldiers to lead the Tigrayan fascist army into Oromiyaa. It had received a thorough indoctrination in the TPLF’s political supremacy. Two years later, in 1991, OPDO led the TPLF into Oromiyaa. In Oromiyaa, it led the fascist army into villages, districts, towns, cities, rural areas and wide countryside. Hence, without OPDO’s accomplice, collaboration, aid and abet, there would have been no Meles Zenawi’s fascist army ever set its foot on the soil of Oromiyaa. And it goes without saying that without OPDO’s collaboration with TPLF regime, there would have been no genocide against the Oromo people, no land-grab, no murder, no violence and no “Finfinnee/Addis Ababa Master Plan” that evicted millions of Oromo farmers from their lands. It is the OPDO that helped TPLF to turn Oromiyaa into a free land to be grabbed – a free-for-all, but Oromo – evicting the Oromo population. It is the OPDO that has been evicting the Oromo people from their land at the order of the Tigrayan regime. OPDO has been and is TPLF’s foot soldier for the occupation of Oromiyaa and its instrument of the arrest, torture and killings and disappearances of Oromo men, women and children. All in all, its members have been and are recruited, manipulated, organized and trained into the role of killers, informants, infiltrators, and messengers to serve the interest of Tigrayan regime of TPLF.
Now, Meles Zenawi – a little madman who was obsessed with the destruction of Oromo in order to reduce them to minority, is finally dead, but his organization, the instrument he put in place – the TPLF, still remains and is carrying forward his policy of annihilation of the Oromo people and peoples of the South. Here, it must be understood that the TPLF fascist regime, as all fascist regimes before it, views political life in Darwinian terms, as a struggle for survival in which the strong triumph and dominate over the weak. Hence, TPLF believes that the survival, right, and justice begins by force, violence and intimidation. For this, it has deployed massive number of repressive police, secret agents, and military force in Oromiyaa and the rest of South against the population. The daily arrest, detention, and kidnappings of old and young are its nature of rule. In order to cover up its genocide of the Oromo people and the crimes against humanity, it has been controlling information through organized television, radio, newspapers and other propaganda machines. For over twenty four years now, the Ethiopian empire has witnessed the crimes of this fascist regime.
Moreover, TPLF is a client and a puppet regime of the powerful governments and multinational global Corporations. It is for this, those governments chose to be silent while the genocide is going on. It is clear to the peoples of the empire that, behind the Western’s silence, the fascist TPLF regime is a client and puppet of the West that has been engaged in the worst crimes known to man, from mass-murder to torture and genocide. Hence, the ugly realty behind the mirror is those governments to which the Tigrayan regime of the TPLF is a puppet are knowingly and purposefully keeping silent about the violent crimes, atrocities and genocide that their puppet – the TPLF, has been committing against the Oromo, Sidama, Ogadeni, Gambela, Benishangul-Gumuz, Afar and Anuak peoples.
Furthermore, ordinary men and women have been seized at their farmlands, in market places or going along road; at homes, and at work places and children have been seized from schools and playgrounds and gagged to prisons. Hundreds of thousands of them have been tortured, mutilated, and crippled; tens of thousands have been murdered; millions have been disappeared without trace of their whereabouts. The exiles have been hunted and kidnapped while in transit through neighboring countries; the refugees in the neighboring countries have been kidnapped with the accomplice of officials of the countries – countries, such as Yemen, Kenya, Sudan and Djibouti imprisoned, tortured and murdered. Indeed, the TPLF is a regime with insatiable passion and lust to torture, rape, murder men, women and children. As the world silently observes, the Oromo students at Ambo, Haramya, Bulehora, Madda-Walaabu, Jimma, Adama, Arbaa-Minch, Naqamte and other Universities; and student in High and Elementary schools have been slaughtered in tens of thousands by the Tigrayan regime of TPLF. These actions are integral part of committing genocide.
Genocide is defined by the UN as any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
For instance, the capital city of the U.S.A. is Washington, DC; Canada – Ottawa; Australia – Canberra; New Zealand – Wellington and Ethiopia – Addis Ababa/Finfinnee. The settler colonizers are in majority in all these countries, except in Oromiyaa. They brought the colonized people near to extinction in U.S.A., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Today, the fascist Tigrayan regime of TPLF is applying every means available to it to bring the Oromo people to extinction or near extinction. Settler colonizer is characterized by relationships of exploitation, domination and subjugation that become woven throughout the fabric of colonized society. Moreover, the intrinsic nature of settler colonialism is the structural destruction of the colonized society. The objective of settler colonialism is and always has been the appropriation of territories and resources, and the elimination of the colonized population. Hence, the successive Abyssinia colonial regimes have been engaged in the appropriation of Oromiyaa lands, its resources, and the structural destruction of the Oromo people.
Today, the Tigrayan regime of TPLF has evicted millions from their lands and the lands have been grabbed. Those who opposed and criticized its action have been mowed down, jailed, and forced into exile. The others have been forced into silence. Lakes and rivers have been poisoned.
Environment has been under destruction. At the same time, the Tigrayan officials, individuals, and their associates and henchmen have amassed enormous amount of riches, while throwing the people of the empire into abject poverty. The grabbing of lands and thievery of the resources of Oromiyaa and others have encouraged the TPLF regime to fabricate the story of the miracle of economic development, while at the same time millions of families with their children have been perished from hunger and starvation and more millions are still at risk. With the TPLF created hunger, tens of thousands of mothers have been died while holding their hungry children in their arms. Children have been dying in the arms of their mothers. Usually, infants are found alive in the arms of their dead mothers. Oftentimes, hungry mothers and children die in each other’s arms. Not only these, mothers have become beggars in the streets holding their babies in their arms. These are the consequence of the eviction of millions of farmers from their farmlands and the grab of their lands. The scheme of eviction and land grab are an integral part of the TPLF’s policy of annihilation of the Oromo, Sidama, Ogadeni, Anuak and others peoples of the South.
Such are TPLF’s economic “development.” In a nutshell, its claim of “development” is a modernization of poverty, hunger; and a modernization of genocide and repressive violence.
It means a few Tigrayan individuals have the right to control and use the national economy against the will of the peoples of the empire. A few oligopolies like Midroc Corporation, Sunshine Corporation, EFFORT, Guna Corporation, African Insurance, and etc. dominate, and a few individuals control enormous fortunes. These individuals have unlimited means for taking away from the people their daily bread and robbing their lands and natural resources.
For instance, the Endowment Fund for rehabilitation of Tigray (EFFORT) has a net worth of US$40 billion. Individuals like Mohammed Al Amoudi has net worth of US$10 billion; the late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi had a net worth of US $3 billion; his wife Aseb Mesfin has a net worth of US$4 billion; Sebhat Nega – US$2 billion; Berhane Gebrekristos – US$2 billion; Abay Tsehay – US$2 billion; Seyoum Mesfin – US$1.8 billion; Samuel Tafesse – US$1.6 billion; Omer Ali Shifaw – US$500 million; Eyob Mamo – US$500 million; Suhura Ismail Khan – US$200 million (source Ethiopian Review, 2013). These are the individuals who have been and still are shamelessly looting the country.
Furthermore, Dr. Wondimu Mekonnen, an academic and opposition figure to the Meles Zenawi regime, addressing the House of Commons-UK has to say this: “I have got a copy of a cheque signed by Semhal Meles Zenawi, the daughter of Meles Zenawi himself, depositing in one of the New York banks $5 billion. I have got and I will give you the copy. Don’t ask me how it came into our possession but that is a fact” (debirhan, July 26, 2013). Here is the deposited check produced.
This makes it clear that through committing genocide against the Oromo, Ogadeni, Anuak, Sidama, Benishangul-Gumuz, and Afar and other peoples, the TPLF fascist regime laid its hands on Oromiyaa, Ogaden, Gembela, Sidama, Benishangul-Gumuz, Afar and their resources. This has been followed with the robbery, stealing, vandalizing and embezzling of the resources and the treasuries. This is what the TPLF has been doing since it came to power. Its members, its associates, and their children have been and still are showering themselves with the wealth of colonized peoples while the colonized people are thrown into abject poverty, starvation and death. Today, more than ever before, the Oromo people and other peoples in the empire are living in miserable conditions under the fascist Tigrayan regime of the TPLF. It is time to stop the TPLF’s robbery of resources, its eviction of farmers from their farmlands and its land-grab; its sale and lease of land; and its slaughter, torture, cruelty, persecution and annihilation of men, women, and children. Now, the TPLF fascism has reached the ultimate stage of its murderous insanity. It is a threat to all. For this, it is time for the peoples of the empire to make a common cause against this genocidal fascist regime of TPLF in order to liquidate it.
Oromiyaa Shall Be Free!
* Leenjiso Horo: tguyyoo@yahoo.com
=>gadaa
Note: In discussing the crimes that the Abyssinian regimes committed against the Oromo people, some Oromo individuals focus on just one story, one event, one decade or one era. Others take a broader view and try to cover it all, from the past to the present. Here, I only focus on the Tigrayan aspect of fascism as represented by Ras Mikael Sehul in the 18th century, Emperor Yohannes IV in the 19th century and Meles Zenawi in the 21st century. My aim here is to provide a synoptic sketch of the story of Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) fascism, its cruelty, savagery, and the genocide that it has been committing against the Oromo people since it seized political power in the Ethiopian empire in 1991.
Fascism of Meles Zenawi and his regime
With the end of the military dictatorial rule in 1991, an era of liberty seemed at hand, at least in the minds of some people. The belief was that ‘Wayyaanee’ would be “lesser evil” than the military dictatorial rule. However, it was an illusion. The illusion was soon shattered. The Tigrayan elites immediately degenerated into barbarism. Their barbarism paved the way for fascism. In 1991, it was the Soviet Union backed military dictatorship that was replaced by the British and American sponsored and backed Meles Zenawi and his organization, the TPLF. Meles Zenawi was a fascist and the head of the fascist organization. With the sponsorship of the American and British governments, the Ethiopian empire fell under the terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary and the most chauvinist Tigrayan elites. Initially, these elites came to the empire concealing their core fascistic political aims and beliefs behind the U.S. government public pronouncement of “No democracy, no cooperation” at the London Conference. Hence, it was in the name of “No democracy, no cooperation” that the Tigrayan thugs and terrorist elites were imposed on the peoples of the empire from abroad. These elites have been and still are the root of evils, foe of freedom, justice, and human dignity. They are the corruptor of democracy; the liars in the mask of democracy. Simply put, these elites hide their evil policy of genocide against the Oromo people and the peoples of the South in the shadow of democracy. As soon as it came to the grip of power, the pronouncement: “No democracy, no cooperation” was abandoned and the rule of gun took over the empire. With this, Meles Zenawi established his regime – a regime that owns its legitimacy not to the peoples of the empire, but to its foreign sponsors and supporters, and to money and violence. Having established his regime, Meles Zenawi and his Tigrayan elites made a political choice for controlling the Ethiopian empire with a categorical rejection of democracy. With this, they resorted to force, violence and intimidation as a way to gain more and more power. In Oromiyaa, they selectively launched campaigns of terror and violence against the Oromo population. In the violence, tens of thousands of Oromo men, women, and children have been murdered. Thousands have been tortured, disappeared and more than a million forced into exile. With this, a full-fledged fascism arrived in the Ethiopian empire. And the peoples of the empire fell under the iron fist of a fascist authoritarian tyranny of the Tigrayan regime of the TPLF. Contrary to all fascisms before it, Meles Zenawi’s fascism masked itself with the rhetoric of “democracy” and “federalism” during its rise to power. Empire “democratization” or “ethnic federalization” is the philosophy of political failure. Empire cannot be democratized nor federalized. In this regard Dr. Galina Balashova, a senior Research Fellow at the Institute for African Studies, has to say this:
“On a background of close
connections of Meles Zenawi with the West and his declarative adherence
to principles of the Western democracy the authoritarian model of
domination of one political party and one leader was generated in the
country. This political system the observers call as ethnocracy, meaning
the domination of northerners’ ethnic groups – Tigray and fictitious
nature of the Ethiopian federalism.”
Many scholars have written that the first the seeds of fascism were planted in Italy and its variety – Nazism – in Germany. It was also in general agreement among scholars that the European Fascism was a rejection of the 1789 French Revolution and its slogan: “Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.” Its end was social justice; its means were to establish sovereignty of the people and to eliminate social, political and religious inequalities.
The concepts of these slogans have been defined as:
- Liberty from the
oppressive government interventions in the daily lives of its citizens,
from illicit searches and seizures, from enforced religious values, from
intimidation and arrest for dissenters; and liberty to cast a vote in a
system in which the majority ruled but the minority retained certain
inalienable rights; liberty to decide one’s own destiny.
- Equality in the sense
of civic equality, egalitarianism, the notion that while people differ,
they all should stand equal in the eyes of the law.
- Fraternity in the sense
of the universal brotherhood and sisterhood of That all women and men,
the old and the young, the sick and the healthy, the rich and the poor,
share a spark of humanity that must be cherished on a level above that
of the law, and that binds humanity all together in a manner that
continuously re-affirms and celebrate life.
The world community has seen many fascist regimes that sprout throughout history – the old and new fascist regimes. The new fascist regimes were/are the Third World fascists. The Third World fascist regimes had been sponsored by the powerful Western governments. Without the powerful external support, the Third World fascists cannot stand on their own, and so cannot the fascist regime of TPLF. For instance, it was under the disguise of the London “Peace” Conference, the governments of the United Kingdom and the United States sponsored TPLF and imposed it on the peoples of the empire. It is in this regard, Dr. Wondimu Mekonnen an academic and opposition figure to the Meles Zenawi regime in addressing the House of Common-UK has to say this:
“Ethiopians” (read the peoples of the Ethiopian empire)
“are determined to get rid of these human rights abusers. All we ask
the United Kingdom and United States is not stand on our way, by
financing and sustaining it to exist. A regime that terrorises its
people cannot be an ally against terrorism. I know that, the Ethiopian
Regime is playing the Chinese card. This is blackmailing. Just abandon
it. Trust us. It will collapse. If you, particularly, the British
Government, take the right action now, you will remain with friends and
trustworthy allies forever – the people of Ethiopia” (debirhan, July 26, 2013).
Furthermore, the TPLF fascist regime has suffocated the peoples in the empire by controlling every means. It controls all powers – legislative, executive and judiciary as well as other institutions, such as the banks, insurance companies, transportation, industries, import and export, land, telecommunications, including mass media, and so on.
The origin of TPLF’s fascism
It is important to know something about historical background of Tigrayan fascism. TPLF’s fascism is a blend of the twentieth century European fascism with Tigrayan new and old fascism. This means TPLF fascism encapsulates the characteristics of twentieth century European fascism with its own blend. The characteristics that it shares with European fascists are: the absoluteness of the state, supremacy of the army, unlimited power of the police; merging of executive, legislative and judiciary; control of financial institution and Mass Media, cronyism and corruption; uncontested charismatic single leader; terror, wholesale mass destruction; sham election; disdain for human rights, freedom of speech, press and assembly.Their difference is, while European fascists intertwined religion with the state, the Tigrayan fascist lacks the support of religious institutions. Hence, it has been and is unable to intertwine religious institutions with its fascist state. However, despite its failures it has been attempting to divide Christians as well as Muslims for this purpose. Again while, the Europeans fascists were independently developed, TPLF fascist is created by foreign powers to serve their national interests. The European fascists were dependents on and protectors of their local corporations, while the Tigrayan regime of TPLF solely depends on and serves the Multinational Corporations and serves the interests of powerful governments. Hence, the TPLF fascist regime is a dependent one; it cannot stand on its own, without the support of external powers. The European fascist had local public support, while the Tigrayan fascist of TPLF has no public support. The goal of European fascists was to acquire more empires, while the TPLF is to maintain the already existing empire. The aim of the European fascists were to dominate the world and plunder the world resources, while the aim of the Tigrayan fascist regime is and has been to dominate the peoples of the empire, loot, plunder and plague their country.
The Tigrayan fascism has a lengthy history, it extends back to Ras Mikael Sehul of the 18th century and Emperor Yohannes IV of the 19th century. Both sowed seeds of fascism to which Meles Zenawi and his TPLF are heirs or inheritors. Authoritarianism, hero-worship, justification of political violence, insatiable lust to commit crimes against humanity, coalesce behind a single individual and a single fascist organization are in their culture. Looking at these, it seems nothing is un-Tigrayan. At the end of the 18th century, a Tigrayan warlord Ras Mikael Sehul rose to power in Tigray. Later Emperor Iyoas-I summoned him to Gondar and appointed him “Ederase”/Governor General of Gondar. Ras Mikael Sehul went to Gondar with his huge Agazii army as the TPLF did in 1991. It was said Ras Mikael Sehul was a cruel man with fascistic orientation. As soon as he got the position of ‘Enderase-ship,’ it has been said that Ras Mikael Sehul played a game of political intrigues and conspiracy against the emperor. Then, he deposed the emperor and arranged his murder; executed emperor’s supporters, relatives and associates. Using his power as “Enderase”, he was said to have enthroned a prince to succeed him as Emperor Yohannes-II. Shortly after, again Ras Mikael Sehul murdered the new emperor, too. Then, he enthroned a third one as emperor. Following this, he filled all political offices with his own families, relatives, associates, cronies and all in all with Tigrayans. He became the leader of Amhara-Tigrayan against Yejjuu Oromo. Having become leader, he declared war on Yejjuu Oromo in Wollo. He raided and burned down Oromo villages after villages, massacred, men, women, children and their supporters with aggravating cruelty cutting off their fingers and pulling out their eyes.
In the war with Yejju Oromo, Ras Mikael Sehul was said to have killed Oromo prisoners of war and then peeled their skins off; made the skins into sacks; then he filled those sacks with straw and displayed in public to be seen in Gondar. His purpose was to establish himself as the incontestable leader through the creation of fear in the minds of public and to force the nobility to accept him as such a leader. It was said his action shocked and terrorized the whole population; terrified the nobility – who were already humiliated by him. The public reaction was against what “Enderase” Mikael Sehul wished for. The terrified Yejju Oromo, Amhara, and the nobility united and rebelled against him and fought him. In the fight, his Agazii army was defeated. Ras Mikael Sehul was captured, stripped off his “Enderase-ship,”, was chained on his hands and legs, and then was imprisoned. He died in 1771 at the age of 88 in prison. It was in this way, ‘Enderase’ Mikael Sehul, a power-hungry monster whom absolute power had corrupted absolutely, finally destroyed. And the same fate is waiting for the neo-fascist Tigrayan elites.
After the elapse of 101 years, in 1872, another Tigrayan fascist – named Kasa Marsha, crowned himself as Emperor Yohannes IV. It was said, he was a zealot, deeply fanatic religious man. It was said he made a declaration that all Muslims to be converted to Christian; build churches and pay tithes. He was said to have used “force, fire, and sword” to eliminate Oromo Muslims and Waqeftaa in Wollo unless they were converted to Christianity. Following the declaration, many Wollo Oromo were forced to go to the nearby Churches and baptized. Those who refused, their hands, noises, tongues, ears, and breasts were cut off, and the rest were massacred. Others were escaped to the areas off search by Yohannes’ rule to Arsii, Jimma, Sudan, and as far as Tanzanian. Those who escaped to Sudan organized themselves and fought back the army of Emperor Yohannes IV at the battle of Metema with the logistical support of the Mahdist of Sudan. In the fight, the heroic Oromo nationals who were driven from their homeland – Wollo – killed the Emperor and cut off his head. The cutting off the head was a revenge. The Abyssinians never tell the true history. Always, they twist history and tell lies as history. The Mahdists had never fought Abyssinia because they were already involved in two wars – one with the British colonialist and the other with Egypt, and so they did not have manpower to fight a third one with the Abyssinia. And so, the Mahdists were not willing to open a third war with Abyssinia.
Again after the elapse of another 102 years, another Tigrayan neo-fascist Meles Zenawi and his TPLF, appeared on the scene of history in the empire with more sharpened and refined cruelty than their predecessors. It is a rebirth of radical contemporary Tigrayan fascism in the era of globalization. It is the new type of Third World fascist regime supported by the global big powers.
Meles Zenawi was said to have been obsessed with the exercise of power and in the domination of others as his Tigrayan predecessors – Ras Mikael Sehul and Emperor Yohannes IV. First, he established a monolithic political structure. He filled the structure with the Tigrayans and his fabricated satellite “Peoples’ Democratic Organizations” (PDOs) that comply with and conform to his policies. In this structure, he left very little room for the free and open discussion or debate of competing ideas even within his own PDOs and none at all for the expression of social or political discontent from without. Then, he unleashed unbridled terrorization, repression, and violence against the Oromo people and the others who questioned his policies. He projected his power through political confinement, imprisonment, intimidation, harassment, and violence against the legal oppositions.
Here is the very fact that one should not overlook. It is the role of the “Oromo People’s Democratic Organization” (OPDO) in the Tigrayan regime’s crime against the Oromo people and Oromiyaa. In 1989, OPDO was created by Meles Zenawi from the captured soldiers of military regime while they were fighting in Eritrea and Tigray, and then organized them as a foot soldiers to lead the Tigrayan fascist army into Oromiyaa. It had received a thorough indoctrination in the TPLF’s political supremacy. Two years later, in 1991, OPDO led the TPLF into Oromiyaa. In Oromiyaa, it led the fascist army into villages, districts, towns, cities, rural areas and wide countryside. Hence, without OPDO’s accomplice, collaboration, aid and abet, there would have been no Meles Zenawi’s fascist army ever set its foot on the soil of Oromiyaa. And it goes without saying that without OPDO’s collaboration with TPLF regime, there would have been no genocide against the Oromo people, no land-grab, no murder, no violence and no “Finfinnee/Addis Ababa Master Plan” that evicted millions of Oromo farmers from their lands. It is the OPDO that helped TPLF to turn Oromiyaa into a free land to be grabbed – a free-for-all, but Oromo – evicting the Oromo population. It is the OPDO that has been evicting the Oromo people from their land at the order of the Tigrayan regime. OPDO has been and is TPLF’s foot soldier for the occupation of Oromiyaa and its instrument of the arrest, torture and killings and disappearances of Oromo men, women and children. All in all, its members have been and are recruited, manipulated, organized and trained into the role of killers, informants, infiltrators, and messengers to serve the interest of Tigrayan regime of TPLF.
Now, Meles Zenawi – a little madman who was obsessed with the destruction of Oromo in order to reduce them to minority, is finally dead, but his organization, the instrument he put in place – the TPLF, still remains and is carrying forward his policy of annihilation of the Oromo people and peoples of the South. Here, it must be understood that the TPLF fascist regime, as all fascist regimes before it, views political life in Darwinian terms, as a struggle for survival in which the strong triumph and dominate over the weak. Hence, TPLF believes that the survival, right, and justice begins by force, violence and intimidation. For this, it has deployed massive number of repressive police, secret agents, and military force in Oromiyaa and the rest of South against the population. The daily arrest, detention, and kidnappings of old and young are its nature of rule. In order to cover up its genocide of the Oromo people and the crimes against humanity, it has been controlling information through organized television, radio, newspapers and other propaganda machines. For over twenty four years now, the Ethiopian empire has witnessed the crimes of this fascist regime.
Moreover, TPLF is a client and a puppet regime of the powerful governments and multinational global Corporations. It is for this, those governments chose to be silent while the genocide is going on. It is clear to the peoples of the empire that, behind the Western’s silence, the fascist TPLF regime is a client and puppet of the West that has been engaged in the worst crimes known to man, from mass-murder to torture and genocide. Hence, the ugly realty behind the mirror is those governments to which the Tigrayan regime of the TPLF is a puppet are knowingly and purposefully keeping silent about the violent crimes, atrocities and genocide that their puppet – the TPLF, has been committing against the Oromo, Sidama, Ogadeni, Gambela, Benishangul-Gumuz, Afar and Anuak peoples.
TPLF’s fascist policy of Sterilization as genocide
Recently, the TPLF regime has entered into agreement with South Korea to help it in the sterilization of the colonized people of the south. Sterilization is meant a biological deprivation of a population off the ability to produce offspring. The purpose is to sterilize female population of child-bearing age or women of reproductive age in Ethiopia. It is a medical means of genocide of a future generation. It is a medical extermination of the unborn. In this case, the intent is to destroy the Oromo society. It means the interruption of the continuity of a generations. If the current Oromo generation of the fertility age is sterilized, this generation will not have a new generation to replace it. This leads to the population size to diminish over time. It goes without saying that the inability to produce offspring virtually makes that a majority will become a minority in the future. Meles Zenawi, the architect of this plan, put it this way pointing his finger at the Oromo: “The majority can become a minority.” Moreover, Meles Zenawi was reported to have made his last words to his colleagues who were at the side of his deathbed: “Comrades, this is my last words to you. Be alert; remain vigilant; the enemy is watching you quietly; never take your eyes off Oromo. Never let Oromo to know your weakness. They are the most dangerous enemy to you. I have done my part in keeping them in check; now it is yours to do your part. Above all else: strengthen our army and security; never let them become weak; they are your shield and protector.” With these words, it has been said that he breathed his last breath and gone forever. His successor, PM Haile Mariam Desalegn, is now implementing the policy. Consequently, today the pace, the scale, and the intensity of kidnappings, arresting, and killings of the Oromo school children by the TPLF regime are unparalleled in the history of the empire.Furthermore, ordinary men and women have been seized at their farmlands, in market places or going along road; at homes, and at work places and children have been seized from schools and playgrounds and gagged to prisons. Hundreds of thousands of them have been tortured, mutilated, and crippled; tens of thousands have been murdered; millions have been disappeared without trace of their whereabouts. The exiles have been hunted and kidnapped while in transit through neighboring countries; the refugees in the neighboring countries have been kidnapped with the accomplice of officials of the countries – countries, such as Yemen, Kenya, Sudan and Djibouti imprisoned, tortured and murdered. Indeed, the TPLF is a regime with insatiable passion and lust to torture, rape, murder men, women and children. As the world silently observes, the Oromo students at Ambo, Haramya, Bulehora, Madda-Walaabu, Jimma, Adama, Arbaa-Minch, Naqamte and other Universities; and student in High and Elementary schools have been slaughtered in tens of thousands by the Tigrayan regime of TPLF. These actions are integral part of committing genocide.
Genocide is defined by the UN as any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
- Killing members of the group;
- Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
- Deliberately inflicting
on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical
destruction in whole or in part;
- Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
- Forcibly transferring children of the group to another
The foreign governments do not care about the people so long as their
national interests are served. They do not pay attention to the plight
of people even if they are obliterated from the surface of the Earth.
Today, as the Tigrayan regime of TPLF mows down thousands of Oromo
schools children, university students and civilians, the United Kingdom
and the United States governments that sponsored it to seize power did
not raise their voices in protest. They failed to raise their voices in
protest because the TPLF regime is their creation, and hence, their
loyal puppet. There is no moral and political justification not to speak
out against the genocide and the crimes against humanity that their
client – the TPLF has been committing against the peoples of the South,
including the Oromo people. Indeed, there is no moral justification in
supporting, financing, training, and arming the fascist regime. The TPLF
has marked the Oromo people for extermination. In this regard, Dan
Brown has to write this: “History is always written by the winners. When
the two cultures clash, the loser is obliterated, and the winner writes
the history books – books which glorify their own cause and disparage
the conquered foe. By its nature, history is always one-sided
account.” Such are the genocidal crimes committed against the Oromo
people. Since the conquest of Oromiyaa, the successive Abyssinian
colonialist regimes have been obliterating the Oromo people, their
history, their institutions, their language and their culture from the
history books while at the same time glorifying their own greatness, the
superiority of their culture and language and the glory of their
dictators, kings, queens and institutions.Ethiopia: A Settler Colonial Empire
Here, we must distinguish the nature of Ethiopian colonialism from European colonialism. Ethiopian colonialism is a settler colonialism. This means the invaders obtain the land and maintain it as their own territory. On the contrary, the European primary goal in Africa, Asia and Latin America was in search of raw resources to feed their industries in their motherland. Settler colonialism requires the elimination of the owners of the territory. Then, settlers establish settler-colonial state. This was what happened in U.S.A., Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Oromiyaa. The capital cities of European colonizers were in their mother countries, while the capital cities of settler colonizers are and has been located in the centers of the colonized countries.For instance, the capital city of the U.S.A. is Washington, DC; Canada – Ottawa; Australia – Canberra; New Zealand – Wellington and Ethiopia – Addis Ababa/Finfinnee. The settler colonizers are in majority in all these countries, except in Oromiyaa. They brought the colonized people near to extinction in U.S.A., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Today, the fascist Tigrayan regime of TPLF is applying every means available to it to bring the Oromo people to extinction or near extinction. Settler colonizer is characterized by relationships of exploitation, domination and subjugation that become woven throughout the fabric of colonized society. Moreover, the intrinsic nature of settler colonialism is the structural destruction of the colonized society. The objective of settler colonialism is and always has been the appropriation of territories and resources, and the elimination of the colonized population. Hence, the successive Abyssinia colonial regimes have been engaged in the appropriation of Oromiyaa lands, its resources, and the structural destruction of the Oromo people.
Today, the Tigrayan regime of TPLF has evicted millions from their lands and the lands have been grabbed. Those who opposed and criticized its action have been mowed down, jailed, and forced into exile. The others have been forced into silence. Lakes and rivers have been poisoned.
Environment has been under destruction. At the same time, the Tigrayan officials, individuals, and their associates and henchmen have amassed enormous amount of riches, while throwing the people of the empire into abject poverty. The grabbing of lands and thievery of the resources of Oromiyaa and others have encouraged the TPLF regime to fabricate the story of the miracle of economic development, while at the same time millions of families with their children have been perished from hunger and starvation and more millions are still at risk. With the TPLF created hunger, tens of thousands of mothers have been died while holding their hungry children in their arms. Children have been dying in the arms of their mothers. Usually, infants are found alive in the arms of their dead mothers. Oftentimes, hungry mothers and children die in each other’s arms. Not only these, mothers have become beggars in the streets holding their babies in their arms. These are the consequence of the eviction of millions of farmers from their farmlands and the grab of their lands. The scheme of eviction and land grab are an integral part of the TPLF’s policy of annihilation of the Oromo, Sidama, Ogadeni, Anuak and others peoples of the South.
Such are TPLF’s economic “development.” In a nutshell, its claim of “development” is a modernization of poverty, hunger; and a modernization of genocide and repressive violence.
It means a few Tigrayan individuals have the right to control and use the national economy against the will of the peoples of the empire. A few oligopolies like Midroc Corporation, Sunshine Corporation, EFFORT, Guna Corporation, African Insurance, and etc. dominate, and a few individuals control enormous fortunes. These individuals have unlimited means for taking away from the people their daily bread and robbing their lands and natural resources.
For instance, the Endowment Fund for rehabilitation of Tigray (EFFORT) has a net worth of US$40 billion. Individuals like Mohammed Al Amoudi has net worth of US$10 billion; the late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi had a net worth of US $3 billion; his wife Aseb Mesfin has a net worth of US$4 billion; Sebhat Nega – US$2 billion; Berhane Gebrekristos – US$2 billion; Abay Tsehay – US$2 billion; Seyoum Mesfin – US$1.8 billion; Samuel Tafesse – US$1.6 billion; Omer Ali Shifaw – US$500 million; Eyob Mamo – US$500 million; Suhura Ismail Khan – US$200 million (source Ethiopian Review, 2013). These are the individuals who have been and still are shamelessly looting the country.
Furthermore, Dr. Wondimu Mekonnen, an academic and opposition figure to the Meles Zenawi regime, addressing the House of Commons-UK has to say this: “I have got a copy of a cheque signed by Semhal Meles Zenawi, the daughter of Meles Zenawi himself, depositing in one of the New York banks $5 billion. I have got and I will give you the copy. Don’t ask me how it came into our possession but that is a fact” (debirhan, July 26, 2013). Here is the deposited check produced.
This makes it clear that through committing genocide against the Oromo, Ogadeni, Anuak, Sidama, Benishangul-Gumuz, and Afar and other peoples, the TPLF fascist regime laid its hands on Oromiyaa, Ogaden, Gembela, Sidama, Benishangul-Gumuz, Afar and their resources. This has been followed with the robbery, stealing, vandalizing and embezzling of the resources and the treasuries. This is what the TPLF has been doing since it came to power. Its members, its associates, and their children have been and still are showering themselves with the wealth of colonized peoples while the colonized people are thrown into abject poverty, starvation and death. Today, more than ever before, the Oromo people and other peoples in the empire are living in miserable conditions under the fascist Tigrayan regime of the TPLF. It is time to stop the TPLF’s robbery of resources, its eviction of farmers from their farmlands and its land-grab; its sale and lease of land; and its slaughter, torture, cruelty, persecution and annihilation of men, women, and children. Now, the TPLF fascism has reached the ultimate stage of its murderous insanity. It is a threat to all. For this, it is time for the peoples of the empire to make a common cause against this genocidal fascist regime of TPLF in order to liquidate it.
Oromiyaa Shall Be Free!
* Leenjiso Horo: tguyyoo@yahoo.com
=>gadaa
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