The chairman of Blue Party, Mr. Yilkal Getnet, held a meeting with Ethiopians at the East York Civic Center, Toronto this past Saturday, July 9, 2016. The meeting is the second of his briefings since he arrived in Toronto. This particular meeting is considered by many very crucial for it discusses in length current situations and policy issues.

The Chairman has analyzed the nature of the EPRDF regime in order to enable the audience to understand the political environment in which opposition parties are operating. Understanding the legal and political context, he explained, would be essential to choose an appropriate strategy for the political struggle. He further discussed the contradictions that are inherent in the regime which are the major reasons for its undemocratic nature. According to his explanations, the EPRDF has a dual contradictions juxtaposed in its ideology. On the one hand the policy documents clearly state the government has a federal system which decentralized power to lower level of administrative units. On the other hand the regime has a party structure which is based on “democratic Centralism” where decisions are taken by the central Committee of the party and implemented by all government structures. What has been decentralized by the constitution in the state structure to empower the nations, nationalities and peoples is in reality centralized by the party through its various member and allied parties. Therefore, federalism and decentralization are election and propaganda rhetoric than a means of administrative structure.

The other form of excessive centralization is an apparent asymmetry in power sharing among the member parties. All the power of EPRDF has long been concentrated in the single dominant party -TPLF. “Majority rule, minority rights” the maxims of democratic principles is reversed in the case of EPRDF. The minority is ruling the majority. Therefore, a minority rule can’t be democratic. One of the problems in Ethiopian democratic transformation is the existence of minority power elite who would like to continue to rule with undemocratic means.

The other major contradiction rocking the party is political opportunism. Several times party officials have repeatedly said EPRDF is working based on benefit or utility. The constitution has clauses stating any constituent unit which thinks that the federation is not beneficial can leave the federation without any conditions. The concept stated in articles that contains secession is one example. There are no elements like shared culture that would unite the whole country. This opportunism and the fight against corruption are other bedeviling contradictions of the system. EPRDF recruited its members based on opportunistic economic benefits. Both the party and the government are staffed by corrupt officials. As a result the fight against corruption has become very difficult, if not impossible.

The current spate of corruption and its pervading dangers to the survival of the regime has been admitted by the regime. A study conducted by the regime itself showed how the system is plagued by corruption. The paradox is the party perpetuates the problem rather than developing solutions to cure it. The government doesn’t have the political will to fight corruption because it may undo its existence. Therefore, admitting corruption and promising to fight is used as a strategy to extend its hold on power.

On election, the chairman also outlined the challenges of participating in sham elections in Ethiopia. Election, as an instrument of establishing a democratic government, has to be free and fair to represent the will of the people. Blue party believes the election environment has to be free and fair to have a democratic representation. Before holding elections we should reform the electoral system to ensure an independent election board, media, or generally a level playing political field to all parties participating in elections. Bothdomestic and international observers should be easily accredited to monitor elections freely. Without all these prerequisites, holding free and fair election cannot be imagined.

Answering the question from the participants who asked about going to an election whose result is a forgone conclusion and the appropriateness of peaceful struggles, he explains at length the available options that Ethiopians have at hand for regime change. He explained stressing the fact that in the absence of an independent election board, media and other democratic institutions, there would not be change through election. Nonetheless participating in elections would expose the nature of the government and allow raising the consciousness of the people. Therefore, through prolonged popular struggle the government can be changed. Peaceful struggle is the only means that could guarantee effective and less destructive transition from dictatorship to democracy. He once again affirmed his party’s commitment to peaceful struggle.

Mr. Yilkal also answered questions concerning the recent conflict within in the party.  The party audit commission has complained about an alleged misuse of money and requested the chairman and other party officials to be audited. Party officials agreed and sat with the audit commissions to discuss the issue. The discipline committee had suspended some of the party officials from the party. The suspension was presented to the Audit commission, which is the higher decision making organ which appoints members of the discipline committee. The Audit commission has reversed the decision of the Commission. Now the situation is resolved and all are working together. He also said although the conflict distracted the party from its struggle for a short time, the lessons taken from the incident are important for the party’s continued existence. The process also showed democratic struggles within the party.

On liberalism and group rights the chairman took time to explain the position of Blue party in these important but often ignored facts. While the party believes in individual rights, given the existence of various groups in Ethiopia, the party also takes group rights seriously. He noted that respect for individual right would ensure group rights. Individual and group rights are not mutually exclusive. Language or cultural rights are also embodiments of individual rights.

The Blue party is the only party in Ethiopia that officially states in its documents that Ethiopia needs at least two official languages, children’s have to learn by their first languages, and individual and group rights have to be respected equally. On economic freedom, the chair os Semayawi said, any Ethiopian has a constitutional right to own and administer his or her land, land must belong to the citizen, not to the State and the role of the government should be reduced to maintaining law and order. He noted that Blue party is a center right party which reconciles individual and group demands amenably.

On the formation of coalition and making an alliance, the chairman mentioned the attempts made to form alliances. He affirmed that the party is willing to make an alliance based on mutual respect and common interest. There were initial attempts to form coalition for elections. Although short-lived, the experience gained was invaluable and the party is still in the process of making such coalitions. On Oromo protests, Yilkal said the party has issued a press statement condemning the killing of Oromos and called upon the government to show restraint.

The organizer of the event, Mr. Essayas Teshome, Head of Unity for Human Rights  and Democracy and Activist Tekle Abebe, the moderator of the discussion have called the participants to actively get involved in matters concerning human rights and national issues. They urged the participant to continue to help the families of all political prisoners. The discussion was a successful one in terms of the support it gained in promoting human rights in Ethiopia.

Mr. Yilkal Getnet arrived in Canada for work visit on June 28, 2016. His tour was organized by the Toronto-based Human Rights advocate, Unity for Human Rights and Democracy. Mr. Yilkal will have panel discussions in Ottawa (July 13), Buffalo, New York (July 15) and Vancouver (July 16). He will also meet Members of Parliament and officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Canada. Mr. Yilkal met and have had productive conversations with Ethiopians at the 33^rd ESFNA event in Toronto.

ESAT breaking news Gonder Uprising Latest July 12,2016

Jerusalem Post

Latest reports reflect that the Jewish Agency emissaries are safe and sound in the Gondar airport, waiting for flight out.

 

ESAT Breaking News Gonder Update July 13 2016

ESAT Breaking News Gonder Update July 14, 2016

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Cornel Demeke Zewdie might have been handed to over to the Tigray police

By: Asress Mulugeta

Ethnic-federalism as governing system had been implemented and tested in the former Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. But it has lead all of them to violent disintegration. The real reason for the failure ethnic federalism in those countries was not economic or lack of democracy. It was simply because of the manipulation of ethnic relations by the regional, ethnic elites and/or external forces. This shows how ethnic-federalism is destined to fail. Lack of democracy and unfair share of resources among ethnic groups are the other main factors that fuel ethnicization, ethnic conflicts and eventual disintegration of a country.

One of the core principles instituted by the post-1991 government in Ethiopia that took power after a successful armed struggle was ethnic-based federalism. In this model, the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF, with its core the Tigray People’s Liberation Front or TPLF) implemented in Ethiopia a federal system based on ethno-linguistically defined regions and a strict “ethnicization” policy. Since then, Ethiopia is the only country in the world that uses ethnicity as the fundamental organizing principle of a federal system of government. There are around 20 countries in the world that implement federal system of government but none of them use ethnicity as the fundamental organizing principle of their federal system. Many African countries are not willing to implement ethnic federalism fearing that it reinforces tribalism. In contrast to Ethiopia, the federalism system that is implemented in some western countries such as Canada, Switzerland and Belgium usually categorised as multinational which don’t promote ethnicity as the chief instrument of state organization and mobilization. However, in Ethiopia not only the territorial boundaries are drawn in a way that maximizes ethnic homogeneity but also ethno-linguistic identity has been considered as the key instrument in social mobilization and political party formation in the country.

Ethiopia’s adoption in 1991 of the ethno-linguistic identity as the basis of the politics in the new federal state is explained by the need for the ethno-regional insurgent movements, present among an important number of Ethiopian population groups in 1991,  to come to shared political agenda to address the perceived or real ‘’ ethnic grievances’’. For the last 25 years, the ethno-regional minority from Tigray has ruled the large, diverse country without any secure ethnic allies. This has been accompanied by a tortuous and to many people painful rhetoric of ethnicization that declared Ethiopians first and for most a member of ‘’their ethnic group’’ and only second as Ethiopian citizens.

As a result of the strict “ethnicization” policy coupled with utterly undemocratic nature of the EPRDF government, ‘ethnicization’ of socio-economic disputes are increasing exponentially all over Ethiopia. The ramifications of this misguided ethnic policy have already claimed thousands of human lives in the last two decades. There have been several massacres, and ethnic cleansing that have taken place throughout the country. In 1991, thousands of innocent Amhara massacred in Bedeno, Arba gugu, Dedessa, Harrar and Wollega.  In December 2003, hundreds of Anuak civilians massacred in Gambella and many others raped, beaten, tortured and harassed. In 2012 and 2013, hundreds of thousands of poor farmers of Amhara ethnic group were forcefully evicted from the Benishangul-Gumuz, Gambela and the southern part of Ethiopia. In 2015 and 2016, more than 500 Oromo people massacred. People in Ogaden have been constantly killed, terrorized, abducted and detained. The ethnic tension is growing in Wolkite and Tegede areas. There is a frequent ethnic conflict between the Konso and Derashe people of Southern Ethiopia.

Today, Ethiopia is the most ethnically divided country in the world. Ethnic hatred, propaganda and tensions are the highest ever in history. Just like the 1990s Rwanda, tribalism has destroyed Ethiopian nationalism and humanity. No single Ethiopian, whether rich or poor, educated or not, feel that he has a country to live together in peace and harmony with others. There is serious rivalry among the ethnic groups over issues such as fair share of the nation’s resources and political power. Of course, no one is to be blamed for all of this except the EPRDF government.

Instead of learning from the ex-Yugoslavia to foresee the future and work on political reforms, EPRDF as a party has kept persuading Ethiopians that its ethno-linguistic federalism system will empower tribes without dividing Ethiopians. However, the fact on the ground is different. The misguided ethnicization policy and EPRDF’s failure to promote political reform is further fuelling the ‘’growing discontent with the TPLF’s ethnically defined state and rigid grip on power and fears of continued inter-ethnic conflict. Unless the political elites in the country start working on political reform to diffuse ethnicization in the country, the possibility of a violent ethnic conflict and the eventual disintegration of the country is about to happen.

High Tension in Gondar: Coronel Demeke transferred to Angereb prison

A spectre is haunting America- the spectre of Trumpism.

Just days after two rogue policemen executed two African American citizens and a lone gunman assassinated 5 Dallas police officers and wounded 7 more, Donald Trump attempted to politicize  the tragedy by calling himself  the “law and order candidate”. Trump proclaimed:

We must maintain law and order at the highest level, or we will cease to have a country, 100 percent. We will cease to have a country. I am the law and order candidate.”

Trump attacked Hillary Clinton as “weak, ineffective, pandering, and as proven by her recent email scandal, which was an embarrassment not only to her, but to the entire nation as a whole, she’s either a liar or grossly incompetent.  One or the other. Very simple. Personally, it’s probably both.

I have heard the “law and order” trope (dog whistle) many times before.

Senator Barry Goldwater introduced the phrase in his 1964 nomination acceptance  speech:  “We Republicans seek a government that attends to its inherent responsibilities of maintaining … and enforcing law and order.”

In his 1968 acceptance  speech, Richard Nixon contextualized the phrase:

When the nation with the greatest tradition of the rule of law is plagued by unprecedented lawlessness; When a nation that has been known for a century for equality of opportunity is torn by unprecedented racial violence; and when the President of the United States cannot travel abroad or to any major city at home without fear of a hostile demonstration — then it’s time for new leadership for the United States of America… And to those who say that law and order is the code word for racism, there and here is a reply:  Our goal is justice for every American. If we are to have respect for law in America, we must have laws that deserve respect.

After Nixon became president, the phrase was translated into direct violent police action against civil rights advocates, hippies, student and anti-war activists.

Ronald Reagan also stressed the theme of law and order in his 1964 speech.

After Reagan became president in 1981, the “law” became appointment of tough conservative judges and “order” became more prisons. The number of prisoners tripled from 500,000 in 1980 to 1.5 million in 1994.

When Trump talks about “law and order”, what does he mean exactly?

When Trump says “Make America Great”, what does he mean exactly?

Who is responsible for making America not-so-great such that Trump is needed to make America great, again? Those who flout “law and order”?

Trump subsequently said he expects more racial confrontations during the summer: “It’s time for our hostility against our police, and against all members of law enforcement, to end, and end immediately, right now… I mean, you were having big, big trouble in many cities. And I think that might be just the beginning for this summer.”

I find it disturbing that Trump should use the tired old “law and order” dog whistle after the murder of 5 police officers and wounding of 7 others.

I find it disturbing because that phrase has  often been used to spread fear and smear about African Americans as criminals who must be subdued only through crushing police power.

But I consider Trump’s use of the “law and order” in the context of Trump’s other racially, ethnically and religiously inflammatory statements.

Trump has promised to ban all Muslims from entering the U.S. if he became president.

Trump has promised to build a wall to keep Mexicans out, many of whom he considered rapists and violent criminals, “and some, I assume, are good people.”

A little over a week ago, Trump tweeted a reprehensible graphic aimed at demonizing Hillary Clinton by insulting, caricaturing and stereotyping an entire religious group.

Next week, Donald Trump will be coronated as the official presidential candidate of the Republican Party.

The spectre of Trumpism haunting America

Four score and four years ago, Trumpism by another name took power in Germany under the banner of a crooked cross called “Hakenkreuz” (swastika).  The Hakenkreuz symbolized the rise of the Übermensch (the Aryan superman).

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal,” proclaimed Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address. The slaves became free.

In 2016, neo-fascism is raising its ugly head and wagging its forked tongue spitting out the venom of racism, xenophobia, sexism, misogyny, alarmism, atavism and antisemitism in America.

In my December 2015 commentary, I voiced my deep consternation over the “Rise of the Trump-aryans!” and Donald Trump’s rhetorical exhortations to “make America great” by creating the Aryan State of Trump or Trump-aryana.

Now, seven months later, my alarm has morphed into total horror as Donald Trump becomes the official presidential nominee of the “Republican Party”  this weekend.

I confess I do not know which republicans in the Republican Party Trump represents.

If the “Republican Party” Trump purports to represent is the Party of Abe Lincoln, I can only say, “Abe Lincoln is rolling in his grave with Trump at the helm of the party he helped establish.”  (Is it possible that Trump could be the end of the Republican Party as Lincoln was its beginning?)

If the “Republican Party” Trump purports to represent is the party of conservatives, then Trump could not possibly be that type of republican because he has total contempt for conservatism and conservative values. Trump presents himself as the anti-establishment republican republican with his vulgar populism and protectionism and ambitions to patch together white working class democrats and disaffected republicans to capture the White House.

Many stalwart establishment-republicans have repudiated the anti-establishment republican republican Trump.

Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential candidate, recently said a Trump presidency would mean “trickle down racism and trickle down bigotry and trickle down misogyny — all of these things are extraordinarily dangerous to the heart and character of America.”

Right on cue, Trump tweeted his bigotry in a picture depicting Hillary Clinton with a large six-pointed Jewish Star of David against a backdrop of $100 bills with the words “most corrupt candidate ever.”

Trump’s twitter depiction of Hillary was straight out of the RMVP (Reich (NAZI) Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda).

It was totally outrageous.

In Nazi Germany, Jewish people were forced to wear images of the Star of David to identify themselves as Untermeschen (sub-humans).

The Nazis propagated the most vicious and wicked lies and caricatures  about Jews using insidious cultural and political images and stereotypes. Jews were depicted as an “alien race” that “sucked the blood” of the German (Aryan) nation, poisoned its culture, dominated its economy and exploited and controlled the society.

The Nazis used posters[1], newspapers, films and radio programs to demonize, dehumanize and propagate venomous lies. The fact was Jewish ghettos throughout Europe during and prior to WW II were places of abject poverty.

Soon enough, the Nazis added to their disapproved list of  Untermenschen Roma (Gypsies), gays, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and others they considered physically and mentally disabled  persons unfit to live in the Aryan vaterland (fatherland).

In September 1935, the Nazis enacted their Reich Citizenship Law stripping Jews of their German citizenship and creating “Reich citizens” (with full political rights) and “nationals” who are mere subjects without rights.

There are only two differences between Nazism and Trumpism.

The Nazis promoted an ideology of  “Lebensraum” (living space) in which they justified waging wars of national territorial expansion into Eastern Europe and beyond as a national existential necessity for the physical and moral well-being of the German people.

The Nazi Generalplan Ost (GPO; Master Plan East) sought to create a living space for Aryan Germans by deporting, exterminating and enslaving the Untermenschen Polish, Ukrainian, Russian and other Slavic populations.

Donald Trump wants to build a wall to protect the American vaterland from the Mexican and other Untermenschen of the world.

Trump wants to deport, expel, intern or drive out and use any means necessary to cleanse Trump-aryana from the Untermenschen of Mexico, Latin America, Africa and Asia. Ethnic cleansing in Trump-aryana?!

Trump proudly declared, “I will build a great wall — and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me –and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.”

I have no idea what the second difference is between Trumpism and Nazism.

When Nazism was on the rise in the 1920s, “American [journalists] meeting Hitler [were] saying, ‘This guy is a clown. He’s like a caricature of himself.’ And a lot of them went through this whole litany about how even if Hitler got into a position of power, other German politicians would somehow be able to control him. A lot of German politicians believed this themselves.”

Less than a year ago, the political pundits said the Republican Party was using Trump “as a clown to attract more voters for GOP.” Trump was the butt of all jokes, “It is possible to take him seriously and also remember he’s a clown. Yes, he’s a dangerous clown. He’s a clown with a knife, but at the end of the day, he’s still a f–ing clown.”

The underestimated and mocked clown is now dangerously eyeing the American presidency. The question now is not who is the clown, but who is the fool who underestimated the clown.

It is said those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler came to power through elections. Those who champion American democracy, with all of its imperfections, should take serious lesson in the way they exercise their democratic rights in choosing  their next president.

The Nazis seized power through a nationalist propaganda of making Germany “great” and Germany “first” and redeeming Germany from the humiliation of WW I. They appealed to a population that was economically and psychologically devastated in its WW I defeat.

Trump’s propaganda theme and his vision of “making America great” and redemption of American global hegemony feeds on global conspiracies and exploitation of  discontent and anger of those who feel marginalized and impoverished by local and international forces.

Is there a lesson in Trump’s triumphalism for immigrants making their home in America.

What do the Untermenschen immigrants in America think Donald Trump will do to them after he says, “I, Donald Trump, do solemnly swear…”?

In the first 100 days, Trump will begin construction of a wall and watchtowers between the U.S. and Mexico. He has made his position on Mexico and Mexicans crystal clear. They are rapists and criminals “and some, I assume, are good people,” said Trump.

In the first 100 days, Trump will issue an executive order for the “total and complete shutdown” of  Muslims from entering the U.S.

In the first 100 days, trump will “rip up” all existing free trade agreements and declare a trade war on China.

In the first 100 days, Trump will repeal Obama’s Affordable Care Act because it has been a “total disaster”.

In the first 100 days, Trump will impose “law and order”.

But who, including Trump, knows?

Trump said, “When I’m president, I’m a different person. I can be the most politically correct person you’ve ever seen.”

Does that mean he does not mean what he says and says what he does not mean?

Donald Trump believes he can mobilize disaffected White voters  by exploiting their fears and prejudices. He believes all Whites are closet racists and that he can awaken some sort of latent racism in them on November 8, 2016 and  have them deliver to him the White House on a silver platter.

Trump’s strategy is to stoke the anger of certain white voters so that they will come out in massive numbers to vote for him and offset the demographic shifts in the United States that have handed Democrats electoral victories in the last two presidential elections. He thinks he can best accomplish that by spreading fear and loathing (Islamophobia) against Muslims and undocumented immigrants (xenophobia) and exploiting the racial fault line.

The so-called establishment Republicans who underestimated “Bozo the Clown Donald” and remained silent as he rose to capture their Party’s nomination have learned a hard lesson: Clown with a “clown” at your own peril.

Immigrant Americans who underestimate the “clown” will be clowning with their own future.

“Now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of their country.”

REGISTER TO VOTE, NOW!

[1] Nazi WWII German-produced Russian Anti-Semetic propaganda poster. Poster reads: “Jews – A People of Contagion” with a Jewish stereotype-caricature counting money on a mound of skulls. The poster is marked “Russ.ofs.d/1943-230917” .

Associated Press |

ESAT Daily News Amsterdam July 18, 2016 Ethiopia

ESAT Interview with Welkait-Tegede Committee Member July 19 , 2016 Ethiopia

This is article is meant for Ethiopians to remind them to learn lessons from the Rwandan genocide. Some might think that such kind of scenario will never happen in Ethiopia. But just think about it: who thought that a country called Somalia with one language, one ethnic group and one religion would so rapidly fall apart and be a failed state for two decades? Who would have thought that the former Yugoslavia would disintegrate and result in the kind of genocide and ethnic cleaning we have seen in the heart of Europe, sending many leaders to the international criminal court? Who would have thought that South Sudan, which had its independence in 2011, after decades of war, would descend to a civil war that is causing the death and displacement of hundreds of thousands of South Sudanese? Who would have thought that Muammar Gadhafi would be overthrown in such a swift and brutal way and the country plunging into civil war and becoming the breeding ground of terrorists like ISIS, an evil that slaughtered many innocent young Ethiopian migrants?  And the list can go on.

Let me tell you a first hand story about the genocide in Rwanda just to remind you, though I know that you have read and heard about it and you may have watched the movie Hotel Rwanda.  In 1994, in the month of August I received a call from Ellen Sirleaf Johnson (current president of Liberia) who was then the UNDP Africa Bureau Chief. I was asked if I would be willing to head a UN emergency coordinating team to Rwanda. I accepted the offer.

That was just a few weeks after the genocide, the greatest mass murder since the holocaust, of close to one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus ended and the Rwandan Patriotic Front had just entered victoriously to Kigali. I had never been to Rwanda before. Flying over Rwanda is an incredible experience.  The scenery does not seem real. It is a beautiful country, a country of mountains as it is called in French (mille collines) and looks as if a green carpet has been plastered over the thousands of mountains with beautiful well-structured villages.  But being inside Rwanda at that time would give one a very eerie experience that one would never forget.

I had come to a country where in the last 100 days (April 6 to July 16, 1994) an estimated 800,000 to I, 000,000 Tutsis and some moderate Hutus were slaughtered; between 250,000 to 400,000 women raped (67% of these were later infected with HIV); etc. The statistics on the number of survivors, orphans, disabled people, widows etc. are staggering.   There are two major ‘ethnic’ groups in Rwanda Hutus composing of 84% and Tutsis 15% and  the rest Twas, the pygmy population who comprise around 1%.

Though the two groups are one culturally and linguistically united people, they had a very brutal past. The genocide was a culmination of accumulated hatred by the majority Hutus towards the minority Tutsis; hatred and mistrust that had its roots in the Belgian colonial era.  In 1860, a certain British officer by the name of John Hanning Speke:

 “declared that all culture and civilization had been introduced by the taller sharper featured people who he considered Caucasians from the Horn of Africa, Ethiopians” and I may add perhaps the Oromos in particular. He considered Ethiopians to be of “Caucasian origin, descendent   from the biblical King David and therefore superior race to the Negros.” Of course this is not substantiated neither by history nor by science and therefore considered either oral history or just a legend. (I however don’t wish to make this subject of discussion since the intention of this article is to look into the genocide and the lessons that can be learnt). Such a contorted categorization of Africans was a convenient way for Europeans to divide and rule, in this case, by creating the illusion that Tutsi blood was more like them than was the Hutus. We see the same pattern in South Africa apartheid system where the whites were classified as first class citizens and the coloreds (half casts) who were to be the closest to the whites and therefore treated better as second class and the Indians who, though they are black, have sharper features third class and the   black Africans came last in the ladder of categorization of South Africans and rights and privileges distributed in that order.

In Rwanda this categorization resulted in the complete marginalization of the majority during the colonial period.  By the end of the Belgian presence in Rwanda in 1959, “forty three chiefs out of forty five were Tutsis as well as 549 sub-chiefs out of 559” in a country where peoples’ lives and land holding system were controlled by chiefs.  The result was a political and economic monopoly by the minority ethnic group. The college enrollments for example was:

1932 forty-five Tutsi and 9 Hutus

1945 forty-six Tutsi and three Hutu;

1954 sixty three Tutsi and 19 including 13 from Burundi

1959 two hundred seventy nine Tutsi and 143 Hutu.

Obtaining secondary education for Hutus was very difficult and even those who got the education had difficulty getting employment. This resulted in the creation of a special Rwandese Tutsi minority elites that controlled the lives of the majority and who believed in the Belgian and the Tutsi contorted history that made the Tutsis very different from the Hutus, a superior race narrative, which eventually was embedded into the minds of Tutsis for which they eventually paid a very dear price.  The Hutus who were denied everything they had prior to the coming of the colonialists and repeatedly told they were inferior to the Tutsis, began to hate all Tutsis. “The time bomb was set and it was now only a question of when it would go off …Rwanda was not a land of peace and bucolic harmony before the arrival of the Europeans (but) there is no trace in its pre-colonial history of systematic violence between Tutsi and Hutu as such…. ideas and myths can kill, and their manipulation by elite leaders for their own material and power interest  does not change the fact that in order to operate they first have to be implanted in the souls of men.”  (Gerard Prunier, the Rwanda Crisis.) Tutsis started a movement for independence and this angered the Belgians who quickly changed sides and replaced the Tutsi chiefs by Hutus.  When Hutu leaders got this power they started settling scores and in 1959 killed over 100,000 Tutsis. A huge number of Tutsis fled to neighboring Uganda, Zaire and Burundi.  It was by these refugees that the Rwandan Patriotic Front was established.

In 1994 the RPF, had intensified the war and was closing in Rwanda.  Radio des Milles Collines  (RTLM) financed by the government launched its program of hate and extermination just after the Arusha Accord. When the president was returning from Arusha, his plane was struck and he was killed. That incident triggered the genocide though the preparation to eliminate the Tutsis had been going on for quiet sometime.  A highly educated Rwandese professor, Ferdinand Nahimana was heading the radio programs. It was full of vitriolic propaganda of hate and clear messages for Hutu extremists to go out and kill.  The radio was sending out messages that Tutsis were controlling everything and seeking supremacy and this evil and injustice perpetuated by  this minority group can “be cured only by their total extermination” calling them hyenas, snakes, cockroaches, etc. It was hateful, dehumanizing, and designed to incite the people to rise up and kill Tutsis, capitalizing on the years of oppression that Hutus have endured under the real or perceived, direct and indirect control of a minority that only represented 15% of the population. It was not a spontaneous uprising. It was an uprising that had been in the making since the Habermanya government took over (the last government before the genocide). But the root of the problem goes back to the colonial period.

Many of the killers believed the Tutsis were evil people who have taken everything for themselves and treated the majority as second-class citizens and therefore deserve to be eradicated.   Children wee not spared according to Radio Milles Collines “”you must also kill the rat in gestation; it will grow up to be a rat, like the others.”

They used languages too graphic to repeat (if interested read Hate as a Contagion: the Role of Media in the Rwandan Genocide by Maria Armoudian).  Hutus were killed for helping the fleeing Tutsis because, according to the media they were “inyenzi’ cockroaches. Rwandan Hutus were called to rise up and finish the Tutsi once and for all. They were told to use knives, machetes and clubs.

The first few weeks in Kigali were extremely traumatizing for me. Though the RPF had been there for a month and cleaned up the city as much as it can, there were still bodies littered on the outskirts of the city   and roadblocks that have not yet been cleaned up, road blocks made of human corpses. We could see bodies floating on river Kivu though thousands had already been swept away down stream, ‘to Ethiopia’ as their killers stated when they threw them in to the river. One church was still full of corpses, with over 700 Tutsis who had run to the church hoping to get protection.  The churches all over Rwanda had been the traditional sanctuary for these deeply religious people but on this occasion they became the convenient place where they were killed in mass.   Many churches have been used as killing fields because there were a large concentration of frightened people in one small area.  In one case over 2000 people had sought refuge in the largest Catholic Church Saint Famille and all of them were killed after the parish priest handed them over to their killers. Apparently he was a supporter of the Hutu extremists.  The Ntarama church, where I saw over 700 corpses, has now been turned over to a genocide museum. At the time I arrived there were still some dogs feasting on human corpses and RPF had to go after stray dogs and shoot them.

Prior to the genocide, Rwanda had come a long way where it had become sometimes difficult to make a distinction between a Tutsi and a Hutu. There were many instances where Tutsis were mistaken for Hutus and spared from being killed. Moderate Hutus were killed because of their association to the Tutsis and because they did not want to be part of the killing machinery that was being put in place.

During the first days after the president’s plane was hit, on 6 April 1994, the ‘interhamwey’ (Hutu militia) started systematically killing Tutsis and Hutu moderates in the villages and neighborhoods by imposing curfews and roadblocks.  “The roadblocks and barriers were staffed by soldiers and gendarmerie on the main roads, while communal police, civil self-defense forces, and volunteers guarded others. Together, they successfully stemmed the flight of victims who tried to escape the genocide. Anyone who tried to hide was tracked down by search patrols that scoured the neighborhoods, checking in ceilings, cupboards, latrines, fields, under beds, in car trunks, under dead bodies, in bushes, swamps, forests, rivers, and islands. By April 11, after barely five days, the Rwandan army, interahamwe, and party militias had killed 20,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu” (OAU May 2000).

In villages where both Tutsis and Hutus were living together people knew who was who and therefore identifying the Tutsi was not difficult.  But in the towns and particularly in Kigali, the business and political capital, where people did not know each other, identification was difficult. The roadblocks were the key locations where many were massacred. Fleeing people were asked their ID cards.  Tutsis were automatically hacked to death and those who don’t have ID cards were killed as well including Hutus who were suspected of being moderate or associated with Tutsis.  In Rwanda of those times all ID cards had to show the ethnic group one belongs to.

Jean Kambanda, Prime Minister of Rwanda during the months of the genocide, pleaded guilty to genocide and admitted that “he ordered the setting up of roadblocks with the knowledge that these roadblocks were used to identify Tutsi for elimination” and that he participated in the distribution of arms knowing that these would be used in massacres of Tutsis (OAU May 2000).

There are many lessons leant from the Rwandan genocide. Most relate to the response of the international community once the killing machinery was set off. Effective and active response would certainly have helped to reduce the level of carnage that took place in Rwanda in 1994, but it would never have been able to remove the level of anger and hate that were embedded in the minds of most Rwandese.

So we come to the most important lesson that Africa and particularly Ethiopia should learn from the genocide in Rwanda. The genocide in Rwanda happened because of ethnic politics and state sanctioned incitement to hate and kill. The responsible officials were disseminating contempt and demonizing the other group. The supreme court of Canada reviewing the response of the Canadian government based on the report of the then commanding Lt. General Romeo Dallaire stated “…. the holocaust did not begin in the gas chambers-it began with words. These are the chilling facts of history-the catastrophic effects of racism” and the Rwandan Tribunal stated “these acts of genocide were preceded by-and anchored in-the state orchestrated demonization and dehumanization of the minority Tutsi population-using cruel, biological of Tutsis as ‘inyenzi’ –prologue and justification for their mass murder.”  Yes genocide starts with words. Words are the means through which hate or love is expressed. In cases of genocide and crimes against humanity, words are the means through which the flames of hate and intolerance are fanned.

The situation in Ethiopia has not reached that level yet but if it is allowed to reach that level there is no way to stop it. The rhetoric and irresponsible statements coming out from some people including government  officials, from community leaders and from the major ethnic groups, which spreads faster and effectively through social media,  suggests that if left on its own the situation   could escalate to wide spread hatred and retribution, civil war,  crimes against humanity and possibly to genocide.  ‘Genocide is defined in Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948)’

Rwanda showed the worst that human beings can be. It showed how human beings could be manipulated to hate and kill through irresponsible leaders and members of the community in general who may harbor hatred. The hate and anger directed at particular ethnic group accumulates overtime  and  knows no boundaries when it is unleashed through a concerted effort of hate groups created by the deliberate polices of a government  and elite groups who seem to  care more about power than the long term consequences of their actions. Ethiopian leaders are accountable for what is happening now and worse on what may happen unless remedial measures are taken. “ Africa’s redemption is not only clasp in the hands of the leadership, but moreover in the active participation in change of the average person, in the home, in the school, in the work place and in their private relationship.”  (African Holocaust Society)

The damage done on the relationship between the various ethnic groups in Ethiopia is grave and warrants the intervention of the international community to exert meaningful pressure to stop this build up of tensions that could lead to a catastrophic end with very severe consequences that could dwarf the Rwandan genocide. The government should be made accountable and be willing to take steps that could restore sanity and heal the gaping wounds. For this to happen, Ethiopia needs leaders who are not consumed with narrow ethnic and personal interests but leaders who capitalize on the common thread that binds the people and the common vision for unity and democracy.

The international community’s indifference to the early warning   signs and faultiness is not acceptable. At this moment the major preoccupation of millions of Ethiopians has become individual and group security, stocking arms and guarding themselves from the excesses of a minority government. Some ethnic groups are spewing hate and vengeance and as in Rwanda   (where Hutus hated all Tutsis) people are unjustifiably beginning to hate all Tigreans. This, of course, is unfair to the large majority of Tigreans who are themselves victims of the policies of the current government which does not truly represent the best interests of the majority of Tigreans. When such a sense of insecurity, mistrust and hate is stretched to its logical conclusion it can lead to war and possibly genocide. The silence of the international community in the face of this build up is disturbing. The international community is needed now to ensure that sanity prevails and a system that addresses the grievances of all ethnic groups is installed sooner than later because at this stage the crisis is preventable. Conflicting western interests might not make an effective intervention possible but silence would not be appropriate either. Reconciliation, election, power sharing would not solve the fundamental problems and grievances once war starts because the stakes become higher as groups dig in deeper, the divisions become sharper and the sacrifices too many to allow easy compromises. The voice of the international community at this early stage could prevent this country from going into war with itself.

With such kind of catastrophe no one wins. In the end every body loses. There will be no Ethiopia to fight about.  Each ethnic group in Ethiopia has treasures of wisdom. Let them tap to those wisdoms, let them see what is happening around the country, let them take note of the signs of difficult times ahead, let them prevent harm on each other, let them go back to the drawing table and begin with the common factors that unite them, let them dwell less on their differences and more on the common ties that bond them or else they become one of those countries they never imagined to be. Let Ethiopians have the courage to stand together to challenge the status quo and build a democratic system that would answer the grievances of all, because it is possible.  Africa has over 3000 tribes and 2000 languages and there are only 54 states. There is, therefore, no alternative to peaceful coexistence.

I worked in Rwanda for two years and had the honor to know closely President Paul Kagame, then vice president and head of the military. His challenge and the challenge the people faced were enormous. With half a million Hutu refugees ‘inetrhamways’ most of them just across the border, to build a peaceful country and begin reconciliation was indeed a very tall order. The threat of ‘interhamways’ unleashing another war was always there until in 1996 they returned in mass. The reconciliation program started in earnest only then. There was no family in Rwanda, in both the Hutu and Tutsi communities that were not severely affected by the genocide and yet there were no alternatives to re reconciliation and the task had to begin soon. It was difficult to bring about a majority rule as well. Democracy, in the way that has been defined by the western world posed a great danger in a country where reconciliation has not yet been complete and the memories of 1994 are still fresh in many minds. The President had to walk a fine line and the majority had to accept the reality. Pragmatism and common sense than idealism prevailed.

I left Rwanda after two years but what I saw and heard during those years haunted me for a long time until I returned to Kigali after ten years to see a population truly trying hard to leave the past behind, learn from the lessons and move on as one people and one nation. During my two years there I had been to the prisons and talked to former ‘interhaweys’ who have been implicated in the genocide. Some were still proud that they did what they did. The unrepentant voices of some were scary and had made me   doubt whether there could ever be a true reconciliation. The numerous voices of the survivors were also bitter. But the government and the people chose the right path. For over twenty years people are slowly learning to live together ad heal the wounds together even when they know that some in either communities have been killers and still harbor hate.

There were thousands who were identified as perpetrators of the genocide locked up in various prisons in Rwanda. To bring about justice and reconciliation, the Rwandan government introduced or reinstituted what is known in Rwandese tradition the Gacaca community court system.  In this system the communities select judges where the cases of perpetrators are heard. The court gives mitigated sentences for those who repent. In many cases those who repent are freed and allowed to go back to the community and be part of the reconciliation program where victims and perpetrators live side by side and talking to each other.

Unlike many other African countries where colonialists carved out the borders, Ethiopia was defined by its own people and its own history and the enormous sacrifices of every ethnic group.  It is their only home. Like any family in a home they had differences and on many occasions each encroached on the rights and freedoms of the other in the family. But they stayed together.

No conflict in Africa is similar to another. But the underlying reasons are always the same: leadership and governance. Ethiopia does not need a genocide or civil war to learn from its own lessons. It had its own turbulent years of nation building. It is now time to learn from its own past and from what has happened elsewhere in Africa and form one united people with freedom, justice and democracy for all.

As Bob Marley said: “One love, One Heart. Let’s get Together and Feel Alright.”

Dawit Woldegiorgis , Executive Director of Institute for strategic and Security Studies

Wide-eyed superwomen mesh with history in an eye-catchinge new exhibit by an emerging Israeli artist, currently on view in Harlem.

Bold, lively, and abstract, “Mulu and the Beta Clan” by Hirut Yosef features a range of medium from collage to painting to woodworking. Some prints are intimate photographs of her family members overlaid with graphic motifs of embroidery, weaving and textile design, a homage to the most powerful and influential women in her life.

“My biggest inspiration, where everything started, is thinking about my mother and my grandmother, and how amazing and strong women they were — especially in the Jewish Ethiopian community back in Ethiopia,” Yosef said.

The 37-year-old immigrated to Israel from Ethiopia when she was five and began this series, which is on display at Tsion Cafe in Sugar Hill until July 31, living in Turkey. A world traveler, Yosef’s work explores themes of immigration, belonging, and identity, seeking to build a visual bridge between Ethiopia and Israel as well as the other countries she’s lived, most recently, the United States.

As a student of fashion design at Tel Aviv’s Shenkar College of Engineering, Yosef realized that if she wanted to contribute something innovative to the artistic conversation in Israel, “I have to go back to my roots. I have to go back to where I came from and do the research there.”

This wasn’t always intuitive for the artist. “In the beginning I didn’t do anything with being Ethiopian and coming from a very rich culture. I totally ignored that. I’d introduce myself as Ruthie.”

Eventually, a teacher of hers at Shenkar inspired her to use her birth name, Hirut. She describes the process of returning to her original name as the spark which led her to travel back to Ethiopia, her birthplace.

Yet, the first time she visited, she wanted nothing to do with the country, didn’t want to eat the food, she laughs. “My brother and my sister were like, Hirut, this is where you were born. These were the conditions you were born to. Why are you acting like a princess?” After her first trip, she fell in love with the place, and when she graduated from university and moved to Turkey, she started traveling to Ethiopia every year.

“That’s where my inspiration comes from — back home. So it’s combining two worlds, and introducing one world to another and building a bridge to find the place where I can actually express myself and share the story of my home, and the story of my mother and grandmother, because they cannot tell it.”

Yosef does this visually, through interlaying black and while photographs of her family members with drawings of textile. “Through immigration and absorption, my mother and grandmother continued the traditional crafts of fine embroidery and basket weaving using colorful threads. Those simple geometric patterns have become a strong graphic motif in my paintings,” Yosef wrote.

“Four Women,” one of the largest pieces of this exhibition, represents her two of her older sisters, her mother, and grandmother. These women are abstract, their dress elaborate, vibrant pinks, oranges, and blues.

One woman lightly puts her finger on a second woman’s cheek, while a third woman’s arm wraps around the second woman’s shoulder. Through representing them in painting, the women become archetypes — superwomen.

“Mulu” is a female name in Amharic which means “whole” and “perfection.” Yosef describes the term as her alter ego who, “represents the special women in my life and empowers them.” These four women fill the canvas, creating a monumental world unto themselves.

“The visual part came when I traveled with my brother in Ethiopia. We were driving for hours, and there was no one around, and then I saw these four women coming from nowhere. They just appeared, and they were so beautiful, smiling to us,” Yosef said.

It turned out they were bridesmaids on their way to a wedding, and Yosef and her brother stopped to speak with them. “When I came back home to Istanbul, I quickly sketched the outline of these women.”

One of the youngest of a family of 12, Yosef was the first Ethiopian to graduate from Shenkar. Her family now lives in the U.S., Israel, Ethiopia, and Canada.

At its core, “Mulu and the Beta Clan” is both a celebration and appreciation of origins, the physical place and her lineage of women. By combining her past with her contemporary influences, Yosef creates “a language of my own, redefining a place where the vast influences of my life can coexist.”

Leeron Hoory is a writer currently based in New York. Follow her on Twitter at@leeronhoory.

The Associated Press

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has declined to criticize Ethiopia’s recent blockage of social media, saying it is up to individual countries to regulate their internet.