SMNE urges Minister Tedros Adhanom to take swift and
comprehensive action in helping Ato Habtamu Ayelaw gets proper treatment
abroad and addressing the shameful treatment of the Ethiopians who are
forced from their homes, resulting in wide scale displacement,
homelessness and desperate life and health conditions.
July 6, 2016
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Dear Minister Tedros Adhanom,
On
behalf of the Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia (SMNE), I am
coming directly to you, to ask you as the Ethiopian Minister of Foreign
Affairs, whose role is to represent the interests and image of Ethiopia
internationally, to take immediate action to protect the vulnerable
people in your own country. These people are experiencing a
government-created health and human rights crisis of huge proportions.
You are also a top-decision-maker within the TPLF/EPRDF led Ethiopian
government, someone who seeks to take the top leadership position in
the World Health Organization (WHO) and also someone with a significant
healthcare professional background. In light of your strategic position,
I ask you to take immediate action to protect the people you represent.
Failure to do so will only intensify the increasing tensions within
Ethiopia. In fact, even today (July 6) on the occasion of the ending of
Ramadan and the celebration of Eid Mubarak; people involved turned the
celebration into a protest against the government for their violent and
unjust suppression the people.
This public outcry of discontent is a continuation of the ongoing
uprising in the Oromia region that began in November 2015. A root cause
of these protests is the strong opposition to the TPLF/EPRDF’s Addis
Ababa Master Plan, which would displace countless Oromos from their
homes. It was brought to a new level of outrage this past week when
30,000 Ethiopians, mostly of Oromo ethnicity from Lafto Sub-city of
Addis Ababa in the villages of Qarsa, Kontoma, Mango, Wragenu and
Hanamarim were forced from their homes, resulting in wide scale
displacement, homelessness and desperate life and health conditions for
those affected. Some residents of Lafto were allegedly given $1,500 per
house and sent off, without recourse. Their homes were then bulldozed
until demolished to make way for other uses of their land within the
city limits of Addis Ababa.
Resistance to these evictions triggered a backlash of protest against
TPLF/EPRDF authorities who were forcing the people from their homes.
Government police and security forces cracked down on many of these
civilians and some retaliated. The clash resulted in needless deaths on
both sides. Two police officers and one civilian were killed; others
were wounded. A mother and her newborn infant were also allegedly killed
when the home they were in was bulldozed.
These tens of thousands of people are now left to fend for
themselves; many with no place to go. Disturbing pictures have been on
the social media of mothers with babies as young as five-days-old,
families with children, and elderly victims, some as old as
93-years-of-age, all suddenly without shelter and protection. Conditions
for the displaced are even more difficult due to it being the rainy
season.
On July 1, 2016 another incident of violence broke out in a small
town of Awaday in East Hararge. This incident started when authorities
assumed a crowd of local people that had gathered around a burning house
was not merely onlookers, but a protest. Many local people had raced to
the location of this house fire and found no fire fighters present.
Shortly thereafter, security officers rushed to the scene, assuming the
gathering was another protest.
When they saw it was a fire, not a protest, the security forces
started forcefully pushing the people away. The people reacted. Security
officers then opened fire on the civilians, killing five young people,
all under the age of 15, and wounding 8 others. Pictures of the
aftermath of the horrific scene were circulated. Tensions remain high in
the Oromia region; yet, these kinds of evictions and harsh crackdowns
are going on throughout Ethiopia.
It is a matter of time before the people of Ethiopia unite across
previous lines of division to fight back and stop the senseless killing
of the people by the TPLF regime.
Mr. Minister,
A second case that speaks to the very difficult conditions facing
Ethiopian political prisoners is represented by Habtamu Ayelaw, a
39-year-old husband and father of little girl who was arrested in July
2014 and accused of “terrorism” for his leadership role in the Unity for
Democracy and Justice (UDJ) opposition political party. Like notable
others, despite his well-known stance against violence and deep
commitment to bring sustainable democratic change through a lawful
political process, Habtamu was seen as a threat preceding the 2015
national election.
Mr. Habtamu was healthy and in the prime of his life when he entered
the notorious Maekelawi and Qilinto Prisons. Now, Habtamu is in a
life-threatening physical condition, believed to be linked to the
torture, abusive mistreatment, intolerable conditions and lack of
medical care while in prison. Although he was recently released, he now
faces such serious health challenges that he has been told to seek care
abroad as it is unavailable in Ethiopia.
Due to a TPLF/EPRDF imposed travel ban, he is unable to leave the
country without permission from the Court Unfortunately, two requests to
the Court by his attorney in his behalf have been denied despite the
medical urgency. Mr. Habtamu is not a criminal; he only has a different
political viewpoint and this should not cost him his life. Should he
pass away without getting proper treatment; TPLF/EPRDF authorities would
be held responsible. This would further destabilize the country which
is already in turmoil.
Mr. Minister,
What is your position on these cases? Will you take necessary
measures to uphold rights and save lives? It will require moral courage,
especially because it involves taking some political risk in a country
where TPLF survival mechanisms are in panic mode. Yet, unless someone
steps up to restore justice, morality and reason to a nation in danger
of imploding; we are all in danger, including the TPLF and the small
minority ethnic group they represent— many of them innocent of
wrongdoing.
Such decisions at key moments in our history can change the course of
lives and nations. Conversely, inaction and refusal on your part and on
the part of the TPLF Central Committee— who are running the county— can
fuel an even larger crisis. In fact, it may present a greater risk to
all of us, especially if more of our young people are killed or if
someone like Habtamu dies because he was refused the emergency medical
care that could have saved his life.
Mr. Minister,
Show your humanity and recognize our individual accountability before
our Creator. How long can God-given laws and principle be flagrantly
broken without consequence?
If we seek to do right in Ethiopia, individuals like yourself could
help lead our country to a better place. Put yourself in the shoes of
those Ethiopians who have lost loved ones. Put yourself in the place of
these homeless families, trying to care for your children or elderly
parents with no resources. If this was happening to you or to your loved
ones or your ethnic group, what would you or other key top TPLF
officials want done?
There are so many things with which I disagree in regard to the
actions and policies of the TPLF/ERPDF, but when it comes to saving the
lives of Ethiopians, regardless of ethnicity, I will set those
differences aside and save lives.
We must all do this for the sake of others, not only ourselves or our
own ethnic group. Hardening one’s heart against the right and humane
thing to do will only plant the seeds of hatred, destruction, vengeance,
division, and grudges that will pass on the consequences of these
grievances to the descendants of all parties.
No matter how many wrong things some may have done in the past
recognition of our own part, reconciliation and real transformative
change is still possible. This is the only way we can save ourselves
from ourselves. This is the only way to prevent our mutual destruction
and to leave our children, grandchildren, communities and ethnic groups
in a better and more harmonious place where they are not hated or
excluded because of our actions or inaction today.
Mr. Minister,
The violent actions, disregard for human life and blatant ethnic
favoritism being carried out in Ethiopia under current TPLF policies,
are exactly the ingredients that will push people to the edge. Symptoms
of impending destruction are everywhere.
Let us face it instead of blindly and naively celebrating at Adwa and
lying to the donor countries about the double-digit economic growth and
stability in order to receive more foreign aid while buying still more
guns to crush more people.
Those supporting this TPLF regime through the many arms and branches
of the EPRDF should not be complicit, but should follow righteousness
instead of the TPLF. For anyone who loves Ethiopia, it is time to do the
right thing and that right thing will show strength, not weakness.
I call on Ethiopians of faith to pray for these decision makers and
those supporting them so that people repent of wrongdoing, forgive and
reconcile; following it up with evidence of inner transformation.
That means being part of a movement to bring meaningful changes and
the restoration of justice to Ethiopia. This means valuing the humanity
of others instead of judging a person’s value based on ethnicity or some
other identity factor. This means caring about the injustice of others
as we care about our own. This is not only right, but no one group can
bring sustainable freedom and harmony to only themselves. No one is free
until all are free. We are to love our neighbors and even our enemies!
Ethiopia is at a critical place. For the last hundred years or more,
we have learned to harden our hearts, wounding others and they wounding
us in an endless cycle that must end. May you do the right thing.
May God protect all of us Ethiopians from our mutual destruction and bring reconciliation and justice to Ethiopia.
Sincerely yours,
Obang Metho,
Executive Director of the SMNE
