Ethiopian Dialogue Forum Board calls for an end to deliberate and Accelerated Amhara Genocide. Appealed to the international community and to all Ethiopians
From the Ethiopian Dialogue Forum Board (EDF)
The 1994 Rwandan Genocide that claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Tutsis shocked the entire world. Yet, the Ethiopian census of 2007 that showed 2.5 million ethnic Amhara missing did not draw attention at all. It became local news for a brief time. Ethiopians and the rest of the world forgot this ominous episode quickly. Since the replacement of the Socialist regime by the Meles-led TPLF/EPRDF regime in 1991, a pre-planned destruction of the Amhara people was set in motion using different methods-mass killings, displacements, and dispossession of Amhara everywhere in the country, the burning of Amhara-majority towns, villages, and places of worship, and the relentless expulsion of Amhara from their homesteads, localities, jobs, and enterprises. The culprits behind this synchronized and recurrent action intended to kill the will of Amhara to live.
Despite this extreme oppression, the Amhara fought for change for more than 27 years at great human sacrifice. Amhara paved the way for Abiy Ahmed’s rise to power in 2018. Amhara celebrated his rise with hope. But since the coming to power of Abiy Ahmed’s regime in 2018, atrocities against the Amhara accelerated through the agency of Oromo ethno-nationalists who felt empowered. Tens of thousands of Amhara killed. Regional and local ethnic elites displaced millions from regions of Ethiopia now named Oromia and Ben Shangul-Gumuz. These displaced millions are slowly dying from lack of food, abysmal shelters, and absence of any medical care. Victims live in extremely overcrowded concentration camps. These concentration camps abound around many Amhara-region towns like Bahir Dar, Debre Tabor, Dessie, Debre Berhan, and tens of others.
In addition to the wars that have been unleashed on the Amhara from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) in the north and east and the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) in the South and West of the Amhara majority regional state, regional Special forces and militia as well as Ethiopian federal government forces and security initiated and commanded target Amhara and attack forces everywhere are carrying out unceasing mass murder of Amhara peasants and poor people in the so called Oromia and Ben Shangul-Gumuz regions in full view of the world.
Surviving victims have provided eyewitness accounts to the international and local media that local government authorities, police, militia, Special Forces, and others have participated in mass killings and the eviction of Amhara. Documentary evidence, eyewitness accounts and other testimonies are available in video recordings in the Ethiopian Diaspora media and other archives. Videos showing bulldozer-assisted burials of hundreds of Amhara in mass graves are also available in different YouTube archives.
The most recent gruesome Rwanda-like genocide of more than 1,500 Amhara infants, children, pregnant women, the elderly, men, and women of all ages occurred on June 18-19, 2022. This latest figure differs from the locally reported figure of four hundred. This time, the international media woke up and reported this latest genocide like massacre targeting Amhara solely because they are Amhara.
Most international media– BBC, Guardian, NBC, AP, AFP, NPR, PBS New Hour, New York Times, Washington Post, and other media reported on June 19 and June 20, the early estimates of those murdered in a single day at two hundred. Tragically, this initial number continues to rise rapidly as local surviving residents uncover hundreds of dead bodies each hour and each day scattered in several locations and, in many cases, decomposed. On June 20, 2022, the BBC reported on “Ethiopia Violence in Oromia” and wrote “about villages full of dead bodies.” Its investigation showed those slaughtered were all Amhara bodies.
EDF joins other Ethiopian groups in urging that the United Nations, the African Union, the USA, members of the European Union, specialized UN agencies, all human rights organizations, and all members of Ethiopia’s huge Diaspora across the globe express moral outrage and condemn this latest Amhara genocide perpetrated by the Oromo Liberation Army/Shine and its regional and federal government enablers.
EDF also urges Western and African Governments as well as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in partnership with the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission to demand that the federal government of Ethiopia establish a credible and independent investigation body promptly and charge it to conduct a thorough investigation of Amhara genocide and bring the culprits to a court of law. We believe accountability is imperative.
EDF joins Ethiopians around the globe in demanding accountability at the highest level of the Federal Government of Ethiopia led by Prime Minster Abiy Ahmed Ali as well as the regional state administration of Oromia led by Mr. Shimelis Abdissa. There cannot be justice or peace or development without accountability for crimes of genocide.
Finally, the EDF Board and members urge the Ethiopia Diaspora to conduct peaceful demonstrations across the globe using the hashtag “Stop Amhara genocide now.”
The sponsor of this appeal, the, Ethiopian Dialogue Forum (EDF) is a USA based think-tank duly registered as a 501 (C) (3) non-profit organization. Since its formation more than a decade ago, EDF has engaged prominent scholars, academics, activists, political leaders, legal and other experts; and sponsored one hundred forums; and disseminated findings on institutional and structural policy issues that affect Ethiopia and the rest of Africa.
Ethiopian Dialogue Forum (EDF)
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If push comes to shove, the Amhara should be ready to exercise article 39 of the constitution which the TPLF and now the Abiy regime tell us is the law of the land. “Every Nation, Nationality and People in Ethiopia has an unconditional right to self- determination, including the right to secession”. With Amhara out of the barbaric grip of the Abiy regime, Abiy will not last one day. Oroumumma will crumble to dust and will be shown to be just one thing – a pipe dream.
In a divided and fractured Ethiopia, the first ethnic group that will collapse and disintegrate with discombobulation will be none other than the Oromo. Doubting Thomases are urged to look in their rear view mirrors , the pathetic misery of the past 4 years. How many cakes have Abiy cut to commemorate the unity of the Oromo political factions within factions????? How many bulls have been slaughtered to memorialize the non existent unity among several of the Oromo factions, regional clan leaders, multitudes of self appointed stake holders, king makers, war lords and chieftains???????
The fundamental inalienable God given right to an individual is the right to live, the right to exist as an individual. Nobody, no ideologue fanatic, no “rights of nations” mambo jumbo can violate the sacrosanct right of THE INDIVIDUAL UNASSAILABLE BY ANY STATE,ETHNIC OR POLITICAL APPARATUS OF ANY KIND!!!!!!!!!!!!
One of the worst violators of the Ethiopian constitution is none other than the legally imbecilic, unethical and morally bankrupt regime of Abiy Ahmed. Here we will show by concrete examples, how Abiy’s regime has violated the so called constitution multiple times:
1) Article 38. The Right to Vote and to be Elected
Every Ethiopian national, without any discrimination based on colour, race, nation, nationality, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion or other status, has the following rights:
a. To take part in the conduct of public affairs, directly and through freely chosen representatives;
b. On the attainment of 18 years of age, to vote in accordance with law;
c. To vote and to be elected at periodic elections to any ofce at any level of
government; elections shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret ballot, guaranteeing the free expression of the will of the electors.
WHERE DOES IT SAY, IN SO CALLED OROMIA, 100 % OF PUBLIC OFFICES SHOULD BE HELD BY THOSE WHO CLAIM TO BE OF OROMO ETHNICITY??????????????
2)Article 32. Freedom of Movement
1. Any Ethiopian or foreign national lawfully in Ethiopia has, within the national territory, the right to liberty of movement and freedom to choose his residence, as well as the freedom to leave the country at any time he wishes to.
2. Any Ethiopian national has the right to return to his country.
WHERE DOES IT SAY THAT THE CORRUPT AND MORALLY REPULSIVE OROMO PP MEMBERS OR CADRES HAVE THE RIGHT TO DISPLACE MILLIONS FROM THEIR PLACE OF RESIDENCE BASED ON THEIR ETHNICITY??????????
3)Article 40. The Right to Property
1. Every Ethiopian citizen has the right to the ownership of private property. Unless prescribed otherwise by law on account of public interest, this right shall include the right to acquire, to use and, in a manner compatible with the rights of other citizens, to dispose of such property by sale or bequest or to transfer it otherwise.
2. “Private property”, for the purpose of this Article, shall mean any tangible or intangible product which has value and is produced by the labour, creativity, enterprise or capital of an individual citizen, associations which enjoy juridical personality under the law, or in appropriate circumstances, by communities specically empowered by law to own property in common.
BY WHAT AUTHORITY DO THE ABIY DICTATORIAL REGIME AND HIS OROMO MILITANT PP LACKEYS AND CADRES DARE TO STRIP NON OROMO CITIZENS OF THEIR HOUSE, PROPERTIES AND ANY MATERIAL OF VALUE AND DISPLACE THEM?? IF THEY WANT TO ACQUIRE THOSE THINGS, HOW ABOUT GOOD OLD FASHION WORKING AND EARNING?????
4)Article 28. Crimes Against Humanity
1. Criminal liability of persons who commit crimes against humanity, so dened by international agreements ratied by Ethiopia and by other laws of Ethiopia, such as genocide, summary executions, forcible disappearances or torture shall not be barred by statute of limitation. Such offences may not be commuted by amnesty or pardon of the legislature or any other state organ.
2. In the case of persons convicted of any crime stated in sub-Article 1 of this Article and sentenced with the death penalty, the Head of State may, without prejudice to the provisions hereinabove, commute the punishment to life imprisonment.
BY WHAT AUTHORITY DID ABIY PARDON AND SET FREE THE TPLF TOP ECHELONS IN CONTRADICTION OF ARTICLE 28? BY WHAT AUTHORITY DOES ABIY EXCUSE, CAJOLE, AND LEAVE UNACCOUNTABLE BEFORE THE LAW , THE MULTITUDE OF MASSACRES, MURDERS AND MAYHEMS BY THE OROMO MILITANT GROUP, HE AND PP CALL OlF-SHENE, IN REALITY A MILITANT COVERTLY SUPPORTED BRANCH OF PP?
These 4 glaring examples clearly demonstrate that the Abiy regime, and his PP are one of the worst violators of the so called Ethiopian constitution, his cadres tell us is sacrosanct. Had Ethiopia’s judiciary branch been independent or at least semi- independent, it would have found the Abiy regime and his militant PP, among the worst violators and law breakers of the land.
And it is this society, with this type of caliber of leadership and ethical standards, the Amhara are struggling to exist in a bleeding Ethiopia. In reality, this hokus-pokus, patch work of historically unrelated, culturally divergent , religiously non homogenous group lumped together by a hitherto nonexistent Oromia land mass and a utopian dream of Oromumma will be shown to be just a mirage, the moment the Amhara people in unison say enough is enough, and exercise article 39. So be careful PP cadres of what you wish, the society that has existed for nearly 2-3 millennia on its own has everything and more it needs to say good bye to those who are blinded by hate, afflicted by inferiority complex, and suffering from grandeurs of delusion and mass hysteria and illusions.