Ethiopia-Bombing School Children : Hypocrisy, Duplicity, and Crimes Against Humanity

Getahun Assefa

There are wide scale war crimes and crimes against humanity being committed in Ethiopia. The Government of Ethiopia with open financial support and tacit political backing of the West has been committing atrocities on Amharas. Schools, hospitals, and open markets have become new military targets, sustaining untold destruction and massacres unseen in the country’s history. Heavy artillery, fighter jets, and drones, largely financed by aid money, have been in use since the launch of Abiy’s war on Amharas a year ago. The use of such armaments against civilians is a stark violation of international law and amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity. 

This past week has been particularly difficult for the Amhara people in Ethiopia. The crying voices of anguished and heartbroken mothers, fathers, and children disturb the peace and tranquility of Ethiopians at home and abroad. The crying waves thickened the clouds, darkened the air, and penetrated the skies even at distant places let alone in Ethiopia. I have always thought that anguish and suffering are contagious- that one human being’s pain makes anyone with a human face, mind, and clean heart deeply pained and saddened. To feel the pain and anguish of poor mothers, fathers, and children in remote Amhara villages does not require being an Amhara. It only requires a human soul, heart, and mind which bind humanity together- white or black, rich or poor, young or old, man or woman. Am I wrong in my understanding of humanity irrespective of race or nationality? How would anyone hearing the blow cry of a poor mother feel or behave on a normal day?

“Why did I wake my son early and send him to school? Why did I let him leave the house without breakfast? Why did they kill my son? Why did they take my life, my happiness, and my light? What did I do to be left in such sorrow and darkness? What did I do to deserve this, Almighty God?”. These were the words, phrases, and sentences that I managed to catch or retain from the devastated poor mother of the 7-year-old child who was killed by drones sent by the brutal dictator of present-day Ethiopia: Abiy Ahmed Ali (henceforth Abiy). 

After hearing the wailing of mothers, fathers, and children and watching live pictures aired on social media, I could not hold myself together. I had to abandon going to work despite that I live 10, 000 km away from the area where the drone strikes on schools killed scores of children aged between 7 and 9.  I know how Ethiopian families in abject poverty had to struggle and suffer not only to raise their children but also to send them to school. I also know well the dreams of poor mothers and fathers for their children to play, grow, and prosper, assuming responsibilities and duties far different from theirs. Therefore, for me, hearing the cries of mothers was particularly moving, devastating, and depressing to say the least. How can anyone feel or behave otherwise?

Hypocrisy and duplicity of the West

Ethiopia has endured difficult times throughout its recent past. Once a glorious and dominant nation in international trade and relations is reduced to piles of rubble. It became the symbol of human suffering, pain, and agony due largely to the combination of dictatorship, interethnic wars, climate change, and environmental degradation. However, there was no time in the history of the country when its very survival was as threatened and nationhood compromised as it is now under the ugly dictatorship, mismanagement, and destruction of Abiy and his regime. Abiy and his regime effectively made Ethiopia a warmongering, hopeless, destitute, and regionally and globally irrelevant pariah state in the Horn of Africa.  

What is shocking is Abiy’s utter lies and deliberate distortions of the glaring facts and realities in the country. The government of Abiy claims abundance & prosperity in Ethiopia often under sheer lies, camouflage, and intoxication of the doctrines of the Prosperity Gospel. However, authoritative global institutions are painting a grim reality and future for the country.  According to the just-released annual report of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), nearly 86 million of the country’s (estimated) 130 million population live in multidimensional poverty, 60 million in illiteracy, and 30 million in hunger, surviving on international food aid day-in-day-out. Likewise, the World Bank’s latest report on Africa concluded that Ethiopia is one of the worst-run countries and badly performing economies in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Abiy remains a laughingstock in Africa for lamenting non-existing economic growth, prosperity, and transformation in Ethiopia. The political emptiness, hollowness, incompetence, and inability of the regime to understand its utter failures and discern consequences are unfathomable beyond any stretch of the imagination. 

Beyond the Ethiopian borders, what is truly disturbing and depressing is no longer the deafening silence of the international community, particularly the so-called “development partners”. Rather it is their open financial and tacit political support to the killer regime of Abiy. While social media carried live news and pictures of dead children together with crying mothers and fathers, the US embassy in Ethiopia was busy sending congratulatory messages to Abiy’s nomination of a couple (wife and husband) to the posts of the minister of justice and foreign affairs, respectively. How come the embassy which has been lamenting ad-nauseam about human rights and democratic governance as the USA’s priority pays lip service to these very noble goals and objectives of humanity? How come the USA, which portrays itself as the country of free people and champion of democracy, allows its envoys to dance with dictators and killers of innocent children, women, and men? Why does the West let African killers and dictators go away with their war crimes and crimes against humanity? Why do donor countries continue to pour taxpayers’ money into Abiy’s coffers, knowing that he is a brutal dictator and killer of innocent children, women, and men?  Do the so-called human rights and good governance they talk about ad-nausea apply only to the fortunate, educated, or “civilized” few?  

While the Amhara school children were massacred by the Government in broad daylight, a certain Jutta Urpilainen, the outgoing EU Commissioner declared the EU’s allegiance and support to criminals such as Abiy. Last week, Ms. Urplainen visited Ethiopia and shook the blood-stained hands of the country’s arch-dictators. She hugged and sat with officials who have been orchestrating and committing crimes against humanity in the country. As with the US embassy in Addis Ababa, the EU commissioner had the audacity to tweet (on 14 October at 21:45 hours), saying “I congratulated the new president of Ethiopia Taye Atske-Selassie”. What painful hypocrisy! What shameful duplicity! 

 In addition to the USA and the EU Commission, the current Labor Government of the United Kingdom also joined the chorus of hypocrites by pledging to “support growth and stability in Ethiopia”.  This was followed by a visit of Mr. Tony Blair, ex-Prime Minister of the United Kingdom while the Ethiopian skies were busy with Turkish-made drones, bombing schools and health posts in the Amhara region. Mr. Blair’s role in the destruction of Iraq and the bombing of Iraqi children, women, and the elderly is all too evident and fresh in our memories. His meeting with Abiy is a mutual recognition and endorsement of one war criminal by another war criminal. 

Another mind-boggling episode is the continued financial support of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to the ethnocratic regime of Abiy. The two institutions pour resources despite man-made calamities and government-led suffering of innocent civilians in Ethiopia.  What describes better the hypocrisy and duplicity of the international community than the continued financial support of the Bank and the Fund? The World Bank and IMF have full information regarding their financial aid to Ethiopia. They know well that their aid money is funding the ongoing massacre of Amhara civilians, including children at schools and patients at the hospitals. Yet, they chose to ignore and continued to lavishly fund Abiy’s ego and incompetence at the expense of the suffering people of Ethiopia.  In the face of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity unprecedented in modern times, what is mind-blowing is not only the utter silence from the international community and their financial institutions. Rather it is their continued financial backing and tacit political support to the criminal regime of Abiy. No doubt, history will judge them as no criminal has ever stood the winds of time and the judgment of history. Though delayed or hidden, justice will prevail sooner or later.

Conclusions

The Amhara people of Ethiopia may pay a heavy price in the short term. However, surely, they will free themselves from an ethnocratic dictatorship and killer regime of Abiy sooner or later. Amhras are capable of gallantly defending themselves from imminent threats of extermination imposed on them by Abiy and his regime. No doubt, Amharas will emerge victorious and rise again as proud citizens. What is urgently needed though is the contribution (financial, political advocacy, etc.) of every peace-loving citizen to the cause of a just war of survival and freedom from the yolk of ethnocracy and anocracy. Amharas should call, in one voice, to stop the West’s hypocrisy and duplicity as well as its financial and political support to Abiy who is committing genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Siding with criminals and atrocious regimes such as the one in Ethiopia will not protect and promote the interests of the West. Nor will it absolve them from assuming legal responsibility for their actions against the values and principles they proclaim to have held.

Editor’s note : Views in the article do not necessarily reflect the views of borkena.com

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