To the Chief Commissioner and Commissioners of the Ethiopian National Dialogue Commission :
By Kinfu
You were entrusted with one of the most significant responsibilities in Ethiopia’s modern history: creating the conditions for a genuine national consensus on the country’s deepest questions of identity, governance, justice, and peaceful coexistence – issues all genuine Ethiopians want solved, while ethno-fanatics keep alive as weapons to stay in power.
You have collected agendas and organized a national conference. These activities are now part of the public record.
Yet credibility is impossible when those who have attempted to challenge the process are imprisoned, silenced, or excluded; when participants cannot speak freely; and when the institution itself lacks independence from the political authority that established it..
More fundamentally, the Commission has continued to present itself as an impartial national institution while operating in a political environment where credible international organizations, United Nations experts, and independent human rights monitors have documented serious allegations – arbitrary detention, restrictions on freedom of expression, attacks on civilians, unlawful killings, drone strikes affecting civilian populations, and widespread impunity for grave human rights violations.
These concerns cannot simply be treated as political accusations to be ignored. They are matters that directly affect the possibility of a genuine national dialogue. An institution established to rebuild trust must address the conditions that erode it; otherwise, its own credibility and moral standing are called into serious question.
Equally troubling has been the Commission’s silence regarding repeated violence affecting religious communities and clergy, including killing members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, and the broader deterioration of religious freedom and civic space. These issues are of profound national importance and demand attention from any institution claiming to represent reconciliation.
To be cont’d
Editor’s Note: Views in the article do not necessarily reflect the views of borkena.com
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