The false narrative of Genocide in Ethiopia

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

By Tibebe Samuel Ferenji 

What distinguishes genocide from murder, and even from acts of political murder that claim as many victims, is the intent. The crime is wanting to make a people extinct. The idea is the crime. Author and Journalist  Philip Gourevitch

The term genocide has a universal definition and understanding of what it means. According to the United Nations publication “The definition contained in Article II of the Convention describes genocide as a crime committed with the intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group, in whole or in part. It does not include political groups or so called “cultural genocide.” Unfortunately, in Ethiopian politics, the word genocide is used for propaganda purposes. Even individuals who are supposed to know better use this word often and magnify this false narration for their political objectives. Such intellectual dishonesty and willful blindness have allowed the word Genocide to be used ordinarily losing its true meaning harming those who are truly subjected to genocide. Decrying genocide for every politically motivated mass killing makes an actual genocide, should it happen in Ethiopia, its credibility would be scrutinized delaying any mitigating action to address the problem. I am afraid that it will become like “the crying wolf story” if our elites continue in this path. 

The extremist elites who have become a megaphone for those who disseminate false narratives about genocide in Ethiopia have displayed their deliberate indifference for the true meaning of genocide exposing their irresponsible acts and utter stupidity. Labeling every tragedy, mass killings, and brutality committed by ill-conceived brutes a genocide does not help any struggle and will not elevate the suffering of any people. There has never been a credible report or never been presented any genocidal act by any government or party in Ethiopia. Those who have been decrying for years that genocide has been committed in Ethiopia never provided any archaeological proof or a well-documented historical event that indicates there was ever a genocide in Ethiopia. 

Ethiopians have gone through enormous sufferings because of political differences, hateful toxic political discourse, class, ethnicity, and power struggle like many other countries have gone throughout history. However, many Ethiopian political actors have tried the genocide narratives to seek the intervention of foreign powers in Ethiopia’s internal affairs to no avail. Particularly, since Dr. Abiy Ahmed came to power, the Oromo, Tigray, and Amhara extremists have used “genocide” hoping the intervention of the West to remove Dr. Abiy from power and carry them to the throne. What is tragic here is these groups are human right violators, murderers, and mass killers in their own quest for power. The TPLF portrayed the Ethiopian Federal government as the existential threat for the survival of ethnic Tigrayans when in fact that the TPLF has been the existential threat for the survival of the people of Tigray since its inception. In fact, In an interview broadcast by Horizon Media recently, Dr. Debretsion Gebremichale, TPLF’s leader, expressed skepticism about the claim that one million people had died during the recent TPLF war with the Ethiopian Federal Government Defense Force, stating that “the figure [death in Tigray conflict] was not based on any research or credible evidence.” The condemnation of Debretsion for this statement by the Tigray elites was swift and unforgiving. The fact remains however, the war in Tigray was not against the people of Tigray but a rogue political organization that tried to overthrow the government using its military force. The fact shows the government of Ethiopia took every effort to minimize civilian casualties.

Unfortunately, the paid Western media peddled false narratives. The likes of CNN, BBC, The Guardian engaged in fake news campaigns to discredit the Ethiopian defense force. The TPLF used its well-paid surrogates who worked for mainstream media, the State Department, Human Rights organizations, and other international organizations including the WHO to scream “Tigray Genocide” as loud as possible. The echo of the “Tigray Genocide” campaign was heard from the streets of Washington DC to political corridors of Brussels by the likes of Joseph Borell and Tewodros Adhanom.

The same can be said about the so-called “Oromo Liberation Army” known as “OLF-Shenie.” The only difference between this force and the TPLF is the money spent in its false narratives and fake news campaigns. The TPLF amassed billions of dollars from Ethiopia during its brutal rule and used it to shape its public image and denounce the Ethiopian government. On the other hand, Shenie’s supporters’ pocket is not as deep as the TPLF and its political connections on the world stage are limited. This group however has caused so much death and destruction and claims it is fighting for the survival of the Oromo people while it is killing Oromos and making every effort to cleanse the so called “Oromo Land” from ethnic Amharas. These mass murderers have no shame when they claim the Ethiopia government is committing “Oromo genocide.” These extremist elements, like any extremists decry genocide hoping for the intervention of the West to dictate how Ethiopia should be led and by whom.  

Like the Oromo and the Tigray extremists, what we are witnessing in the Amhara region is not any different. The so called Fano and its extremist supporters are decrying “Amhara Genocide” while they are engaged in mass killings of Amharas and property destruction in the Amhara region. Their supporters in the Diaspora are running in the halls of Western governments alleging that “Abiy Ahmed is committing Amhara genocide” when in fact Dr. Abiy Ahmed’s government is protecting the people of Amhara from these brutes and doing what it can to mitigate the danger posed in the Amhara region. The so called Fano is divided into so many small groups and they are killing each other causing the death of many Amhara youngsters. These groups throw bombs at school grounds, assassinate government officials, militia members, police officers, kill elders and priests who were sent to mediate, and murder youngsters who are not willing to support and join their ill-conceived cause. Recently, these fanatics have killed 37 low level civil servants in Amhara Region and yet they have the audacity to speak about human rights protection. As one of the relatives of the murdered civil servant stated, “even the Italian Fascists did not resort to such barbaric act”. These are the type of lawless individuals and groups who should be designated as a terrorist group by the international community. These criminals are attempting to hide their brutal crimes by decrying “Amhara genocide” seeking the intervention of foreign powers in Ethiopia’s internal affairs. 

The leaders of these groups are funded by the Extremist Amhara Diaspora who espouse enormous hate for Oromo ethnic groups and, as they have clearly indicated, their objective is to take back their ancestors’ throne from the hands of what they call Galla. It is with this delusional state of mind they are peddling their “Amhara Genocide” false narrative hoping to galvanize support from the international community, particularly the West. The Oromo, Tigray, and Amhara extremists are following the same path with the same objective, which is to remove an elected government from power and take power by a barrel of a gun or with the intervention of the West or Ethiopia’s enemies instead of organizing and building their constituency with viable alternative ideas to take power through a ballot box. 

Obviously, the international community is not buying false narratives peddled by government opponents and their well-paid surrogates. As Ambassador David Shin once stated, Western governments have intelligence officers in their embassies and are aware of what is going on in Ethiopia. In other words, the Western governments that the extremist elements are trying to convince have much better information about what is going on in Ethiopia than they do. It is for this reason the international community ignores the false genocide narrative. Of course, when and if the Western countries plan a regime change for their own selfish interest, then, they can weaponize this false narrative to achieve their evil objectives like we have seen in many other countries. 

What is unfortunate in Ethiopian politics is some of our citizens who are supposed to be our guiding lights, those who are supposed to know better are worse than the mob they are leading. Tribalism and the politics of hate are deeply embedded in our political culture. It is also a clear example of the immaturity and the political infancy of the “elite” in our politics. The law enforcement effort in the Amhara region has unmasked those who claimed to have advocated for Ethiopian unity in the past and exposed the hypocrisy of “our intellectuals”. Therefore, it is hard to imagine any viable solution coming from our “intellectuals” any time soon.

Our intellectuals have proven to be shortsighted, tribalists, and cowards who fear the backlash from the mob if they confront the true danger and the real problem that our nation is facing. As a result, they have chosen to stand on the sideline or jump on the extremist’s bandwagon and follow the mob instead of providing sound and useful leadership that can take our country from this quagmire to end the cycle of violence in our nation. They have repeatedly failed to confront the true nature of our toxic politics. Some who claim to be disgusted with tribalist mindset have fallen in line with the extremist agenda and they have ended up writing manifesto, giving guidance, supporting, and comforting those who are killing innocent people. These hypocrites debunk others as tribalists but show no spine to confront the tribalists in their midst and contribute to the fracture of our nation. Instead of condemning the cruelty of the extremists, they echo the genocide false narrative hoping to take over the country. Such political myopia has made the political sphere more dangerous and fatal.           

The Oromo extremists have decried for years about “Oromo Genocide” without any facts. What is tragic here is, the Oromo extremists published in many of their propaganda materials claiming that emperor Menelik the second has killed about 8 million Oromos when in fact the entire population of Ethiopia at that time was less than 7 million. Sadly, their false narratives have created ill-informed, hateful, vengeful, and brute young Oromos who will stop at nothing to act against the Amharas whom they perceive as their oppressors. 

Sadly, the “Tigray Genocide” narrative is followed the same erroneous path. Millions of Tigrayans lived in many parts of Ethiopia during the war between the federal government and the TPLF. It is unfortunate that many Tigrayan civilians lost their lives as the result of the war. According to credible reports, many of the Tigrayans died because the TPLF used the ordinary people of Tigray as a human shield to protect its fighters. Civilians were deployed in front of the fighting army which caused the death of many Tigrayans. The claim that the federal government of Ethiopia intentionally killed Tigrayans who were not deployed in a war front in mass is a propaganda spewed by the TPLF hired guns and its propagandists. I believe Dr. Debretsion has made it clear that there was no “Tigray Genocide” and that the genocide claim is a false narrative intended for political ploy.

The fact on the ground shows that many Tigrayans who were not deployed to fight the Ethiopian Defense Forces and those who lived in other parts of Ethiopia were unjustly harassed, detained, and exiled. However, there was no Tigrayans mass killing for being “ethnic Tigrayans”. Even after the TPLF massacred the Amharas in Mai Kadra, civilian Tigrayans who resided in the area did not face any retribution either from the government or the local residents. Some have continued to live in peace with their neighbors. 

The term genocide has social, political, and legal implication. The dichotomy between genocide and political violence must be differentiated and properly addressed. If we label every political violence as a genocide, we end up diminishing the seriousness of genocide. In the Ethiopian political sphere, the term genocide is used simply to get international attention and score cheap political point. There is no evidence at all that can explicitly or implicitly show that there has been any government or political entity in Ethiopia that tried to wipe out the entire religious, ethnic, or any other group. 

Just like the Oromo and Tigray genocide, the Amhara extremists are using the term “Amhara Genocide” hoping to get international support and galvanize their political base. There is no doubt that extremist Oromos have engaged in political violence to kill as many Amharas as they can. The objective of these extremists has been to remove Amharas from what they claim to be their tribal “Oromo land.” There is no evidence that the Oromo extremists or any other extremist group entered the Amhara region and committed mass killings. All the indications are that the Amhara population has increased proportionally compared to other ethnic groups in Ethiopia. 

In Journal of Conflict and Security Law, Volume 27, Issue 2, author Dirk Moses identifies the false dichotomy between apolitical genocidal violence motivated by ethnic or racial hatred and political violence caused by security concerns as the matrix of the Problems. The genocide narrative in Ethiopia is an indictive of the political immaturity of our elites. They simply throw a dart in the dark hoping it will stick where they want it.  To allege all political violence as genocide hoping to gain political advantage in the international sphere undermines the credibility of these political actors. We can examine the genocide committed in Rwanda and in Gaza to understand whether there has ever been a genocide in Ethiopia. The fact in Rwanda shows the intention of the Hutu ethnic group was to wipe out every Tutsi, and anyone married to Tutsis from Rwanda not just from a specific area. So is the genocide in Gaza. To that end, we are witnessing the intentional massacre of Palestinians by the Israeli military forces by intentionally bombing civilian homes, buildings, refugee camps, schools, universities, museums, mosques, churches, and other infrastructures. Where did anyone witness such reckless conduct by the Ethiopian National Defense Force? 

There are allegations that the Ethiopian government military force killed civilians intentionally using Drones. So far, however, there is no evidence to that effect. Even if this is true, it may be a collateral damage that took place in a conflict zone not an intentional killing of civilians. Such action in wars not qualified to be labeled as genocide. Instead of “genocide”, we are witnessing in Ethiopia when the Ethiopian Defense Force is working with the Amhara population hand in hand for peace and the economic development of the region. The fact on the Amhara region shows the federal and local government officials listen to the Amhara region residents’ grievances and the Ethiopian National Defense Force is engaged in farming, planting seeds, and helping the population in the Amhara region to elevate their day-to-day problems. Any government or entity that is engaged in genocide does not assist the population that intended to wipeout. 

It is clear that Genocide is defined as an intentional wiping out of a particular group. The fact in Ethiopia is quite the contrary. The federal and the regional governments are pleading for peace and compromise while the so called “freedom fighters” are displaying their empty bravado and engaged in killing of civilians that they deem are opponents to their cause. 

The Amhara genocide narrative is intended to incite the Amhara people against the government. So far, such tactics have proven to be fatal for the Amhara extremists. Because these extremists have no public support, they resort to “white Terror” with the intention of intimidating and terrorizing the Amhara people hoping to get unconditional support for their objectives. These rebels are killing innocent Amharas every day to instill fear in the hearts and minds of the people. These are the same people who tell us day and night that the existence of the Amhara people is in grave danger. 

The false narrative of genocide may bring funds particularly from the Diaspora to those who use the term to galvanize support, but it will not get the attention of anyone in the international community. The term genocide may work as a good soundbite to exaggerate the events in Ethiopia for those who seek sympathy by playing victims in the political arena; but it will not bring the desired result. The people do not need anyone to tell them whether there is an existential threat to their survival. In every part of Ethiopia, different ethnic groups have lived and continue living with other Ethiopians. The problem the people have is with the politicians who are using their names for their own political gains. 

The government has worked hard and has continued to work hard to bring peace in every part of Ethiopia. Even in the Oromia region, the problem has been in a limited area. Amharas are living in peace in many parts of Oromia. Currently, the government has solved the political violence against ethnic Amharas in Benishangul, and the recent peace agreement with the OLF-Shenie is an indication that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Those who seek peace in Ethiopia need to push the extremist elements to work towards peace instead of throwing fuel to the fire.  

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

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