Ethiopia: I am an Amara. "ene Amara negne." By Yilma Bekele

"Ich bin ein Berliner." - "I am a Berliner" Those
words were spoken by President John F.
Kennedy on June 26, 1963 in West Berlin. He
said that to show solidarity with the people of
Berlin after the East Germans with the approval
of the Soviet Union erected the Berlin Wall to
prevent their captive citizens from fleeing to the
west.
The passage I like the most is when he said “Two
thousand years ago, the proudest boast was
civis romanus sum ["I am a Roman citizen"].
Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest
boast is "Ich bin ein Berliner!"... All free men,
wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin,
and therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the
words "Ich bin ein Berliner!"
Today it feels me with so much pride to say all
Ethiopians where ever we live say in unison “ene
Amara negene” Injustice against any of
Ethiopia’s children is injustice to all of her
children. We feel each other’s pain. When one
Ethiopian is marginalized, when a single
Ethiopian is put in harm’s way it is an affront to
each one of us and we all suffer. It was none
other than Martin Luther King Jr. who took
injustice to heart when he declared “he who
passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as
he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts
evil without protesting against it is really
cooperating with it.”
Tell me my fellow Ethiopian. What do you see in
the picture above? It is a picture of people
huddled together. It must be night time, what
are they doing outside in the cold? Why are they
sad? There is no mistaking that they are our
people. I can tell that Ethiopian face from a mile
away. Look at that slender chiseled face, kind
eyes and welcome demeanor. They are our
sisters, brothers, mothers or fathers sitting on
bare soil, with no chairs and it is difficult to tell
whether it is outdoors or inside. There is no
question they seem to be confused, tired, and
sad. Notices the young girl on the left with
barefoot and looking resigned and observe the
father on top right holding his chin and just
seeming to wonder about the dire situation. I
want you to see the child on his mother’s lap
looking sad and his mother looking straight at
the photographer not for pity but seems to be
saying ‘take a good look, don’t forget my ace!’ I
cried because I am human, I hurt because I
cannot be there to hold their hand, rub their
shoulders and ‘whisper it is ok, I am here to
help.’ Oh my God the pain is killing me; it is
tearing my soul apart. Why is this happening to
my people? Why am I witnessing this suffering?
They are not just numbers. They are not
statistics we refer to from some paper. They are
living, breathing human beings. There is no
Ethiopia without them. A house cannot stand
without a foundation and a country does not
exist without people. The people you see above
are Amaras from the region referred to as
Beneshangul/Gumuzl Kilil in Western Ethiopian
that were deported from their own land to
places they don’t even know. They are the
homeless Ethiopians. They are stateless people
within a country called Ethiopia. They are the
surplus Ethiopians. How does such calamity
happen? Was there an invasion by a foreign
forcer? Was there some kind of natural disaster?
Was there a civil war?
No they are the victims of a policy carried out by
a rogue regime gone wild. Their plight is a
calculated and thought out policy put in place by
the regime in power. They are the recipient of a
plan drawn by Meles Zenawi and his friends to
keep our country in perpetual conflict and
destroy Ethiopia from within. This is not an
isolated event or an opportunistic move on the
spur of the moment. No this is a plan drawn
over thirty years ago same as Adolf Hitler’s plan
of what he called to as the ‘Final Solution’ to
annihilate the Jewish people. This is Meles
Zenawi, Sebhat Nega, Seyoum Mesfin, and
Abbay Tshaye’s and company nefarious plan
directed at a single ethnic group. The ‘Final
Solution’ against the Amara people.
Fascist Mussolini in his own evil ways knew that
he cannot conquer Ethiopia without partitioning
us. Thus he divided our country into six units as
follows: 1) Eritrea to include Tigrai – capital
Asmara 2) Amhara to include Begemeder,
Gojjam, Wello and northern Shoa - capital
Gonder 3) Galla and Sidamo –capital Jimma 4)
Addis Abeba 5) Harar 6) Somalia-capital
Mogadishu. Meles Zenawi and his Woyane party
went further and created what we today call
nine Kilils.
He called it Federalism but in actuality it was
South Africa’s Apartheid system in East Africa.
Musoloni and the Italians were in charge of the
six units they created. The white minority
government in South Africa was the boss of all
the Bantustans. In Ethiopia Meles Zenawi with
his Tigrai ethnic based Woyane party ushered a
new era of abuse, conflict, civil war and the
beginning of the destruction of our ancient land.
All Tigray’s are not Woyane. On the other hand
there is no reason to shy away from stating the
obvious-most Tigrais are the beneficiary of the
system set up by Woyane warlords. They are the
number one Ethiopians standing heads high
above all others. This is not hate. This is not a
figment of my imagination. Nothing happens in
Ethiopia without the knowledge and consent of
the Woyane party. This is a very painful
statement to write down but why hide from the
truth.
It is also true that Woyane agents and
provocateurs planted among us are posing as
Amara/Oromo among others and making ugly
and hateful statements directed at our brothers
and sisters from Tigrai ethnic group. This is the
Way Woyane operates and we are all familiar
with that mentality. We should also be aware of
the fact that Woyane has been systematically
attacking Ethiopian history, Ethiopian heritage
and the concept of being an Ethiopian in order
to carry out their goal of setting us against each
other. They have convinced a few gullible
people, uneducated and lumpen individuals that
our country is not worth saving and separation
and going your own way is an option.
We should all try harder not to allow any kind of
hateful speech; any put down of each other
based on ethnicity and should at no time and
place tolerate such ugly and backward behavior.
It is commendable to be proud of one’s
ethnicity and heritage but it is not a license to
attack and degenerate someone from another
group. We do not have choice what ethnic group
to belong to when born, we are what we are. No
one decide ahead to be white or black, to be
Chinese or Indian, to be short of tall or be
female or male. That is all in the hands of a
higher authority. Ignorance and pettiness is
what makes us stressed and lash out against
those we are not familiar with.
Then some evil people like our Woyane warlords
use our weakness to divide us, to be suspicious
of each other and plant the seeds of hatred in
our society. It is a struggle not to be taken by
such propaganda that is intended to make us
feel better even with an empty stomach. Let
alone our old and poor backward country even
the industrialized and educated countries have
not been able to tackle this cancer in their body
politic.
But we Ethiopians are resilient people. The fact
of the matter is over twenty years of hate filled
propaganda by Woyane has not been able to
accomplish their goal of setting us against each
other. Proof in point being during Woyanes
deportation of our Eritrean citizens it was
heartwarming to see our ordinary people crying
and being distressed following the buses that
was hauling our brethren, it was a display of
true Ethiopian love to see the citizens of
Gurafereda washing their hands of Shiferaw
Shigute’s ugly deed and today we are sure that
our citizens of Bena Shangul do not agree with
this current nightmare visited on them by the
new Woyane warlords in Arat Kilo.
Do you really think puppet Shiferaw Shigute of
Southern Region, do you for a second believe
puppet Ahmed Naser Ahmed Of Beneshangul/
Gumuz Kilil will carry out such ugly deed without
the approval and consent of Meles Zenawi then
and Debretsion Gebremichael today? No sir, this
kind activity is carried out with the direction of
the highest body of the party that is run by
Debretsion and company.
It does not do us any good to speculate why
they are doing this criminal act. Why would a
government declare war on its own people is a
question history always tries to answer. It is
nothing new. It has happened before we have
witnessed it unfold all around us. Rwanda was
yesterday, Bosnia is still fresh in our mind and
Gurafereda and Beneshangul are close to our
heart. No matter how you put it in Ethiopia
under the leadership of the Woyane Tigrai based
TPLF party our country is turning into hell on
Earth. Our Gambellan citizens are uprooted from
their ancestral land, Sidama citizens are hunted
like wild animals and the Amaras are the
favorite target of these disturbed and sick
individuals in charge.
Of course we can fight their hatred based
criminal act with more hate. I believe MLK Jr.
said it better when he wrote ‘Darkness cannot
drive ou