The truth about Fano (militia) and the false accusations against it

 The truth about Fano (militia) and the false accusations against it

Eastern Fano 

(Lij Tedla Melaku Worede)

Articles in biased international newspapers have accused the Amhara Fano militia of committing massacres of ethnic others. Fano's description on Wikipedia has also become a subject of controversy where arbitrary and dishonest descriptions of Fano painting it as a genocidal group have aroused controversy and fury as the Wikipedia page was locked to prevent any corrections or editing. The Wikipedia article, rather than fairly and justly explaining the history, ideology, and contexts of Fano's struggle, focuses on criminalizing the group in what seems to build a case to globally defame and neutralize it, associating it with massacres that were committed by opposing forces.

For example, in the Wikipedia article, Fano is described as having been accused of the Mai Kadra Massacre. The article itself admits that the Mai Kadra massacre was committed by TPLF's Tigrayan forces -- who invaded the Amhara region and occupied it for months while committing rapes, massacres, and atrocities -- and cites sources accusing local Tigrayan forces of targeting and massacring Amhara civilians. The statement in the article that the Fano militia is accused of participating in the Mai Kadra massacre is baseless, lacking any source, and intended to shift the blame and attention from the Tigrayan forces that committed the massacre. What's even more baffling is that the TDF (Tigrayan Defense Force) on Wikipedia, though having committed atrocities in Amhara, is described as a heroic freedom fighter without any mention of its crimes against humanity, which Fano was mobilized to resist and protect Amhara civilians from.

In that same (Wikipedia) article, Fano is accused of committing massacres on the Qemant ethnic group. But the context and reality were that there was, and still is, an armed group known as the Qemant Committee based in the Amhara region and allied to the TPLF and OLF (anti-Amhara armed ethnic organizations) that declared its struggle for freedom with a vision to create a Qemant ethnic state by dissolving the Amhara region and thus committing violent attacks and atrocities on ethnic Amharas. The Fano Amhara militia engaged in armed struggle against the Qemant Committee to resist the atrocious crimes that were committed, with TPLF's assistance, on Amhara people in the region. The Wikipedia article and other publications have falsely--and intently--mispresented Fano's resistance for its own survival as a massacre of ethnic Qemants committed by Fano.

Other similar events have also been misconstrued to make believe that Fano is a genocidal ethnic militia force that commits atrocities on ethnic others. The history of Fano has also been intently distorted and misrepresented. Wikipedia states that Fano was created or birthed in the 2010s. But the truth is that Fano signifies Ethiopia's historical popular force, the same popular force that successfully resisted and defeated the Italian colonial forces at Adwa in 1896, and Mussolini's Fascist Italian forces in the 1930s.

The Amhara people urgently appeal that international media and newspapers make the necessary amends and correct course to clear Fano's name of the worldwide defamation campaigns against it propagated by TPLF and OLF sympathizers. Wikipedia must also remove content falsely accusing Fano of massacres and make the necessary corrections.

Lij Tedla Melaku Worede (of የኢትዮጵያ ዘውዳዊ ጉባኤ - Ethiopian Royal Congress)

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CC: Wikipedia, The Economist, Human Rights Watch, FRANCE 24 English, BBC News Africa, TIME, Washington Post, The New York Times, Borkena