Ethiopia: Clean Your Act and Cover Your Nakedness
Ghidewon Abay-Asmerom
Tue, 3 Aug 1999

Picture this, you are in a room, with the door wide open, and a deranged person is with you. You are attired with clean and proper raiment, but this other person is as naked as he could be. There is nothing whatsoever on him. You have been telling him and have done your level best to persuade him that he is naked and he needs to get dressed. But to no avail. In fact, he thinks he is dressed and you should be the one to put on some clothing. At this moment an outsider observes your predicament and steps in. He tells the naked-deranged person to get dressed. The deranged guy understands "nakedness" the word, but not the condition or act that leads to it. Out of utter desperation he tries to attack you. This is instead of making an effort to put on clothes so that he can hide his nakedness. As a matter of fact he is infuriated that he is the only one who is told "you are naked". It doesn't cover his nakedness, nonetheless, he frantically goes after your cloth and wants to tear it apart. When that fails, he rushes to the outside crying, clamoring and shouting after the observer who advised him to get dressed. He is shouting and yelling "I am dressed; it is this fellow who is naked". His act now has caught the attention of every body, including the unsuspecting many who never knew of him having any problem let alone insanity that has reached a level that would make him throw his clothing to remain naked.

Amnesty International's May 21 report: "Ethiopia and Eritrea. Human Rights Issues in a Year of Armed Conflict."told Ethiopia "you are naked". Ethiopia's reaction was exactly like what we observed with the deranged person above. You can check Ethiopian Foreign Ministry's response Any person who read the AI report will agree that Amnesty International had found the Woyanes "in the buff", naked. The report in no uncertain terms has exposed the Ethiopian government's atrocities. It has exposed the Ethiopian authorities on what they did, and it has uncovered their lies of accusing Eritrea of mistreating Ethiopians.

In short the report has given a verdict; on every count Ethiopia is found guilty of "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" of Eritreans and Ethiopians of Eritrean origin. On the other hand, this is what the AI report says of Eritrea's treatment of Ethiopians. "Amnesty International does not believe that there has been a systematic policy of ill-treatment of Ethiopians by the government of Eritrea or its security forces."

This postive finding on Eritrea's treatment of Ethiopians must be what is making Addis to blubber. By the way it is also interesting to note Amnesty's paragraph on how the interviews were conducted in both countries. Here it is:

"The delegations visiting Ethiopia and Eritrea aimed to interview victims of human rights violations in as neutral and private a situation as possible and also to receive the views of relevant government officials, members of international organizations and local NGOs. This was to some extent affected by the circumstances of the war and security considerations in going close to military zones and in areas which were at times closed off to all visitors. Thus in Ethiopia, the delegates were accompanied by Foreign Ministry officials to the interview sites outside Addis Ababa. In Eritrea the delegates' visits to the border were facilitated by government officials and the government relief agency (the Eritrean Relief and Refugees Commission (ERREC), although their movements and interviews were unconstrained. Amnesty International does not think its investigations were compromised by these official contacts."

Why was Ethiopia afraid to allow Amnesty's delegation an unconstrained access to the aleged victims? Could it be the "victims" were couched and they have to make sure to be there so that the story doesn't change? What about the following: allowing the ICRC and the UNHCHR to investigate the allegations?

"Amnesty International also called on Eritrea to investigate allegations of ill-treatment and expulsions of Ethiopians in Eritrea. Eritrea replied that it was not deporting or ill-treating Ethiopians, and that it had invited the International Committee of the Red Cross (previously not allowed to operate in Eritrea) and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) to investigate. This offer was not taken up as the UNHCHR wished to investigate on both sides but Ethiopia refused to allow them access because the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights had criticised the expulsion of Eritreans. Ethiopia claimed that the UN High Commissioner was biassed against Ethiopia by not having condemned the Mekele bombings."

We have to admit the report does not give Eritrea a good rating with the bombing of Makele. That is the only place the report criticizes Eritrea.

It assumes the bombing of Makele was a deliberate act and it calls for an independent inquiry into the matter. Here it looks like the report is putting the "cart before the horse". Let an independent inquiry take place and let's see what it finds. Until then AI shouldn't speculate anything. I don't think Eritrea can be afraid of an independent inquiry. But it has to be remembered it was the first operation the Eritrean air force ever undertook and the Eritrean government has admitted that a mistake was made and had publicly apologized for it. This the report acknowledges but it doesn't seem to have made a difference. Let alone for an infant air force like that of Eritrea, even NATO with all its sophisticated satellite imaging and maps had claimed it made a mistake and had bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. Why is Eritrea not being given the benefit of the doubt? The often repeated "proof" for the allegation is that the bombing was done twice. Can't it be that the map the pilot(s) were using was wrong and once the target is misidentified they can hit the target a second time not knowing what they did? This being the case for Eritrea's mistake, the report doesn't give the same treatement of Ethiopia's targeting of civilians in Adi Quala, Sahmbqo, Qinafina, Adi Qeyih, ... In fact these could show that Ethiopia was targeting civilians again and again.

Other than this case with the Makele bombing, over all, IMO, the report seems to have exonerated the Eritrean government. This is what had made the Ethiopian government go berserk. Not that they were found guilty of all counts of human rights violations, but that Eritrea is vindicated. That has to be the cause for their anger.

To some one who doesn't know the behavior of the Ethiopian government its response might be found bemusing to say the least. Instead of shutting up their big mouth and cleaning their dirt and ugly act, they are going public with their incoherent reply. What a shame. Eritrea's record on human rights speaks for itself. In fact if the Eritrean Government has short comings, violating the rights of Ethiopians ain't one of them, and it never had been. We are talking here of a government born out of a liberation front (the EPLF) that had sheltered and taken care of hundreds of thousands of Ethiopian soldiers that had come to destroy Eritrea and Eritreans. The policy and stand of the Eritrean government and the way the Eritrean people have behaved in this conflict is something to be commended. It might be self-praise, but it is an exemplary patience. It is a behavior that should make every Eritrean happy and proud. This behavior of tolerance and good will towards the Ethiopian population should continue not matter what.

As for Ethiopian leaders, it is unfortunate that the world for such a long time had the wrong image of them. The country's leaders had always been deranged and naked, yet many were not able to see Ethiopian leaders' nakedness for what it is. Due to these leaders and an their followers Ethiopia's history, all along, had been a history of lies. As if the people of Ethiopia do not have a history of their own they can be proud of, they have been lied to of a concacted history of 3000 years. All because they want to rule the country claiming "divine selection". The fact of the matter is the country is only 100 or so years old. Ethiopian leaders also tried to present Ethiopia as Christian country, when in fact Christians are in the minority. Again all these was fabricated to get the support of the "Christian west" and in the process to continue subjugating the majority of people who are not Christians. At the same time Ethiopia's leaders are condidered by many naive ones as "civil", even worshiped by some as God, when in fact they have been savage of the savages.

The world also never knows that the Ethiopian empire, as it was beginning to take shape, another Tigrean, Yohannes IV, had orchestrated a mass expulsion. Many Ethiopians were uprooted and expelled for the religion they held. Never mind that it was a religion they had practiced, in Ethiopia, for more than 14 centuries. Even in recent years, way before the war with Eritrea started, the TPLF had been an architect of mass expulsions, communal violences and ethnic cleansing. Ethiopians have talked and written about these in detail. That is, the communal violence the TPLF tried to instigate, and the mass expulsion and ethnic cleansing it is now orchestrating against Ethiopians of Eritrean origin is not its first. It is a continuation of its naked policy of human rights violations. Thanks to AI and Human Rights Watch-Africa the nakedness is being exposed to the world. All along Ethiopian governments have been naked, but now hopefully the world would come to its senses and would see the Ethiopian nakedness for what it is. The advice should be "Ethiopia clean your act and cover your nakedness."