When will Ethiopia make peace?

Ethiopia will make peace only when its leaders and intellectuals begin to value the lives of their non-Abyssinian population more than they hate Eritrea and Eritreans.

This statement might sound outrageous, but that is the Abyssinian (Ethiopian) reality. Who among Ethiopians died in the 30-year war (1961-1991) against Eritrea? Who died in the scores of thousands in Bure and Zalambessa (May-June, 1998), Badma (February, 1999) and Egrimakel (February and March 1999)? Those who died were none other than the unfortunate children of South and Central Ethiopia. To Abyssinians, read Tigray + Amhara, non-Abyssinians are expendable. Their lives are not as valuable as that of the Abyssinians and thus they are fenjiregatchs.

If Eritrea's foremost priority has been peace it is not for anything else but because to every Eritrean life is precious and war is not the way to live it. Eritrean traditions respect life and abhor killing. That is also why in many of Eritrea's customary laws, capital punishment was an exception than being the rule. Not so in Abyssinian traditions.

Hating war and abhorring killing of another human being, however, doesn't mean Eritreans fear death. Quite to the contrary if Eritreans face an enemy that doesn't understand any other language but war, then Eritreans, unfortunately, can also speak that language very well. This be as it may, still, Eritreans hate war and are mindful of the lives it consumes. That is why Eritreans have been calling for a JUST PEACE from day one of this conflict. Unfortunately Eritrea's gesture of peace have been answered with Ethiopia's call for war. I don't also think Ethiopian leaders' attitudes will change. I would love to be proved wrong on this, but taking history into account, they will not.

In Eritrea, there is no Eritrean who had laid a life for Eritrea that is regarded less than a martyr. Short of the Deity there is no one in Eritrea, dead or alive, who is accorded a higher honor than an Eritrean martyr. The permanent resting place of Eritrean martyrs has not been decorated graves. For the most part the graves of Eritrean martyrs are still unmarked graves. Yet Eritrea's martyrs have permanent etching in every Eritrean's mind and soul.

Eritrea motivates itself in the name of its martyrs; Eritrea restrains itself in the name of martyrs. In the Tigrigna speaking areas for example the phrase "zban swu'at"(in the name of the martyrs) has become a powerful restraining order against anyone who breaks the law. The power of this phrase doesn't come from a police force that enforces it, but from the moral power that comes from within whenever the memory of martyrs is invoked. The phrase is strong enough to speak to the inner soul of every Eritrean, even to the law-breaker.

In a different aspect, there is no meaningful Eritrean gathering that is either opened or closed without a moment of silence in honor of Eritrea's martyrs. In short, the memory of the sons and daughters of Eritrea that passed to make independent Eritrea a reality governs every Eritrean activity. The nation is grateful for their sacrifice and the population is appreciative of their act of selflessness.

Thus if Eritreans love their country, if they are willing to do what is asked and required of them, and if they are willing to work for peace and development, it is because they want to respect the legacy of Eritrea's martyrs. This is the secret of Eritrea's success. Eritrea's borders are also the legacy of Eritrea's martyrs and as such no body should expect to mess with them and get away free.

Unfortunately Eritrea's respect for human life and for its martyrs is not matched in Ethiopia. If Eritrea's martyrs are treated with respect and honor, the same is not true in Ethiopia. In Ethiopia, particularly in the eyes of the Woyanes, dying for one's country has no significance whatsoever. The hundreds of thousands of EPRDF soldiers who died fighting the tyranny of Mengistu were not given due credit, neither were the hundreds of thousands of Ethiopian soldiers who died for Ethiopia remembered. No body remembers them, no body talks about them and no body acknowledges their sacrifices. There was no effort to remember them, and no effort was made to list them. As long as Ethiopia's attitude to its war victims remains like this and its leaders and intellectuals love to hate Eritrea and Eritreans more than they love their soldiers, there cannot be peace in the Horn of Africa. This is the crux of the matter.

Why this attitude? Why are Abyssinian leaders and intellectuals so callous, why are they so heartless, why are they so insensitive to the fate of their soldiers? The reason is the soldiers are fenjiregatchs, they are of no concern to those in power and to those who aspire to come to power. The fenjiregatchs are people who have no equal rights as Ethiopian citizens. These very same people are the ones who have been paying the heaviest sacrifices for Ethiopia's arrogant adventures and yet their Ethiopianity itself is in question. The disposable subjects of the Ethiopian empire are the ones that had been and still are being fed to Ethiopia's wars and yet when it comes to ruling and administering Ethiopia they are no where to be counted.

Woyane's plan, as that of their predecessors, is to kill two birds with one stone. On the one hand they want to destroy Eritrea and at the same time they want to annihilate the youth of southern and central Ethiopia so that their minority rule will remain unchallenged. How can we expect peace to come out of Finfinie when this is the attitude of Ethiopia's leaders?

When we say south and central Ethiopia we are of course speaking of the fenjiregatchs of Oromia, Wolayta, Hadiya, Sidama,... We are writing about the people whose languages do not count, whose culture is regarded as "uncivilized", and whose Ethiopianity is questioned. These are the people who are relegated to second-class citizenship, in their own land.

Yesterday it was the Amhara chauvinists that oppressed these people and today it is their Tigrean cousins. Yesterday they were labeled as pagans and were a fair game to slavery and "evangelization". Of course the "good news" (evangelion) that was taken to these people was one that says, "adopt Abyssinian way of life and you will be saved."

For years these proud children of Africa have been subjected to horrors that are beyond words. For generations they were forced to abandon their roots and to adopt Amharic as a language and Christianity as a religion. When people talk of Ethiopia it has always been the Ethiopia of the Abyssinians. When people talk of an Ethiopian food, dress or culture it is again they are talking of the Abyssinian food, dress or culture. Search as you may in any descriptions of Ethiopia and Ethiopianess and you would never be able to find a verse let alone a chapter for these "Ethiopians" on whose very resources the Ethiopian Empire state depends. Think of the phrase "are you an Ethiopian?" Think about it. It is meant to be "are you an Abyssinian?" Today these very same people who are not counted as Ethiopians, when it comes to Ethiopian history, are being herded to war fronts as fenjiregatchs.

To add insult to injury some of these people are also now being forced to learn "Wagagoda", an "Esperanto-type synthesis of four languages: Wolayta, Gamo, Gofa and Dawro." To those who are not familiar with the arrogance of Abyssinia this might be very hard to believe, but it is easy to understand if you have been around Amhara and Tigrean chauvinists long enough. This is the sort of arrogance they will never hesitate to do.

Note this; in the doorsteps of the 21st century Ethiopia has a government which is racist enough to tell other people "your language doesn't count; here is a language we created for you in Makele; use it or else we will shoot you!" Save for South African Apartheid even European colonialism, as ugly as it was, had not reached this stage. This is right out of the books of Abyssinian past rulers.

The people of Walyita, Gamo, Gofa and Dawro besides supplying their youth, as fenjiregatchs are now being forced to accept "Wagagoda". This is designed to dilute their age-old tradition and to deny them the right to exist as people. The racist TPLF agenda that started by creating satellite organizations like the OPDO has now reached a stage to tell people "your language is not Ethiopian enough." If the Woyanes want a real Esperanto out of Ethiopia's languages, how come they don't get an Esperanto type of language out of their dialect of Tigrigna and their cousins' language Amharic? After all it is easier for our friends in Makele to read and write in Amharic than in Tigrigna. Could there be a problem if they dispose their language and create a language called AMTI, (from AMharic and TIgrigna) the way they tried to concoct WAGAGODA? Yes there is a reason; Tigrean and Amhara pride would not do it.

Meanwhile and for the sake of peace let the Tigreans and their chauvinist cousins learn to love their non-Abyssinian subjects more than they have learned to hate Eritreans. That way they might earn the right to live in peace. Otherwise they will be consumed in the very fire they have started.