Melles Zenawi-The Color of Eritrean Eyes Have Not Changed
By: Sophia Tesfamariam
February 6, 2004
“The Ethiopian government has the unrestricted right to expel any foreigner
from the country for any reason whatsoever. Any foreigner, whether Eritrean,
Japanese, etc., lives in Ethiopia because of the goodwill of the government.
If the Ethiopian government says ‘Go, because we don’t like the colour of your
eyes,’ they have to leave.”
Prime Minister Melles Zenawi of Ethiopia, July 1998
In what was described then as “Africa’s Kosovo”, the shameless racist leader
of the minority regime in Ethiopia, in 1998 and 1999 deported over 80,000 innocent
Eritreans and Ethiopians of Eritrean origin and confiscated over a billion dollars
worth of their hard earned belongings.
Many deportees who arrived at the Eritrean border had spent all their lives
in Ethiopia, been in possession of Ethiopian identity cards and passports, had
voted as Ethiopian citizens, worked in government offices and owned established
businesses all over Ethiopia. All social groups and ages were included in the
policy of mass expulsion; from Ethiopian disabled war veterans to United Nations
employees, Embassy employees, religious leaders, bedridden elders, rural farmers,
students, humanitarian workers, pregnant women and infants and a former Supreme
Court Judge. Some of the Eritrean deportees had Ethiopian spouses. Thousands
were interned in Blatein, Dedesa and Jalmeda camps and many other secret dungeons.
This racist heinous crime was condemned by a significant number of prominent
personalities and international organizations:
“While the detainees were in custody at police stations, officials searched
for and confiscated their Ethiopian identification documents, including identity
cards, passports, work papers, and driving licenses. Some detainees managed
to hold on to some of their identification documents by hiding them-or because
they had not had a chance to bring the documents with them when they were detained.
The systematic removal or destruction of such documentation was a peremptory
measure to deny the individuals concerned basic evidence to substantiate claims
to Ethiopian nationality at any future time. This confiscation of documents
prior to deportation appears on its face to be recognition of the potential
for such documents to counter Ethiopian government claims that it expelled only
non-nationals. By stripping deportees of their Ethiopian papers the government
was in a sense validating their claims to Ethiopian nationality by foreclosing
the option of their close and independent examination”
It was stupid and ignorant for Melles Zenawi to mention “Japanese” in his racist
statement. This bigoted Tigrayan Prime Minister must have not known that he
was stepping on a landmine that would come back and haunt him forever. That
is what happens to those that are street smart and callous. Trying to justify
his inhumane actions against Eritreans and Ethiopians of Eritrean origin and
look smart, he shamelessly uttered words like “color of your eyes”, “Japanese”
etc. As a leader of a nation such as Ethiopia, one that is endowed with a significant
number of educated citizens, he should have consulted with some of them before
he manifested his bigotry at a global level. I am sure they would have given
him a lesson on racial sensitivity and how all men/women are created equal.
They would have also given him a History 101 lesson, on what happened to the
Japanese in the United States during World War II:
· On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which
resulted in the forcible internment of people of Japanese ancestry. More than
two-thirds of those interned under the Executive Order were citizens of the
United States, and none had ever shown any disloyalty. Approximately 120,000
Japanese-Americans were evacuated from their homes.
· Families had 48 hours to dispose of all their possessions and property and
to gather only those household and personal items they could carry.
· Internment camps were scattered all over the interior West, in isolated desert
areas of Arizona, California, Utah, Idaho, Colorado, and Wyoming, where Japanese-Americans
were forced to carry on their lives under harsh conditions.
· Returning home after the war, the Japanese Americans discovered that nearly
everything they owned was gone. Stored belongings had been stolen. The government
had seized Land, homes, and businesses for unpaid taxes.
· Decades later, in 1988, and after several lawsuits on behalf of victims, the
US government paid $20,000 in compensation to each of the surviving sixty thousand
internees. It was acknowledged at this time that nothing could reverse the enormous
wrong of the past. But the action by Congress helped Americans to close this
unfortunate chapter in their history.
Today, in the Horn of Africa, it is not only the Eritrean people or Ethiopians
of Eritrean origins that have become victims of the bigotry and expansionist
policy of the Tigrayan minority regime in Addis. In Ethiopia, silent genocide
is taking place in Gambela, Oromo, Somalia, Awassa etc. etc. Doug McGill in
his January 19th report stated:
· "…On Saturday, December 13, in a single bloody burst of targeted mass murder,
Ethiopia became the world’s latest sovereign to attempt genocide as a way to
solve its problems …Ethiopian soldiers murdered more than 400 members of the
Anuak tribe"
Moreover, a written statement, which was transmitted on August 20th, 2001 to
the World Conference against racism discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance
stated:
· “The government of Ethiopia has directly and indirectly fostered conflict
and bloodshed between Oromo, Amhara, Isaa, Degodia, Gedeo, Gabre and Sidama
peoples...”
Constant incursions into Somalia, provoking and threatening Djibouti, border
frictions with Kenya and Sudan, have become a common trait of the regime in
Addis.
It is my sincere hope that peace loving and visionary Ethiopians can put an
end to this ugly chapter in their history (as the Americans have done vis a
vis the Japanese issue) by uprooting the Tigrayan, myopic, racist and expansionist
regime, who are a nuisance to the region.