In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future.
When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.
It is for this reason, and not because of the ”weakness of indoctrinational work’, that they are growing up ‘indifferent.’
Young people are acquiring the conviction that foul deeds are never punished on earth, that they always bring prosperity.
It is going to be uncomfortable, horrible, to live in such a country! Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956
How time flies!
Tick tock…tick tock… tick tock…tick tock…
The years fly, but do we remember those who die?
How time stands still! Tick…
The clock stopped.
November 2015 is the 10th year of remembrance for the victims of the Meles Massacres of 2005 in Ethiopia.
I wish there was No-vember!
No Meles.
No TPLF.
No EVIL in No-vember!
Has it really been ten years since November 2005?
Ten years and no justice for the victims of the Meles Massacres?
Ten years and no accountability for those who committed the Meles Massacres?
Ten years and no redress for the victims of the Meles Massacres?
Damn No-vember!
Every November for the last nine years, I have remembered the victims of the Meles Massacres of 2005 by writing a commemorative tribute for their personal sacrifices to establish democracy in Ethiopia.
Meles Zenawi, the late ringleader of a vicious gang of criminal thugs in power in Ethiopia I call the Thugtatorship of the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (T-TPLF), personally ordered the massacre of hundreds of unarmed protesters following the 2005 election.
On May 16, 2005, one day after the general election, Meles Zenawi declared a state of emergency, outlawed all public gatherings and placed under his direct personal command and control all police, security and military forces, and replaced the capital’s city police with “federal” police and special forces.
In the coming weeks and months, Meles personally authorized his commanders and police and security forces to use deadly force against any group or individual who showed opposition to his regime.
Between May and November 2005, the Meles Massacres resulted in the slaughter (by conservative official account) of 193 unarmed protesters and severe gunshot injury to 763 others. (The actual number of victims is much more than the casualties reported by the Inquiry Commission. See footnote 2 below.)
The unarmed protesters were hunted down and shot in the streets and inside their homes simply because they chose to exercise their right to peaceably protest the outcome of Meles’ rigged election.
Those protesters died as martyrs to Ethiopian democracy.
I have remembered the victims of the Meles Massacres for the last nine years, every single week, in my Monday commentaries, or “sermons” as some would like to affectionately refer to them.
I have preached about the wickedness, viciousness, degeneracy, depravity, villainy, atrocity, contemptibility and abominability of Meles Zenawi, when he was alive and post-mortem, and his gang of thugs in power today, the T-TPLF.
I am convinced to ultimate moral certainty that no greater EVIL has befallen Ethiopia than the curse, the blight, the scourge of Meles Zenawi and the T-TPLF.
I joined the struggle for human rights in Ethiopia solely because of the Meles Massacres of 2005.
Meles flippantly and heartlessly called the 2005 massacres, “a traumatic event.”
Like Stalin, Meles believed “A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.”
The wanton massacre of hundreds of unarmed protesters is a “traumatic event”?
For whom?
I doubt it was a “traumatic event” for Meles and his TPLF.
Meles coldly reminded the “people [to] distinguish between riot and demonstrations.”
Incredibly, Meles shamelessly threw his entire police and security force under the bus to exonerate himself from any moral and legal responsibility in the massacres.
Meles said the “post-election violence” was the result of “lack of professionalism on the part of the police force in terms of managing such events. The government recognized that the police were under-trained for the task and under-equipped for the task. As a result we have worked on this and I believe it is now adequately addressed.”
Simply restated, Meles said, “Blame the ignorant militiamen I authorized to use deadly force against the unarmed protesters, not me.”
Meles, the “commander-in-chief” (massacerer-in-chief) sold his troops, lock, stock and barrel, down river to exonerate himself from charges of crimes against humanity.
But Meles and his underlings are directly responsible for the massacres, not just the “under-trained” and “under-equipped” security forces Meles tried to depict as nothing more than clodhopping militiamen.
Meles security forces would not have fired on unarmed protesters over a period of months culminating in the killings of November 1-4, 2005 unless they were given specific authority to shoot-to-kill.
Those responsible for supervision of the security forces could have stopped the killings at the very first instance.
But they did not. Not once. Not ever.
They let the security forces make a killing fields of the streets for months on end.
The fact of the matter is that the security forces Meles tried to underplay as militiamen were equipped with high-powered rifles and so well-trained that they were able to target the heads of the protesters and blow their brains out as Meles’ own Inquiry Commission later confirmed in 2006 following a through investigation.
Those responsible for supervision of the security forces could have brought the killers to justice. They did not because they licensed them to kill innocent demonstrators.
We know the names of the 237 security personnel who pulled the trigger and committed the atrocities in the Meles Massacres.
We also know the names of every single one of the officials from top to bottom involved in executing Meles shoot-to-kill order in 2005.
Let me ask the question again: Why were the killers of the unarmed protesters in 2005 not prosecuted? The T-TPLF regime is swift in prosecuting a few bloggers for writing on social media but is unable to prosecute known criminals against humanity?
The fact of the matter is that the Meles Massacres were part of Meles’ and the T-TPLF’s long-term strategic planning to consolidate power by hook or crook and cling to power indefinitely.
Meles wanted to shock and awe his opponents by massive and indiscriminate use of deadly force.
Meles wanted to communicate the message to friend and foe that he will kill, slaughter and massacre as many people as necessary to maintain himself and his gang of thugs in power indefinitely.
Meles wanted to send a clear message to friend and foe that he is one ruthless, merciless, vicious, vindictive, unforgiving, brutal, vengeful, pitiless, cold-blooded and meaner-than-a-junkyard-dog S.O.B.!
Meles was all those things and more; ain’t no doubt about it!!!
Meles invaded Somalia in violation of international law in 2006 and delivered the same message.
In December 2006, Meles publicly declared he will kick butt in Somalia and be out in two months.
By August 2007, Meles’ expeditionary troops were bogged down in Somalia.
Meles made Somalia “one of the worst humanitarian situations in Africa.”
The Meles invasion of Somalia resulted in the massacre of tens of thousands of Somali civilians and displacement of over 870,000 Somalis from Mogadishu alone. That is an undeniable fact!
Who now remembers the victims of the Meles Massacres in Somalia!?
Meles delivered the same message in the Ogaden region in 2007-08.
Human Rights Watch reported, “The government’s attacks on [Ogadeni] civilians, its trade blockade, and restrictions on aid amount to the illegal collective punishment of tens of thousands of people. Ethiopia’s army has subjected civilians to executions, torture, and rape.”
Who now remembers the victims of the Meles Massacres in the Ogaden?
In Gambella Meles delivered the same message.
In so many other places in Ethiopia, Meles delivered the same message.
Who remembers the victims of the Meles/T-TPLF massacres?
I remember the Meles Massacres of 2005.
Meles coldly reminded the “people [to] distinguish between riot and demonstrations.”
He meant the victims of the massacres were raving and thuggish rioters not ordinary demonstrators.
Let the facts speak:
In 2006, under pressure from his foreign aid quartermasters, Meles established an Inquiry Commission to look into what he euphemistically described as “the post-election disturbances.”
The Inquiry Commission examined 16,990 documents, and received testimony form 1,300 witnesses.
The Inquiry Commission visited prisons and hospitals, and interviewed members of the Meles regime over several months.
The Inquiry Commission by an overwhelming vote concluded Meles Zenawi and his lieutenants are guilty as sin on all counts in the 2005 massacres.
During a Congressional hearing held on November 16, 2006, the Inquiry Commission released its findings.
For the actual video recording of the Inquiry Commission vote on the factual findings CLICK HERE.
For the extended video of the Commission’s final vote proceedings, CLICK HERE.
The Inquiry Commission by an 8-2 vote determined:
There was no property destroyed [by the unarmed protesters].
There was not a single protester who was armed with a gun or a hand grenade (as reported by the government-controlled media that some of the protesters were armed with guns and bombs). [parenthesis original]
Shots fired by government forces were not to disperse the crowd of protesters but to kill by targeting the head and chest of the protester. For this reason, it was clear that the law was violated, and government forces had used excessive force.
Police and security officials intentionally shot and killed 193 persons and wounded 763.
On November 3, 2005, during an alleged disturbance in Kality prison that lasted 15 minutes, prison guards fired more than 1500 bullets into inmate housing units leaving 17 dead, and 53 severely wounded.
There was no evidence that any security officers involved in the shootings were attacked or killed by the demonstrators.
Security forces which are alleged to be killed by demonstrators were not taken to autopsy, even there is no evidence of either photograph or death certificate showing the reason of death and couldn’t be produced for police as opposed to that of civilians.
The Inquiry Commission Chairman Judge Frehiwot Samuel noted:
“Many people were killed arbitrarily. Old men were killed while in their homes, and children were also victims of the attack while playing in the garden.”
During the Meles Massacres over 30,000 civilians were arrested without warrant and held in detention.
There is no evidence whatsoever that the victims of the Meles Massacres were “rioters” or even violent.
Meles and his T-TPLF committed crimes against humanity by massacring unarmed demonstrators.
They say time heals all wounds and you forget.
It does not, if “healing” means forgetting the crimes against humanity committed by Meles and his T-TPLF in the aftermath of the 2005 election.
Every single Monday for the past nine years, without missing a single week, I have written a commentary in remembrance of the innocent victims of the Meles Massacres.
Some people express amazement how I can manage to write every single Monday commentaries in thousands of words.
The answer is simple: I promised the victims of the Meles Massacres that I will be their voice for as long as the Good Lord allows me to speak out for them.
I was once asked why I care so much about people I have never seen, met or heard of. “You have to let it go, man!”
I am tempted to ask, “Would you let it go if the victims were your mother, father, brother, sister, friend…?”
They become silent as the grave.
Of course, none of the victims of the Meles Massacres are related to me. I know none of them.
Does that mean the crimes committed against them must be forgotten? Ignored?
Elie Wiesel said, “There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”
It is true that I am powerless to prevent injustice or bring to justice those who have committed the ultimate injustice.
But I am not and will never be powerless in speaking up against injustice and in shrilly protesting crimes against humanity.
There must never be a time when we become indifferent to the suffering of others, no matter their race, nationality, religion…
Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.”
I say living life in silence without lashing out in outrage against man’s inhumanity to man — brutality, injustice, oppression and abuse — is not worth living.
It is true I do not know any of the victims of the Meles Massacres.
But I know that every one of the victims is the daughter, son, father, mother, uncle, aunt, cousin or friend of someone who is alive today.
I know each one of the victims left behind a father, mother, daughter, son, uncle, aunt, cousin or friend who is brokenhearted and misses them dearly.
I know all of the victims came from humble backgrounds. None of them were fat cats living high on the hog of corruption and predation.
I know no one has stood up, challenged the T-TPLF and sought compensation for the survivors of the victims.
I know no one will even dare to hold the T-TPLF legally accountable for the crimes against humanity committed in the Meles Massacres.
I know the family members and survivors of the Meles Massacres have no one to speak on their behalf consistently and relentlessly inside or outside of the country.
I know the family members and survivors of the Meles Massacres have no one to seek justice for their loved ones.
I know the family members and survivors of the Meles Massacres have no one to stand up for them; to remember them every day and every week and bring those who committed the massacres to justice.
But I have tried to be a voice for the victims of the Meles Massacres.
I take no special credit for what little I have done to plead their cause before the court of international public opinion every single week for the last nine years.
No amount of vainglory could sustain nine years of relentless struggle against EVIL.
I am the voice of the victims of the Meles Massacres but I have no illusions about my bootless cries.
I know mine is voice in the wilderness calling for the way of justice to be made as once prophesied.
Is November doomed to be the cruelest month of all?
As I remember the Meles Massacres of November 2005, I remember the innocent victims of EVIL in Paris.
In April 2015, the apotheosis of EVIL which calls itself “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant” (ISIL) (also known as Islamic State of Iraq and (Syria) al-Sham (ISIS)) in Libya” beheaded 30 Ethiopian refugees in Libya.
On Friday November 13, 2015, the same ISIL massacred and injured hundreds of innocent people in Paris.
ISIL said it was defending Islam by massacring innocent French citizens and people from 15 countries who happened to be in Paris.
To paraphrase Shakespeare, “The devil can cite the Ko’ran for his purpose.”
I remember and pray for the innocent victims of ISIL in Paris and for the Ethiopian victims beheaded by ISIL in Libya.
I also remember November 1938, the Night of Broken Glass when EVIL showed its ugly face to the world.
On 9-10 November 1938, the Nazis killed nearly 100 innocent Jewish people and arrested and deported 30,000 others.
The Nazis burned thousands of Jewish synagogues and businesses. That was Krystallnacht (Night of Broken Glass). It was the forerunner to the Jewish Holocaust.
Who remembers the victims of Krystallnacht?
The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it,” cautioned Albert Einstein.
I would say Ethiopia is a dangerous place to live, not because of the evil rulers, but because of Ethiopian inside Ethiopia and the Diaspora don’t do anything about it.
EVIL must never be allowed to prevail in November, December, October, September…
Oh! Cruel is the month of November.
In the melancholy verse of Thomas Hood:
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member–
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds,
November!
In my own free verse, “No Justice for the Victims of the Meles Massacres of November”:
No justice for the hundreds Meles massacred,
No redress for the countless men, women and children,
No restitution for the survivors or victims’ families.
No reprieve for the tens of thousands illegally jailed,
No trace of those who disappeared,
No atonement for the Meles crimes of September, October, November, December….
No absolution for the Meles slaughter of November…,
No repeat of November,
November is to remember.
I remember because I cannot and will not forget! Never!
I remember the victims of the 2005 Meles Massacres.
I remember each and every one of them.
They are not numbers for me.
For me, each individual Meles and his T-TPLF gang massacred and maimed is special.
I remember the young women who will never get to be mothers.
I remember the young men who will never get to be fathers.
I remember the orphans whose parents were massacred.
I remember the fathers and mothers who will never get to see their children and never have a chance to see their grandchildren because Meles and the TPLF massacred them all.
I do not forget the criminals in the Meles Massacres.
I do not forget the 237 policemen by name who pulled the trigger.
I do not forget the damnable mastermind and the arch criminals who set up the massacres and pulled the fingers of the policemen who pulled the trigger.
I will always remember in November, and in December and in January and in February and in April…
Rebuma E. Ergata, 34, mason; Melesachew D. Alemnew, 16, student; Hadra S. Osman, 22, occup. unknown; Jafar S. Ibrahim, 28, sm. business; Mekonnen, 17, occup. unknown; Woldesemayat, 27, unemployed; Beharu M. Demlew, occup. unknown; Fekade Negash, 25, mechanic; Abraham Yilma, 17, taxi; Yared B. Eshete, 23, sm. business; Kebede W. G. Hiwot, 17, student; Matios G. Filfilu, 14, student;Getnet A. Wedajo, 48, Sm. business; Endalkachew M. Hunde, 18, occup. unknown; Kasim A. Rashid, 21, mechanic; Imam A. Shewmoli, 22, sm. business; Alye Y. Issa, 20, laborer; Samson N. Yakob, 23, pub. trspt.; Alebalew A. Abebe, 18, student; Beleyu B. Za, 18, trspt. asst.; Yusuf A. Jamal, 23, occup. student; Abraham S. W. Agenehu, 23, trspt. asst.; Mohammed H. Beka, 45, farmer; Redela K. Awel, 19, taxi Assit., Habtamu A. Urgaa, 30, sm. Business. Dawit F. Tsegaye, 19, mechanic; Gezahegne M. Geremew, 15, student; Yonas A. Abera, 24, occup. unknown; Girma A. Wolde, 38, driver; W/o Desta U. Birru, 37, sm. business; Legese T. Feyisa, 60, mason; Tesfaye D. Bushra, 19, shoe repairman; Binyam D. Degefa, 18, unemployed.
Million K. Robi, 32, trspt. asst.; Derege D. Dene, 24, student; Nebiyu A. Haile, 16, student; Mitiku U. Mwalenda, 24, domestic worker; Anwar K. Surur, 22, sm. business; Niguse Wabegn, 36, domestic worker; Zulfa S. Hasen, 50, housewife; Washun Kebede, 16, student; Ermia F. Ketema, 20, student; 00428, 25, occup. unknown; 00429, 26, occup. unknown; 00430, 30, occup. unknown; Adissu Belachew, 25, occup. unknown; Demeke K. Abebe,uk, occup. unknown; 00432, 22, occup. unknown; 00450, 20, occup. unknown; 13903, 25, occup. unknown; 00435, 30, occup. unknown. 13906, 25, occup. unknown; Temam Muktar, 25, occup. unknown; Beyne N. Beza, 25, occup. unknown; Wesen Asefa, 25, occup. unknown; Abebe Anteneh, 30, occup. unknow; Fekadu Haile, 25, occup. unknow; Elias Golte, uk, occup. unknown; Berhanu A. Werqa, uk, occup. unknown.
Asehber A. Mekuria, uk, occup. unknown; Dawit F. Sema, uk, occup. unknown, Merhatsedk Sirak, 22, occup. unknown; Belete Gashawtena, uk, occup. unknown; Behailu Tesfaye, 20, occup. unknown; 21760, 18, occup. unknown; 21523, 25, occup. unknown; 11657, 24, occup. unknown; 21520, 25, occup. unknown; 21781, 60, occup. unknown; Getachew Azeze, 45, occup. unknown; 21762, 75, occup. unknown; 11662,45, occup. unknown; 21763, 25, occup. unknown; 13087, 30, occup. unknown; 21571, 25, occup. unknown; 21761, 21, occup. unknown; 21569, 25, occup. unknown; 13088, 30, occup. unknown; Endalkachew W. Gabriel, 27, occup. unknown.
Hailemariam Ambaye, 20, occup. unknown; Mebratu W. Zaudu,27, occup. unknown; Sintayehu E. Beyene, 14, occup. unknown; Tamiru Hailemichael, uk, occup. unknown; Admasu T. Abebe, 45, occup. unknown; Etenesh Yimam, 50, occup. unknown; Werqe Abebe, 19, occup. unknown; Fekadu Degefe, 27, occup. unknown Shemsu Kalid, 25, occup. unknown; Abduwahib Ahmedin, 30, occup. unknown; Takele Debele, 20, occup. unknown, Tadesse Feyisa,38, occup. unknown; Solomon Tesfaye, 25, occup. unknown; Kitaw Werqu, 25, occup. nknown; Endalkachew Worqu, 25, occup. unknow; Desta A. Negash, 30, occup. unknown; Yilef Nega, 15, occup. unknown; Yohannes Haile, 20, occup. unknown; Behailu T. Berhanu, 30, occup. unknown; Mulu K. Soresa, 50, housewife, Teodros Gidey Hailu, 23, shoe salesman; Dejene Yilma Gebre, 18, store worker; Ougahun Woldegebriel, 18, student; Dereje Mamo Hasen, 27, carpenter.
Regassa G. Feyisa, 55, laundry worker; Teodros Gebrewold, 28, private business; Mekonne D. G.Egziaber, 20, mechanic; Elias G. Giorgis, 23, student; Abram A. Mekonnen, 21, laborer; Tiruwerq G.Tsadik, 41, housewife; Henok H. Mekonnen; 28, occup. unknown; Getu S. Mereta, 24, occup. unknown;W/o Kibnesh Meke Tadesse, 52, occup. unknown; Messay A. Sitotaw, 29, private business; Mulualem N. Weyisa, 15, Ayalsew Mamo, 23, occup. unknown; Sintayehu Melese, 24, laborer; W/o Tsedale A. Birra, 50, housewife; Abayneh Sara Sede, 35, tailor; Fikremariam K. Telila, 18, chauffer; Alemayehu Gerba, 26, occup. unknown; George G. Abebe,36, private trspt.; Habtamu Zegeye Tola, 16, student; Mitiku Z. G. Selassie, 24, student; Tezazu W. Mekruia, 24, private business; Fikadu A. Dalige, 36, tailor; Shewaga B. W.Giorgis, 38, laborer; Alemayehu E. Zewde, 32, textile worker; Zelalem K. G.Tsadik, 31, taxi driver; Mekoya M. Tadesse, 19, student; Hayleye G. Hussien, 19, student; W/o Fiseha T. G.Tsadik, 23, police employee; Wegayehu Z. Argaw, 26, unemployed.
Melaku M. Kebede, 19, occup. unknown; Abayneh D. Orra, 25, tailor; W/o Abebch B. Holetu, 50, housewife; Demeke A. Jenbere, 30, farmer; Kinde M. Weresu, 22, unemployed; Endale A. G.Medhin, 23, private business; Alemayehu T. Wolde,24, teacher; Bisrat T. Demisse, 24, car importer; Mesfin H. Giorgis, 23, private business, Welio H. Dari, 18, private business, Behailu G. G.Medhin, 20, private business; Siraj Nuri Sayed, 18, student; Iyob G.Medhin, 25, student; Daniel W. Mulugeta,25, laborer; Teodros K. Degefa,25, shoe factory worker; Gashaw T. Mulugeta, 24, student; Kebede B. Orke, 22, student; Lechisa K. Fatasa, 21, student; Jagama B. Besha,20, student; Debela O. Guta, 15, student; Melaku T. Feyisa, 16, student; W/o Elfnesh Tekle, 45, occup. unknown; Hassen Dula, 64, occup. unknown; Hussien Hassen Dula, 25, occup. unknown; Dejene Demisse,15, occup. unknown; Name unknown; Name unknown; Name unknown; Zemedkun Agdew, 18, occup. unknown; Getachew A. Terefe, 16, occup. unknown; Delelegn K. Alemu, 20, occup. unknown; Yusef M. Oumer,20, occup. unknown.
Mekruria T. Tebedge, 22, occup. unknown; Bademe M. Teshamahu, 20, occup. unknown; Ambaw Getahun,38, occup. unknown; Teshome A. Kidane, 65, health worker; Yosef M. Regassa, uk, occup. unknown; Abiyu Negussie, uk, occup. uk; Tadele S. Behaga,uk, occup. unknown; Efrem T. Shafi,uk, occup. unknown; Abebe H. Hama, uk, occup. unknown; Gebre Molla, uk, occup. unknown; Seydeen Nurudeen, uk, occup. unknown; Eneyew G. Tsegaye, 32, trspt. asst; Abdurahman H. Ferej, 32, wood worker; Ambaw L. Bitul, 60, leather factory worker; Abdulmenan Hussien, 28, private business; Jigsa T. Setegn, 18, student; Asefa A. Negassa, 33, carpenter; Ketema K. Unko, 23, tailor; Kibret E. Elfneh, 48, private guard; Iyob G. Zemedkun, 24, private business; Tesfaye B. Megesha,15, private business; Capt. Debesa S. Tolosa, 58, private business;Tinsae M. Zegeye,14, tailor;Kidana G. Shukrow,25, laborer;Andualem Shibelew, 16, student; Adissu D. Tesfahun, 19, private business; Kassa Beyene Yror,28, clothes sales; Yitagesu Sisay,22, occup. unknown; Unknown, 22, occup. unknown.
Police and security officers killed by friendly fire (security officers killed in each other’s crossfire): Nega Gebre, Jebena Desalegn, Mulita Irko, Yohannes Solomon, Ashenafi Desalegn, Feyisa Gebremenfes.
I remember the massacres inside Kaliti Prison on November 2, 2005:
Teyib Shemsu Mohammed, age unknown, male, charged with instigating armed insurrection. Sali Kebede, age unknown, male, no charges indicated. Sefiw Endrias Tafesse Woreda, age unknown, male, charged with rape. Zegeye Tenkolu Belay, age unknown, male, charged with robbery. Biyadgligne Tamene, age unknown, male, charges unknown. Gebre Mesfin Dagne, age unknown, male, charges unknown. Bekele Abraham Taye, age unknown, male, charged with hooliganism. Abesha Guta Mola, age unknown, male, charges unknown. Kurfa Melka Telila, convicted of making threats. Begashaw Terefe Gudeta, age unknown, male, charged with brawling [breach of peace]. Abdulwehab Ahmedin, age unknown, male, charged with robbery. Tesfaye Abiy Mulugeta, age unknown, male, charged with instigating armed insurrection. Adane Bireda, age unknown, male, charged with murder. Yirdaw Kersema, age unknown, male, no charges indicated.
Balcha Alemu Regassa, age unknown, male, charged with robbery. Abush Belew Wodajo, age unknown, male, no charges indicated. Waleligne Tamire Belay, age unknown, male, charged with rape. Cherinet Haile Tolla, age unknown, male, convicted of robbery. Temam Shemsu Gole, age unknown, male, no charges indicated. Gebeyehu Bekele Alene, age unknown, male, no charges indicated. Daniel Taye Leku, age unknown, male, no charges indicated. Mohammed Tuji Kene, age unknown, male, no charges indicated. Abdu Nejib Nur, age unknown, male, no charges indicated. Yemataw Serbelo, charged with rape. Fikru Natna’el Sewneh, age unknown, male, charged with making threats. Munir Kelil Adem, age unknown, male, charged with hooliganism. Haimanot Bedlu Teshome, age unknown, male, convicted of infringement. esfaye Kibrom Tekne, age unknown, male, charged with robbery. Workneh Teferra Hunde, age unknown, male, no charges indicated.
Sisay Mitiku Hunegne, charged with fraud. Muluneh Aynalem Mamo, age unknown, male, no charges indicated. Taddese Rufe Yeneneh, charged with making threats. Anteneh Beyecha Qebeta, age unknown, male, charged with instigating armed insurrection. Zerihun Meresa, age unknown, male, convicted of damage to property. Wogayehu Zerihun Argaw, charged with robbery. Bekelkay Tamiru, age unknown, male, no charges indicated. Yeraswork Anteneh, age unknown, male, charged with fraud. Bazezew Berhanu, age unknown, male, charged with engaging in homosexual act. Solomon Iyob Guta, age unknown, male, charged with rape. Asayu Mitiku Arage, age unknown, male, charged with making threats. Game Hailu Zeye, age unknown, male, charged with brawling [public disorder] Maru Enawgaw Dinbere, age unknown, male, charged with rape. Ejigu Minale, age unknown, male, charged with attempted murder. Hailu Bosne Habib, age unknown, male, convicted of providing sanctuary. Tilahun Meseret, age unknown, male, no charges indicated. Negusse Belayneh, age unknown, male, charged with robbery. Ashenafi Abebaw, age unknown, male, no charges indicated. Feleke Dinke, age unknown, male, no charges indicated. Jenbere Dinkineh Bilew, age unknown, male, charged with brawling [public disorder].
Tolesa Worku Debebe, age unknown, male, charged with robbery. Mekasha Belayneh Tamiru, age unknown, male, charged with hooliganism. Yifru Aderaw, age unknown, male, no charges indicated. Fantahun Dagne, age unknown, male, no charges indicated. Tibebe Wakene Tufa, age unknown, male, charged with instigating armed insurrection. Solomon Gebre Amlak, age unknown, male, charged with hooliganism. Banjaw Chuchu Kassahun, age unknown, male, charged with robbery. Demeke Abeje, age unknown, male, charged with attempted murder. 58. Endale Ewnetu Mengiste, age unknown, male, no charges indicated. Alemayehu Garba, age unknown, male, detained in connection with Addis Ababa University student demonstration in 2004. Morkota Edosa, age unknown, male, no charges indicated.
I remember Yenesew Gebre.
On 11/11/11, Yenesew Gebre, a 29 year-old Ethiopian school teacher and human rights activist set himself ablaze outside a public meeting hall in the town of Tarcha located in Dawro Zone in Southern Ethiopia.
Yenesew died three days later from his injuries.
Before torching himself, Yenesew told a gathered crowd outside of a meeting hall:
“In a country where there is no justice and no fair administration, where human rights are not respected, I will sacrifice myself so that these young people will be set free.”
Hannah Arendt spoke of the “banality of evil”, the evil committed by ordinary people in the name of the state, in the name of religion, ideology…
I am more concerned about the ephemerality of evil that spawns indifference.
In our time, an act of supreme evil in our conscience has the shelf life of an ice cube in the hot sun.
We are desensitized to evil.
We are shocked but for a day; we wait stoically for the next act of evil.
We have become indifferent to evil. Evil has sapped our moral energy. Evil has enervated our souls.
We no longer have the energy to explode in moral outrage.
Indifference has been the death of moral outrage.
On the ashes of moral outrage stands EVIL triumphant.
SPEAK UP! SILENCE IS TO EVIL AS SUGAR IS TO CANCER
Solzhenitsyn is right.
In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future.
When we keep silent about the EVIL of the T-TPLF and its leaders, supporters and cronies, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future.
Solzhenitsyn is right.
When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.
When we neither punish nor reproach the T-TPLF evildoers, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.
Solzhenitsyn is right.
Young people are acquiring the conviction that foul deeds are never punished on earth, that they always bring prosperity. They are growing up indifferent.
Many young Ethiopians are acquiring the conviction that the foul deeds of the T-TPLF leaders, supporters and cronies are never punished on earth and following their always bring prosperity. Young Ethiopians are growing up indifferent.
As Soviet Russia was an open air Gulag for its people, I believe Ethiopia under the T-TPLF is an open air Gulag for 100 million Ethiopians.
Like Soviet Russia, under the T-TPLF rule, “it is going to be uncomfortable, horrible, to live in such a country!”
“It is for this reason” that Yenesew Gebre ended his life with the following words: “In a country where there is no justice and no fair administration, where human rights are not respected, I will sacrifice myself so that these young people will be set free.”
May the victims of the Meles Massacres of 2005 rest in peace.
May their murderers live forever looking over their shoulders in fear that the hand of justice will one day grab them by the collar.
DO YOU REMEMBER THE VICITMS OF THE MELES MASSACRES OF 2005?
======================
[1] For additional data on the victims of the Meles Massacres, see Testimony of Yared Hailemariam, Ethiopian Human Rights Defender, “CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY IN ETHIOPIA: THE ADDIS ABABA MASSACRES OF JUNE AND NOVEMBER 2005” before the EXTRAORDINARY JOINT COMMITTEE MEETING THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT COMMITTEES ON DEVELOPMENT AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS, AND SUB-COMMITTEE ON HUMAN RIGHTS May 15, 2006.
[2] The Commission’s list of 193 victims includes only those deaths that occurred on June 6-8 and November 1-4, 2005, the specific dates the Commission was authorized to investigate. The Commission has an additional list of victims of extra-judicial killings by regime police and security forces which it did not publicly report because the killings occurred outside the dates the Commission was authorized to investigate.
Remembering the Meles Massacres of 2005 in Ethiopia Ten Years After
Posted in Al Mariam's Commentaries By almariam On November 13, 2015How time flies!
Tick tock…tick tock… tick tock…tick tock…
The years fly, but do we remember those who die?
How time stands still! Tick…
The clock stopped.
November 2015 is the 10th year of remembrance for the victims of the Meles Massacres of 2005 in Ethiopia.
I wish there was No-vember!
No Meles.
No TPLF.
No EVIL in No-vember!
Has it really been ten years since November 2005?
Ten years and no justice for the victims of the Meles Massacres?
Ten years and no accountability for those who committed the Meles Massacres?
Ten years and no redress for the victims of the Meles Massacres?
Damn No-vember!
Every November for the last nine years, I have remembered the victims of the Meles Massacres of 2005 by writing a commemorative tribute for their personal sacrifices to establish democracy in Ethiopia.
Meles Zenawi, the late ringleader of a vicious gang of criminal thugs in power in Ethiopia I call the Thugtatorship of the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (T-TPLF), personally ordered the massacre of hundreds of unarmed protesters following the 2005 election.
On May 16, 2005, one day after the general election, Meles Zenawi declared a state of emergency, outlawed all public gatherings and placed under his direct personal command and control all police, security and military forces, and replaced the capital’s city police with “federal” police and special forces.
In the coming weeks and months, Meles personally authorized his commanders and police and security forces to use deadly force against any group or individual who showed opposition to his regime.
Between May and November 2005, the Meles Massacres resulted in the slaughter (by conservative official account) of 193 unarmed protesters and severe gunshot injury to 763 others. (The actual number of victims is much more than the casualties reported by the Inquiry Commission. See footnote 2 below.)
The unarmed protesters were hunted down and shot in the streets and inside their homes simply because they chose to exercise their right to peaceably protest the outcome of Meles’ rigged election.
Those protesters died as martyrs to Ethiopian democracy.
I have remembered the victims of the Meles Massacres for the last nine years, every single week, in my Monday commentaries, or “sermons” as some would like to affectionately refer to them.
I have preached about the wickedness, viciousness, degeneracy, depravity, villainy, atrocity, contemptibility and abominability of Meles Zenawi, when he was alive and post-mortem, and his gang of thugs in power today, the T-TPLF.
I am convinced to ultimate moral certainty that no greater EVIL has befallen Ethiopia than the curse, the blight, the scourge of Meles Zenawi and the T-TPLF.
I joined the struggle for human rights in Ethiopia solely because of the Meles Massacres of 2005.
Meles flippantly and heartlessly called the 2005 massacres, “a traumatic event.”
Like Stalin, Meles believed “A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.”
The wanton massacre of hundreds of unarmed protesters is a “traumatic event”?
For whom?
I doubt it was a “traumatic event” for Meles and his TPLF.
Meles coldly reminded the “people [to] distinguish between riot and demonstrations.”
Incredibly, Meles shamelessly threw his entire police and security force under the bus to exonerate himself from any moral and legal responsibility in the massacres.
Simply restated, Meles said, “Blame the ignorant militiamen I authorized to use deadly force against the unarmed protesters, not me.”
Meles, the “commander-in-chief” (massacerer-in-chief) sold his troops, lock, stock and barrel, down river to exonerate himself from charges of crimes against humanity.
But Meles and his underlings are directly responsible for the massacres, not just the “under-trained” and “under-equipped” security forces Meles tried to depict as nothing more than clodhopping militiamen.
Meles security forces would not have fired on unarmed protesters over a period of months culminating in the killings of November 1-4, 2005 unless they were given specific authority to shoot-to-kill.
Those responsible for supervision of the security forces could have stopped the killings at the very first instance.
But they did not. Not once. Not ever.
They let the security forces make a killing fields of the streets for months on end.
The fact of the matter is that the security forces Meles tried to underplay as militiamen were equipped with high-powered rifles and so well-trained that they were able to target the heads of the protesters and blow their brains out as Meles’ own Inquiry Commission later confirmed in 2006 following a through investigation.
Those responsible for supervision of the security forces could have brought the killers to justice. They did not because they licensed them to kill innocent demonstrators.
We know the names of the 237 security personnel who pulled the trigger and committed the atrocities in the Meles Massacres.
We also know the names of every single one of the officials from top to bottom involved in executing Meles shoot-to-kill order in 2005.
Let me ask the question again: Why were the killers of the unarmed protesters in 2005 not prosecuted? The T-TPLF regime is swift in prosecuting a few bloggers for writing on social media but is unable to prosecute known criminals against humanity?
The fact of the matter is that the Meles Massacres were part of Meles’ and the T-TPLF’s long-term strategic planning to consolidate power by hook or crook and cling to power indefinitely.
Meles wanted to shock and awe his opponents by massive and indiscriminate use of deadly force.
Meles wanted to communicate the message to friend and foe that he will kill, slaughter and massacre as many people as necessary to maintain himself and his gang of thugs in power indefinitely.
Meles wanted to send a clear message to friend and foe that he is one ruthless, merciless, vicious, vindictive, unforgiving, brutal, vengeful, pitiless, cold-blooded and meaner-than-a-junkyard-dog S.O.B.!
Meles was all those things and more; ain’t no doubt about it!!!
Meles invaded Somalia in violation of international law in 2006 and delivered the same message.
In December 2006, Meles publicly declared he will kick butt in Somalia and be out in two months.
By August 2007, Meles’ expeditionary troops were bogged down in Somalia.
Meles made Somalia “one of the worst humanitarian situations in Africa.”
The Meles invasion of Somalia resulted in the massacre of tens of thousands of Somali civilians and displacement of over 870,000 Somalis from Mogadishu alone. That is an undeniable fact!
Who now remembers the victims of the Meles Massacres in Somalia!?
Meles delivered the same message in the Ogaden region in 2007-08.
Human Rights Watch reported, “The government’s attacks on [Ogadeni] civilians, its trade blockade, and restrictions on aid amount to the illegal collective punishment of tens of thousands of people. Ethiopia’s army has subjected civilians to executions, torture, and rape.”
Who now remembers the victims of the Meles Massacres in the Ogaden?
In Gambella Meles delivered the same message.
In so many other places in Ethiopia, Meles delivered the same message.
Who remembers the victims of the Meles/T-TPLF massacres?
I remember the Meles Massacres of 2005.
Meles coldly reminded the “people [to] distinguish between riot and demonstrations.”
He meant the victims of the massacres were raving and thuggish rioters not ordinary demonstrators.
Let the facts speak:
In 2006, under pressure from his foreign aid quartermasters, Meles established an Inquiry Commission to look into what he euphemistically described as “the post-election disturbances.”
The Inquiry Commission examined 16,990 documents, and received testimony form 1,300 witnesses.
The Inquiry Commission visited prisons and hospitals, and interviewed members of the Meles regime over several months.
The Inquiry Commission by an overwhelming vote concluded Meles Zenawi and his lieutenants are guilty as sin on all counts in the 2005 massacres.
During a Congressional hearing held on November 16, 2006, the Inquiry Commission released its findings.
For the actual video recording of the Inquiry Commission vote on the factual findings CLICK HERE.
For the extended video of the Commission’s final vote proceedings, CLICK HERE.
The Inquiry Commission by an 8-2 vote determined:
The Inquiry Commission Chairman Judge Frehiwot Samuel noted:
During the Meles Massacres over 30,000 civilians were arrested without warrant and held in detention.
There is no evidence whatsoever that the victims of the Meles Massacres were “rioters” or even violent.
Meles and his T-TPLF committed crimes against humanity by massacring unarmed demonstrators.
They say time heals all wounds and you forget.
It does not, if “healing” means forgetting the crimes against humanity committed by Meles and his T-TPLF in the aftermath of the 2005 election.
Every single Monday for the past nine years, without missing a single week, I have written a commentary in remembrance of the innocent victims of the Meles Massacres.
Some people express amazement how I can manage to write every single Monday commentaries in thousands of words.
The answer is simple: I promised the victims of the Meles Massacres that I will be their voice for as long as the Good Lord allows me to speak out for them.
I was once asked why I care so much about people I have never seen, met or heard of. “You have to let it go, man!”
I am tempted to ask, “Would you let it go if the victims were your mother, father, brother, sister, friend…?”
They become silent as the grave.
Of course, none of the victims of the Meles Massacres are related to me. I know none of them.
Does that mean the crimes committed against them must be forgotten? Ignored?
Elie Wiesel said, “There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”
It is true that I am powerless to prevent injustice or bring to justice those who have committed the ultimate injustice.
But I am not and will never be powerless in speaking up against injustice and in shrilly protesting crimes against humanity.
There must never be a time when we become indifferent to the suffering of others, no matter their race, nationality, religion…
Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.”
I say living life in silence without lashing out in outrage against man’s inhumanity to man — brutality, injustice, oppression and abuse — is not worth living.
It is true I do not know any of the victims of the Meles Massacres.
But I know that every one of the victims is the daughter, son, father, mother, uncle, aunt, cousin or friend of someone who is alive today.
I know each one of the victims left behind a father, mother, daughter, son, uncle, aunt, cousin or friend who is brokenhearted and misses them dearly.
I know all of the victims came from humble backgrounds. None of them were fat cats living high on the hog of corruption and predation.
I know no one has stood up, challenged the T-TPLF and sought compensation for the survivors of the victims.
I know no one will even dare to hold the T-TPLF legally accountable for the crimes against humanity committed in the Meles Massacres.
I know the family members and survivors of the Meles Massacres have no one to speak on their behalf consistently and relentlessly inside or outside of the country.
I know the family members and survivors of the Meles Massacres have no one to seek justice for their loved ones.
I know the family members and survivors of the Meles Massacres have no one to stand up for them; to remember them every day and every week and bring those who committed the massacres to justice.
But I have tried to be a voice for the victims of the Meles Massacres.
I take no special credit for what little I have done to plead their cause before the court of international public opinion every single week for the last nine years.
No amount of vainglory could sustain nine years of relentless struggle against EVIL.
I am the voice of the victims of the Meles Massacres but I have no illusions about my bootless cries.
I know mine is voice in the wilderness calling for the way of justice to be made as once prophesied.
Is November doomed to be the cruelest month of all?
As I remember the Meles Massacres of November 2005, I remember the innocent victims of EVIL in Paris.
In April 2015, the apotheosis of EVIL which calls itself “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant” (ISIL) (also known as Islamic State of Iraq and (Syria) al-Sham (ISIS)) in Libya” beheaded 30 Ethiopian refugees in Libya.
On Friday November 13, 2015, the same ISIL massacred and injured hundreds of innocent people in Paris.
ISIL said it was defending Islam by massacring innocent French citizens and people from 15 countries who happened to be in Paris.
To paraphrase Shakespeare, “The devil can cite the Ko’ran for his purpose.”
I remember and pray for the innocent victims of ISIL in Paris and for the Ethiopian victims beheaded by ISIL in Libya.
I also remember November 1938, the Night of Broken Glass when EVIL showed its ugly face to the world.
On 9-10 November 1938, the Nazis killed nearly 100 innocent Jewish people and arrested and deported 30,000 others.
The Nazis burned thousands of Jewish synagogues and businesses. That was Krystallnacht (Night of Broken Glass). It was the forerunner to the Jewish Holocaust.
Who remembers the victims of Krystallnacht?
The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it,” cautioned Albert Einstein.
I would say Ethiopia is a dangerous place to live, not because of the evil rulers, but because of Ethiopian inside Ethiopia and the Diaspora don’t do anything about it.
EVIL must never be allowed to prevail in November, December, October, September…
Oh! Cruel is the month of November.
In the melancholy verse of Thomas Hood:
In my own free verse, “No Justice for the Victims of the Meles Massacres of November”:
I remember because I cannot and will not forget! Never!
I remember the victims of the 2005 Meles Massacres.
I remember each and every one of them.
They are not numbers for me.
For me, each individual Meles and his T-TPLF gang massacred and maimed is special.
I remember the young women who will never get to be mothers.
I remember the young men who will never get to be fathers.
I remember the orphans whose parents were massacred.
I remember the fathers and mothers who will never get to see their children and never have a chance to see their grandchildren because Meles and the TPLF massacred them all.
I do not forget the criminals in the Meles Massacres.
I do not forget the 237 policemen by name who pulled the trigger.
I do not forget the damnable mastermind and the arch criminals who set up the massacres and pulled the fingers of the policemen who pulled the trigger.
I will always remember in November, and in December and in January and in February and in April…
I remember the massacres inside Kaliti Prison on November 2, 2005:
I remember Yenesew Gebre.
Yenesew died three days later from his injuries.
Before torching himself, Yenesew told a gathered crowd outside of a meeting hall:
Hannah Arendt spoke of the “banality of evil”, the evil committed by ordinary people in the name of the state, in the name of religion, ideology…
I am more concerned about the ephemerality of evil that spawns indifference.
In our time, an act of supreme evil in our conscience has the shelf life of an ice cube in the hot sun.
We are desensitized to evil.
We are shocked but for a day; we wait stoically for the next act of evil.
We have become indifferent to evil. Evil has sapped our moral energy. Evil has enervated our souls.
We no longer have the energy to explode in moral outrage.
Indifference has been the death of moral outrage.
On the ashes of moral outrage stands EVIL triumphant.
SPEAK UP! SILENCE IS TO EVIL AS SUGAR IS TO CANCER
Solzhenitsyn is right.
In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future.
When we keep silent about the EVIL of the T-TPLF and its leaders, supporters and cronies, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future.
Solzhenitsyn is right.
When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.
When we neither punish nor reproach the T-TPLF evildoers, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.
Solzhenitsyn is right.
Young people are acquiring the conviction that foul deeds are never punished on earth, that they always bring prosperity. They are growing up indifferent.
Many young Ethiopians are acquiring the conviction that the foul deeds of the T-TPLF leaders, supporters and cronies are never punished on earth and following their always bring prosperity. Young Ethiopians are growing up indifferent.
As Soviet Russia was an open air Gulag for its people, I believe Ethiopia under the T-TPLF is an open air Gulag for 100 million Ethiopians.
Like Soviet Russia, under the T-TPLF rule, “it is going to be uncomfortable, horrible, to live in such a country!”
“It is for this reason” that Yenesew Gebre ended his life with the following words: “In a country where there is no justice and no fair administration, where human rights are not respected, I will sacrifice myself so that these young people will be set free.”
May the victims of the Meles Massacres of 2005 rest in peace.
May their murderers live forever looking over their shoulders in fear that the hand of justice will one day grab them by the collar.
DO YOU REMEMBER THE VICITMS OF THE MELES MASSACRES OF 2005?
======================
[1] For additional data on the victims of the Meles Massacres, see Testimony of Yared Hailemariam, Ethiopian Human Rights Defender, “CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY IN ETHIOPIA: THE ADDIS ABABA MASSACRES OF JUNE AND NOVEMBER 2005” before the EXTRAORDINARY JOINT COMMITTEE MEETING THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT COMMITTEES ON DEVELOPMENT AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS, AND SUB-COMMITTEE ON HUMAN RIGHTS May 15, 2006.
[2] The Commission’s list of 193 victims includes only those deaths that occurred on June 6-8 and November 1-4, 2005, the specific dates the Commission was authorized to investigate. The Commission has an additional list of victims of extra-judicial killings by regime police and security forces which it did not publicly report because the killings occurred outside the dates the Commission was authorized to investigate.
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