Today’s jailers are tomorrow’s prisoners– unending vicious circle?

By M Gettaw
Tigrai Online, Nov. 18, 2018

Abiy Ahmed is scared to out of his wits because when the sh*t hits the fan he will face the same injustice.

In today’s Ethiopia, we are seeing double standards where crime is subjectively defined by those who are in power. Good examples are the recent arrests made by the Attorney General (AG) and the Federal Police who are using their power to discriminately jail those who they think are challenges to the new government while at the same time freeing people who have been sentenced by legitimate Ethiopian courts, including for terrorism charges. Especially, the new AG who was a key player in the previous government of Hailemariam as well as Meles (who was on record saying that everything during the past several years was done by the books) is now telling us that he was lying to the Ethiopian people as he seems to completely contradict his previous statement (watch video on youtube). What was he doing in his government official role when all the evil events that he described on TV happened? How about the current leaders who were leading the Federal Police (current foreign minister), Deputy Premier Office (Demeke Mekonnen) and INSA (Abiy and Lemma)? It is inconceivable that they have the audacity to imply that every bad thing that happened in the past was committed by others especially those from Tigray (as most of the recent arrests are focused on Tigrinya speakers). It should be clear to him and his stooges that there will be time that they will account for their current and past deeds as the saying goes ‘the past is never dead. It is not even past’. It is sad to see that Ethiopia is being derailed into the vicious circle that we left behind with the Derg’s downfall. With clear direction from the Premier and his team, the current leaders of the AG and the Federal Police are jailers today but they should know that they are potentially tomorrow’s prisoners. Every responsible citizen is documenting all their actions and speeches. I’m frankly saddened to hear that spouses and children of the suspects (who are already illegally labelled as criminals by the Premier and his media outlets) have been asked to account for what the suspects have done – crime by kinship. We seem to be sliding back to the horrible acts that we witnessed during the Dergue regime.

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The theatre being broadcast by the ‘media’ including EBC, Fana, Walta (shame to these institutions for misusing tax payers’ money) in coordination with their foreign counterparts such as the VoA and DW in the recent weeks is mind boggling. They are covering the unlawful military raids to arrest individuals alleged to have committed crimes and funning the news with an intention to make the alleged suspects look criminals against the principle of ‘presumed innocent until proven guilty’. What a sad development for a country which was hoped to emerge from its horrific past into a bright future of development and democratization. The thousands of martyrs who died for better Ethiopia must be rolling in their graves. Unfortunate!

It is very sad that Ethiopia is now the leader in terms of the number of internally displaced people. There are over a million internally displaced people who are mostly women, children and the elderly. They are mostly from select nationalities (Tigray, Kemant, Somali and some Southern Nationalities). This is continuing unhinged by the key players in Oromia and Amhara regions (who would also account for their crimes). While the AG has the responsibility to bring the perpetrators of such act of terror to the court of law, he is instead occupied with settling a score of revenge for the Premier and Issayas. ‘Ye maynega mesluat min tadergalech neber ye mibalew?’

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Of course the actions by the AG are orchestrated by the narcissist Premier who is leading Ethiopia into the abyss. I am afraid that the country is moving away from a trajectory of success and development into a country defined by chaos and displacement of its people. It is now clear that the hoopla about unity and forgiveness preached by the new Premier and his sponsors was a farce to deceive us. I am afraid for my people that Ethiopia is in the hands of such a callous and revengeful person. His hubris is so camouflaged by his shrewdness and charisma that he will not stop until deterring circumstances or forces challenge him. It is time to stand against his evil actions! As Coco Channel said ‘Don’t spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door.’

Last but not least, I would like to call upon the youth to work towards creating coalition with federalist forces since the EPRDF coalition is not feasible anymore. I will finish with Leo Tolstoy’s quote, ‘the strongest of all warriors are time and patience.’ 

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