Eskinder Nega: Defender of Jewish Genocide

By Berhane Kahsay
Tigrai Online November 04, 2012

Eskinder Nega a great admirer of Adolf Hitler has been relentlessly working to initiate a pogrom against the Tigrian people ever since Ethiopia was liberated from the brutal military government by the TPLF and its partners. The hate preacher who is/was the Vice Chairman of the All Ethiopian People’s Organisation used the three newspapers he owned and edited, Menelik, Satenaw and Askaul, to justify genocide similar to what to took place in Germany against the Jews during World War II.

Out of the 9 million Jews that were living in Europe prior to the war, 6 million of them were butchered by Hitler by all sorts of vile means. One million were children, two million were women and three million were men. Eskinder Nega equates the Tigrians to the Jews and invariably describes them as ‘cancers’, ‘racists’ and ‘bandas’, and openly calls for their elimination from the face of Ethiopia.

This is what Eskinder Nega wrote on Askaul newspaper a while back under the heading ‘Get lost Judea’ [Amharic to English translation courteous of Danielberhane’s blog] ‘’ did the bandits really take power by defeating us militarily? Had our armed forces were loyal to their oath, wasn’t it possible to exterminate the wolves, who are currently ruling us, from the face of the earth? It was certainly doable. Wasn’t it possible to eliminate these people, who have no history other than being Baandaa, from Ethiopia? We feel it was a very easy task. But there was no determination. We became unconcerned about the future generation. Our Ethiopian bravery melted down. We bowed to the enemy due to our personal weakness. We need to admit this. What else could be the source of our current humiliation? We can’t point fingers on anyone. We ruined history by our weakness. We earned humiliation. We became as good as the dead. We, Habesha people, didn’t learn from the Germans. We couldn’t even preserve the history of our fathers. We are humiliated. Indeed, very humiliated. We should have acted with determination to eliminate racists and traitors from the face of Ethiopia. If we lacked the courage to do that, we should have at least preserved our territorial integrity and sovereignty. But we didn’t. History recorded this as a bad failure.’’

The very people who a paid a heavy price for justice and democracy have been at the receiving end of Eskinder Nega’s virulent attack since 2004.  Thanks to the valour ‘bandas’ Ethiopia is making tremendous strides in virtually all sectors and it is set to join the league of middle income countries of the world in the not too distant future. For the last twenty years Ethiopia’s economy has been growing at the rate of 11-12 % annually and this is expected to continue for many more years to come. When the ‘cancer tribe’ took over, the coffers were empty; but in a space of only two decades, the country has been transformed, and the vast majority of the Ethiopian people have become the beneficiaries of this spectacular success.  While the fight against poverty is intensifying, Eskinder Nega and the likes of him have been doing their utmost to scupper it but they have not had much luck.   

Eskinder also failed with his persistent propagation to instigate Nazi style genocide against the Tigrian people. At present the convicted terrorist is behind bars for attempting to institute an uprising of the Arab sort with aid of the Eritrean dictator. Not entirely clear why the EPRDF administration tolerated him for many years when he was openly instigating pogrom against a specific ethnic group and the removal of a democratically elected government by violent means. Here in London, a supporter of  Chelsea football club will soon be prosecuted for making racist ‘monkey’ gestures to a black player, and yet, the fascist Eskinder has not been looked up for life for the blatant racist remarks he casually makes, and for incessantly advocating  genocide against the Tigrian

The venoms hate preacher’s knowledge of history is very limited indeed. He had the audacity to describe the great and indomitable people of Tigray as ‘traitors’, ‘bandas’ and compromisers of territorial integrity and sovereignty. No need to sink to his level but a few important historical facts need be re-visited to set the record straight. Was it a Tigrian who signed away Eritrea to the Italians two months after the death of Emperor Yohannes?  It certainly wasn’t a Tigrian who connived with the enemy Italians by signing the ‘Convention of Neutrality’ when Emperor Yohannes was ruling Ethiopia. Who compromised Ethiopian sovereignty by fleeing to Bath, United Kingdom, when the Italians invaded Ethiopia in 1936? Was it not Yohannes who was decapitated by the Dervish while defending the territorial integrity of his country?  And who did the Dervish and Egyptians secretly shower with arms in order to weaken Emperor Yohannes?  

And was it a Tigrian who handed over Djibouti to the French and failed to re-negotiate for its return? Certainly not!  The brave Tigrians more than anyone else have defended the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ethiopia as the Egyptians, Italians and Mahdists would testify to their cost. Emperor Yohannes, the great and brave son of Tigrai gave his life fighting foreign invaders and never once compromised during his reign to the rich and powerful aliens. This no non- sense mindset of the Tigrians further came to light during the battle of Adwa ; the invading Italians were sent packing to Eritrea that was maintained as part of Ethiopia by emperor Yohannes and others before him, but was handed over to the enemy by Menelik two months after the Emperor’s death.   

Why does Eskinder call the Tigrians racists? Is he saying that empowering the people of Gambella, Afar, Somalia and other ethnic groups is racism? If this is the case, they would happily plead guilty. For years, these people were treated like second class citizens in their own country, and had no say in the issues that affected their lives. In 1991 they were emancipated from decades of severe oppression and humiliation of the worst possible sort. And now they are directly participating in the running of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and will do anything feasible to maintain their constitutional rights that they achieved through a bitter struggle. Of course people like Eskinder are unhappy as power is no longer in the hands of the very few autocratic descendents of his, and would dearly love to reverse the country to the bad old days that nearly caused its fragmentation. Fighting for equality, respect and dignity does not make you racist; who is responsible for the racist words ‘galla’ and ‘baria?’ Thanks to the ‘racist tribe’, Ethiopia has now a protestant Prime Minister from the minority Wolayeta, with a Muslim Deputy, for the first time in its history.       

More from Eskinder’s essay concerning the Germans and the Jews (once again Amharic to English translation courtesy of Danielberhane’s blog)   : ‘’------------   The German people who took a decisive stand against the exploitative Jewish, under the resolute leadership of the Nazi, had continued showing their bravery in action. The German people have continued marching forward demonstrating its rage in action. Who can hold it lack? What does this tell us – real Ethiopians? What is the lesson for us? It teaches us that any citizen should act resolutely to become the actual owner of his country.

The Germans stood up resolutely. Their struggle continued. The Jewish were captured in-masse and deported to concentration camps. Especially, male Jews between the age of 16 and 60 were targeted. The Jewish were spitted on. Their face was disfigured with mud. The Germans were furious. The Jews were degraded. The Germans crusade against the Jewish. They are hoping that the Versailles Treaty, which German was forced to sign at the end of WWI, will be scrapped under Nazi leadership. They are positive that unemployment will end. Especially, Adolf Hitler is seen as God-sent for Germany’s Renaissance. Given the existing reality, millions are convinced that there was no better leader than Adolf Hitler. Thus, they followed him. We find it suited to quote what Goebbels said to express his admiration of Adolf Hitler. We shan’t forget the sentiment was shared by most Germans.’’ 

What is making Eskinder stoop so low as to justify the genocide committed against the Jews out of which 1,000,000 were children? The young and the old were shot dead, hanged, diseased, gassed and starved to death. The responsibility of this heinous act of wanton crime squarely lies with Adolf Hitler and yet Eskinder is futilely trying to re-write history by suggesting that it was the doing of the entire Aryan Germans in order to incite the Ethiopian people into a similar action, and to justify the holocaust by linking it to the people rather the hated Hitler. How would the Jews feel if they were to read his outrageous essays? Why does Eskinder want to commit genocide against the Tigrian people?  Millions of the so called ‘’exploitative tribe ’’ do not even have daily access to basic necessities such as  potable water, and huge numbers of their children are educated in scorching heat and wind under trees and make shift tents.

Life in Tigray is incredibly hard indeed; mountains are being tilled and nature has not been very kind to the industrious people at all. Inward investments and job creations are insignificant compared to Oromia, Amhara and SNNP but the Tigrians are not disheartened by these and continue to work day and night to improve their lives. They led the struggle that brought the defeat the Dergue, and if the intention was to take advantage of the country, no one was in a position to stop it. But that was not what the struggle was all about. Labelling the Tigrians as an ‘exploitative tribe’ is simply a defamation that was orchestrated by Nazis like Eskinder to advance their sinister agendas. The Tigrians do not touch what is not theirs, but what is theirs; they would get it by all means possible. It is simply trash to claim that the ‘the minority tribe’ live in ‘comfort’ and ‘luxury’ at the expense of others; the intention here is to induce the other Ethiopians to rise up and commit genocide against the ‘cancer tribe.’         

Why is Eskinder in an uncontrollable urge to replicate Nazi genocide for the sake of power?  Is it not possible for him to take advantage of the current democratic system and present his case to the electorates for their judgements? What is it that is preventing him from doing so? The Ethiopian people are quite happy with what they have achieved since 1991 and on numerous instances they have made it crystal clear that they want the current federal system to endure. It is pretty obvious that Eskinder, the holocaust promoter, has come to the realisation that no one would subscribe to the old divisive centralised politics of yesteryears and wants to acquire power by eliminating the ‘’ ruling tribe’’ that he naively believes is in his way. This is what he wrote about the TPLF [Danielberhane’s blog]:

‘’our rulers, who dribble their cheap politics in the name of history, know that the Ethiopian people didn’t take a genocidal stance on any tribe during the Dergue regime. They know it for fact. It is nonsense to claim that the Dergue regime tried to exterminate our rulers’ tribe, in an era where the people didn’t show decisiveness to translate its hatred into action. This is not an old story, it is of recent memory. The Ethiopian people used to attend meetings alongside anti-peace forces in every Kebele [district administration]. It was silently observed that while the armed bandits [TPLF] were in the woods [fighting the Dergue], their people were sending them food from our capital city and other Ethiopian towns. They also provided timely intelligence to the enemy. No one from our side gave the matter proper attention. We laugh in regret when we note that the humble Dergue regime was looking for bandits hidden in the woods but left alone the bandits openly working in all Ethiopian cities. Dergue spent 17 years choosing bandits among bandits. Similarly, the extent of our weakness and ineptness embarrasses us even strongly when we recall that the Ethiopian people, which is no better than a suckling baby, sat alongside members of the bandit’s tribe in Kebele meetings held to discuss the military campaign [against the rebels]………

Today, several millions have paid all the sacrifices required of us for the comfort and luxury of a minority tribe. In Ethiopia, where equality is absent, ‘slavery’ has taken the meaning of ‘equality’. In the 21st century, we have returned to the ancient tribal system. We have lost countless people in meaningless war, on Badme and related battle fields, for the sake of one very small tribe……Human sacrifice has become a necessity for the honor of the ruling tribe. The majority has been scarified for the greatness of the ruling tribe. Ethnic politics eats ethnic groups. Whose turn will be tomorrow? We should note that the Gambella massacre is today a talking point of the global community. Let’s not forget ethnic politics is the cause of all the political, economic and social problems of Ethiopia. A talk of peace would be a meaningless play with words in a country where a cancer tribe or community exists. The minority becomes economically rich and holders of political power. Traitors will steer the honest. Citizenship becomes meaningless.’’

Eskinder is a very weak, obsessive and defective person; he categorises five million Tigrians as ‘cancer tribe’ ‘bandas’ ‘traitors’ ‘racists’ ‘ exploitative tribe’ ; he is full of unimaginable level of hate and is prepared to kill people in large numbers in order to get what he wants.  Eskinder is incredibly racist of the worst sort and yet he accuses the Tigrian people who fought and paid 70,000 lives for justice and democracy of racism. The swastika barer asserts that the war for Badme was ‘meaningless’ and that it was ‘for the sake of very small tribe’. If an Ethiopian land is occupied by a foreign enemy, why should‘t the people fight to re-claim it? Would he say the same thing if this was in Gondar or Gojjam?  This holocaust justifier used the prevailing freedom of the press to openly despise the Tigrian people who bleed profusely fighting for it. What was Eskinder doing while the youth of Tigray were dying for democracy?  May be he was helping the Derg collect money from families whose children were shot dead and were forced to pay for the bullets that killed them ? Why is Eskinder infatuated with Adolf Hitler who considered black people as sub-humans and inferior to the blonde Aryan race? Is Eskinder not aware that Hitler refused to shake hands with the African American Jesse Owen who won four gold medals during the 1936 Berlin Olympics?

Eskinder alleges that ‘slavery has taken the meaning of equality’ in Ethiopia today and quite clearly this is far from the truth. On the contrary there is a wide spread equality in Ethiopia at this moment in time than it has ever been over the last hundred years. The ‘ruling tribe’ is not in the business of forcing people to work or dehumanise and treat people as commodity or constrain or restrict their freedom of movement. These are common characteristics of slavery according to the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 1956 UN Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery...  and the ‘minority tribe’ fought for 17 years to make the Declaration a reality. It is simply poppycock to allege that the Ethiopian people have been forced to work for the benefit of the’ minority bandas.’

Thank God Eskinder is now serving 18 years which should have been life or death penalty. His appeal is to be heard shortly and we hope the court that he used to view with utter contempt, will reject his case and throw him back to his cell to decompose slowly. All concerned should expose the true colours of this vile and despicable person by all feasible means including by contacting the Israel government via their embassies, and international institutions such as the pathetic Human Rights Watch and the misguided Journalists Union. We should highly commend Daniel Berhane (Danielberhane’s blog) for his grand work in exposing the Nazi sympathiser, pseudo journalist, who proudly justifies the massacre of 6,000,000 Jews and calls for a similar action against the Tigrian people. This is a wakeup call for all Tigrians to remain as united as before in order to thwart the Eskinders of this world from succeeding with their evil intentions.  ‘A talk of peace would be a meaningless play with words in a country where a cancer tribe or community exists....’