Ethiopia: Cry! Cry Freedom the Beloved Country!yBy Prof. Al Mariam October 12,2016
On October 15, 2007 (almost to the week this month), I announced to Ethiopians, “Hold on! Hold fast! Hold tight! Your Freedom Train is coming!” (See my commentary , “One Small Step for the U.S. Congress, One Giant Leap for Ethiopian Human Rights”.) I believe the Ethiopia’s Freedom Train has finally arrived, though very, very late. All aboard!!!!! Oromos, Amharas, Tigreans, Gurages, Sidamans, Welayita, Hadiya, Afar, Gamo, Ogadeni, Anuak… Christians, Muslims… All aboard!!!!! I have made my preliminary case for a crimes against humanity investigation and prosecution in the Irreecha Festival Massacres last week. (See my commentary , T-TPLF’s Killing Fields in Ethiopia: Massacre by Stampede at the Irreecha Festival!) In September 2016, the BBC reported that “A[n] [Ethiopian] government statement says 21 died of suffocation after a stampede [at Qilinto prison] while two others were killed as they tried to escape.” Qilinto prison has a population of 3,000 persons who are held for three years or more as they await trial. Oromos constitute the largest percentage of the Qilinto prison population. Now over 500 persons died in a “stampede”. Is “stampede” the newest T-TPLF massacre strategy in Oromiya elsewhere? Let Barack Obama Speak! For the first time, in over a decade, I must hold my peace this week. This is the time for me to cry and cry again for the innocent young men, women and children who were slaughtered by the T-TPLF at the Irreecha Festival in Bishoftu on October 2, 2016. I raised my pen to write, but my pen refused to shed its tears of ink. So I must cry and cry again. I shall bite my tongue, just this once. I yield my pages to Barack Obama to speak directly to the Irreecha Festival Massacre victims, their families, friends and communities in Ethiopia.To read the full commentary, click here(Al Mariam's Commentaries).
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