Bahr Dar and the wonderful art of silence

 

by Yilma Bekele

Last Sunday May 12 a Federal police officer opened fire and murdered twelve or eighteen people depending on who is doing the counting in the City of Bahr Dar in Ethiopia by the shores of Lake Tana. It was a random killing and the only reason he stooped shooting was because he run out of bullets. What makes this crime unique is that it was committed by some one that is trained to protect and serve. At least in most places that is what we think of the armed officers that move around with loaded guns amongst us. I said in most places, our Ethiopia is not such a place.
The Federal Police serve the TPLF party that is in charge of our country. Meles Zenawi set up the Federal Police to be accountable to him and his party and used this force to quell down any kind of native unrest against his group. The Federal Police is the most fearsome weapon of the TPLF party. Like everything else concocted by the late criminal the Federal Police is a uniquely Ethiopian force supposedly created to resemble other Federal institutions in the developed West. The name is the same but the purpose and mission is different.
In Ethiopia the TPLF party’s Federal Police is an instrument of terror. Their motto is shoot first, ask questions later. You will not find a single Ethiopian that would not be engulfed with fear when the Federal Police is mentioned. The force was purposely designed to instill fear. From what I know of the Federal system here in the US the FBI does not involve itself in local matters. The local Police that are answerable to the Mayor or elected official is the first line of response. The State Police is under the elected Governor who is accountable to the citizen. There is a clear line of jurisdiction built into the system.
Meles Zenawi’s Ethiopia is different. The Federal Police force under him is the ultimate arbitrator of justice or injustice in this case. The Different Kililis or Bantustans have no power or authority on this rogue force. No sane Kilil head will challenge the power of the Federal Police. I can safely say that regarding all Killis except the Sovereign State of Tigrai. Abay Woldu would not allow a Kenbata, Oromo, Amhara or Somali Federal Police to roam around in his State with immunity.
When the late dictator copied the Kilil system from Mussolini with upgrades from the South African Bantustan system he made a few improvements of his own. Bahr Dar is the capital city of the Amhara Kilil. What in the world is a Federal Police doing in the streets of Bahr Dar with a loaded is gun is

The Ethiopia in the heart of the Amhara!

by Menyelek
I declare, “A house can stand divided!” the concern should be how long can the pillars hold, before the foundation cracks? The division in Ethiopia today is evident thought out political norms, social structures, individual rights, ethnic representation, personal development and freedom as a member of the state. In the state of anger following the current revelation of the continued and expanded Amhara cleansing “eviction”, anger may be the first reaction… so what comes after the anger?… Silence? Fear? Ignorance? We must not fall in their trap to the ethnic federalist schema of the totalitarian governance manifesto, for they loathe not the Amhara, but the “Ethiopiawinet” with in the Amhara. This government has rewritten history, manipulated significant moments, changed proven facts to discredit the people, culture and identity of Amhara, for they always have stood defense of the true identity of Ethiopia. This defense has been a hurdle for this regime.
They cannot claim to govern with legitimacy in a federation of ethnic equality, if one of the groups within the state inherently refuses to identify it’s self ethnically, but rather with equality of the national state. Much has been said and asked of the reasons to why, this regimes actions towards Amhara people, and the hate they continuously display towards this ethnicity. There are two elements I will pinpoint, the first an ideological manifest, at the heart of this government from its inception and the other practical domination discernible of this government. First the hate of the Amhara/Ethiopiawinet and second the need to hold onto power at all cost.
Abraham Lincoln anticipating the direction of the cliff his nation was heading he stated, “A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free”. In Ethiopia we have 1% slave owner, 99% slaves, kept in silence, ignorance and constant fear through the barrel of a gun. Yet, the pillars of the Nation are holding strong, collapse is imminent if we do not realize the damages and act with urgency. National identity is a column of incessant strength of a free state, internally and externally. This pillar is and has been held together by the instinctive believe and love of the nation of Ethiopia by the Amahara people. In opposition to all that has been done for the last two decades, it is in the Amhara DNA, to say, “I am Ethiopian first, Amhara second”, where other ethnicities have been manipulated into thinking the opposite.
Ethnic Identity
The ethnic identity of the Stalin doctrine, decisions made by one mind; implemented through the controlling class by unelected bureaucrats controlling state matters with farce elections, without real consequence and consent of the governed. In this structure ethnic differences keep the other ethnicities silent, giving the governing minority freedom to rule, through manipulation, fear and misinformation. National resolutions are solely the concern of the governing, the governed ethnicities/states/ minorities are to only compete amongst one another for their share, They are not to think at all on matter which have to do with National identity for that is shaking the foundations for the same political pillars on which the Nation is being controlled.
Power and greed