(by Haile-Gebriel Endeshaw)
Listen up, the world! This is the voice of Ethiopia! I am crying. Please allow me to tell you why I have been crying for the last three decades.
…Yes, I am crying to ease the pain that gnawed within me. I cry! Why I am not crying while my young brothers and sisters are languishing for years in jails for the mere reasons of expressing their views… for making use of their democratic rights to voice against the dictatorial governance? Why I am not crying when my people have been incarcerated, flogged, tortured, robbed, kidnapped and exterminated for the last 27 years? I am crying because my people have been displaced in various parts of the country. I have been crying for over two scores of years, like the evangelist in the bible, saying: “hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice, and be gracious to me and answer me”.
Listen, the world, while innocent Ethiopians are calling out in agony via a local TV…
***
…When I was caught by the police officers in plain clothes, my wife was heavily pregnant for nine-month. She was so alarmed by the incident that she had a miscarriage in a very short period of time. This was unfortunate…
… They [the police investigators in the jail house] inserted a wire through the tip of my penis… I have been pissing blood since then.
… I saw the investigator in the jail house carrying in his hand an iron bar. I had no any thought that he would beat me with the bar. I kept quiet while he was walking around me. I was not ready, at least, to protect myself from the hit as there wasn’t any sign of brandishing… But all of a sudden, he lashed me on my back with the iron bar. It was so sudden and because of the sharp pain I fainted. After this incident, I was left alone… As usual, my friends carried me back in to the cell. Please, don’t get astounded if I tell you that I was then deprived of my right to get treatment…
… The investigators [police in plain clothes in the jail] were rubbing my front leg with hard rulers…
… The investigator hung me up face down at the ready for beating on the soles of my feet and then he started talking to his girlfriend on cell phone leaving me as I was…
… The police officers in plain clothes took my brother and me to a bush. We were ordered to kneel down with our faces away… Then, we heard them whispering each other… ‘Let’s finish them off here’… then one of them said… ‘No, this is dangerous. It will cause us a problem. People knew that we had rounded and picked them up in the center of the town. So, killing them may have bad consequences.’… It was after this we were saved…
…The investigator was stamping stapler on my forehead…
…I was crossed-examined for over 117 times…
… After smoking their cigarettes, the investigators crashed the stabs on my navel…
…They slashed our bodies with sharp objects… They put chili pepper through our anus… They hang a plastic bottle filled with water on my testicle… I feel sad to know my being impotent because of this…
***
Aren’t those stories of real experiences of innocent Ethiopians quite enough to drive me to tears? Yes, I am crying for many such reasons… I lost my brothers and sisters who were shot dead cold bloodedly in the streets and rural villages. I saw dead bodies of innocent young and elderly people who were shot on their head by federal police officers. I am still crying in anger to see my brother who was released from jail with his two legs amputated. I am still weeping with tears to talk about young Ethiopians who have been sterilized in local jails.
Oh, listen up the world! This is the voice of Ethiopia! Who will not cry over the satanic act of the prison investigators who pull out nails of inmates using pincers? I am in a country where young lady inmates are forced to stand in the nude in front of male police investigators. Yes, this unethical and immoral act has been practiced under Ethiopian sky. Yes, this is my country where educated young compatriots are strolling around looking for work and food while others who have never been to school compounds claim to be investors through the back doors of robbery… This is my home land in which citizens witness the rampant nepotism, corruption and daylight robbery… Public-owned huge baking machines, generators, heavy duty tracks, medical equipment… were stolen from one corner of the country and taken to the other. Our leaders take everything their dirty hands lay on. They claim to be leaders of the entire population, but we see them while they are striving hard to support partially their own ethnic group. They have thus worked assiduously to introduce apartheid system of governance in this country. Shame on them! This has long been a reality in this country. This bare fact crushed me cruelly so hard that I can hardly stop crying.
I cry knowing that God the Almighty “will wipe every tear…”. Not only me but all other Ethiopians have long been crying for the past 27 years. Unfortunate Ethiopian mothers broke down and wept with tears rolling on the blood-stained body of their young sons who were shot dead in the streets. What ill-fated people we are! Oh, listen up, the world! It is a crying shame that police perpetrated cruelty against a poor mother who was forced to sit on the dead body of her assassinated young son. I am still crying bitterly because an expectant mother was shot dead in this country of mine. Won’t this be quite enough to make me cry bitterly? How can I not cry?!
I cry for the very reason that farmers have unfairly been driven out of their localities. My people were violently displaced from various parts of Ethiopia. People were made to raise their hands against others. Regional, zonal, district and Kabele officials ignited civil conflicts among innocent people. They provoked hatred and hostility among the people. This has been done deliberately by officials at the very top for the sake of promoting their hidden political agendas. This way they proceeded with their devilish tactics of implementing acts of ethnic cleansing through civil war. I have long been crying for the very fact that I am being governed by crooked and murderer leaders who provoke such evil acts.
Yeah, I am crying for the fact that the government which leads this country gobbled up many of our idols. It exterminated our brave military personnel… It slayed our genuine engineers… It murdered our hardworking medical doctors and peace-loving political leaders…. Valiant soldiers who contributed a lot to our country have been thrown out in to streets without shelter and any means of income…. We bear witness that the leaders who claim to lead this nation abused their responsibilities. They have long been playing their dirty game of divide and annihilate… They worked day and night to break up this nation in religion, ethnicity, race, political outlook…. They took the power at gun point to lead the entire nation in to chaos. We are unlucky citizens to witness all these destructiveness for the past 27 years…
Indeed, I am crying that my country has long been plunged in to chaos to the neck by her own selfish leaders. I cry desperately that these corrupt and burglar officials who claim to lead this country robbed humanitarian aids, including relief food, for their selfish interest… Listen up, the world! We Ethiopians have perceived that the selfish, dishonest and ignorant leaders and officials have exterminated citizens, stolen resources, displaced people and violated democratic rights.
I cry pleading with dear God to “hear my prayer… and give ear to my cry. Do not be silent at my tears”
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