E-Mailed to blackinformant.com by Young Ethiopian Diasporans
The Observer in the UK broke the story of massive detention camps in Ethiopia set up by the government of Ethiopia. Democratic Dawn in Ethiopia Fades as Abuses Come to Light is a story we were dreading.
Five months after Ethiopia descended into political chaos following a dispute over the country’s first democratic elections, details are emerging that give a disturbing glimpse into the scale of human rights abuses taking place.
Dedesa camp, a former military base, in the far west of Ethiopia, where thousands of detainees have been dumped in recent weeks as part of a massive and unprecedented crackdown by Ethiopian security forces.
One man who was taken to Dedessa overheard guards put the number of those arrested at 43,000.
If you have the stomach for it, Channel 4 in the United Kingdom broadcast a stunning report of what is happening in Ethiopia. Tim Clarke of the EU says,
We’ve been hearing from Dedessa that there have been terrible atrocities committed taking place. I’ve personally had accounts of burial, mass burials of people who died of malaria, because of unsanitary conditions and so on. If these rumors are true as we hear them, then there are real, real, major human rights abuses that have to be resolved.
The Ethiopian people stood in line, some for as long as 17 hours, to cast their first free votes. In the era of burgeoning democracies, this was considered a great victory. But when the ruling party realized it was losing, it declared itself the winner, and Ethiopia has been in limbo ever since. Over 100 people have been gunned down by government forces, including a mother who was shot in front of her children, according to The New York Times. The line between “detention camp” and “concentration camp” is not a line at all, it is a blip. We cannot wait until mass graves are uncovered before we get morally outraged. On VOA Amharic an Ethiopian woman whose son was killed weeps as she says,
You are our messenger to the outside world. Please tell them this: We don’t want bread. We don’t want money. But please don’t allow the government to take away our hope.
All that is being asked of us is to tell the story. Nothing more. Ethiopians have the capability of taking care of the rest. We need to join people like Ana Gomes, Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) in strongly condemning this tragedy.
Here is how the Ethiopian prime minister justifies his actions:
I’ve always been convinced that democratisation in Ethiopia is not only a matter of choice but of survival. We shall persist with our democratic reforms, no matter the challenges we will face along the way.
This is omimous. We can’t let “democratization” be defined this way. History will judge us. Ethiopia is an American issue.
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