Abinet Hunegnaw
July, 2014
The political organization that is applying into practice Tigray Peoples Liberation Front’s Manifesto in what is now the Amhara Region, where 92% of the population belongs to the Amhara nationality is ANDM. Other than its name it is run and totally controlled by former fighters of the Ethiopian People’s Democratic Movement. That was set up by the TPLF and EPLF (Eritrean People’s Liberation front), with the purpose of confusing the Ethiopian people by spreading the notion of deception that their struggle is to liberate the entire population and the country from the bondage of military dictatorship, hegemony and thereby bring democracy.
After the fall of the Mengistu military government, the TPLF, head or lead party of the EPRDF launched successfully pseudo ethnocentric political organizations to run the Apartheid like States on its behalf. Among them, OPDO, SPDO, and ANDM and others were and are given administrative role in the respective states they are assigned to run without decisive political power. ANDM is born out of the Ethiopian People’s Democratic Movement that the EPLF and TPLF created to expand their armed struggle beyond Eritrea and Tigray to the rest of Ethiopia. That is why most of its leadership are from Eritrea and Tigray.
Therefore, the former fighters are all Non Amhara and those at the top of the leadership hierarchy of ANDM belong to the Tigray/Tigrigne ethnic group except Adisu Legese. If any one looks at the list of the Executive Committee of the organization, Berket Simeon, Helawi Yoseph, Kasa T/Birhan, Tadese Kasa and the majority of its Central Committee members are all Tigryans. When the TPLF carried out a nationwide conference that led to the present federal arrangement, the only ethnic group that was not represented is Amhara. This fact is even proved in 1991 without a doubt by the deceased former prime minister during an interview on national television. He said, “. . . no one came to us and openly requested to participate in the conference as a representative of the Amhara.” That is why Amhara lost huge chunks of its ancestral territory to Tigray, Oromia, Afar and Benishangul. In other words, the EPDM that didn’t represent the Amhara people and their interest at the above mentioned conference was and is nothing more than an imposition by the TPLF to fill the vacuum and rule what is left of the immensely shrank Amhara provinces.
After jumping to the horse wagon of ruling Amhara, the immediate task of EPDM was to change its color and appear as an Amhara. That is why it changed its name to ANDM. To the unrepresented and dismayed population of Amhara the imposition was and is felt as if the military dictatorship returned with another tone, but with a more sinister and coercive distractive agenda of dismembering Amhara piece by piece beyond recognition.
The regional state has 10 zones. Each one is run by a Tigryan from behind the desk. For example, South Gondar zone is ruled by Hadish Halefom under the guise of Head of Communication Bureau. Yoseph Reta a Tigryan, who was top in the leadership position of ANDM at one moment, led the Amhara state as president for 5 years between 2000 and 2005. Still, even after 23 years of TPLF/ANDM rule anyone who is assigned to any position in state administration must be approved by the TPLF upon the recommendation of Bereket Simeon (Eritrean), Adisu Legese (Oromo/Somali), Kasa T/Birhan (Tigryan), Helawi Yoseph (Eritrean), and Tadese Kasa (Tigryan). Their ok and TPLF’s blessing is a necessary evil to hold office in the Amhara regional state.
Bereket Simeon held the federal office of communication as a minister until last year. At present he is a senior advisor to the prime minister with a rank of minister. As an Eritrean and Tigray Tigrigne by ethnicity, his priority is to make sure TPLF’s interests are protected. After 23 long years of TPLF/ANDM rule, the Amhara region unlike any other state in the country is still led and dominated by Tigryans, because of Bereket’s vigilance and heavy handedness against the Amhara people politically, economically and socially. He personally recruited, trained, assigned and promoted a handful of Amharas who completely sold out their soul to serve the TPLF agenda as traitors to their own kind for personal material gains. Such role of Mr. Bereket is ongoing even as we speak.
This few individuals openly, time and again insult the Amhara people at large by using demeaning words like “chauvinists”, and “remnants of the old system” among others. Recently, head of ANDM’s national headquarter office and the deputy president of Amhara state, named Alemnew Mekonnen who is one of Mr. Bereket’s mouth piece was captured on tape cursing the Amhara people using disgusting language. The incident became an issue both in Ethiopia and in the diaspora community. In Bahirdar the capital of Amhara, Unity party held a demonstration attended by thousands of angry citizens denouncing the TPLF/ANDM official and demanded his resignation. Unfortunately in today’s Ethiopia expressing hatred towards Amharas or evicting and deporting them is a way of getting a promotion. For example, Shiferaw Shigute former leader of the Southern state became minister of Education after he forced and deported thousands of Amharas from Guraferda district a couple of years ago.
Bereket is one of the central figures in the TPLF movement in wiping out the Gondar Amhara population from Welkaite, Tsegede, and Tselemt. Bereket’s role in handing over the mentioned Amhara districts to Tigray is not only in favor of advancing Tigray’s territorial advance, and expansion, but also to make sure Amhara no longer has a common border with his country of origin, Eritrea. His next agenda is to lay the frame work that through speedy Tigryan settlement, the population balance in Quara, Metema and Armachiho switches in favor of Tigryans over Amharans, and there by facilitate their smooth incorporation to the Tigray state. Mr. Bereket’s role in this TPLF policy aspirations is to realize the future Greater and Independent Tigray state territorially stretching up to the Grand Renaissance Dam (in Metekel Amhara, now transferred to TPLF’s created Benishangul state). That is why all these years he chose with purpose not to intervene and stop in the country the wide spread and brutal discrimination of the Amhara population characterized by massacres, evictions and deportations among others.
Kasa T/birhan is chairman of the Federation council and vice chairman of the Meles Foundation. On the 118th year anniversary of the victory of the battle of Adwa, he traveled to the spot and promised that a state of the art museum glorifying the sacrifice of the people of Tigray will be built soon. Surprisingly enough, kasa didn’t even mention the sacrifice of the rest of the Ethiopian people under the leadership of Emperor Menilik. This Tigryan top leader of ANDM simply reflected TPLF’s denial of Ethiopian history.
His office keeps on giving a green light to regional states in the federation to step by step evict and deport every Amhara and eventually become Amhara free Bantustan like states. This is the guy that TPLF uses as a front man and negotiator when interethnic problems arise in the country. Yes, he kept on travelling from place to place talking about nations and nationalities. But not even once attempted to peacefully resolve the plight of Amharas who continue to be victims of organized and forced eviction and deportation. Why should he? After all, the persecution of Amharas is officially sanctioned by the TPLF/ANDM government to destroy Amhara and Mr. Kasa is one of the Tigryans who drafted the policy.
Adisu Legese, another non Amhara top leader of ANDM was president of the Amhara state for 8 years from 1992 to 2000. Then deputy prime minister and now director of the TPLF/EPRDF cadre training institute as well as chairman of the so called Federal Support Board. Adisu recently traveled to Benishangul and gave a serious warning to the state’s handling of the killing of Tigryans in Asosa. Before he left, Adisu also gave a strict order that the Benishangul state, police, militia and other security apparatus must protect Tigryans and their interests at all costs and vigilantly more than anything else.
However, as the former president of Amhara, top leader of ANDM, Adisu who has a senior role in the federal government, didn’t even once intervened to stop the massacre and eviction of Amharas from other Ethiopian states since his party was imposed on the Amhara Regional state. He played a key role in the 2007 census that officially stated the missing of 2.4 million Amharas. He defended the report and strongly criticized opponents in parliament. As chairman of the census committee he is responsible for the false count that resulted in the reduction of federal budget allocation to the state. As a result of which the Amhara state was financially constrained from performing much needed development oriented activities.
Mr. Adisu is also using his position in the so called Federal Support Special Board by encouraging ethnocentric parties to enforce the TPLF policy of Amhara deportations from the regional states they run. As chairman of the board, he facilitates the flow of the necessary finance and security personnel to an official in the ministry of federal Affairs, by the name Shanko Dessalegne (with the rank ofHigher Advisor) whose job is to advance the eviction and deportation process of Amharas from the South, Oromia, Somali, Gambella, Afar, Harere, and Benishangul states. In this TPLF/EPRDF government policy that aims at creating Amhara free regional states, Mr. Adisu plays a key and central role in the intensified persecution process of the regime against the Amhara population.
Why is there a heavy presence of the Federal police in the Amhara region than all other states combined? In Amhara they provide security for every government bureau and ANDM offices. The security detail of all top regional and ANDM personnel belong to the Federal Police. The reason is that, the Tigryan and Non Amhara dominated ANDM has no trust and confidence on members of Amhara state police and militia. The latter are reduced to the level of a local supermarket guard.
For example in May 2013, a Non Amhara member of the Federal Police committed mass killings in Bahirdar, execution style. During the horrific incident Amhara police officers and militia forces in the vicinity were watching the crime as by standers, instead of taking action to stop and protect the 12 innocent Amharas who were gunned down without mercy in cold blood. Also, Amhara eviction and deportation victims unanimously testify and accuse that the Federal Police was and is actively taking part during forced and illegal displacements. The chief perpetrator in this regard is Hassan Shiffa a senior TPLF member, who is in charge of the force since its establishment in 1991.This is another proof that ANDM doesn’t have the interest of the Amhara people and the regional state at its disposal.
If you go down the administrative structure, the most important towns in Amhara are run by Tigryans as mayors. For example Gondar’s mayor is Getnet Amare, the mayor of Woldiya is Tsehaye Mengesha, and the mayor of the industrial town of Kombolcha is Abere Abera. Tana Beles Sugar Project’s senior official assigned to eliminate Amhara settlements from the Alefa Tacusa district of Gondar which is transferred to the Awi Zone and replace Amhara settlements and communities by Tigryan and Agew new settlers is Adgoy Mekuria who also call himself Adgeh.
This individual is handpicked by Abay Tsehaye, TPLF chief architect of Amhara displacement and deportation from Welqite and Alefa Tacusa in the name of advancing sugar projects. For example, Mr. Adgoy admitted on Amhara TV, 60,000 people or 12,000 Amhara families are uprooted from Tana Beles to make way for the sugar plantation and the construction of 2 sugar processing plants. But in his statement he didn’t mention about the new non Amhara settlers whom he and the TPLF strong man Abay Tsehaye introduced to the area at the expense of Amhara evictions to reverse the makeup of the population.
The number of forced out Welqite Amharas from their ancestral homeland in the Zarima and Waldeba monastery area for another sugar project is kept top secret by the TPLF, which continues committing a hidden and silent genocide against the whole Welqite population. This led to the incorporation of 3 Amhara Gondar districts namely Welqaite, tsegede and Tselemt into the Tigray state. Now, a modern asphalt road is under construction connecting Shire, a town in Tigray with Zarima and Adi Arqai in Gondar with the big purpose of totally incorporating the Amhara lands of the Simien Mountains to the Tigray state.
In this regard, the TPLF established a smartly grouped civic organization called “Population Health Environment Ethiopia Consortium” or PHE Ethiopia led by its political activist Negash Teklu. The aim of this group is to get funds from the international community by pretending to advocate the urgent need of saving the Simien Mountains from human encroachment. The hidden agenda of the PHE Ethiopia group is to do all the necessary preemptive ground work of ridding the area from long standing Gondar Amhara settlements recorded since time immemorial.
Already, they dislocated and evicted Amharas from the Arkuazye settlement. Now they are in the process of eliminating the more than 600 year old Amhara settlement and community of Geeche. It is heart breaking to see the mountain life style of Amhara destroyed by TPLF/ANDM and PHE Ethiopia’s genocidal policy unleashed against all Amharas without reservation. This signals the beginning and end of the very existence of Amhara from the face of Ethiopia. Because, this particular eviction and deportation is taking place in the heart of Amhara just like what happened in Welkaite, Tsegede, and Tselemt and not from other regional states .Thus, I am afraid to say that the only memory of Geeche will only remain in the BBC television documentary.
Therefore, ANDM and its top leadership are working hand in hand with the consortium to evict 40,000 Amharas from the world famous Simien Mountains using international fund obtained with false premises. The final objective of this process of eviction or relocation in their own words is to guarantee the realization of Tigryan state’s territorial ambitions and expansion scheme on Debarq, Jan Amora, Beyeda, and Adi Arqai (which is already and unofficially under the control of Tigryan state administration).
So far many Ethiopians and Amharas inside the country itself and in the diaspora failed to stop the further territorial expansion of TIGRAY at the expense of Gondar AMHARA. Apart from Welqaite, Tsegede, Tselemt, Ofla and Alamata, the Adwa extremist group of TPLF led by the now deceased prime minister and Abay Tsehaye used heavy political and military muscle, to take control of Ras Dashen the tallest mountain in the country, and the surroundings of Abdurafee. Most of the sesame and cotton plantations in Metema and western Armachiho now a days belong to Tigryans attached to the TPLF. In these two districts a Tigryan settler holds up to 10 hectare of land while the right full Amharas are forced by the regional government to lease not more than one hectare of farmland or forced out of their ancestral lands to make way for the Tigryan settlers altogether.
These so called Tigryan investors, facilitate and orchestrate the influx of hundreds of thousands of settlers from Tigray with the objective of reversing the population balance in favor of the Tigryan ethnicity over the Amhara. This strategy has already transformed the mentioned fertile Gondar districts to have more of a Tigryan identity. For example Tigryan settlers in Abdurafee and Metema officially demanded the Federation council chaired by Kasa T/birhan to join with Tigray state out of Amhara. Since, ANDM as a policy encourages Tigryan investment and settlement throughout the Amhara state, Mr. Kasa T/Birhan will eventually agree to their request.
ANDM also hires Tigryan fresh college graduates in various regional, zonal, town and local government bureaus, while Amhara youth who completed their higher education either are left to become destitute or turn into daily laborers. Take Kombolcha and Debre birhan towns for example. Because of recent influx of large number of Tigryans, the two industrial towns make you feel like as if you are in Mekelle or Adwa. In June, 2014 Debre birhan residents voiced their concern that the young people of the town are overlooked in favor of the new arrivals when it comes to job opportunities during a public meeting, but the town’s mayor and the chief administrator of the zone couldn’t even explain or give a simple answer. Whereas, Amharas are forced out or evicted from other regional states as if Ethiopia is not their country, leave alone settle and hold employment, Tigryans enjoy all kinds of opportunities anywhere in Ethiopia as first class citizens. Such is how ANDM operate as a TPLF instrument all over to destroy the wellbeing of the Amhara people.
In June of this year, a delegation of ANDM led by Gedu Andargachew president of the Amhara Region who continues denying about the Ethiopian territory transferred to Sudan from Gondar, visited the boarder districts of Quara, Metema and Western Armachiho. In Abrehajira, capital of western Armachiho, the public protested Tigray state’s bold territorial annexation of their land in the surroundings of Abdurafee, and demanded an explanation. They also mentioned that the modern road being built stretching from Shire Tigray up to the town of Abdurafee in Armachiho, under the supervision of the Tigray regional government, is in violation of the current boarders of the Amhara state. But as usual Mr.Gedu avoided the issue purposely and jumped to other cases not related with the inhabitants concern and request.
All these measures are taken with the green light of the Tigryan led “Amhara National Democratic Movement” which, openly works with the Adwa group of the TPLF to break the political will, economic base, and cultural back bone and finally destroy the wellbeing of the Amhara community at large. Such tactic worked perfectly well in Welqaite and Tsegede, where the indigenous Amhara population is now officially a minority, replaced by 500,000 Tigryan settlers who call the Amhara districts their home. According to a sound information, since TPLF began ethnic cleansing against the local population, today, there are more people of Welqaite and Tsegede origin living in the US, Australia, and elsewhere than in Ethiopia’s Gondar region illegally controlled by heavily armed Tigryan recent settlers and ruled by TPLF.
Under the 23 years of ANDM rule, the Amhara regional state recorded the highest infant mortality, death rate or lowest life expectancy, and the per capita income as well as the standard of living is at the tail end compared to all other regional states of the country. The only place in Ethiopia where an intensive and coordinated campaign of sterilization of people in the reproductive age is conducted in Amhara as a policy by the TPLF led government to keep the population in check. As a result Amhara has the largest number of the old generation and the lowest number of youth in Ethiopia. The data that anyone can see from the publications of Ethiopia’s central statistics office confirm that Amhara is the least developed and the poorest region in Ethiopia and Africa as a whole. Even Aljazeera, recently aired a documentary that stated firmly that Amhara is the poorest region in Africa.
Therefore, ANDM, led and controlled by the Tigray/Tigrigne group is marching on, unchecked subduing and destroying the Amhara people as enshrined in TPLF’s and EPLF’s Directives and Manifestos. In this regard, it is the firm belief of many Ethiopians in the country and in the diaspora community, that the Amhara population are left with no other option but to wake up, organize themselves and defend their wellbeing and very survival without hesitation.
Finally the writer of this informative article poses a question to all Ethiopians and in particular to anyone who has an Amhara ancestral roots, “By standing on the side line, are you going to allow the piece by piece dismantling of Gondar and the rest of Amhara to continue until it is no more, or, are you going to do something about it by stopping the TPLF/ANDM conspiracy before it is too late”?
‘Freedom of the press’ in Ethiopia
The Ethiopian authorities are using a repressive Anti-Terror law as a pretext to crush dissent.
ethiopiantimes 