The TPLF/EPRDF Apartheid Intensifies the Systematic Destruction of The Sidama Nation.

Ethiopia: –The TPLF/EPRDF Apartheid Intensifies the Systematic Destruction of The Sidama Nation.

December 29, 2017, By Denboba Natie

Background

The tragedies unfolding in Sidama land and befalling its people; and elsewhere in the country for so long, are premediated, systematically planned and stage-managed by the minority incumbent, ‘Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF)’ that is renamed as ‘Ethiopians Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF)’. The former guerrilla fighters, known for their merciless brutality whilst in Tigray mountains of northern Ethiopia (between 1975 and mid-1991), were allowed by the politico-ideological shift of the early 1990s, to become the rulers of Ethiopia.

Ever since they controlled the country, they reigned the peoples of Ethiopia with iron feast. They remained literally terrorising the subjects of all regions and Zones with deep ingrained military mentality, hence killing instincts; employing violence after violence. The regime proved that, it hardly knows another language than addressing any peaceful quest of the nations and peoples of the country with violence. To date, there is no sign of abating.

Its repeated use of unrelenting violence silences the people of country, in addition to using various forms of deceitful propaganda, fake representation and religious groups to enforce its rule. Secondly, it uses various forms of tactics to exploit and plunder the resources of the subjects by using its handpicked cadres as its middlemen.

The latter are handpicked and systematically groomed to facilitate the enslavement of their own people. Thirdly, the TPLF does so with sole objective of totally impoverishing the subjects, for it to be able to easily rule the incapacitated majority. To finalise its heinous objective, the TPLF through its apparatuses perpetuates poverty and humiliation of the subjects employing its military might to consolidate its economic, political, security and military supremacy in Sidama land and the entire country. Therefore, there is plausible argument affirming that, TPLF’s regime is not different from the former South Africa’s brutal Apartheid in any measure.

The Status-Quo In Sidama Land Beyond.

As we speak, like in most parts of the country including in Oromia, Ogaden Somali, Gambella, Konso, Shakicho and Amhara; the situation in Sidama is increasingly becoming desperate, begging an urgent removal of the underlying causes. The TPLF regime and its agents also repeatedly attempt to instigate war between brotherly nations of Oromo and Sidama, although both nations wisely mitigated by repeatedly rejecting to serve its divide-and-rule agendas. To date, it is pushing with such malicious attempt.

Furthermore, the removal of Sidama peasants and business community from their lands in Hawassa and surrounding Hawassa, including those Sidama community who were previously well-off with business, is intensifying. Almost all Sidama business owners are driven into TPLF orchestrated bankruptcy. The subjugation of the Sidama is a premeditated, deliberate and step by step implemented policy of the TPLF’s apartheid.

From the onset of its arrival to be given Ethiopia by the West’s politicians, the TPLF aimed at the Sidama nation of giving it the biggest punch on its face; so that the nation remains powerless docile, allowing it to freely triumph over them and the entire south. If the Sidama nation rejects it, the regime precisely knows that it will find it hard to rule the rest of the amalgamated south, as we see it today. Hence, the TPLF did and does all it can to subjugate the Sidama nation to consolidate its position in the south.

In this vein, for example, any person from any part of the country, including from Diaspora’s TPLF supporters are openly encouraged by TPLF’s key architects such as Arkebe Equbay, southern regional and Sidama zone as well as Hawassa city administration agents; to deceive and land grab from the Sidama peasants living in Hawassa and its outskirt. This project is an ongoing and implemented under the stage-management of the indicated agents since 2002 GC. The Sidama peasants are continually lured into selling their only asset for the cheapest prices one can’t imagine.

The Objective of the TPLF/EPRDF Apartheid in Hawassa and its Outskirt

The objective of the TPLF’s regime is economically incapacitating, thereby removing Sidama people from Hawassa and its environs. Its’ aim is making the Sidama capital, a Sidama free Zone. Regrettably, with utter naivety, the less or ill-informed Sidama peasants are driven into erroneously believing that, they are doing the right thing whilst selling their lands; in addition to those who are forcibly removed from their ancestral land to allow the exponential expansion of Hawassa, to accommodate ever increasing numbers of TPLF agents, their businesses and supporters.

After selling the only asset they possess, the Sidama peasants are further lured into spending their money on the businesses owned by and benefiting the TPLF and its agents in Hawassa and beyond, before they end up destitute. In such meticulous processes, the Sidama peasants cut their ties with their land which has been intertwined with their soul and blood, thereby become detached from the reality of the Sidama world. In such systematic and intricate TPLF masterminded methods, the Sidama peasants under the co-facilitation of the Sidama’s TPLF agents, such as the infamous criminal Shiferaw Shigute and his supporters ignorantly allow their own destruction whilst the Sidama intelligentsia is remaining silent.

The indicated systematic subjugation and denigration of the Sidama nation, coupled with the malice of weather, persistent shortage of annual rainfall and disruption and failures of seasonal harvests; the Sidama peasants and the entire nation are increasingly subjected to hardship and poverty. Tragically, the Sidama nation has no one from the EPRDF/TPLF apparatuses who can give them direction, support and the necessary information to be able to make the right decision, the reason why they are increasingly targeted by the TPLF agents whose objective is depopulating Sidama in Hawassa and its environs.

The TPLF/EPRDF Employs Various Methods To Confuse The Sidama Nation

To achieve its anti-Sidama objectives, the TPLF and its Sidama cadres employ various tactics; including 1 to 5 spying apparatuses through which the Sidama people are bombarded with false brainwashing mantras. The methods also include; the regime and its agents use the only Sidama radio in Hirggaa/Yirgalem, which has been previously (1997/98) created by the founders of Sidama Development Program/Corporation (SDP/SDC); that on later stage dismantled by the order of late PM, Meles Zenawi since 2002 (GC), religious organisations and increasingly impoverished and misled custodians of traditional Sidama culture (Cimmeeyyee), and ultimately the misguided Sidama youth as their own agents in conveying the indicated lies. Using these groups, the TPLF propagates non-existent miraculous economic success under the TPLF/EPRDF rule. Ultimately, its indicated Sidama and southern regional agents facilitate the slow destruction of the nation in the manner only comparable with malignant cancerous cells’ destruction of human body.

Such Actions Of TPLF/EPRDF Are Not Exclusive to Sidama, but Widespread      

This is not an exclusive practice to Sidama land and to Sidama nation. The current tragedy unfolding is similar with the tragedy unfolding in Oromia, Gamblella, Ogaden Somali, Amhara and elsewhere. In Gambella for example, the TPLF regime gives their vast land for the bogus international investors who do offer no benefit to the people of the region and wider Ethiopia, for pennies. Evidences also reveal that; the Tigray investors own 75% of land in Gambella free of charge. The Sidama peasants as the Gambella, Oromia and the rest counterparts are left powerless, needing to urgently work to reclaim their dignity and land.

The economic incapacitation of any nation makes the implicated subjects vulnerable to various forms of subjugation and exploitation. To this date, the Sidama peasants are continually lured into selling their land for as little as 50,000 or 60,000 Ethiopian Birr, for the land that could be valued for over a million in today’s market. In today’s Ethiopia, the indicated amount of money does offer no benefit, apart from entertaining the uninformed peasants and their families for less than a year. Concomitantly, tens of thousands of Sidama peasants and their families become uncustomary beggars on the streets of Hawassa and elsewhere in Sidama towns, villages and neighbourhoods, including in Finfinnee. Sadly, such incidents are unheard of in Sidama culture, until the TPLF has facilitated their demise since 1992/3.  The Sidama must fight back now!

The Sidama Business Community Is Systematically Driven Out

Moreover, the Sidama people, including the Sidama business community who have moved to Hawassa during the TPLF’s heydays, have been in the past 3-5 years immersed in a TPLF orchestrated bankruptcy. Their properties have been increasingly repossessed by TPLF’s banks to be systematically re-bought by TPLF’s business empire. Those few Sidama business owners thriving under the auspices of the TPLF regime, exclusively work for the TPLF’s key players and regional agents. For example, the actual share of the remaining few Sidama business owners doesn’t exceed 15%, by allowing the remaining 85% for the TPLF agents. The misinformed and less-informed Sidama majority naively think that, those fraction of the Sidama business community who have survived the repossessions of their properties and businesses, do all businesses in Sidama land for themselves; ignorant of the TPLF’s malicious policies in Sidama-land.

The Sidama Hardly Possess Traditional Communal Grazing Land Anymore!

Furthermore, the communal land which used to be utilised for the purposes of communal grazing throughout the entire Sidama land was sliced like pieces of cake, to be freely taken and sold by the TPLF and its southern regional and Sidama Zone agents; without slightest regards for the people of Sidama. Those all communal plots of lands known as ‘Dannaawaa’ were sliced and shared among the TPLF’s Key players in a similar manner, as it has been the case during the Berlin Conference of 1884 during the Europeans’ scramble for Africa. The TPLF’s scramble for the Sidama, Oromo, Gambella, Amhara and the rest nations of the country’s land is, unfolding for similar purpose of exploitation of resources. Today, the Sidama people hardly find anywhere they can feed their cattle. The indicated and unindicated unsettling tragedies unfolding in Sidama land and elsewhere in the country are, unambiguous facts available to be witnessed by any person, who possesses a mind of his own.

A Pressing Need Begging All To Work In Unison To Restore Freedom And Justice!

There is increasingly pressing need in Ethiopia begging for an urgent action. Under the leadership of Oromo and Amhara nations, the rest peoples of the country are also moving towards the same direction of unconditionally denouncing the actions of the TPLF/EPRDF’s regime by unanimously rejecting it. Although its response remains as barbaric and stubborn as it has been when they controlled Finfinnee (Addis Ababa), 27 years ago, the nations are moving decisively. Regardless, with their obdurate mentality and brutalities, the TPLF’s architects remain unwilling by adamantly refusing to address peoples’ demands for a fundamental political change; not as cosmetic as they are putting it on the table.

Therefore, based on my observation of over quarter of a century, it’s imperative to conclude that: –

One, the TPLF’s old oligarchs (rebels) who have accumulated billions (Millions in the USA Dollars) by exploiting the wealth of the entire country since they have assumed power (mid-1991), are incapable of asserting the political direction of the country, hence they erroneously assume that, they can continue unchallenged with their barbarism, Or,

Two, they are extremely obdurate, uneducated or some of them are ill-educated to become such short-sighted, incapable of accommodating peaceful alternative political solutions. Hence, they are resorted to a militarily responses, for any peaceful quests of the nations and peoples; deploying their own generals (over 98% of the entire national military leadership), who are erroneously called, the ‘Defence forces’ of the country, although they purely belong to the TPLF. I argue that, such erroneous assertions of the reality on the ground, will undoubtedly be arrogance, political blindness, idiotic ignorance and ultimately-miscalculation, with or without understanding of, or undermining the ramifications of their actions, Or,

Thirdly, they must be inherently bloodthirsty barbaric thugs, who feel gratified as the sufferings of civilians continues and tens of thousands are killed under their rule. To substantiate the later, the sadistic nature of TPLF’s rebel oligarchs have been repeatedly exposed by their defected former comrades who have openly denounced their criminal actions of last 42 years since they began their rebellion in 1975. For example, their actions against their own Tigray people (whose massacre these rebels have coordinated in Hawzein Market to put the blame on their predecessors) for whom they claimed they were fighting to liberate, shades lights on the magnitude of their cruelty; Or,

Fourth, they ultimately aim to dismantle the country before they declare their independence, although the people of Tigray hardly agree with the later. Besides, there are credible indicators that in the worst-case scenario, they aim to do so. This coupled with the slicing of the country to give it to a neighbouring foreign country (from Amhara region to Sudan) and their newly created map, showing Tigray doubled its former geographical size further indicate, these obdurate and ill-equipped rebels are up to implementing their 1975 manifesto, which is to date valid and states that, they are fighting for the independence of Tigray. I don’t have any objection about their aspiration for the independence of their region if the people of Tigray allow them to do so. Yet I do worry about their barbarism to the subjects of Ethiopia, in addition to their exploitation of the wealth of the entire country by dehumanising and impoverishing Sidama and the rest nations and peoples of the country. Such mind-boggling, morally repugnant incidents are unfolding in various regions with varying degrees of intensities and vigour.

The Ignored Promises of TPLF/EPRDF’s Regime

Needles mentioning, the indicated regime previously claimed to be catering for the needs of subjugated nations primarily and all nations and peoples of the country by abiding to rule of law. Yet currently, it is resorted to addressing their demands with the brutality of unprecedented scale. It is making sure that its policies deny the nations of various regions and Zones of their unalienable rights to existence. The Sidama nation is differently targeted for various reasons. For example, when it has picked the Sidama capital Hawassa, to make it’s the centre of Sidama and the entire south exploitation under the pretext of southern Ethiopian regional capital, the TPLF’s late architect has calculated: firstly, its long term and short-term advantages and; secondly its objectives on systematically knocking on the head of the Sidama to continually silence them. This is simply because, unless the TPLF regime effectively silences Sidama whose population is as large as the Tigray region, the annihilation of the Sidama nation will be impossible.

To satisfy its strategic interests in the south and in the entire Ethiopia at large, this why the TPLF separately dehumanises the Sidama nation. Furthermore, when it has merged a previously 5 independent southern regional states into one autoclave, its aim was indifferent from the objective of the European colonialists who have either amalgamated or partitioned African nations and peoples in the manner they need them to be smoothly ruled and exploited. There is no difference between both barbaric rulers.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of unlawfully incarcerated civilians and political leaders including religious groups are to date languishing in prions where torture and the violations of their rights are rampant. Tens of millions have been displaced from their lands to become destitute in the own land they and their ancestors lived for tens of generations as is the case in Sidama, Oromia, Ogaden Somali, Gambella, Amhara and the rest parts of the country. The youth of the country is fleeing both TPLF orchestrated poverty and flagrant violations of their rights at an alarming rate; to end up at the hands of modern day slave traders in numerous West African, middle East and Arab countries.

Conclusion,

Defiantly continuing with its stubborn rejection, the TPLF after its recent ‘35’ days conference once again shown its unpreparedness for a genuine political solution in Ethiopia. Its fake EPRDF meeting yielded nothing as it chose military rule with violence and mass-murder. It has showered without soap in Meqeele to return to Finfinnee with its 26 years’ dirt; thereby dash a glimmer of hope for stakeholders. Therefore, the time has come to rule-out any agreement of the regime to peace, equality and freedom for all. The peoples of the country are left with one choice, Unite and Fight, Or Else Die!

The Sidama people, its youth, business community, intelligentsia both in Diaspora and within the country must stand united to fight the regime denying them their dignity. The Sidama nation and the rest peoples of Ethiopia have got only one Choice. This is standing shoulder to shoulder with the Oromo and the Amhara people to join their ongoing resistances to fight the TPLF to end the suffering of over 104 million peoples of the country by ending TPLF’s long overdue brutal rule to restore the rule of law, peace and security in Ethiopia and beyond. The time is today! Tomorrow may be too late!

By Denboba Natie, December 29, 2017

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