Part One: Leave and Never Come Back! Three years ago—on July 3, 2015, around 10:50 AM—a few (and I stress, a few ) connected, mafia-like members of the TPLF operating within the state-owned Ethiopian Airlines still considered themselves above the law. That day, they used a fabricated “security concern” and a vague accusation of “political tendencies” as a cover for their real motive: ethnic profiling. They sent security officers to my office at the Aviation Academy and literally forced me out, saying only, “Leave” —with the unspoken but clear message: “And never come back.” And I never did. To an outsider, especially someone unfamiliar with the inner workings of the airline, this may sound unfathomable. How could a civilian airline allow a political group to carry out mafia-style operations against its own employees? But I was not alone. Many before and after me have faced similar intimidation and injustice. While these individuals acted under the banner of the TPLF, I want to m...
On November 15, 2020, at 11:55 AM, Senait Mebrahtu tweeted (in Amharic), “From now on, if you don’t cease what you are doing, I will release a video of you being abused in prison and put you to shame forever.” This tweet was directed at the renowned, award-winning Ethiopian journalist and human rights activist Reeyot Alemu. Reeyot was a prisoner of conscience for five years under the TPLF-led government of Ethiopia. Senait is an active member of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the party that held power in Ethiopia for twenty-seven years until it was ousted by a popular uprising in 2018. That same day, the spokesperson for the TPLF—now the ruling party in the Tigray region—appeared on a regional TV station and threatened to launch rockets into neighboring Eritrea and other targets within Ethiopia, just hours before attacks were carried out on two airports in the Amhara regional state. There are striking similarities between the two threats: both serve as evidence of...
Romancing Genocide?! .............................. .............................. .................. So said the pundit: The script of genocides is penned with bayonet; As if machetes have souls with vengeful intent; So said another pundit: The drama of genocide is choreographed by destruction, As if ruins have seasons and are naturally born; Yet I went to ask Ghosts of the dead, Who- to death, by hatred been ushered, Under their tombs marked and unmarked, What is your take ? So said the ghosts regretfully cogent: Effects are bigger than grounds; And no single consequence is born out of a single cause! As no real war is waged in the battle fields; And no peace time is shy of warring gesticulations; A real genocide is scripted in times of wounded peace Where tolerances to hatred constitutes ‘real politics’ Where in the space left for forgiveness reigns, Vengeful fingers pointing at unearned sufferings, yet chanting “they deserve injustice”, So I heard the ghosts reg...
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