I am absolutely so convinced that without systemic change in Ethiopia, no one ethnic group would succeed in finding sustainable peace, particularly if we kept fighting with each other instead of uniting around larger goals. All of us, Ethiopian are victims of human rights crimes at the hands of the ethnic apartheid regime of the TPLF/EPRDF. Yet, each victim of such crimes must decide whether to become consumed with anger and ethnic hate or whether to reach out to others to find justice for everyone—not just your own group. This was a decision I had to make for myself. This was not an easy decision, but I believed it was necessary if we want to break out of this cycle of ethnic hatred and revenge. Not surprisingly, I was criticized by some ethnic group for making this decision to reach out to others; however, I was convinced that ethnic hatred or hatred of any kind would never bring about the Ethiopia that will give our children and grandchildren freedom, justice, the respect for human rights, peace, civility or prosperity. I realized that until all were free in Ethiopia, no one ethnic group, including the Tigrayan or the TPLF/EPRDF supporters, would ever find sustainable freedom. The same can be applied in a larger scale—until all the people of Ethiopia are free, none of us will be free. We have a choice, either to enter into these destructive, cycles to perpetuate them or to break them by building bridges of solidarity between alienated and hostile groups, replacing new thinking with old and “putting humanity before ethnicity.”
Posted on: Fri, 03 Oct 2014 15:28:04 +0000
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