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URGENT CALL FOR the SECRETARY GENERAL of AU & ALL AU MEMBERS -From Yeheyis Ewnetu

URGENT CALL FOR the SECRETARY GENERAL of AU & ALL AU MEMBERS

From Yeheyis Ewnetu

Dear Secretary General, African Heads of States and African Sisters and Brothers,

The 36th AU summit is going to be held in the capital of AU, Addis Ababa, from February 15-16, 2023. 

As you all well know, the host country Ethiopia is one of the oldest countries in the world and ancient civilization; the cradle of mankind; a biblical country from the time of old testament/time immemorial, cited in the Holy Bible more than 42 times and among the first to accept Christianity in 42 A.D. and established the oldest Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church (EOTC), one of the five oriental churches, with all its refined dogmas, cannons, traditions and laws in the 4th century. Since then the EOTC played a vital role in the building of the Ethiopian nation-state; in shaping the culture and traditions of the Ethiopian people thereby our national identity (Ethiopianess); in laying the foundations for indigenous knowledge and wisdom and modern education and not the least as a repository of the majority of Ethiopian value systems. 

In his book entitled ‘The History of the EOTC’, his grace Father Gregory I, the late arch bishop of the EOTC, succinctly described the contribution of the EOTC to Ethiopia as the provider of law with its supremacy; rich and economical written language with its own unique alphabets (the lingua franca for Ethiopians – Ge’ez and Amharic respectively), the only of its kind in Africa (except the Arab speaking Africans); rich literature not only on religious subjects but also on philosophy, astrology, astronomy, Art, and biology, among others; in providing fine arts and work of arts with variety; faith with its philosophy; a unique calendar with 13 months (September 11 being our New Year) as a result of which Ethiopia is dubbed as a country of “13 months of sunshine” ; rich traditional medicines; freedom with its dignity; unity with bravery; a country with its borders and love, among others. 

The victory of Adwa, the symbol of freedom and pride of all black people, would not have been materialized had it not been for the spiritual and courageous leadership given by the EOTC. In this regard the exceptional bravery of the martyrs arch bishops Abuna Petros and Abuna Michael, who held a conspicuous place in the history of Ethiopia, can be mentioned as a case in point.

With all these fundamental contributions and others, the majority of Ethiopians, irrespective of their faith and political differences, agree and consider the EOTC as a ‘country’ in its own right.

It is important to remember at this juncture that Ethiopia is the only black African country defeating both colonialism and fascism and showed to the whole world once and for all that the racist attitude of the supremacy of the whites is unacceptable, barbaric, and uncivilized behavior witnessed by mankind. This is possible thanks to the tents of Christianity taught and preached by the EOTC that all human beings are equal before God. As a result of this, not only the Western powers have not seen the Church and Ethiopia with good eyes; they have been in constant alert and apprehension fearing that Ethiopia would be a ‘bad precedent’ for the rest of Africa for genuine political and economic independence but also they consider the EOTC as an impediment for pursuing their agenda of making the whole continent their backyard through the so-called ‘globalization’ or neo-colonialism. Hence, the Church has always been (since the period of colonialism) their target in tearing apart Ethiopia. The totalitarian and ethnic-based regimes holding power by brute force for the last three plus decades are nothing but mercenaries of these Western powers aimed at accomplishing this destructive mission of their ‘bosses’.

It is not uncommon for atheist and ethno-junta regimes to blame Christianity for their wrong policies and leadership failures, incompetence and hidden agendas to obliterate the long established order of the nation, institutes, values and heritages.

Having the foregoing as a backdrop, we shall let the honorable secretary general of AU, African heads of states and all African sisters and brothers know the gigantic challenges and tribulations faced by the EOTC by the very regime which is supposed to protect its institutional independence and sovereignty. Of course, looking back in to the history of the EOTC, no time has been passed without trials and tribulations but what makes the present one different is: it is designed by the regime with a clear intent of state takeover of the Church to destroy the same.

In fact, the systemic and structural attack directed against the EOTC has begun 50 years ago when the atheist Military regime (the so-called ‘DERG’) attempted to destroy the same. After the demise of the Military junta, the attack became intensified with the advent of ethnic politics and administrative structure established after the apartheid style of Bantustan regions, aka, KILLILS, fenced regions which are structured along ethnicity and language thereby blocking the fundamental rights of citizens, freedom of movement to live and work in their place of choice which is enshrined in international human rights instruments ratified by Ethiopia and also included in Art.32 of the regime’s façade constitution.

It is a public secret that Ethiopia is the only country? having the primitive and devastating ethnic system of government with legal and structural backing in the so-called ‘façade constitution’ of the EPRDF (Ethiopian People Revolutionary Democratic Front) successive regimes, the core of which is the terrorist group WOYANE- TPLF (Tigrean People Liberation Front). It is the only ‘constitution’ in the world which does not recognize the people of Ethiopia as citizens. The current OLF-OPDO (Oromo Liberation Front/Oromo People Democratic Organization) regime led by Abiy is an extension and successor of TPLF, a terrorist regime which is the exact replica of the TPLF except that OPDO’s deep rooted hatred for the national identity of Ethiopianess, its history, tradition, heritages and values are unprecedented in the entire history of Ethiopia. Abiy’s regime, the true offspring of TPLF, revealed its true color of ethnicism and the hybrid nature of fascism and Nazism few months after replacing its ‘spiritual father’. TPLF laid the legal and infrastructural foundation for the demise of Ethiopia, a scheme of divide and rule designed by fascist Italy and OLF-OPDO has been working 24/7 to accomplish this diabolical mission with the full backing of Germany. (Please see the website of the “Oromo Studies Association” and its publication of the Journal of Ormo Studies)

As part of his objective to establish a ‘new ethnically homogeneous country’, the so-called ‘Oromia State’ up on the ruins of Ethiopia and his mercenary role for the Western powers, the power maniac Abiy has recently revealed his last card to dismantle Ethiopia by destroying the EOTC. He declared a war on the Church by blatantly interfering in the internal affairs of the Church against the clear dogma and cannons of the Church with the aim of splitting the Church and establishing a parallel pseudo-synod by planting his cadres and security personnel under the guise of the robe of clergy. With absolute contempt, arrogance, ignorance and stupidity, this good-for-nothing person, has been trying to implement his ethnic politics in the religious realm by instituting an ethnic-based synod for the so-called ‘Oromiya’ region. 

This diabolical move, however, was met by formidable opposition by the Holy Synod of the EOTC, the supreme decision making body of the Church led by the Holy Spirit, and the faithfuls of the EOTC who represent more than half of the population of Ethiopia and later joined by the Ethiopian Muslims and genuine Protestants. Following this opposition, the regime led by Abiy indiscriminately murdered, in broad day light, more than forty believers and clergy of the Church and wounded hundreds and incarcerated thousands who were defending the illegal usurpation of their local church in Sashemene City, a city in the Oromia region about 250km south of Addis. The fake synod organized and backed by Abiy has continued to break in the EOT churches mainly in the Oromia region with the full logistics and military backing of the federal government and the military forces of the Oromia region led by another lunatic named Shimeles Abdissa. 

Following these heinous crimes of the regime, the Holy Synod of the EOTC declared three-days fasting and prayer period which coincided with the Fast of Nineveh (by wearing black clothes) and formally submitted its demands to the regime, the chief of which is to cease its political interference in the internal affairs of the Church according to Articles 11 and 27 of the regime’s façade constitution. To the total dismay and surprise of the whole world, this ignorant and lunatic regime has beaten and incarcerated believers who wore black clothes; dismissed civil servants from their job and deprived customers of public services who did the same as a matter of religious duty. To this date the regime not only illegally imprisoned and continued to kidnap many priests, deacons, preachers and the faithful under the pretext of a plot to subvert the constitutional order which has been non-existent in Ethiopia for the last five decades; it has also established an illegal ‘military command post’ to crush and suppress any attempt of resistance and peaceful demonstrations by the faithfuls. The regime has persecuted, kidnapped and imprisoned not only the followers of EOTC but also Ethiopian Muslims and Protestants who showed strong solidarity with the EOTC. By the way, those kidnapped and mass arrested Ethiopians have been sent to a ‘concentration camp’ called Awash Arba where torture and untold sufferings unparalleled with the Nazis have been practiced in the last thirty years.  

Having seen the regime’s irrational behavior, three days ago the Holy Synod had passed a decision and made a call to the faithfuls to stage a nation-wide and international peaceful demonstrations for last Sunday, the 12th of February 2023 and gave an ultimatum to the regime whether the regime is willing to discuss and respond to the demands of the Church, which are purely religious, within 48 hours. The regime responded to the ultimatum at the 11th hour and a discussion was held between members of the Holy Synod of the EOTC and the palace which seemingly resulted in the acceptance of the Church’s demands but immediately discovered to be a fake promise calculated to buy time for the upcoming AU summit and suppress any movement of the Church with brutal force once the summit is over. 

Denial, deception, betrayal, swindling, absolute lying, brutality, inferiority complex and the like are the true nature of this regime in general and the person Abiy in particular. 

On the other hand, the recent incident with the EOTC once again revealed the accumulated knowledge, wisdom, leadership quality, communication skills, and virtues of the beatitude fathers of the EOTC and laid bare the regime’s ignorance and spoil system of ethnicity vis-à-vis the wisdom and meritocratic system of the Church. Abiy dared to reduce the ancient, historical, national and universal Church of EOTC in to his ploy of ethnicity. How silly and stupid of him!!! This megalomaniac cannot stand with confidence in front of the EOTC and the true fathers of the Church. He is so dwarfed in front of them and showed his incompetence to lead a great country like Ethiopia. The Church and its believers said clearly and loudly hands off the Church!!!

Dear secretary general of AU, heads of States and African sisters and brothers, please do not be mistaken and misguided by the initial euphoria in Ethiopia for Abiy and the award of ‘Nobel peace prize’. All of these were masquerading on the part of this sly personality and the Western powers ‘gift’ as their ‘errand boy’. This time the majority of Ethiopians believe that Abiy is unstable with serious mental problems. There is a big fear and possibility that Abiy and his regime may commit very grave atrocities than the so far genocides (including cultural genocides), crimes against humanity, war crimes, etc. No one in his right mind entertain with banquets and parks after killing brutally hundreds and thousands of  innocent citizens, especially the Amharas (the largest population in Ethiopia) in Oromia region of Wellega (Western Ethiopia), Beni-Shangul Gumuz (North-Western Ethiopia) and in all regions of Oromia and internally displaced millions of citizens based solely on their ethnicity or religious affiliation. 

These days, the possibility of Ethnic and religious-based civil war is looming large in the Ethiopian sky. It is recalled that the recent civil war fought among brothers and claiming the lives of more than one million people was the result of the power struggle between the incumbent OPDO-led regime and the terrorist group of TPLF. The so-called ‘peace agreement’ brokered by the Western powers not only exclude some stakeholders but also let free the two major actors – which are responsible for genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity – with impunity. Such injustices are the order of the world we are living in.

Dear excellencies, I hereby call up on the AU – like the Five (Sister) Oriental Churches, Eastern Orthodox Churches, the Russian orthodox church, the International Council of Churches, the All African Council of Churches, the Roman Catholic Church, domestic and international governmental and private NGOs – to join its solidarity with the EOTC and stand with the people of Ethiopia against Abiy’s regime which attempted a state takeover of the Church by interfering in the internal affairs of the Church  in gross violation of its façade constitution and international human rights law with the clear objective of dismantling Ethiopia and establishing a homogeneous ethnic state called ‘Oromia’.

Finally, please allow me to say a word or two about our continent.

Today, at the 21st century and after 60 years of independence from colonialism, the majority of African regimes have authoritarian rules far worse than the colonialists. Some of the dictators went to the extent of lending money to the very country they are supposed to lead by looting state coffers and exploiting natural resources in collusion with their colonial masters. For some, their natural resources become a liability and source of bloody civil wars instead of prosperity.

Ethiopia is among the founding fathers of the Organization of African Unity, the predecessor of AU. The dreams of the founding fathers were not only economic but also political integration of the continent with the spirit of Pan-Africanism. What happened to successive generations of Africans? Are we really the children of those visionary fathers? Can we find a single peaceful and prosperous African Country? We may list endless catalogues of reasons for the predicaments and multi-faceted problems and challenges faced by Africans. But are we ready to to accept, at least half of the blames, which are attributed to our incompetence and lack of wise leadership, absence of rule of law, absence of good governance, unbridled greed for power, mismanagement of resources and rampant corruption and absolute contempt for our people, to mention a few? Are we still comfortable to live in a continuous vicious circle of Western cancerous ‘aid’ and ‘loan’? Can we cite a single great achievement made by OAU/AU in its existence for the last six decades? Does our organization have institutional and financial independence? Is it not funded by Western powers like the national budgets of many African countries? You know well that there is no free lunch as the saying goes. I am not belittling some sporadic efforts here and there. 

Can we find a single patriotic and benevolent dictator let alone a single democrat? Some of us like the lunatics ethno-juntas ruling over Ethiopia for the past three decades have been working relentlessly to turn the once proud country and people, who used to be a beacon of light for all Africans, to the age of stone thereby balkanizing the country in to 80 or more ethnic ‘states’ without taking history’s lesson from former Yugoslavia, Syria and Rwanda. 

Please wake up from your deep slumber and let’s work in unison to extricate ourselves from the vicious circle of poverty, hunger and disease and stand on our feet. Let’s respect the God-given rights, freedoms and dignity of our people.

Once again, stand with the EOTC and its faithful!

Hands off the EOTC!!!

February 14, 2023

Kind regards,

Yeheyis

Filed in: Current Affairs / News