Mr. Obang Metho Speech to Ethiopians, Eritreans, Somalis and Djiboutian
Mr. Obang Metho, Speech at “The Horn of Africa Peace Forum”,
“Putting Humanity before Ethnicity:
Exploring a Forgotten Path to Lasting Peace in the Horn”
Hubert Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs,
University of Minnesota.
December 4, 2009
Good evening! I want to take the opportunity to thank those Ethiopian, Eritrean, Somalis and Djiboutian who organized this very important event.
- You are visionaries with a bigger view of the world; unwilling to settle for the past and present failures in the Horn of Africa.
- You are risk takers, willing to step out of your own familiar groups and extend your dream to others.
- You are reconcilers, hoping to bridge broken relationships by working together to build a better future for all of us.
Thank you for inviting me. It is an honor to be here. I could not agree more with your mission of seeking lasting peace in the Horn. It is we, the people of the Horn, who must take charge and one of the first steps is coming together in this way for meaningful dialogue.
This forum is something our organization, the Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia, has really wanted to see happen, so when we learned that another group was organizing it, we were delighted to take part. A year ago, we called a meeting in the Twin Cities, reaching out to the diverse people of Ethiopia, but this meeting tonight goes where it should—beyond Ethiopia to the entire Horn of Africa. Lasting peace can only be achieved as all the people of the Horn are included in it. Lack of inclusion, our failure to value human life and inability to collaborate with each other is the reason that we are known for our death and suffering.
Before I begin, please permit me to give some short background on how I became involved in this struggle. My name is Obang Metho and I am the executive director of the Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia, a social justice movement with the mission of bringing diverse Ethiopians together to address the widespread human rights violations, corruption, lack of justice, and lack of freedom in the country and in order to bring about a more open, reconciled and prosperous society where all members can participate and benefit.
I am from a tiny ethnic group, the Anuak, who come from the Gambella region of southwestern Ethiopia and across the border into southeastern Sudan. Our region has many untapped resources like fertile land, water, gold and oil, but few opportunities. Because I desired an education, I immigrated to Canada and after finishing the university, I went back home, expecting to see life improved; however, in the Gambella region, where half a million people live, there was only one poorly equipped hospital and one doctor. Only 10% of the people had access to clean water.
Many of the children still had no education. The entire region was a forgotten and marginalized area by all the previous and current Ethiopian governments. The only time we were remembered was when they forcibly conscripted our young men to fight a war that defended their own dictatorship.
As I considered the difficult life of those back home, I determined to do something about bringing development to the region and started a development agency; partnering with fellow Canadians in a number of ongoing projects; including a major medical project in association with the College of Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan. We were just approved to receive a very large government grant when a tragedy struck Gambella.
On December 13th of 2003, my life abruptly changed when Ethiopian National Defense troops, accompanied by some highlander militia groups, used a prepared list and massacred over 400 Anuak leaders in less than three days. They marched through town, pulling mostly men out of their homes and brutally hacked them with machetes before the defense troops shot them in their backs. They chanted, “Today is the day for killing Anuak.” As they raped women and girls in front of their families, they taunted, “Today there will be no more Anuak babies.” As they looted, burned homes and destroyed property they jeered, “Today there will be no more Anuak land.” A few days later, a foreign oil exploration company began work drilling for the oil believed to be in abundance on our indigenous land.
Among those killed were many of my colleagues with whom we had been doing development work. Many were also my relatives, my former classmates and friends. This was when my life, as I knew it, unexpectedly changed because I felt I had to speak up for those who were killed and others who were still being targeted for their ethnicity. I knew that had I been living there, I would have met the criteria to be killed—I was male, an Anuak, I was educated and I was politically aware of my rights.
Over the next two years the human rights crimes continued. As many as 2000 Anuak were killed, many ending up in mass graves and countless more women were raped. Others were imprisoned, tortured or disappeared. Wells, crops, granaries, health clinics and schools were destroyed. In another week, it will be seven years since this happened and still no one has been held accountable for these crimes. If you ask why it came to an end, it is because the troops were moved to the Ogaden region of Ethiopia and into Somalia, where for the last three years, Meles’ troops have been committing the same crimes against humanity.
When I was first invited to speak at this Horn of Africa peace forum, I was asked to come up with a topic that would focus on solutions to the problems in the Horn of Africa.
The topic I have chosen is central to the mission of the Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia. That is: “Putting Humanity before Ethnicity: Exploring the Forgotten Path to Lasting Peace in the Horn.”
In my talk, I will attempt to answer the following questions:
- 1. What went wrong?
- 2. What does it mean to put “humanity before ethnicity?”
- 3. What is “the forgotten path?”
- 4. How can we move forward?
“What went wrong? Or, does anyone care about my pain?”
We can discuss all the various forms and incidents of tyranny, suppression of civil and human rights, corruption, poor governance and exploitation being carried out by the current government of Ethiopia against its own people and its neighbors, but I am going to mainly concentrate on “what has gone wrong” with the people of Ethiopia as a whole, which of course, also includes those within the EPRDF government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
One of the main things wrong with Ethiopia and the Horn is that we have become people separated by ethnicity, region, village and clan. If this is not enough, we are also sub-divided by political view, language, religion and skin color. We have isolated ourselves into hostile groups who are competing for power and resources. We are either hated or ignored. When tragedy or hardship strikes one group, no one else seems to care about their pain and suffering.
Let us look at some examples.
- When the Anuak were massacred, no one other than the Anuak cried; the human rights crimes that continued for the next two years were ignored by mainstream Ethiopians. This is a true fact. I am not exaggerating this.
- In May 24, 2002, when more than 100 Sidamo civilians were killed in Awassa, when they were peacefully protesting the federal government’s involvement in the Sidamo regional affairs and in March 10, 2002 when over 200 protesters from the Mazenger and Shekicho ethnic groups were killed in the town of Teppi, there was no outrage from Ethiopians at home or in the Diaspora.
- In 2006, when Meles’ troops invaded the Ogaden and Somalia, again, there was mostly silence. The Ogadeni were considered “separatists,” but few asked why they wanted to separate; however, before the 2005 election, the current government tried to get their votes by giving them hope of secession.
- The Oromos have lost more people than almost any other group. Ethiopian prisons have been called Oromo prisons because they are packed with Oromos. Again, has their suffering for the last fifty years been acknowledged? Has anyone really listened to why Oromo have wanted their own country?
- Think of the Afar, the Benishangul-Gumuz, those many tribes from the Southern Nations, as they have been pushed aside for many years and now plans are underway to exploit their land and/or resources. Those leaders who resist are imprisoned or killed. Why are most not really speaking up for these people?
- Think of the Amhara farmers whose land was given to Sudan and who are being displaced? Why is Meles willing to have 100,000 Ethiopian lose their lives over keeping Badme and then give away fertile Ethiopian territory to the Sudan? This contradiction will only make sense to Meles and his regime who are certain to profit in some way from both moves.
- Think about how those Tigrayans, who have stood up against the TPLF, have either left the country or have been abused, imprisoned and killed by this regime; yet they are excluded by others who lump them all together in an “ethnic” category called Woyane.
- When the Eritreans living in refuge in Ethiopia were deported by Meles to go back to Eritrea and most of their property was confiscated, did anyone care?
- During the Meles invasion of Somalia, it is reported that 22,000 Somali civilians have been killed and 1.2 million displaced in the last three years—some calling it and the Ogaden a “silent Darfur. Why is there not more outrage by all of us and the international community regarding such atrocities? The only news is of human rights atrocities being committed by Somali radicals and others; whereas all such crimes against humanity should be opposed or condemned regardless of who committed it.
This forces us to ask, if everyone wants to break away from a country, what is wrong that must be fixed? Is that not the reason we are here today? Had Ethiopians cared about the pain of the people, I am confident that it would have made a difference! In fact, many groups would not be fighting to separate from the country if they were treated with respect, were given true self-autonomy like states within the US and if others listened and cared about their grievances and pain—the lack of which is the reason why Ethiopia, as it is today, may no longer exist as a country of the future. Instead, Ethiopians and others in the Horn must see and correct the destructive attitudes and practices that perpetuate our problem.
They are:
- A culture of revenge and woundedness: Wounded victims rise up to become perpetrators against new victims who then rise up to perpetrate against the same or new victims, in a never-ending cycle where we become hardened from seeing the humanity of another and in doing so, lose our own humanity.
- A culture of “ethnicity gone wrong:” Ethnic policies and hatred create a system of injustice where retribution is taken, not necessarily against the guilty, but against innocent civilians of the same ethnicity or even by collective punishment of entire groups. Privileges, opportunities and power, or lack of the same, are based on ethnicity or other superficial distinctions.
- A culture of “one ethnic group takes all:” Each group fights for dominance and then oppresses everyone else and rewards their cronies. Minorities and the marginalized are left out regardless of who is in power and are only used when needed to advance the self-interests of those in charge.
- A self-defeating culture of oppression, poverty and destruction:” Most are left out most of the time creating endless suffering and want. A percentage will resist, oftentimes with the goal of regime change or separating from the country.