At a Peace Forum,
Seeking Solutions to a Holocaust in the Horn
either with each other or in a state of civil war.
Filling the auditorium were immigrants from the Horn of Africa
including Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia and Djibouti. On the
podium, the four main conference speakers – academic experts and
human rights activists — painted a picture of crisis that was not only
tragic, but practically apocalyptic.
“Can Somalis survive their own political death?” asked Ahmed Samatar,
a professor of international studies at Macalester College. “I’m not so
sure. One never gives up on others who are still alive, but I’m not
sure.” Nearly half of Somalis living today in the Horn of Africa are
malnourished, Samatar said, adding that Somalia today “is now
objectively speaking the worst country in the world.”
In Ethiopia, the government uses genocide and ethnic cleansing to stay
in power, according to Obang Metho, the executive director of the
Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia. His own tribe, the Anuak of
western Ethiopia, have been targeted for elimination by the Ethiopian
government, Metho said, and an even larger-scale massacre, of Somali-
speaking Ethiopians in the eastern Ogaden region, is also underway.
Unfolding Holocaust
In eastern Sudan, a refugee crisis virtually hidden from the world’s
view is worsening by the day where thousands of refugees are fleeing
from Eritrea into 35 camps in Sudan, according to a documentary film
shown at the conference and prepared by the American Relief Agency
for the Horn of Africa (ARAHA).
A drought and famine of several years in the making is also now
sweeping across the Horn of Africa, massively intensifying the ravages
of war and repression.
“It makes you wonder whether life is worth living” to fully absorb all
these crises, said Bereket Habte Selassie, the key speaker at the forum
and the chief architect of the Eritrean Constitution. The constitution
was presented in 1997 but was never ratified because the country’s
President, Isaias Afwerki, assumed dictatorial power by cancelling
national elections, shutting down the national press and jailing his
opponents.
The four speakers each offered a different angle on the unfolding
holocaust.
Bereket’s key question was “In the Horn of Africa, what is ailing us?
How has our region become a kind of metaphor for disaster?” His
answer was a lack of democracy. “Our governments have failed us,”
he said. “What is democracy if not accountability? We have to have
governments that are accountable to the people.”
Islamist Project
In Somalia, Samatar suggested, the key problem is not so much an
unaccountable or even a corrupt government as the complete lack of a
functioning government.
“As we speak there is a vicious war going on between an incompetent
and legless transitional federal government, with no capacity and no
competence, against a very vicious Islamist project, who social
purpose is to force the Somali people to surrender. This is the drama
that’s unfolding on the streets of Mogadishu.”
Seyoum Tesfaye, an Atlanta-based journalist and human rights activist
from Eritrea, struck a resonant theme for Horn of Africa immigrants
now living in the U.S.
What role should the African diaspora play in trying to bring peace to
the countries in the Horn?
“Should the diaspora focus on finding ways of becoming part of the
grand American experiment?” Tesfaye asked. “Or, should people stay
consumed by cascading events from their countries of origin?”
Pouring oneself into helping one’s homeland before assimilating to
America, Tesfaye warned, came with a cost, since it would take longer
to reach high positions in society, such as elected public office, where
immigrants could make a real difference.
“When we choose to engage in noble efforts to bring peace in the Horn
of Africa, we do so as American citizens,” Tesfaye said. “In this sense
we help America in a profound way. We become immigrants turned
into grassroots ambassadors for our nation, which has overriding
strategic interests in the region moving forward from 9/11.”
Spiritual Renewal
Obang Metho, whose coalition represents the many ethnic groups in
Ethiopia, was the Martin Luther King of the conference, speaking to the
need for spiritual self-renewal among all the people of the Horn, people
on whom “the world has lost all hope.”
The endless intramural wars in the Horn of Africa must be put aside,
Metho said, in recognition that the crisis has reached a point that unless
they are, only death will rule.
“We need to put our humanity above our ethnicity,” Metho said.
“Today in Africa we seem to value our ethnicity above our humanity,
our language above our humanity, our religion above humanity. But
hatreds will get us nowhere. Something we all have in common is our
humanity. We have lost that today in the Horn of Africa.”
Metho swept his arm across the audience of immigrants in the audience
from the Horn of Africa – men and women who might be fighting each
other if they still lived there.
“It can be done in Minnesota,” Metho said. “Why can’t it be done in
Africa?”
.... Courtesy
Seeking Solutions to a Holocaust in the Horn
- 10 December, 2009
(Doug Mcgill) -
MINNEAPOLIS, MN
– It was a peaceful
peace conference,
which in itself was a
kind of miracle.
It was a miracle
because the countries
represented at the
conference – the
“Africa Peace Forum”
held last Friday at the
Hubert Humphrey
either with each other or in a state of civil war.
Filling the auditorium were immigrants from the Horn of Africa
including Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia and Djibouti. On the
podium, the four main conference speakers – academic experts and
human rights activists — painted a picture of crisis that was not only
tragic, but practically apocalyptic.
“Can Somalis survive their own political death?” asked Ahmed Samatar,
a professor of international studies at Macalester College. “I’m not so
sure. One never gives up on others who are still alive, but I’m not
sure.” Nearly half of Somalis living today in the Horn of Africa are
malnourished, Samatar said, adding that Somalia today “is now
objectively speaking the worst country in the world.”
In Ethiopia, the government uses genocide and ethnic cleansing to stay
in power, according to Obang Metho, the executive director of the
Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia. His own tribe, the Anuak of
western Ethiopia, have been targeted for elimination by the Ethiopian
government, Metho said, and an even larger-scale massacre, of Somali-
speaking Ethiopians in the eastern Ogaden region, is also underway.
Unfolding Holocaust
In eastern Sudan, a refugee crisis virtually hidden from the world’s
view is worsening by the day where thousands of refugees are fleeing
from Eritrea into 35 camps in Sudan, according to a documentary film
shown at the conference and prepared by the American Relief Agency
for the Horn of Africa (ARAHA).
A drought and famine of several years in the making is also now
sweeping across the Horn of Africa, massively intensifying the ravages
of war and repression.
“It makes you wonder whether life is worth living” to fully absorb all
these crises, said Bereket Habte Selassie, the key speaker at the forum
and the chief architect of the Eritrean Constitution. The constitution
was presented in 1997 but was never ratified because the country’s
President, Isaias Afwerki, assumed dictatorial power by cancelling
national elections, shutting down the national press and jailing his
opponents.
The four speakers each offered a different angle on the unfolding
holocaust.
Bereket’s key question was “In the Horn of Africa, what is ailing us?
How has our region become a kind of metaphor for disaster?” His
answer was a lack of democracy. “Our governments have failed us,”
he said. “What is democracy if not accountability? We have to have
governments that are accountable to the people.”
Islamist Project
In Somalia, Samatar suggested, the key problem is not so much an
unaccountable or even a corrupt government as the complete lack of a
functioning government.
“As we speak there is a vicious war going on between an incompetent
and legless transitional federal government, with no capacity and no
competence, against a very vicious Islamist project, who social
purpose is to force the Somali people to surrender. This is the drama
that’s unfolding on the streets of Mogadishu.”
Seyoum Tesfaye, an Atlanta-based journalist and human rights activist
from Eritrea, struck a resonant theme for Horn of Africa immigrants
now living in the U.S.
What role should the African diaspora play in trying to bring peace to
the countries in the Horn?
“Should the diaspora focus on finding ways of becoming part of the
grand American experiment?” Tesfaye asked. “Or, should people stay
consumed by cascading events from their countries of origin?”
Pouring oneself into helping one’s homeland before assimilating to
America, Tesfaye warned, came with a cost, since it would take longer
to reach high positions in society, such as elected public office, where
immigrants could make a real difference.
“When we choose to engage in noble efforts to bring peace in the Horn
of Africa, we do so as American citizens,” Tesfaye said. “In this sense
we help America in a profound way. We become immigrants turned
into grassroots ambassadors for our nation, which has overriding
strategic interests in the region moving forward from 9/11.”
Spiritual Renewal
Obang Metho, whose coalition represents the many ethnic groups in
Ethiopia, was the Martin Luther King of the conference, speaking to the
need for spiritual self-renewal among all the people of the Horn, people
on whom “the world has lost all hope.”
The endless intramural wars in the Horn of Africa must be put aside,
Metho said, in recognition that the crisis has reached a point that unless
they are, only death will rule.
“We need to put our humanity above our ethnicity,” Metho said.
“Today in Africa we seem to value our ethnicity above our humanity,
our language above our humanity, our religion above humanity. But
hatreds will get us nowhere. Something we all have in common is our
humanity. We have lost that today in the Horn of Africa.”
Metho swept his arm across the audience of immigrants in the audience
from the Horn of Africa – men and women who might be fighting each
other if they still lived there.
“It can be done in Minnesota,” Metho said. “Why can’t it be done in
Africa?”
.... Courtesy
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Open Letter to the President of
Genocide Watch
23 April, 2009 ( SMNE ) -
"The foundation for a
future case against those
involved, which implicated
those in the highest levels
of Ethiopian government,
is well established....More
Genocide Watch
23 April, 2009 ( SMNE ) -
"The foundation for a
future case against those
involved, which implicated
those in the highest levels
of Ethiopian government,
is well established....More
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Eritrean refugees held peaceful demonstration in
Ethiopia (Photo Asmarino)
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