Ethiopian Valentine:- an ancient Ethiopian love letter resurrected

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"Ethiopia is your mother: Love her.

Ethiopia is your country: defend her.

Ethiopia is everything to you: die for her." -- Emperor Yohannes IV(1837-1889)

Exactly 133 years ago, after Emperor Yohannes IV of Ethiopia defeated his Egyptian enemies in the Battle of Gura'e, he reconciled with the rest of Ethiopian leaders and Kings to bring more unity peacefully. He even resolved the bloody battle between King Teklehaymanot and Menelik of Shewa with the Berumeda conferance in August 13 1874. Then he established a federal system to pacify the regions, allow all leaders & kings to rule their own regions with the pretext of "King of Kings." Now, Ethiopian people of the 21st century would like the current leader, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, to do the same thing by reconciling with the top opposition political party (CUD) who are mostly suffering in one of Africa's worst conditioned prisons.

After the 2005 elections where the ruling party, EPRDF, won the election, the riots and violence have made Ethiopia very tense. Ethiopian people, being the most time tested and optimistic people, have moved forward and mostly forgotten about everything. However, deep down inside every supporter of the CUD who feels the votes were rigged, deep bitterness still exists. Particularly in the eyes of the Pro-CUD Diaspora, it is still technically 2005. Unable to do what most historical democrats of American history and the founding fathers have done, some of the pro-CUD Ethiopian Diaspora are unable to let go. Certainly all of these are very undemocratic characters displayed by the Diaspora in Europe & America, but considering the circumstances of letting go by CUD, who can blame them? Afterall, most of their CUD leaders are put in jail; human rights activists have become the victim of "violations" of human rights and hardworking individuals have been put in a 10x10 cells unable to use what nature has given them. Most of all, these same people are in prison with "fabricated" and serious accusations, including "genocide."

However, all sides share the blame. The opposition having successfully used European observers as their spokespersons, declared victory early and waged violent demonstrations. After disobeying a national demonstration ban that was put in place to pacify the tense situation, the radical parts of the CUD opposition supported riots without impunity. And because of their undemocratic decisions they successfully created divisions among their own sub-parties and incited the rios that led to the death of many innocent Ethiopians. Meanwhile, the ruling party's troops shared the blame as they made the most dangerous decision by firing on rioters instead of finding other ways to calm the violence. Still questions against the CUD party kept piling up and up because of their claims against the government. If the demonstrations were so peaceful, why would the ruling party allow a million people demonstration occur weeks before without a single death but in contrast just few hundred "demonstrators" doing the same thing ended up in violence? Doesn't the damage and violence show the nature of the rioters? Even in CUD's calculations since EPRDF won nearly 50% of the votes which would give it an upper hand anyway, why would the ruling party find it necessary to call for an alleged "massacre"? And how independant were EU observers and Ana Gomez if they claimed victory for CUD prematurely and even enforced their own laws & policies to be adopted to the Ethiopian constitution? Why did CUD leaders disobey the law and ignored the demonstration ban? Also why were CUD representatives and leaders living in America and Europe defaming the ruling party's reputation while their counterparts in Addis Ababa were acting like angels before the elections? Many more questions haunted the AEUP leadership of CUD which is now in jail. In the opinion of most Ethiopians living in Ethiopia, all of these important unanswered questions contributed to the present situation of the imprisoned CUD leaders as well as the split up of CUD into many branches and parties. In the opinion of most Ethiopians living in America and Europe, these questions should be ignored.

In the eyes of the ruling party supporters, the new mask of the supporters & sympathizers of the Derg regime inside CUD party ( who has now transformed to be "champions" of democracy) has not worked. The new mask of former supporters of Derg who said nothing when the Derg regime killed thousands but who attend every white house prayer service based on "fabricated" charges against the government, has not worked. Generally It has been the same old domineering concept where EPRDF often gets labelled a "minority government" while CUD itself acknowledged EPRDF getting atleast 48% of election votes, making it impossible for CUD to win with the major competitors like UEDF, OFDM and several parties sharing their votes. Even the same old ethnic politics has been played by CUD leaders & supporters who claim that the ethnic Amhara has to lead the country in order for democracy to work due to their population. In all this craziness, the separate radical group, Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) is just enjoying the show as a bystander. It is mostly a Win-Win situation for OLF, another ethnocentric group that claims it represents the Oromos who are the majority of Ethiopians. It is a Win-Win situation because OLF is the most powerful Oromo organization but it is also the most confused and unfocused organization. OLF, at this time, doesn't know it's mission because it is weighting & wondering around an Oromia republic concept and an Oromia state under a democratic Ethiopia. Basically OLF doesn't know what it wants. But if EPRDF wins that still means more chance for reconciliation between OLF and TPLF/EPRDF because with CUD's Amhara based policies and CUD's anti-ethnic federalism concept, it would be like going back to the year 1960 for OLF. In fact the EPRDF constitution is OLF's constitution and EPRDF winning will be another chance for a dialogue and a united Ethiopia with equality. But at the same time, if CUD wins it means victory for OLF too. Under the current conditions CUD can win only undemocratically and with a battle against EPRDF, so it would mean the end of an Ethiopian unity. If CUD doesn't become a tolerant, lawful, peaceful and multi-ethnic party, then according to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's own words -- "if the federation fails and Ethiopia breaks up; maybe then Ethiopia was not meant to be." Thus another Win for OLF.

Now after more than a year of all this political madness, no matter who is/was to blame, no matter who is getting the upper hand, the Ethiopian people are tired of the animosity and they want their leaders to let go & move forward. The best way to do this seems a reconciliation between CUD and the ruling party to share power and then a fresh start of a new olive branch to OLF. But a good way for CUD to payback the ruling party would be to obey the laws and the constitution of the nation which they completely disobeyed about a year ago. There is no such thing as democratic change when one group doesn't obey the constitution at all. And this time, giving such respect would mean CUD honoring the Ethiopian federal judicial system instead of respecting the colonial system. The colonial system where Diaspora CUD supporters just kneel down in front of the white house for prayers meetings as well as worship Mrs. Ana Gomez need to end. It is time for Ethiopians to solve their own issues or face endless destability with unsolved historical differences. In most cases it is in the interest of every political group and every ethnic group leaders to find a common ground for the best interest of their people. United Ethiopia can be stronger and thus without having to face an inside anti-Ethiopia opposition, it can become an economic giant. The other road of disintegration would be disasterous.

Only with the love of ONE country was how Ethiopians from every where were united for a victory in Adwa more than 100 years ago. The people united 100 years ago and the leaders with the help of Emperor Yohannes IV got united 133 years ago. Now it is time to do it again. Everyone can't gain without losing something. EPRDF's & OLF's ethnic federalism policy is the only way for the beloved Ethiopia to survive, but unless every ethnic group identifies itself as an Ethiopian FIRST and as a certain ethnic group SECOND, ethnic federalism alone will never work as a uniting mechanism. This is where CUD is desperately needed. This is the reason why many Ethiopians voted for CUD. Hopefully the judgement will not be too harsh on AEUP/CUD leaders. So every group and every political party has something positve to contribute. Love of country can sustain Ethiopia. Emperor Yohannes was smart leader despite his religious intolerance. But today, Ethiopia is a country with enormous religious freedom having around 40% Sunni Muslims, 40% Orthodox Christians, 17% Evangelical Christians and many smaller religions. It is also a growing economy and the melting pot of almost 80 ethnicities. Yet Ethiopia is missing one last piece where political tolerance is needed to drop historical bitterness and division. With the exception of Emperor Yohannes's religious extremism, all his other policies of reconciliation must be utilized by the current Ethiopian leaders including Meles Zenawi. Love of country should and must lead. Let the hope and dreams of all Ethiopians come true. "Ethiopia is your mother: love her."- (Emperor Yohannes IV)