I don’t rejoice Meles’ death, I mourn for my friend
Aug 22, 2012 (The Gulele Post)
Meles’ death made me wipe for Nasir Abdo, the closest person Meles took away from me. Nasir was my mentor, best friend and a dear brother. He was arrested in 2004 falsely accused of terrorism. Among evidences used against him was a Western Union receipt for 50 bucks I sent him from Singapore to pay for rent. When I visited him in Maekelawi in 2005, he could not walk or talk as he was severely tortured. His torture ordeals was witnessed by his ones cellmate Bayissa Gemechu. After Red Cross made issue about his situation, he was transferred to Kality where he resumed his study and teaching the illiterate peasant prisoners. He later scored 4.0 on his 10th grade exam. In 2006 he sent me a list of books I should send him, one of them was Mandela’s “Long Walk to Freedom”. When I went to see him, I was surprised how much he changed. He was all smiling, talking about being offered scholarship by a private college, and the number of people he helped read and write.
But misfortune hit him again when the a novel manuscript he was writing was discovered by the prison guards. According to his cellmates, he was taken away for three days. When he returned, he was all swollen up. They used the infamous torture method of hanging filled bottle on his testicles and left him locked over night, resulting in his dismemberment. He was also so badly beaten that his ribs were broken. Despite passionate plea by the fellow cellmates, he was denied medical attention for a week.
Then they threw him out on the street. People who saw him rushed him to hospital where we learned that he had severe kidney infection and his other internal organs were rapidly failing. He was taken to Adama where his agony ended a week later. This is just a story of one Oromo who was tortured to death under Meles Zenawi’s leadership. Among publicly known cases of people who were tortured to death I could mention popular singers Usmayyoo Mussaa and Yosef Gammachu.
–Full Document at The Gulele Post
My only uncle who raised me had the same fate and even more brutal and slow death.
3/4 of the land surface of the so-callled Ethiopia belongs to Oromo.The wealth and the natural resources such as gold,coffee, Khat, agricultural produces etc that Ethiopia depends to exist comes from the land of Oromo. Even all those internationally acclaimed sports personalities that bring fame and fund for Ethiopia are all Oroms. All the regimes of Menelik, Haile Selassie, Mengistu and now TPLF use young Oromos as canon fodders to subject, rule, colonize and enslave other nationalities including the Oromo people. Poverty level is the highest in Oromia.The Northerners (Amhara and Tigre)are the de facto rulers of Ethiopia and they are only the beneficiaries of the wealth and power of the Nation. My advice to all cushetic ethnic groups (Oromo, Somali, Boran etc)is to fight hard and get what belongs to us. For how long we should be enslaved, abused and live under the shadow of those callous and greedy Northerners. Lets wake up seriously and put our efforts together to live in dignity and pride among our equals in the world. I believe that is what we want !
Boorannis Oromoo dha. Summii nu keessa facaasuu dhufte yoo ta’e hin milkooftu!
At this time when the western masters are covering Melese dirty work with the golden paint, we , the subject people should compile and expose his savagery. We, have to provide its victom with evidence. Eventhough they may not support us, they will refrain from speading false propoganda of ” meles development and stability” fiction.
I am really sad with the story, I read on the top.
@ LEMA OMAR Don’t think so narrow like this. Try to see our world, in a global way. Natural resource in this counrty is so small compared with other African countries. If you have petrol in your land, are you going to kill all non-oromo people in this country? The base line is that all of us are poor in this country. Less than 3dollar per day. Our resource is our hard working people, who lost good leadership and democracy. I wish you get your independance like Eriteria now. You don’t represent the very nice and kind oromo society in our country. You are just few dulls consider your self brilliant, dynamic and rich. You are just showing your stupidity. Forget about passed history, accept the fact you are living today and try to change the future in positive attitude.
I wish Meles Zenawi would have been held accountable for the crimes he has committed against humanity. I am a living testimony to the hard facts behind the above well articulated article. I have translated language and listened to the testimonies of four Oromos who courageously spoke against same method of torture.
Oromo torture survivors and human right activists have been doing in a coordinated manner especially over the past few years. There has been a plan to practically make Meles and his top torture perpetrators accountable for their inhuman and savage acts and orders/policies. Oromo survivors managed to talk to US senetors and congress repeatedly. They convienced other human right activists gathered in US from around the world in making Oromo issue to be the focal and point of discussion in Africa. Through such efforts Oromo human right issue was selected internationally to be presented in congressional hearing in the US congress.
Such activities need to be supported by all Oromos so that perpatrators (including those who commited crime against humanity and live a safe life in the US other parts of the world) be accountable and servants of dictators would be warned not to collaborate with their masters in the future.