Ethiopians in Italy protest killing of migrants in Saudi Arabia.Demotix\/Stefano Montesi. All rights reserved.The first duty of any
\ngovernment is to protect its citizens from harm, at home and abroad \u2013 no matter
\nwho they are, or where they are. This is the primary moral and constitutional
\nresponsibility of the EPRDF government of Ethiopia, which, as with a vast array
\nof such obligations, they fail to meet, or even acknowledge.<\/i><\/p>\n
\u00a0In recent weeks a
\nplethora of atrocities have befallen Ethiopians abroad: in Libya 30 Ethiopian
\nChristians (whom we know of) were murdered
\n(their beheadings shown on video) by Islamic jihadists, marching under a black
\nflag of hate and violence; hundreds of others shiver in fear of being exposed
\nto this. Earlier this month Ethiopians (together with other African migrants)
\nliving in South Africa were dragged through the streets by gangs: burnt alive,
\nbeaten, their homes and businesses destroyed, their children attacked.
\nThousands of Ethiopian men and women are trapped and frightened inside Yemen as
\nthat country descends into civil war; hundreds more are amongst the thousands
\nof desperate men and women trying to cross the Mediterranean into Europe from
\nLibya. And in the Middle East and Gulf States (MENA), Ethiopian girls, working
\nas domestic workers, are routinely mistreated by employers; many are sexually
\nabused, most suffer psychological violence, all are trapped into domestic
\nslavery.<\/p>\n
To each and every one
\nof those Ethiopians suffering upon foreign soil, the ruling regime has offered
\nlittle or no support. Not content with suppressing the people at home,
\nviolating their basic human rights and denying them freedom and justice, the
\nEPRDF government ignores their cries for help. Unlike other nation states
\n(Malaya, Sri Lanka, the Phillipines, for example) they provide no consular
\nsupport to the vulnerable young workers in the Gulf countries; have failed to
\norganise any major airlifts for those hiding in Yemen, have done nothing to
\nprotect migrants in Durban and Johannesburg; and have taken no significant
\naction, save prime ministerial platitudes, to safeguard Ethiopian Christians in
\nLibya.<\/p>\n
The government\u2019s
\nneglect is shameful but not surprising, and has enraged the people, who took to
\nthe streets
\nof Addis Ababa recently in huge numbers in a powerful display of collective
\ngrief and anger. Their peaceful protest was met \u2013 again not surprisingly, given
\nthe governments intolerance of public assembly \u2013 by baton wielding security
\npersonnel, who beat men, women and girls indiscriminately and broke up the
\ndemonstrations. According to constitutional
\nprinciple demonstrations are allowed, but in practice they are all but outlawed,
\nas are all types of free expression. The regime is paranoid, as all such
\ntotalitarian groups are.<\/p>\n
The need for a quiet
\ncentre from where to face the world is common to us all. For many that haven of
\nsecurity is our country of birth, it comforts and reassures us, protecting us
\nfrom the uncertainties and dangers of life. Home is where we feel safe, secure
\nand loved. A wooden hut or a modernist mansion, home is the refuge we turn to
\nin times of difficulty.<\/p>\n
For the thousands of
\nEthiopian migrants abroad, they have neither home nor country. Abandoned by
\ntheir government they are homeless, vulnerable and alone; they make easy prey
\nfor criminals: the traffickers and the gangs of rapists, kidnappers, jihadists
\nand thugs who patrol the pathways along which the migrants walk.<\/p>\n
To the untrained eye,
\nthe economy of Ethiopia appears to be developing, and the country gives the
\nappearance of stability in a region of almost total instability. But this is a
\nmisleading image of development and hides deep-seated inequalities, endemic
\ncorruption, widespread bitterness and simmering fury towards the ruling party.
\nEthiopia remains one of the poorest countries in the world: it is ranked 173rd
\nout of 187 countries in the UN human development index, and unprecedented
\nnumbers of its citizens are migrating in search of opportunity and freedom.<\/p>\n
They travel north to
\nEgypt and Libya \u2013 hoping to make it to Europe; south to Kenya and South Africa;
\neast to Yemen, where some stay, others continue to try to crawl into Saudi
\nArabia. Many head to the other Gulf states, Lebanon, Kuwait, United Arab
\nEmirates; countries with virtually no domestic labour laws, endemic racism and
\nsexism, where na\u00efve, uneducated young girls from rural Ethiopia enter into
\ncontracts (the Kafala
\nsystem) with employers that trap them into domestic servitude, and, for many,
\nsexual and psychological torture. Over two thirds make the journey out of the
\ncountry illegally, entrusting their lives to human traffickers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
They migrate for one of
\ntwo reasons, economic or political, or should we say humanitarian, for it is
\nthe violations of their basic human rights that drive many from their homeland.<\/p>\n
Many see no way to
\nbuild a decent life for themselves and their families: others, particularly
\njournalists and political activists see no hope of freedom from tyranny and are
\npersecuted by the security forces for holding views that differ from the
\ngovernment. For them Libya, Yemen or the Mediterranean are no more dangerous
\nthan Ethiopia, Islamic state no greater a threat than the police or military,
\nand so they too step onto the migrant road of uncertainty, in search of a new
\nhome in a more peaceful place; a place where there are economic opportunities,
\nbetter education, and where democracy, justice and freedom exist. All of which,
\ndespite the duplicitous political rhetoric from the EPRDF government, are
\ntotally absent in Ethiopia.<\/p>\n
The regime
\nsystematically violates fundamental human rights, silences all dissenting
\nvoices and rules the country in a suppressive violent fashion which is causing
\nuntold suffering to millions of people. The upcoming May election, contrary to
\nUS Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman\u2019s ignorant, misjudged and widely
\ncriticised comments
\n(that \u201cEthiopia is a democracy that is moving forward in an election that we
\nexpect to be free, fair and credible and open and inclusive\u201d), is a hollow
\npiece of democratic theatre; a total sham, with no credibility whatsoever. The
\nresult, as everyone in the country and amongst the diaspora knows, is a forgone
\nconclusion.<\/p>\n
The government of
\nEthiopia neglects and suppresses the people at home, ignores and abandons them
\nabroad. They are in violation of a plethora of international covenants, as well
\nas their own constitution, but perhaps more fundamentally they are in violation
\nof their primary moral duty: To care for and protect their citizens, wherever
\nthey face intimidation, violence and abuse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ethiopians in Italy protest killing of migrants in Saudi Arabia.Demotix\/Stefano Montesi. All rights reserved.The first duty of any government is to protect its citizens from harm, at home and abroad \u2013 no matter who they are, or where they are. This is the primary moral and constitutional responsibility of the EPRDF government of Ethiopia, which,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1387\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}