(Affirmative Article: A voice to the voiceless people from the Organization of Tigrian’s Network for the Affirmative Action (OTNAA)

Several researches suggest that the present modern day of northern Ethiopia (Tigray region) and Eritrea previously called the Kingdom of Aksum (Abyssina) is described as one of the four greatest powers in the world at the time from the 1st to the 7th centuries AD even though very little is known about it.

As a civilization, it had a profound impact upon the people of Egypt, Southern Arabia, Europe and Asia, all of whom were visitors to its shores, and in some cases were residents. It was a meeting point of religions, including Christianity, Judaism and, later, Islam and it continuous to be the home of several religious and spiritual practices in an inclusive manner. It is a place where the birth and the real essence of democracy and human right emerges as a society, expands and develops to the entire globe through human migration to all parts of the planet.

For instance, during, the two Migrations of Muslims to Abyssinia (A.D. 615-616), the Christian king of that period welcomed the Muslim refugees from Mecca into his kingdom. He gave them sanctuary, and they enjoyed peace, security and freedom of worship under his aegis. In human history, this is the exemplary human right protection provided before, the 1951 legal document of the Geneva Convention was defined.

A Parisian writer argues that the current place of Tigray-Ethiopia including Eritrea was a major naval and trading power that ruled beyond the current political map of the Horn Africa region from about 400 BCE into the 10th century. It had its own coinage and had written its own scripts, known as Geez that led to the birth of Tigrigna and then Amharic languages during the Aksumite Kingdom, even though no histories or descriptions have been found to make this Unique African wealth and civilization come alive in the entire continent today. In fact, the UNESCO added the archaeological sites of the present Tigray region to its list of World Heritage Sites in 1980 due to their historic values.

On the contrary, Mr. Messay Mekonon has called a genocide attack to such civil population,which are the indigenous people of Tigray-Ethiopia in his satellite TV called ESAT on 4 September 2016.1 He argues that in Ethiopia there is Tigray colonization and insights a vigorous killing propaganda campaign so as to drag ethnic war in Ethiopia. He calls a war of 5 million versus 95 million saying that the only solution is through “drying the sea (Tigray people) in order to catch the fish (TPLF). He also calls the current ruling party of Ethiopia as Tigray government that not evidence based and completely out of reality as it includes different elites from all nations and nationalities of Ethiopia.

The OTNAA Global Executive Committee has asked the questions: Why are Messay Mokonnon and ESAT-media calling genocide over a peaceful people of Tigray- Ethiopia? Where are they living? What nationality do they have? Ethiopians or Americans? For what reason and what is their interest in Ethiopia, war and fragmentation or peace and unity of all the nations and nationalities of Ethiopia?

Are they fighting the bad governance and corruption using an ethnic war? Would it be possible and effective to overthrow a government like this from distance? Are they sniffing to declare war on the people of Ethiopia and make the fate of the peaceful country like the current Syria? Why they don’t broadcast their information in a partial, neutral, independent and human manner? What is the hidden agenda behind for igniting ethnic conflict and call for genocide? In fact, it could be argued that all these questions should be critically analyzed and answered by all peace seeking Ethiopian nations and nationalities at local and international level regardless of their political stand and affiliation to the current ruling party.

Consequently, the Organization of Tigrian’s Network for the Affirmative Action (OTNAA) concludes and takes this genocide call as the worst evil criminal act of modern man era. OTNAA is an international non-governmental organization that works in Human right and Assistance programs, Education and Human Empowerment Programs, Promotion of Intercultural Communication & Technology (PICT) with evidence based Research and Development programs. Its Global Virtual Head Office is located in the capital city of the Tigray Regional State, Mekelle and where as its global coordination office in Geneva-Switzerland. It has six regional offices working at different sectors in a unified and well-integrated manner; Middle East, Africa, Asia, Europe, Americas and Australia.

Well, the OTNAA Global Directorates of Directors has analyzed this genocide call on the people of Tigray in Ethiopia by the ESAT media based in USA and has come into a conclusion that it is totally against the policy, obligation, duty and protocol of any media. It highly violates, the fundamental rights of indigenous people, The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the principles of journalism ethics, good practice and applicable standards. It has led into consequences of more than 20,000 innocent Tigrian-Ethiopians forced displacements and another significant number of forced migrations to the Northern Sudan. A significant civil persons, children and women of Tigrian origin Ethiopians that were living in a peaceful and integrated manner in the different parts of Ethiopia have become victim of such irresponsible and illegal official genocide call over the people of Tigray.

While the definition of genocide can be debated technically, politically and legally, the Genocide Convention makes clear that the crimes committed by Mr. Mekonen and ESAT media are in fact clearly and official called genocide against the civil population of Tigray.

Under Article Two of the Convention, “Genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, as such: (a) killing members of the group; (b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.” Among the genocide violations which are listed here in a, b and c are already committed by Mr. Messay Mekonen and the ESAT media center based in USA.

Furthermore, this media called ESAT and Mr. Messay Mekonen don’t make a difference between the people of Tigray and the current ruling party TPLF and hence they are committing crimes against humanity officially in the face of international community. This media is attacking systematically one ethnic civilian population that is struggling to survive on its daily lives in particular and not engaged in any political interventions with the ruling party in general.

This is why the Organization of Tigrian’s Network for the Affirmative Action (OTNAA) sees this genocide call on the indigenous people of Tigray-Ethiopia as a serious human right violation and condemns it very strongly with all its regional offices in one unified voice. OTNAA reminds how history teaches us the importance of media broadcasting in the mobilization of people to kill each other through ethnic cleansing. For instance, it’s a great historical shame that the international medias didn’t condemn such strategic crimes against humanity in Ethiopia. On the other hand, the failure of the media to fully report on the genocide that claimed an estimated 800,000 lives in Rwanda during a 100-day period in 1994, made it easy for Western governments to ignore the crisis that they preferred not to acknowledge until long after it ended. Until today, why no action had been taken to halt the broadcasts that were promoting the worst of all genocide crimes in Rwanda is not clear and no body has taken the responsibility.

Last but not least, the OTNAA Global Directorates of Directors would like to ask Mr Messay Mokonnon and ESAT media to make an official excuse for the people of Tigray-Ethiopia for such evil, shameful and criminal act of genocide call to innocent civilians and indigenous people in Ethiopia. Furthermore, OTNAA calls to the international human right agencies, organizations, both at local and global level, to strongly condemn such irresponsible and serious problems of genocide call made by ESAT and Mr. Messay Mokonnon.

The OTNAA, global leadership also calls to the USA government to warn such kind of media and individuals that officially violate the rule of law and universal human right refuging in the country where respecting the rule of law and human rights are on its national center of foreign policy and its internal top priority policy practice.

The OTNAA would like to call to all the Ethiopian people, nations and nationalities to be stay united, protecting its culture of democracy, social cohesion, peaceful integration not to be misguided and misinformed by such kind of immature, irresponsible and unaccountable media that called genocide from a foreign country.

Furthermore, the OTNAA would continue its effort to make Mr. Mesay Mekonen and the ESAT media accountable for their shameful deeds and it would be much more pleased to discuss this with any concerned bodies at a global level so that such evil and criminal acts wouldn’t be repeated in the future from any media corporations or centers.

References

1) ESAT calling for genocide on Tigrians: Dry up the sea in order to catch the fish [Video] Published on Sep 4, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvQ6jC5t7KE

2) The British Museum: The wealth of Africa: The kingdom of Aksum Teachers’ notes [PDF].

3) The Media and the Rwanda Genocide [PDF] Edited by Allan Thompson with a Statement by Kofi Annan: Published by International Development Research Centre.

4) Universal Declaration of Human Right [PDF] (UDHR, 1948). 

5) Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: The Migration to Abyssinia.

NB: In case you have any question or clarification, please hesitate not to let us know and we would be deeply honored and grateful to give you further justifications and clarifications accordingly.

(The Organization of Tigrian’s Network for the Affirmative Action (OTNAA) Global Directorates of Directors, Geneva-International.)

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