Tedla Asfaw
Bono and his U2 Rock Band lighten up the Bronx gray sky at Fordham University this morning in their first appearance on Good Morning America (GMA). What makes me write this piece is the enthusiasm and smile of the students on this gloomy year of financial difficulty as long lines for Job fair here in New York City seems a norm and most of the seniors soon will join that line after their graduation.
University days as we all know is the time of feeling good, the time of rebellion too. That was the university I know in the the 1980s when Ethiopia was under military dictatorship and the Ethiopian youth was in front calling for real change and power to people. Unlike Bono's song, there is no light beyond the horizon, we believed otherwise.
However, Ethiopian University students under TPLF ethnic apartheid rule for the last eighteen years were not only denied looking for light beyond the horizon they are not sure if they will be alive the next day. TPLF's instigated ethnic clash destroyed the fabric of university life. Campuses have become a war zone and many undercover security agents are roaming the campuses to kill or harass any one who seem not to bow to ethnic apartheid rule. Hundreds of Oromo students were expelled for who they are and many were killed in different campuses throughout the country. In my day in the university, ethnically motivated killing was unheard of.
Had Bono sang today in the Bahrdar University campus he will not find an audience enthusiastic as the one he found in Bronx this morning. The youth of Ethiopia are an endangered species, hunted by TPLF security agents in all corners of Ethiopia. Recently two students were killed in the Bahrdar University for being from wrong ethnic group, Amharas. This is state terrorism and I challenge Bono who did a wonderful humanitarian job in Ethiopia and loves Ethiopian to look deeply inside the state of Ethiopian students life in universities.
Bono knows Ethiopian rural poor very well and worked hard to convince rich nations to forgive debt of poor countries like Ethiopia so they will spend their money to improve the lives of their people. I have no doubt Bono also agree with me with out well educated societies we will remain beggar nations forever and be a burden on him too. What will make Bono happier than seeing Ethiopian students dance to his wonderful songs and optimism on their faces as the one he found today in Bronx.
The dark clouds hanging on our country is going to be removed . The likes of Meles Zenawi and Al-Beshir of Sudan will not hide their crimes indefinitely. They will be held accountable for crime committed against people whom they do not like. Beshir got its arrest warrant from International Criminal Court (ICC) for ordering an organized terror on the people of Darfur which took the lives of half million people.
Meles Zenawi's crimes in Gambella, Oromia, South Ethiopia, Ogaden is well documented. His contempt and hate for Amahra people also has no boundary even do not spare the lives of two students in Bahrdar University this month. For him Amhara as a people are enemies and their children have to be killed blamed for past wrong deeds by "Amhara Rulers". Imagine blaming all the whites in USA for slavery and punish the children of white people.
Who has to stop this mad man ? When are we going to say enough is enough and charge this man for all crimes he committed against humanity ? I hope there is a glimmer of hope after the arrest warrant for Al-Beshir, the butcher of Darfur. It is not if but when for Meles Zenawi ????
