Thirty Five Years Of State Led Genocide In The Presence Of Au And International Community In Ethiopia

Table of Content

1. Introduction

2. Why the attack on the church?

3. The damage done to the orthodox believers and its result

4. The future risk expected, if the problem is not solved

5. Attacks on the Orthodox Tewahido Church and the faithful

Summary

1. Introduction

1.1.Background of the statement

To explore the background of the article, we will look at a brief overview of the Ethiopian Orthodox church. The church in this world is always fighting. It‟s known that the sufferings that are happening to the church are what our ancestors went through.

The attacked that are happening today are aimed at destroying the Ethiopian orthodox tewahido church from our country. It‟s known that the power to save the church by responding adequately to the church, as our ancestors did in the past, is decreasing in these days. This is making the problem a critical concern.

Because the Orthodox Tewahido Church is founded on the cross, there has never been a time when it rested from suffering. Judith Goodit¹, Ahmed Gragn², Catholics, Fascist Italy have caused great damage to the church.

During the Derg era, worshiping God on the principle that God does not exist had reached the point of denying God. After the change of government in 1990, the church suffered varies types and amounts of suffering.

Most of the attacks are carried out by radical Islam, and in some areas they are carried out with the support of Protestants who are in the government structure. The country‟s constitution which is basis on oppressor and oppressed is the other part that picture the church as an oppressor to attack it.

This constitution wants to destroy the church, if possible, otherwise to prejudice it. The authority of the government have come to the point of warning us to label them as radicals, to break the neck print, to modify the bible verses and teach in the way that the listeners want.

In addition, it was also tried to force for the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church, which has existed for a long time, to be legally recognized like other institutions those who don‟t. Since the attack on the holy church is supported by the government it refusal to speak out (abstains to speak about), gave the attacker an opportunity to do more damage.

From the date Prime Minister Abiy Ahimed announced that the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church is a country, attaches have continued in the worst way ever. The government has failed to bear witness to the country‟s independence and has failed to fulfill his responsibilities to defend, protect and enforce order when the country is destroyed, and the damage and attacks have continued. The Prime Minister has not moved from saying that attackers are continuing to stopping them.

From the Holy Synod, the structural management of the church, which is in service at every level, even questions of the moderator are not accepted by the government. Such an act gives a feeling of being despised and violated by the believers. If there is no governmental body that can ensure peace and security, it led to the decision that we should hold a peaceful demonstration and organize ourselves to protect the church in order to explain the issue in terms and inform the world.

For 2000 years, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church has been striving to empower people for salvation. Besides eternal life, it has been carrying out activities that are suitable for a healthy life on earth.

In this way, apart from its followers, the church was able to achieve values that are main and important to the entire Ethiopian people, which can make them recognized in the world.

The church is the one that played the leading role in preventing our country from being invaded by white colonists. Being a source of ethics and morals, the contribution that the church made in building a cultured society that loves the country and is governed by law is witnessed by white people as well.

It has its own language and Alphabet, and has contributed books useful for civilization, art language, landscape, forest and natural resource conservation, and architectural research. However, all these contribution has forgotten that the church has made, and it‟s currently under attack, which is planned and abstract, supported by the government and which even the political parties are involved in. Attacks on the building of the church and its believers have different manifestations. Just to show:-

Forceful assaults: killing Orthodox people brutally/ dreadfully, mutilating bodies, burning churches, burning believer‟s houses, their crops, cattle, looting property, grabbing church property, to make the orthodox people weak economically, to exclude them from important business and income-generating activities, to make the church weak as an institution, to lose its possessions, to be busy with corruption and varies corrupt practices, to systematically exclude the Orthodox people from various educational and employment opportunities.

Social violence:- neutralize the orthodox believers from Edir³ and Ekub⁴ social life, prohibiting teaching and telling about orthodox tradition that alternation from generation to generation for the growth of the country as well as for the betterment of believer‟s spiritual life called Legacy (ትውፊት)⁵, sterilizing and reducing number of orthodox people from the areas where there are more orthodox people through family planning mechanisms.

Political violence/assault: to exclude the Orthodox from high authority, national or hierarchical responsibilities, creating a false narrative against the Orthodox in power, creating a defamation campaign and psychological pressure to make them resign from power; not including the issue of the church in the law, attacking the church in cooperation with foreign bodies, refusing the accreditation of the spiritual court of the church, depriving denial of recognition of its right, interfering of the church administration and its justice system, disempowering it threatening aggrieved Christians from going to the law;

the unity of purpose of the justice system with the perpetrators; in the area of special forces and criminal investigations, not hearing the voice of the orthodox; let criminals go without judgment; releasing the criminals and arresting the victim , invading the property of the churches/violently seizing the baptistery and the true cross finding festival sites.

Preventing the church from where getting a place to build its church are some of them; those who carry out the aforementioned attacks are :- government bodies at all levels from kebele to federal, who use for their hidden religious purposes, radical Muslims, and various groups and organizations that circulate through them, the demonstrations organized in the name of protestants and the false prophets, pastors who serve in them, and international criminal organizations that carry out acts of robbery and proselytization of churches and Christians outside of the purpose of which they were registered, international organizations established to monitor attacks and inform the international community are pointed out that they deliberately did not embrace the attacks of the Orthodox so that the international community would not hear about them in the way that the listeners of their report wanted.

1.2. The importance of the information

It‟s known that religion-based attacks have been committed against the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church and its believers throughout the age. Because of the attack, the worshipers fled, dead, and lost their wealth. In addition to this, the heritages and Holy properties that the Holy Church has protected for centuries have been damaged. Information shows that the attackers are different but have a common goal.

The importance of the book is to remember the Christians who suffered for their religion and inform the future generation that their suffering is the fruit of their religion.

To provide accurate information to readers and researchers is the second importance. To show that the problem is getting worse every time due to the lack of adequate coverage of regular attacks by the government and private mass media and the lack of early warning works done by the relevant parties to eliminate the problems. It has become necessary to prepare the book to show that the attacks against the Orthodox are not spontaneous, but planned and achieved structural support.

1.3. Data collection methods and sources

The report was prepared using various sources of data and the main sources are verbal, photo and video data that are collected from witnesses who saw the attacks, and information collected by the peoples sent to the areas where the attacks occurred.

After the attacks, an article distributed by varies media and publications; we also collected the data through local structure diocese reports submitted to the general parish spiritual assembly. In addition to this, we used the data released on various social media platforms as a reference.

1 The religious fathers say that this nick name was given to her because she committed the worst and unbelievable brutal damages to the orthodox churches and the faithful.

2 Gragn – is the nickname of Ahimed that’s given him from Ethiopia

3 Edir is a way of bonding the community to help each other during someone gets mourn (death)

4 Ekub – is a way of bonding the community to help each other in collecting money as Rotating Saving Cash (RSC) model

5 Legacy (ትውፊት) in this context – is system, norms, God words, better way of building life, ways and traditions of transferring tangible and none tangible resources …etc.

2. Why the attack on the church?

2.1. Why the government participates in the attack on the church?

For the past 50 years, the ruling parties have been anti-Orthodox. They also have put their position in political manifesto. It‟s known that power is obtained by replacing everything that is ancient and existing with new and inherited ideas. Since they are led by a narrow mindedness, they think that Orthodox Tewahido Church is the main obstacle.

This wrong thinking of theirs is actively contributing to the push of orthodoxy. Among the reasons that make the government participate directly or indirectly in the attack on the church and its believers is the one mentioned in the main, but there are also other reasons.

Because the government administrative and security structures are occupied by people who do not believe in faith, its presented as a response to the misconception that the church has been oppressing us in collaboration with the royal system.

2.2.Why does the radical Islam participate in church attacks?

The goal of some radical Muslims is to make Ethiopia an Islamic country by killing and exterminating Christians. After achieving this, it‟s to establish an Islamic State by forming an organization/party with the same views and doctrines as IS, Boko-Haram operating in West Africa and al-Shebaab in East Africa.

These terrorist organizations do not allow a Christian to exist in their territory. Even existing Muslims are not allowed to live unless they are willing to accept their teaching. This way of thinking led them to establish their own government in the Middle East, and at present, this way of thinking has spread to some regions of North Africa and Somalia.

This was not created by chance, but it is a work designed to establish a vast Islamic empire by including the areas where Islam had previously expanded and could not expand due to the strong Christian government of Ethiopia. What we see in the image below is the state that they intend to establish.

Fig.1: a map showing the territorial expansion of ISIS’s continued global domination, as described in the book Empire of fear: Inside the Islamic State.

As we can see on the map above, it stretches from Spain to China, from West Africa to the horn of Africa above the equator. From Spain- North Africa, Maghreb (all of West Africa including Nigeria), Ard al-kinan (Libya and Egypt), Ard al-Habesha (from Cameroon to Central Africa, Lake Victoria countries, Ethiopia and Somalia), Hijaz (Saudi Arabia, Gulf of Eden countries), Yemen, Khurasan (Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Southwest China), Iran and Turkey; It includes the territory that includes the Arabian Peninsula and part of Asia.

This issue of expanding the state and its extremism has a special focus on Ethiopia. The causes of religious conflicts and the burning of churches in our country are issues related to this goal. The religion of peace website, which reports attacks by extremists worldwide, indicates that on average, more than 200 attacks per month and more than 2400 per year.

Many peoples will lose their lives in the attacks. They suffer physical and psychological harm. In addition Christians were evicted from their villages, women were subjected to sexual slavery; old people are left without a caregiver; children are left without a guardian.

In particular, the terrorist group that calls itself the Islamic State has slaughtered thousands of innocent people. It has destroyed many ancient monuments in Iraq, Libya and Syria, especially ancient churches and monasteries. In particular, the Daesh group, which is a part of Islamic state in Iraq and Syria, has made Libya a battleground to establish an Islamic state in Libya and spread the teachings of Salafiyyah.

Organizations of Boko-Haram and al-Shabaab that have a common goal with IS and are also carrying out similar attacks in Nigeria, Somalia and Kenya. It‟s known that there are some fanatical Muslims of our country who are abducted by such a mission.

For example: Muhammed Emwazi, who calls himself Jihadi John, shows himself beheading more than eight people in various videos, and his close friend, Ali Adores, is an Ethiopian-born British citizen.

Ali Adores is a terrorist who had close ties to Muhammed Emwazi and is also has roles and parts in this group. Ali Adores was arrested in Ethiopia on suspicion of terrorism in 2022. It‟s also said that a 17-years-old Ethiopian-born boy named Muhammed died while fighting for ISIS in Iraq.

In addition, many media reported that an extremist named semira Abbas joined this group along with two of her friends. The Council of Islamic Affairs also revealed that these radical Ethiopian Muslims are destroying the existing culture of living in harmony with other people. Based on its own religion doctrine, Islam aims destroy challenging beliefs and religion by any means possible, to dominate the country and to rule the country according to sharia.

From this point of view, they aim to attack and weaken the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church, which has the largest number of believers in Ethiopia, and if it‟s possible to convert its believers with money, if it‟s not possible, by force.

If this purpose is not publicly preached as an institution, when groups organized in the name of the faith and the followers of the faith attack the church and carry out attacks at various times. Even when they were given institutional support in mosques, but not once in Majlis; it does not see itself being condemned by other relevant members of his faith.

The Qur‟an commands killing more than 160 times; Islam grows from being a minority in a country to controlling everything, in economically, in politics, in social life. There are different levels of action up to the declaration of Jihad; and it is known that these have been implemented and achieved results in different parts of the world.

2.3. Attacks from Protestants

The mission of Protestants is to impose western culture and thought on the people of a country and facilitates the society as a market for Western goods. Even the leaders of their faith have been heard to express at various times that it is the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church that is an obstacle for them to achieve their goals in our country.

Therefore, under the guise/cover of religion, they launched an intensive campaign against Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church. One of the most important strategies they use is to pretend that the church exists by creating false narratives; defamation to pretend that it doesn‟t believe what it has.

In this way, they are engaged in robbing the believers wealth as much as they can by misleading the uneducated people and using the power of the government to attack and weaken the church as an institution.

2.4. Christians participating in the attack

Due to lack of awareness and or due to personal interests, those who hold spiritual, intellectual and structural authority in the church, while they have seen the attacks on the church, they pass the issue as they never seen it. Their silence made the government and other concerned parties as to say, If the owner does not shout, the neighbor will not come out to help

3. The damage done to the orthodox believers and its result

The damage of an individual or an institution or a society can be measured in terms of morality, appearance, knowledge resources, historical honor, trust and confidence, political participation and voice, social and legal security.

For a religious institution, the number of followers and the quality of teachings that are preserving and manifesting in life are seen as additional. In the past years, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido church was attacked by the cover of culture, ideologies of political groups, other beliefs and and government structures. For example:-

3.1. Migration of believers

A population and household census was conducted and it was revealed that the orthodox people were subjected to various pressures in all parts of the country, especially in Oromia, Somalia and the Southern regions.

Orthodox Christians are under pressure by mixing faith, language and culture with political ideology, by giving Orthodoxy to a certain language speaker, by political pressure, by keeping them away from opportunities and social service benefits and leadership, by accusing them of being the cause of poverty and backwardness, and by causing the generation to have a negative attitude towards the religion, by removing Orthodoxy from the government structure and denying justice in districts and zones where the Orthodox are a minority, because of their ignorance, they left their existing religion and went to other religions.

3.2. Pushing out of the economy

To prevent the inclusion of Orthodox Tewahido Church monasteries, places of