Part II
Dear Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed
By your admission, Prime Minister, eighty-six Ethiopians were killed in various ways up until the last week of October 2019, on account of activist Jawar Mohammed’s incitements—almost all of the killings savage and gruesome.
Troubling as it is, the word “protection”, as a duty of the state, is mentioned fifteen times in the Ethiopian constitution. Ethiopians—including some Ethiopian Oromos—as I am, are accusing you of not having carried out your responsibilities in the spirit of Ethiopian laws and international law, thereby rendering Ethiopia one of the unsafe places in the world today.
The killings are now minimised in Ethiopia. It is not because the security forces you are the overall commander have opted to protect the helpless victims, but because:
(a) Most Ethiopians have expressed anger in defence of victims, irrespective of ethnicity;
(b) The target populations in Oromia have left their dwellings and are sheltered in nearest churches. How can this be explained?
Today, you are a very fortuitous person the world toasting you in admiration of your selection to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, Foreign Policy describes your input as superficial. That notwithstanding, I too would underline your prize is important for our country to become a source of your encouragement to do more and better in future, instead of what you have done so far. There the Nobel Committee too has come with carefully worded statement to the effect: “The Norwegian Nobel Committee believes it is now that Abiy Ahmed’s efforts deserve recognition and need encouragement.”