Ethiopian Review

Petition for the ICC to investigate the Anuak Genocide in Ethiopia

By Solidarity Movement for New Ethiopia and Anuak Justice Council

The Solidarity Movement for New Ethiopia (SMNE), in conjunction with the Anuak Justice Council (AJC), has prepared this petition to beseech the International Criminal Court (ICC) and ICC Prosecutor, Mr. Luis Moreno-Ocampo, to open an active investigation into the genocide of the Anuak people of the Gambella region in Ethiopia, which began on December 13th, 2003 and continued for over two more years. Genocide Watch, an organization that “exists to predict, prevent, stop, and punish genocide and other forms of mass murder,” has independently confirmed this genocide along with a litany of other criminal acts, including crimes against humanity, committed by Meles Zenawi’s regime.

On January 6, 2012, the governor of Gambella, Omot Obang Olom, who was the Head of Security during the carnage and a major actor in the genocide, exposed in new public testimony that he and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi should share the same fate—jail—if he were to be held accountable for providing the list of Anuak to be killed in the brutal massacre of 424 Anuak leaders by Ethiopian Defense Forces and armed militia groups. In a recent hearing that threatened to oust him from his position as Gambella Peoples Unity Democratic Movement (GPUDM) party head and Gambella Regional State President, with the likely consequence of imprisonment, he threatened, “If I go to jail for giving the list, then Meles will have to go with me because he is the one who gave the order, the soldiers and the guns.”

We have not forgotten the shed blood of our Anuak brothers and sisters who were innocent victims of this regime’s scheme to takeover Anuak indigenous land to make way for the massive land-grabs now being carried out in Gambella. Such a motivation was even apparent at the time of the genocide. According to the Genocide Watch report, as the massacre was being carried out, perpetrators marched through town chanting, “Today is the day to kill Anuak,” and “Today there will be no more Anuak land.” Their goals are now obvious!

Eight years later, Anuak and other indigenous peoples are being forced off their land without any consultation or compensation so as to make way for foreign and crony investors who are leasing the land for up to 99 years, in some cases for only $1.20 (US) per hectare. Up to three-quarters of the population of Gambella Regional State will be moved, with 70,000 of the people already removed to areas lacking access to basic services, according to the January 17, 2012 report from Human Rights Watch.

This regime is also responsible for serial mass human rights violations throughout the country; including the killing of 300 people in Arba Gugu and Bedeno in 1992, the murder of over 200 Majenger and Shekicho on March 10, 2002, the killing of over 100 peaceful protestors in Awassa, Sidamo in May of 2002, the shooting of 193 peaceful election protestors following the 2005 Ethiopian National Election, years of crimes against humanity in the Afar, Benishangul-Gumuz and Oromia regions and what many believe is an ongoing genocide in the Ogaden that continues today.

We call on the ICC to open an on-the-ground investigation and bring the perpetrators of these terrible crimes to justice as the special prosecutors have done in Kenya regarding politicians involved in post-election violence and in the Ivory Coast regarding the former president, Laurent Gbagbo, who is now awaiting trial in the Hague. The prime minister of Ethiopia has committed more crimes than either of these men and he should not be allowed impunity just because he pretends to be a strategic ally to the west.

We in the SMNE and the AJC, strongly hold that more blood will flow if the genocidal leader of Ethiopia, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, is not brought to justice and held accountable for the outrageous crimes he and his partners, like Omot Obang Olom, have committed and continue to commit throughout the country. Ethiopians will not rest until the evil deeds of Meles Zenawi are exposed and justice is done in the New Ethiopia.

Please click the link below and sign this petition now!

http://www.solidaritymovement.net/signPetion.cfm SMNE and AJC