Their sufferings are our humiliations, and their detentions at the Libyan jail are the denigrations of our hallowed Ethiopian names and the name of our country, Ethiopia; they are our Ethiopian brothers and sisters jailed for many days and nights and living under horrible conditions without any justifiable reasons. Of course, our big brother, Mohammad Gaddafi of Libya, is accountable for the pains and humiliations of these innocent Ethiopian brothers and sisters who have come to his country for economic reasons, thinking they will be treated humanly by the Libyan government, their brother’s government.

Muhammad Gaddafi of Libya is a leader of many contradictions in regard to foreigners if indeed Ethiopians are considered foreigners in Libya. We see him during several OAU meetings advocating for the unity of Africa, for a United States of Africa under one government and under one army. In this case Gaddafi looks like a unifier, not like a divider, at least in theory. Practically though we see him persecuting, torturing, and jailing men and women of Ethiopia, the head-quarter of the OAU. In fact, if Gaddafi believes that Africa should be united and governed by one head of states, why does he hate some people from Africa, and especially those who come from Ethiopia in search of an employment, shelter and a piece of land so that they could raise their family and help their relatives at home?

On November 23, 2006, Mr. Gaddafi emphatically declared in his word as posted in News Reports, Prophet by Don Jaide; ‘Political borders, official papers and identities set for every group of people are new, artificial things not recognized by nature. Land is the property of everyone, and God commands all human beings to migrate on to seek a living, which is their right.’ Here is the contradiction: If Gaddafi believes that passports and other documents are artificial – man-made things, and that land is the property of everyone on this earth and that people have the right to get out and move to another country and earn a living without any question asked, why is he then holding as criminals the Ethiopian men and women who have come to his country, perhaps, with or without proper documentation or a passport to earn a living? Dear Mr. Gaddafi, hire them, don’t jail them; feed them, don’t starve them to death; visit them, talk to them and don’t isolate them; give them all they need: food, water, medical care, access to a clean restroom, and hundreds of menstrual pads to the women who need them. These are your African brothers and sisters whom you passionately advocate to be governed one day under a United States of Africa.

Yes, Mr. Gaddafi is right that the land or earth belongs to God, belongs to everybody as the Psalmist says: “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it” (24:1). Yet, knowing this divine fact, Mr. Gaddafi has refused to give a piece of land, a piece of property, a descent shelter, and a proper hygiene to these Ethiopian men and women whom he has jailed for a numbers of days and assigned them to his brutal prisoners’ guards who club the prisoners days in and days out.

Mr. Gaddafi, who believes in a united States of Africa, who believes that “land is the property of everyone”, who believes his country is rich in oil, has totally failed to accommodate a very handful Ethiopian immigrants, has failed to give them adequate food and water, has failed to listen to their cases, and has miserably failed to grant their natural rights to seek a living in a foreign country like Libya.

As a father of eight children, and as one of his oldest sons is a charity director and a negotiator of freedom for hostages, it seems that Gaddafi has no good heart like one of his sons toward the Ethiopian prisoners. Other wise, Gaddafi could have given these innocent Ethiopian men and women their freedoms or at least a good treatment while they remain in that deplorable prison conditions, getting orders from that ruthless Libyan prisoners’ guards.

Gaddafi’s ambition, (Kwame Nkrumah’s ambition) for a United States of Africa may seem a noble idea, but, from the inside, it has a lot of holes. Indeed, one of these holes is Gaddafi’s mistreatment of our Ethiopian brothers and sisters in the Libyan jail; without correcting the injustices which are going on in the continent of Africa, there will never be a United States of Africa. It remains for the time being as Gaddafi’s dream; no one else’s.

Thank You ER, and Addis Dimts