Re: Derg Members (Mahal Sefaris) in the Name of Free Press 
From: Dereje Biru Yadete
Letter to the Editor:

Again it is about your article concerning what you have called " mahal sefari "

I have read the article like 100 times and I still keep reading it. I do this because it is so concentrated and it contains so much information demanding a young reader like me to go back to the History of Ethiopia and investigate further to know who the mentioned individuals were and what they stood for.

What I managed to understand so far is that individuals do all that they can including the burnings of a whole city or town to be in power and keep it for as long as they can. Bloodbath for this kind of individuals is nothing but a normal bath they take every morning.

Mengistu, after the killing of all those people, is laughing and smiling. One of the things he said in his interview is this " who was I supposed to live power to? Woyane?" and then he laughs. He laughs because, for him what a normal human being would call a " person", is an ant in the colony whose purpose in life is nothing but serving his master. 

Prof Tecola, the reason why I bother writing this note to you is that, I am a young man whose life has once been mislead by Mengistu's soldiers who after being defeated continued their political campaign, though one would assume they would sit down quietly for a while, but they did not. My personal life is good right now, thank God for that. But not knowing who they really are and what their intentions were, I had joined them in what it calls itself "a free press." I was jailed for two years. In the belief of collectivism one is always made to think that he/she must sacrifice her/his life for the greater cause. Here is where the manipulation comes in�the greater cause. We have been told and bombarded again and again with the name Ethiopia and the flag that we are ready to do anything to whomever that we think is against it. In the process we think we are above any kind of law. 

I do not regret about the part that I was a member of the media. But as I now believe, the purpose of a media in any given country is supposed to be, apart from giving the people information, mediate in the areas of perceived problems and obstacles by inviting parties to a debate. That didn�t happen!! Some or many members of the Derg that joined it turned the true purpose of it in to a war between the perceived winner EPRDF and the loser Derg in the name of our Motherland. Negeru wedih new.

I am a Diaspora now and I see this same people preaching a war to be waged against the Tigres and Tigrigna speaking people in the name of fighting TPLF and saving the Motherland or even the Amahara. For God sake let me tell you some things that may make you laugh. My father had an Amahara (Merabete) mother and Oromo Father, who married my mother who also had An Oromo mother and Menzie father( lalo midir). All of them apart from my mom are born and raised in the country side giving me the chance to get to know the country side very well as I traveled much to visit aunts and uncles. All of them were and are members of the poor farmer that has always been marginalized. 

As for me, if there should be any form of struggle in Ethiopia, it should be to take power from the "mahal sefari" the big, the powerful, and the manipulator and give it back to ordinary Ethiopians to whom it truly belongs, to the vast majority of the people, the farmers. We have to see what Derg has done. It made land a state property. All land belongs to the Government. Meles is the government right now and therefore all land belongs to Meles and Azeb Gola. It is as simple as that. And now Meles is giving it away to Arabs, Chinese, Indians and so on in the name of lease. Djibouti was a leased Ethiopian territory. A "NIGUS" leased it to the French as he needed the support of the foreigners to oppress his own people. The land from Moyale to the town called Isiolo in Kenya is given to the British by Hailessilassie. You see in here, I can not see what a Tigrian farmer had done wrong to his brother Amahara or Oromo farmer as they all are still landless state slaves. 

But some Derg soldiers are calling for another bloodbath before the tears that was brought upon the mothers of Ethiopia by them has dried up. Even though I would love to kill Meles and Take his power for myself, what I would have done is kill Meles because he and only he is the one possessing it. To preach a killing of some 6 or so million Tigres, surly I must be kept in places like "AMANUEL." It is not that Tigres are my brothers or so, but it is just that I must be out of my mind to be thinking of such a thing.

Here is one last thing. The perception and claim that �a dictator wouldn�t come out of my ethnic group� rhetoric, I think is being wiped out of the minds of Ethiopians and even Eritreans. Because that is what Siye Abraha is trying to tell us. Not only from Dr. Merera and Bulcha Demeqssa, but I am also hearing it from ordinary Oromos that no one has a guaranty that one mad man wouldn�t come out of OLF to become an other Meles Zenawi. As to Hamassien.. They are seeing what monster Issayas has turned out to be. I think through out the 40 years of mess created by few, Ethiopians are learning that not all that is propagated has truth in it. 

This may be the last season for the mahal sefari!! I see a bright future in the process of the making of a modern Ethiopia unlike You, Dr. Messay or Jawar Siraj. I do not think that the project has failed just because one or two Elections did not manage to bring it. In fact I am very happy "Qinijit" failed because, I believe that we should not be so obsessed with overthrowing a government which ever way we do it. Rather we should think carefully on how to bring a peaceful and prosperous Ethiopia and what form of structure the country should have, which prevents a " Mahal Sefari" from gaining power. That can be done. But it should be with out any more bloodbaths. Issayas is another Mahal Sefari too though he lives in the north. Instead of conspiring with him to overthrow Meles who as you have tried to tell me is nothing but a mortal soul we should try to say Eritreans are our Brother. One does not need an army to kill one person if we believe it is only him that Ethiopia has for a problem. We can adopt the IRA method and train 100 snipers. That would do it. But we must not forget that those who preach a killing of innocents are also problems. The difference is only on how they would like to get to power. 

Keep writing more informative articles, Sir. 

Dereje Biru Yadete
January 1, 2011

[Edited lightly for grammar and mechanics. TH]