Addis Ababa, November 9, 2011 (Ezega.com) - If you happen to believe in luck, Ethiopia (if we agree what we call Ethiopia is its people and not the land) will appear one of the unfortunate countries you might know in this world. No matter how hard we try to live talking about our colorful history, independence, and the beauty of the people and the land, as long as history goes back, Ethiopians paid a price that is brutal and horror for any one who reads or listen to it. Generations, especially for the last 50 years, have been manipulated by different political ideologies, used, killed, neglected and disrespected for the interest of the very few who happened to be the leaders. Not once in the last century, for the majority of Ethiopian youth being young became a virtue. In most cases, it was a challenge, fight for survival.
Recently, those who survived their youth, especially in the 1970s and 80s, are writing books telling us about their experiences. Constant civil wars, the inside conflicts under red and white terror, the famines, and of course, the external wars are now turning into stories written by those who went through them.
Last week, a new book titled “Yegna Sew Besomalia Esir Bet” or “Our People in Somalia Prisons” was published. The 266-page book Written by Tilahun Atereso presents another horror story Ethiopian youth went through during the Ethio-Somalia war. The two long time opponents, Ethiopia and Somalia, almost throughout the last century were unable to coexist peacefully.
After long preparation, in 1977-78, Ziad Barre, convinced he was now ready to make the great Somalia dream come true, decided to take control of some parts of Ethiopia by aggression. At the time, the Ethiopian military regime, Derg, was feeble because of both internal and external conflicts, which Ziad understood and took advantage. Therefore, for a short period the war seemed to favor Somalia. They controlled many regions in Ethiopia including their main target Ogaden. Consequently, the book describes that Somali troops stole everything they found on their way and took hostage of many Ethiopian civilians who were not related to the war at all. Women, children, elders and many other youth were detained.
Unfortunately, the time also happend to be when many Ethiopian youth were trying to escape the red/white terror by crossing borders illegally. The writer of the book, Tilahun Atereso himself, was one of theses youth who were trying to get into Djibouti, hoping to end up in France. Because of his involvement with the Ethiopian People Revolutionary Party (EPRP), he was wanted by the military regime. Sadly, his own party EPRP also wanted him dead because of the disagreement inside the party itself. He said the only option he had at the time was to run away and leave the country by whatever means. The means he used, however, got him and his friends, who were also running for their lives, in the hands of the Somalia troops.
The 11-year horror prison life begins for the thousands of Ethiopians who ended up in 10 different Somalia prisons for reasons they did not understand. Minchase, Hargeysa, Mandeera, Burwayn, Mogadishu, Jaziara, Lantadur, Hawaay, Restaye, Danane were the prisons Ethiopians found themselves in for a time that seemed infinite. With no communication from the outside world, no visit from family and concerned bodies or even a slightest hope that their government is concerned, they spent a decade in an environment that the writer calls “hell”. The only thing they were told they are guilty of was being an Ethiopian. “It was confusing,” Tilahun writes. “We were not prisoners of war because most of us didn’t engage in the war by any capacity. We were not hostages because no body ever came to negotiate and claim us back.”
The book tells a story of the Ethiopian prisoners in those dark and challenging eleven years. From the first day they were detained by Somalia troops, the prisoners were forced to travel by foot to their respective prisons. They were tortured, killed for no reason, mistreated and abused in many different ways. Once arrived at the prisons, they were treated as slaves, forced to work on huge plantations the whole day with unbelievably low ration that hardly kept them alive. They were forced to raise their children with no proper schooling, medication and many did not survive the decade long slavery that took almost everything they had.
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