Sudan’s Salva Kiir urged to protect Ethiopia’s Gambellan
Open Letter to President of South Sudan
The Honorable Salva Siir Mayardit
– Vice President of the Republic of Sudan &
President of the South Sudan
– C to: Members of the SPLM Leadership
– U.S. State Department
– British Embassy and British Foreign Ministry
– Human Rights Watch
– Genocide Watch
– Amnesty International
His Excellency President Mayardit:
October 16, 2006 — I am writing to urge you to take immediate steps to protect Gambellan refugees. I am particularly concerned about the recent agreement between your government and the government of Ethiopia, which was signed in Gambella on October 2, 2006. The agreement has allowed members of the Ethiopian military to enter refugee camps in Pochalla, Sudan.
During a two-day conference on border security, from September 28 to October 5, in Pinychdo and Gambella, your government agreed to repatriate Anuaks who survived the genocide of December 13, 2003. Such repatriation was agreed to without a proper framework to guarantee the safety of the returnees. The conference was also convened without the presence or input of exiled political leaders. The Gog District administrator, OkelloOmot , and thirty Ethiopian police officers accompanied the Pochalla County Commissioner, John Abulla, to Pochalla and they arrived on October 13, 2006 to carry out registration of Gambellan people in both refugee camps and to return them to Gambella. This is happening even though Gambella remains a killing field.
Your Government must act fast to prevent this impending disaster as the returning refugees face an imminent threat to their lives if they return to Gambella without security guarantees. Ethiopia has historically pursued a deliberate policy of exploitation of Gambella’s oil and other natural resources. The strategy of eliminating Gambellans is part of this larger strategy of taking over Gambella’s natural resources. Gambellans make up less than 5% of the Ethiopian population and are grossly underrepresented in the political process. The Ethiopian government, through Emperor Mengistu Hail Marium in the 1980s, attempted to take away Gambellan land and other natural resources. Mengistu’s administration relocated a large number of Tigrayans and other groups from Northern Ethiopia to Gambella and settled them in Gambellan cities and villages. These settlers set up roadblocks and restricted movement of Gambellans in their own native land. The aim of the settlers was to instigate unrest among Gambellan people and to use the resulting unrest as a pretext to harass, intimidate, oppress and, ultimately, expel Gambellans from the region altogether.
Because of their lack of representation in the political process, the Gambellans endured oppression by the settlers. Even when the Ethiopian government decided to supply settlers with guns and prevented Gambellans from gun-ownership, Gambellans still endured the discrimination. Eventually, Gambellans left Ethiopia in large numbers and joined hands with the then Ethiopian opposition movement in the Sudan with the hope that a change in government would bring them more protection and less discrimination. Gambellans in the Sudan played a major role in the liberation of Ethiopia from Mengistu’s dictatorial government.
The Tigrayan-led government that took over from Mengistu, however, also pursued the same discriminatory policies against Gambellans as its predecessor had done. The Tigrayan government also hopes to exploit the oil and natural resources in the area occupied by the Anuaks without giving back anything in return. This is in direct violation of the Ethiopian constitution that gives each state, including Gambella, the sovereign right to exploit its own resources without interfere by the central government. In addition, this action is a direct violation of the internationally recognized states practices and norms.
The December 13, 2003 Anuak genocide followed this pattern of killing. As you may recall, on December 13, 2003 over four hundreds members of the Gambellan community were killed by the Ethiopian military and local highlanders in what is widely viewed by many as genocide. A couple of weeks later, the Ethiopian military killed members of our community in Dimma, one of the former refugee camps. Those killed included the Anuak mayor of the city and all council members. Rather then stop the killings, the Ethiopian military continue to kill Gambellans to this day. As a result, many Gambellans have now sought refuge in Pochalla, Sudan. Gambellans everywhere are grateful to the SPLM in Pochalla for the continued accommodation and humane treatment of the refugees. Through this letter, I am appealing to your Government to work with the leadership of Anuaks in the refugee camps in Pochalla to continue your much needed humanitarian assistance to the refugees.
I would like to point out that the people of Gambella have been on your side in your struggle for freedom. When you and other southerners, including military leaders like Lit.-General Kerubino Kwanyn Bol, Dr. John Garang d Mabior and Commander William Nyon Bany deserted in the 1980s and sought safety in Gambella, Gambellans did not disarm you or negotiate with Ethiopia to repatriate refugees back to Sudan. Instead, the Gambellan people welcomed them and supported them to the end. Indeed, to this day, Gambellans continue to support the struggle for a free Sudan. Let us work together to continue supporting our struggles for liberation whether in Gambella or in Sudan as all Sudanese people, whether in Sudan or Ethiopia, are one nation.
Thank you,
Apee Ojulu
* The author is a citizen of the greater East Africa area and is the Editor of www.gambelatoday.com, a website which is devoted to publishing news and commentaries on issues concerning Gambella state, Sudan and Ethiopia. He can be reached at [email protected]