BY SOLOMON WASSIHUN
Sidst kilo square[yekatit 12 square] !- One of the busiest spots in the capital city. Few people swarming around the square both in vehicles and on foot would care to give a glance at the huge obelisk standing at the center of the square. The monument, like the dark and obscured history it evokes, seems to be almost forgotten throughout the year except on the mid of February.
A tourist who recently visited this historic monument remarked: “It is a pity that people tend to forget. Unfortunately, even tourist guides lack deep history knowledge on the structure.
The monument depicts people hanged and fired. These killings by the Italian soldiers were certainly quite numerous. But as many killings were also carried on by uncontrolled Italian civilians.”
The highly graphical, impressive monument, Yekatit 12 Martyrs monument, stands to remind us of the dark three days 84 years ago when the capital city was engulfed in flames and awashed in the blood of innocent unarmed civilians who were slaughtered and burned alive just because they were Ethiopians.
The Addis Ababa Massacre [Yekatit 12 massacre] in 1937 is one of Fascist Italy’s least known atrocities, that wiped out over one-fifth of Addis Ababa’s population. Historians say it is one of the most gruesome civilian massacres of all time to be concealed, and the perpetrators to walk free.
Even though the capital city is the epicenter of the massacre, furthermore atrocities have been committed by Italians in places far away from Addis including the ancient Debre Libanos monastery in the subsequent days following the failed assassination attempt on Marshal Graziani, Governor-General of Italian East Africa, by two patriotic youth from Eritrea.
The horror of Yekeatit 12 is still a subject of study of world historians. Several books and papers dedicated to the incident have already been published, however, the extent of the horror and the full reconstruction of the event that led to and followed the catastrophic incident have never been achieved conclusively.
Yet still, there are quite a few nonagenarians survivors around who are the living witnesses of the black days of the Massacre. They still have vivid memories to recount their childhood memories as if it was yesterday with astonishing details which surely send a shiver down listeners’ spine.
It all began with a benign event in the premises of the emperor’s palace, Genete Leul Palace .which is now the main campus of Addis Ababa University, located just in front of the monument mentioned earlier. It was Friday, February 19, 1937.
The festive event that gathered the poor and the notables of Addis Ababa along with the Italian fascists to celebrate the birth of the Prince of Naples has suddenly turned into an event of horror that sparked the 0ne of the most barbaric massacres ever recorded in history.
Apart from tens of thousands of Ethiopians annihilated during the three days in the capital, several other citizens have also been killed by the Italians after being taken into concentration camps in various parts of the country and in the neighbouring Somalia, which was under the occupation of Fascist Italy.
The Italians have used the Yekatiit 12 incident as an excuse to selectively target and exterminate overseas-educated Ethiopians and religious scholars, as they consider this section of the society as a threat to the colonial rule they were struggling to establish amid the continued battle with the patriotic resistance fighters in almost every corner of the country.
All repressive powers, regardless of their period in history or their geographical location, have almost the same consideration toward committing war crimes and genocide. All of them commit mass killing as a tool to achieve their political goal.
They commit atrocities to terrorize the people they want to dominate into submission. Rulers with fascist tendencies typically use terror to break the will and the spirit of the people they target. They employ divisive ideologies and narratives to make sure their subjects will not have unity and trust each other to forge a strong alliance against their rule.
It is believed that fascist Italy has massacred over 1 million Ethiopians in its unsuccessful struggle to subdue Ethiopia as its colony during the five years of its second invasion. Contrary to the expectations of the Italians, the massacre didn’t deter Ethiopian freedom fighters from continuing their struggle against fascist invasion.
Yekatit 12 showcases Ethiopians incredible resilience and sheer determination to uphold their country’s sovereignty and their freedom in the face of any formidable aggressor and oppressor.
The unbreakable spirit of being Ethiopian has continued to percolate through generations to this day. We commemorate the 84th anniversary of the yekatit 12 massacre at a time when Ethiopians decisively defeated and buried TPLF-the fascist-style ruling elite and power group that has been subjugating Ethiopians for almost three decades.
TPLF had employed every tactic and strategy of fascism to subdue Ethiopians and prolong its stay in power from divide and rule, institutional racism up to sponsoring terror and massacres.
Like the Italian fascists, TPLF has committed gross human rights abuses and massacres on its fellow country people to suppress fermentation of popular revolt and deter its critics as well as political opponents.
Like the Italian fascist, they have exterminated, and physically and mentally disabled, and forced into exile thousands of youth who could have been great assets for securing Ethiopia’s bright future. Like the fascists, TPLF has looted Ethiopia’s meager resources and stashed it overseas.
Despite the massacres, the trials and tribulations, and the lootings, Ethiopians have remained steadfast in continuing their struggle against TPLF.In particular, the heinous crimes committed by TPLF in its last-ditch desperate struggle for its survival,
especially the Mai-Kadra town onslaught on unarmed civilians, and ethnic-based massacre of men and women in uniforms in Tigray has only accelerated its inevitable demise.
The Mai Kadra Massacre just 3 months ago closely mirrors the Yekatit 12 Massacre of 1937 .The preliminary study report on the massacre released last November by the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission ,EHRC has, unequivocally asserted the ethnic based massacre in which a minimum of 600 citizens perished has been a meticulously planned and executed attack by the TPLF. The exact number of the dead may never be known, as the perpetrators have discarded some of the bodies of their victims in hard to reach sites outside the town.
“A few days before the massacre, when the Ethiopian Defense Forces were advancing to capture the town, the local administration’s regional police and [Tigraian] militia forces shut all the exit points from Mai Kadra. Meanwhile, members of Samri – an informal Tigraian youth group loyal to TPLF ,set up manned checkpoints at all of the town’s four main exits.
Each unit of Samri consisting up to 30 youth, accompanied by an estimated 3 to 4 armed [Tigray] police and militia, carried out the massacre, [the regional] police and militia – strategically posted at street junctions – aided and directly participated in the carnage by shooting at those who attempted to escape.” states the EHRC report.
The report of the international human rights organization, Amnesty International, AI, concurs with the findings of EHRC. “ Amnesty International has spoken to witnesses who said forces loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) were responsible for the mass killings, apparently after they suffered defeat from the federal ENDF [Ethiopian National Defense Forces].
Three people told Amnesty International that survivors of the massacre told them that they were attacked by members of Tigray Special Police Force and other TPLF members.” Says AI report
Eventually, with the unified and concerted law enforcement efforts they exerted with patriotism, Ethiopians have succeeded to topple the despotic fascist regime which was under the guise of nominally democratic institutions and ineffective legislations. Ethiopians are now undoing the divisive plots of TPLF and striving in unison towards the realization of prosperous Ethiopia.
Most of the present generation of Ethiopians are determined to draw lessons from the past and act accordingly to make sure that fascistic regimes that only thrive in massacres like Maikadara and Yekatit 12 would not stand a chance of returning to Ethiopia.
Yekatit 12 should be remembered as the dark and shameful episode of Europeans greed and barbarism. We may wonder if the present-day European leaders have drawn lessons from the barbaric acts of their grandparents when we learn that the present generation of Italians has built a mausoleum and memorial park to commemorate Marshall Grazzianni.
It may worth remembering here that Graziani after all the crimes he masterminded in Libya and East Africa, never faced justice in the then UN War Crime Commission –the UN agency that was mandated to investigate allegations of war crimes committed by Nazi Germany and the other Axis powers in World War II, despite the persistent attempts of the Ethiopian authorities of the time.
Soon after the fall of Fascism in Italy and the end of world war II, Graziani and all fascist leaders were being hunted by the majority of Italians themselves let alone Ethiopians.
Had it not been for the alleged protection he got from the Allied Forces[including the Americans and the British], Grazzianni would have been lynched by his fellow countrymen, the way his boss Mussolini dealt with.
It is indeed a shame and a great loss to justice and humanity that the perpetrators of Yekatit 12 have never been held accountable for their well-documented atrocious crimes. It will remain forever a burden of shame and guilt on Europeans.
On the other hand, the atrocities committed by TPLF will never be left uncounted for. We do hope fair justice would be served to all victims of TPLF crimes. The state of legal actions that have already been in progress is the cause for our strong optimism.
More than anything else Ethiopians are craving justice. They cannot wait to see the TPLF despots and war criminals convicted in the court of law. That is the only way of ensuring such massacres like Yekatit 12 and Maikadra would never happen again, and thus the only way of ensuring peace, respect for the rule of law, and prosperity.
The Ethiopian Herald February 19/2021
