BY GIRMACHEW GASHAW
Today’s Guest Dawit Getahun, was born and raised in Addis Ababa, a capital of Ethiopia. He attended primary and secondary school education in Felege Yordanos and Shimeles Habte schools respectively here in Addis. Then after, he went to Russia to attend college. After having his first degree in military science which took him four years, he returned home. However, the time was not good as the country was in a serious internal conflict. The then government, the Dergue regime, assigned him to provide military service in Awash Arba warfront which was run by General Kasaye Chemeda.
He then transferred to Defense Construction Enterprise (DCE). Within DCE, he served as an advisor apart from monitoring input supply that had been imported for his office. Parallel to that, he has also served as transport operator.
Following the regime change in 1991, he migrated to Kenya and was hired in a transport company. After four years, he came back home and established his own company called Getas Trading which created jobs for many Ethiopians. To maximize his contributions for his country, he built bus stops, which benefits unemployed people, in five different places.
He was the one who organized the renowned Hizb le Hizb (People to People) – a 54 person strong ensemble of standout Ethiopian musicians and performers. Dawit was a worry and a fervent advocate of Ethiopianism. As he had been an official of the Drge regime, he was persecuted by the TPLF whose leaders created various bottlenecks on all of his projects. They even arrested him and later on pushed him to migrate from Ethiopia.
Core Dawit has recently come to Ethiopia after the collapse of the EPRDF led government which influenced him to migrate and live in Kenya and Canada for the last 14 years. He has a plan of realizing his projects. The Ethiopian Herald made a brief stay with Core Dawit and raised a range of issues about current affairs. Have a nice read!
Let us start with the reason for your leaving for Kenya?
I migrated to Kenya and Canada because I could not resist the influence of the then TPLF led government. Though I had many projects which would benefit my country, they discouraged me to be hopeless in this country. They might hate me because I served the Dergue regime or I raised and spoke frankly about any political issues that I believed in. Even if I used to challenge them; the level of influence became worse to arrest and attempt of assassination. They threw me to jail for three consecutive months. I then immediately migrated to Kenya.
Unfortunately, when I was in jail, there were 14 Kenyans who were in prison and led miserable lives together with me. Six of them died while they were in jail and the rest served the prison house. Luckily, I was the first to be released from the prison.
When I was in Kenya, I told the status of Kenyans who had been arrested in Ethiopia’s Guantanamo to their families who assumed that they were dead. They then tried their best to make these prisoners set free. For the contribution I made, Kenyans offer me a special privilege. In short, I was seen as a king in the eyes of Kenyans.
While I was in Kenya, I opened Garage together with my friend. However, since I did not have technical knowledge, I was forced to shut down the garage. We then opened an office in Kenya and assisted people in executing their issue communicating with physicians, lawyers and so on. In the meantime, I did not neglect the issues of politics; I would rather concentrate on it.
We heard that you had been struggling to bring change in Ethiopia coordinating the diaspora community in Canada. What was your feeling following the change of government led by the reformist leadership?
Primarily, I was the first to oppose the reform government as I had been struggling to see deep-rooted change in Ethiopia instead of reforming the existing system. Many people struggled to bring deep-rooted change. If you remember, there was a struggle named Core Ethiopia and the name “Core Dawit” derived from this struggle. The vision of Core Ethiopia was to bring deep-rooted change through public rebellion.
The reform was introduced while we were struggling to realize its goal, the fundamental change. Hence, the strong individuals who had been struggling under Core Ethiopia changed their stance and began supporting the reform government. Finally, Core Ethiopia was dissolved even though few of us decided to be sporadic supporters observing the reality on the ground.
Essentially, the astonishing political measures Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was taking closed the door to the opponents. The release of political prisoners, journalists, and the coalition created between the holy synod of Ethiopian Orthodox Church, ending of no-peace no-war situation between Ethiopia and Eritrea and the like are forced us to change our mind.
You were one among many people who were persecuted from Ethiopia by the TPLF. How do you see the deeds of the T-TPLF?
When people think of the behavior of the war, they are getting confused. In my opinion, for Terrorist TPLF to regain power, war is a must. In other words, if there is no war, there is no TPLF; the terrorist knows this fact very well. Anyone should realize that there are always the hands of some western governments behind it. The government had offered the T-TPLF a great chance as it did not put its leadership to prison for grievous atrocities they were causing on Ethiopians for nearly three decades; the government allowed them to live in peace which was usual in Ethiopian history. Unfortunately, the TPLF leaders dishonored this golden opportunity. Instead, they inappropriately decided to regain political power through
war which was/is impossible. Inherently, these terrorist believe that their vision could only be possible through engaging in war. They tried to destroy the unity of Ethiopia through creating endless disagreement among different ethnic groups. They have also divided followers of the same religion. Now, we are reaping the fruits of the wicked seeds sawn over Ethiopia’s land by the terrorist TPLF.
Some people, considering TPLF’s interest to pursue war, do not have hope in the intended peace talk while others consider peace talk initiative as the ultimate resolution. What is your opinion here?
Although negotiation is good, I believe that negotiations with terrorist TPLF will put the country in danger. I believe that negotiation can be realized when these people surrender themselves to the law considering that they are criminals. As they have massacred many people, they cannot live in peace. Tigray will be liberated when these people are brought to justice. Ethiopia’s peace will be preserved when the criminals are under the shadow of the law. Basically, they negotiate when they are reprimanded and lose the opportunity to attack. Now, they pretend to desire peace talk in order to grab the attention of the world community and get external support. Nevertheless, it should be considered that they are preparing for another war.
How do you see the recent report of International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia (ICHREE)?
By the way, we should not forget that the United Nations and other governments work in terms of their own interests. As we have seen in practice, all the decisions they make about Ethiopia are to protect their own interests and honor, not for justice or the dying of innocent civilians. These people give us an agenda to fulfill their needs. If we continue to listen to their agenda, we will destroy our country.
Both Amnesty and the Human Rights Commission dig things up for us. Our government should not have ears to listen to the sham report; instead, it has to be busy to meet the growing demand for national development. As a matter of fact, the ICHREE are well aware of the series of atrocities of the terrorist group such as killing innocent people and looting their properties. So, knowing this, I don’t think we should be concerned about their fake report.
What do you think of the intention of the ICHREE report?
No, I am not worried. Instead, I believe that we should focus on overcoming poverty and creating capacity to fight against it. If we get out of poverty, there is nothing to threaten us. They may impose sanctions and refrain themselves from giving aid. The main struggle of TPLF is to secure the interference of the UN. The very reason they want to create conflict with Eritrea is to expand the war into the Horn of Africa which threatens the UN and make it continental agenda.
But they stood alone as everybody gave deaf ears to them. The door to the United Nations is closed. All we have to do is be self-sufficient and free from their Aid. At present, the government’s efforts to become self-reliant in food grains are encouraging. The Amhara region is also doing a lot of work to increase the development of sesame. It recently announced that it needs one million daily laborers so as to harvest it on time.
The work done in other regions should also be strengthened. If development projects like that of the science museum are being duplicated, no one would be anyone’s protector. Of course, we may not easily reach the level we want. But when we join hands and get rid of tribalism, we grow. Then all those who are trying to destroy us today will surely be knocking our doors.
As a man who served in the Ethiopian National Defense Force, how do you see the recent accusation on the ENDF?
I believe these accusations are baseless. The most important thing that is given a special place within the army is military etiquette. It is this morally proven army that had assisted Tigray farmers in harvesting crops and building health centers and schools. It did not commit such crimes during those days and the blame won’t convince anyone. The people of Tigray adore the ENDF more than anyone else.
In no way can it be seen now that behavior that did not exist yesterday was intentional to defame. By the way, defamation and rumors pretending to be true is a characteristic of the people of the junta. Even in the past, the people of the junta sit and talk about who they are going to abduct with what false agenda. In general, if they don’t orchestrate a false agenda, they cannot exist. I am especially a soldier, so I find it difficult to accept such an absurd accusation.
I sincerely thank you for your in-depth explanation.
Thank you for the invitation.
The Ethiopian Herald October 8/2022
