Open Letter to Religious Leaders and Elders of Ethiopia

Wolday Abrha, PhD

02-07-2021

I have heard of your plan to visit Tigray. It would be great idea if this was done before November 4, 2020. I do not think you have a moral ground to visit Tigray – the land of justice, the land of religious harmony, the land of hardworking and peace-loving people. If you have the courage to answer the following questions correctly, you may attempt to visit Tigray. But I doubt it.

1. Didn’t you bless the war as “law enforcement operation”? If so, how do you know it is an all-out war?

2. Have you ever questioned your prime minister why he invited a foreign army (the marauding Eritrean troops) to kill your own people and a sovereign state?

3. Where were you when the Tigrayan women and girls (including nuns) were raped? This crime is continuing daily.

4. Have you said a word when Tigray’s cultural and religious heritages are looted and destroyed by the unholy alliances of the marauding Eritrean troops and Ethiopian forces (including ENDF, Amhara militias, special forces from all the regional states of Ethiopia)? Example: Debre Deamo Abune Aregawi Monastsry, St. Mary Dengelat – Edaga Hamus, Emmanual Church – Negash, Al Negashi Mosque, Meskel Kiristos (Aka Abba Zewengel Asimba), Catholic Church - Adigrat diocese, the massacre of 750 worshipers at St. Mary – Axum, and many more unaccounted yet.

5. Have you ever asked for humanitarian access and humanitarian corridor for the 2.3 malnourished children and 4.5 people who are starving to deaths?

6. Did you know Universities in Tigray are looted and destroyed, again by the marauding Eritrean troops, while the ENDF was standing cowardly?

7. Where were you when the many public and private economic infrastructures (factories, various small and large business enterprises) were looted and destroyed, again by the marauding Eritrean troops, while the ENDF was standing cowardly?

8. How about the UAE drones, which killed thousands of civilians? Have you condemned it? Did you even pretend to ask to stop the atrocities?

9. What have you done to save the lives of millions of internally displaced Tigrayans?

10. Have you heard of the daily life of Tigrayan farmers? Did you know that they are facing “Kill it or I will kill” policy of the marauding Eritrean troops? Tigrayan farmers must forcedly slaughter their livestock and serve it to the invaders.

11. Didn’t you know the many women who died while giving birth in the fields on their way trekking to Sudan? How about those more than 60,000 Tigrayan refugees who crossed to Sudan, who were labeled as criminals by your prime minister? Did you ever ask your prime minister to stop hate speech?

12. Have you asked your authorities to stop ethnic profiling and harassment of Tigrayans throughout Ethiopia?

13. Have you ever requested for independent investigations of extrajudicial killings including those who were killed before the genocidal war on Tigray started? Example: General Seare Mekonen and his life-long friend General Gezae, Dr. Ambachew and his colleagues, Hachalu Hundesa, etc.

14. Have you ever visited the thousands of innocent citizens who are languishing in prisons throughout Ethiopia?

All in one: if you do not have correct answers, for which I assume you do not, you are an accomplice in Tigray genocide. Please DO NOT GO TO TIGRAY.