The following is a letter posted on www.hiiraan.com regarding the recent war in Somalia where Ethiopian troops mass murdered thousands of Somalis. This has caused over 100 thousand somalis to fee the Capital city from the Helichopters the Ethiopian army was flying over Mogadishu destroying everything that moved, from cars, live stocks, woman and children included. To read this letter in full, please visit Hiiraan.com and click on the
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE ETHIOPIAN PEOPLE in the Opinions section.
By Idris Ahmed Osman
Every political analyst looks into the global events in the political arena from different perspective. I personally prefer to dig out the roots of its source. Why Ethiopia is involved in the Somali civil conflict?!. Why is it braving and calling for far troubles outside its borders?!. Is it partially settling scores of the past?! Or was it a pre-emptive strike meant to weaken a potentially growing threat of the Islamist movement next door?! Who is behind its mobilization?!. Many of us, except few, would have been surprised that a prophecy by the prophet (sallalahu alaihi wasallam) fell twice on Ethiopia in its past and future history. The first was about a Monarch in whose territory none would be oppressed. The Abyssinian king called Nagesh, was foretold by the messenger to had been a just ruler who would have had followed the truth and protected the virtuous. King Nagesh, then a true Christian, gave asylum to the Muslim migrants, companions of the prophet (sallalahu alaihi wasallam) who fled from the persecution of Koreishi idolaters in Makka. King Nagesh reverted to Islam and died as a Muslim (may Allah be pleased with him). That was a prophecy of good omen. Islam came into Ethiopia well before the start of the Muslim Hijri calendar while the prophet (sallalahu alaihi wasallam) was still in Makka and that is great honour for our neighbours.
The second prophecy that is definitely set, by the leave of Allah, to occur one day inspires obnoxious dilemma and we never take it on all of you generally on individual basis. The prophet (sallalahu alaihi wasallam) prophesied in the coming future of a man from among the Abyssinian people (Ethiopia) whose physical character was described as with flimsy legs and demolishing the Kaabah with an axe in his hand. This was obviously a prophecy of bad omen. It is apparent from these two allegorical juxtapositions that there is potentially both previous good and future bad intention within our neighbours. It would be worthwhile though to cultivate the former rather than the latter. The course of both the current affairs and earlier negative incidents depict that the balance was lately shifting towards the flimsy legged character in whose hand would be the axe to reduce one of our most noble shrines to debris. If your government claims to be a democratic country, then you the Ethiopian people are the decision makers.
You know well that Somalis have been preoccupied with their own internal civil conflicts for the past seventeen years and no single stray bullet of theirs swayed into your territory. Your government chose to deploy your troops and carry out a massive massacre in Mogadishu, using helicopter gunships and heavy weaponry. There is loss of lives on both sides, yet as you might have seen or heard in the media, mostly innocent children and women were, in the most recent confrontations, either victimized or killed. Your beloved ones are dying in strange remote lands, helpless, humiliated and without reasonable objective. It is not time to ask who is responsible as most of the casualties are infants, suckling mothers and old people; hence a sudden cease fire on both sides and an immediate halt of your aggression is extremely necessary. Had there been a referendum by your government in which you voted YES to this deliberate aggression and attack of your government in our country, we urge you to say NO and demand from your government an immediate strategic pull out and return of your troops. Your government is fighting a pre-emptive war in which there is not direct threat or national security interest and benefit for you as a citizen. Your government might seek a pretext of invasion in apprehending a threat next door; but to be safe and secure, it would be sufficient that it fortified its borders and stood aside from the neighbourhood conflict.
Most Somalis are now convinced blatantly or subconsciously that you are settling old scores and unfinished long standing vengeance with Somalia.
To read this letter in full, please visit Hiiraan.com and click on the
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE ETHIOPIAN PEOPLE in the Opinions section.
