“If it is not broke, don’t fix it.”
By Duach R. Mach
February 28, 2016 (SSNA) — We the Nuer community of Ethiopia in Diasporas unequivocally condemned the horrific murder of Gambella Deputy Ministry of road and transportation, Ato Gatdet Gony. It is unimaginable to see that the two largest ethnic groups in the region should go on a killing rampage and take as many lives as they could get from each other’s side. The killing of Gatdet along with other killings carried out throughout the region during the last quarter of January was the darkest period Gambella had ever seen. It was unjustifiable under any circumstances and reprehensible for brothers to turn hostile to each other. Without Nuer or Anyuak in the region, Gambella will never be Gambella adored so much by its people and the rest of Ethiopia. We believe we are inseparable to one another and our mutual coexistent will help develop our region well pass what we see in the rest of Ethiopian regions.
However, we fooled ourselves acting with the 12th c European ego when their nations turned to each other and mercilessly killed anyone that comes each other’s way. That is exactly what we saw in Gambella. Even though the onset of that was a result of what happened in Itang Keeble’s, still it was not reasonable under any circumstances to end Gatdeet’s life nor the lives of inmates in Gambella and Abobo prisons all of whom were serving their sentences.
We hope that the criminals who took Gatdet’s life be found and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the rules of law. We also hope that the criminals who ended the lives of inmate all of whom were serving their sentences be brought to justice as well. Failing to do so will guarantee the inability to secure a full security in the region because criminals will be well aware that they could cause such agony and still walk free. We believe not all Anyuak represent the view of those who murdered Gatdet.
The same is also true for Nuer who ended lives of inmates in Gambella Prison for matters that got nothing to do with them. The majority of Gambellians from both Nuer and Anyuak are not represented by the view of these criminals who are trying to turn our region into anarchy. In other words, those murdered the innocent young man, Ato Gatdet, do not represent us in Ethiopia and Gambella in particular in anyway. It is therefore our wish as people of Gambella to distant ourselves from these criminals whether Nuer or Anyuak and not to be found or carry guilt by association.
As such we must ensure that those who committed awful acts must be brought to justice so that crimes like what had occurred in Gambella are not repeated. We the people of Gambella had been known to present our political issue through violence. Some of these examples were the killing of High Profile people like former president Ato Agwa Alemu, former Gambella first governor after Derge from Anyuak and now with Ato Gatdet Gony.
The author lives in the United States. He can be reached at [email protected] or [email protected].