By Getahune Bekele
Described as the late fuehrer Meles Zenawi’s lap dog and a pathological anti- Ethiopianism, Bereket Simeon, have caused a massive controversy by openly denouncing Africa’s biggest post colonial ethnic cleansing campaign of 1998, committed by himself and the dead tyrant.
Bereket, Standing for his Eritrea? Picture curtsey of goolgule.com
The massive campaign of forcibly removing Ethio-Eritreans, including women and children was started in 1998 immediately after Eritrean war planes raided Mekele, the capital of Tigraye republic, killing several students at Aider primary school.
The incident later grow into full blown boarder war where more than 70,000 souls perished in a battle resembled the bloody trench warfare of the first world war; just for control of a tiny dust bowl known as Badime.
Appearing as guest speaker on Eritrean oppositions Arabic paltalk chat room on line ,on Saturday, the controversial Eritrean born warlord, Bereket, accused top Tigraye born warlords Seyye Abreha and the illiterate Gebru Asrat of spear heading the yet to be investigated ethnic cleansing campaign.
“If we don’t like the color of their eyes, we have the right to chase them away”, was Zenawis’ response to the concern of human right organizations during the mass deportation.
“We were wrong to chase away Eritreans” Bereket admits, for the first time contradicting the dead despot “It should not have happened and it will never happen.”
Bereket, the man who single handedly picked the current PM of Ethiopia; Hailemariam Desalegn to succeed his late boss also spoke on the issue of Badime.
“Badime is not our land. It belongs to Eritrea and we don’t have a problem of handing it over to Eritrea. The problem we have is how to go about it” Bereket said, in the process showing contempt to pro Badime Tigre warlords such as Abbay Woldu, Samora unice, Seyoum Mesfin and Birhane Gebre kiristos, who still sees Badime as an integral part of the future Tigraye republic.
It is not clear what gave Bereket the Dutch courage to openly defy the feared group of Tigraye nationalists with more than one million foot soldiers under their command.
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