Some aspect of this introduction may not have direct connection with the subject matter of the title of this paper/article. However, the introduction is relevant because it outlines and emphasizes the reasons for the emergency meeting called by Afrikan Unity of Harlem, Inc. We often read articles referring to that part of East Africa as the �Horn of Africa,� which designation represents the ugly face of Colonialism than the dignified face of African states or people of the region. Before Western geographers and map makers turned the Globe on its head, Europe (the West) was down below where we have now all Southern regions surrounding Antarctica. If we go by where the Sun rises, then that direction would have been designated as the �West� too.[i] Such is the extent of Europe�s attempt to put itself on top of the World. There is no scientific reason why �North� should be placed on top of the current maps and globes sold or distributed around the World. It is time to reorient our world with the �South� on top.

The origin or radiating center of mankind is to be found in the part of Ethiopia that forms part of the Great Rift Valley. This is one area where the fossil evidence of the evolution of �Modern� man (Homo sapiens sapiens) is sequenced in layers of time in rocks from the earliest of the Hominid family, Australopithecus afarensis, such as the famous �Lucy� from over three million years ago to the later Hominid family i.e., the earliest true humans identified as Homo sapiens idaltu from Middle Awash (Ethiopia) from about 160, 000 years ago. The people of Ethiopia whether they are identified as Afars, Agews, Amharas, Oromos, Somali, Tigreys, et cetera are all indigenous people of Ethiopia intermixed, in a kind of reverse migration of their descendants�settlers from other parts of the world as is also the case elsewhere in the world. The demographic movements of the human family all over the world, is no exception to the modern demographic feature of Ethiopia and is reflective of the demography of Africa or the world in general. As a matter of scientific reading of the genetic makeup of Ethiopians, it seems that Ethiopians are the prototypes (the �Seed�) for all of mankind wherever found.

The emergency meeting called by Afrikan Unity of Harlem, Inc for the 19^th of January 2008 is also honoring the great scholar and pioneer Dr. Yosef ben-Jochannan whose family origin is in Gondar, Ethiopia. The quotation I have herein from the circular sent by Afrikan Unity of Harlem, Inc gives us the reason why this meeting is very important. �In our communities our Elders are growing older leaving many untold accounts of our history yet to be revealed. Afrikan Unity of Harlem, Inc is honoring Dr. Yosef ben-Jochannan for his Life Long works in preserving our history and culture.  Elder of the Harlem New York Community Dr. Ben is another example of why it is imperative that we wake up for unity so our people who live to keep the Afrikan story passed on for generations to come will be remembered.�   

It is in the spirit of honoring Dr. Yosef ben-Jochannan that I am warning all the World and specifically Africans (Ethiopians) about the serious threat paused by the Neo-Nazi Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis, a mercenary in the pay of the enemies of Ethiopia, who is inciting in articles posted in the Internet, genocidal war against �Amharas and Tigrays� and the destruction of Ethiopia. Megalommatis is the antithesis of Dr. Yosef ben-Jochannan who has tried tirelessly to bring forth peace and unity to the people of Africa. It is proper to expose the enemies of the People of Africa and humanity in general, at this important celebration of the life of the great humanitarian, scholar, educator, and philosopher Dr. Yosef ben-Jochannan.  

II. Genocide against �Amharas and Tigrays� and the destruction of Ethiopia

In a series of articles, Dr. Muhammad Megalommatis advocates the elimination of �Amharas and Tigrays� and the destruction of Ethiopia. In fact, he advocates first the isolation of �Amharas and Tigrays� and separating them from the rest of humankind and �eliminating� them (us), and he urges on Ethiopia �its final, most deserved, ultimate Death� in a language that is extremely violent and barbaric. This Zinjanthropus creature, Muhammad Megalommatis, with his rabid ideas must not be ignored. The government of Ethiopia must take Megalommatis written and spoken words very seriously. On my part, I am deadly serious about the genocidal incitement and insult of my people and Ethiopia by Muhammad Megalommatis. Both the Penal Code of Ethiopia and the 1948 Genocide Convention have provisions dealing with individuals that advocate the elimination or destruction of a particular ethnic or racial group. [The Rome Statue that created the International Criminal Court is also another international tribunal that could prosecute Megalommatis for his incitement of people to commit genocide against �Amharas and Tigrays� pursuant to Articles 2-4 of the Genocide Convention even though none of the Horn Countries have ratified the Rome Statue except Djibouti.]

Megalommatis wrote in his most derisive and acidic article, �Horn of Africa and Forgery, from Kebra Negast to Mammo Muchie,� posted on October 14, 2007, a summation of his hate and his intent to have �Amharas and Tigrays� segregated and eliminated.  Megalommatis wrote, �only the Racist, un-African, Amhara / Tigray pestilence has to be definitely isolated and thoroughly dealt with,� as his final verdict in his last series of genocide inciting articles. Furthermore, he tried to camouflage his incitement for genocide by introducing the United Nations as the agency to carry out his idea of committing genocide against the people of Ethiopia. In this regard, Megalommatis is trying to use the United Nations as a fig leaf to cover his criminal nakedness.

Professor Mammo Muchie is a respected professor, who has tried tirelessly to help African nations achieve both political and economic development, mainly through his writings and also by organizing and participating in numerous conferences in the last two decades. The vulgarity and insult heaped by Megalommatis on Mamo, who is after all a world renowned scholar, educator, political activist, and humanitarian, is most egregious. What Mamo did that irked Megalommatis was Mamo�s call for discourse and unity among the people of the Horn. Nevertheless, setting aside the personal attack of Megalommatis on Mamo, we must concentrate on the writings of Megalommatis involved in far more serious criminal activities than just his jealous outburst against a distinguished scholar.  Megalommatis has committed indictable crime of incitement and conspiracy to commit genocide against the people of Ethiopia.

The following are direct quotations from articles authored and posted by Megalommatis:  

A. �Not only they [Amharas and Tigrays] are absolutely wrong, but they must properly be dealt with by the international community. Amharas and Tigrays must be segregated from the rest in a way that they will not be able to damage so many nations, they must be cast away as the villainous pariah of the Mankind, and they must put under UN mandate that 1. will strip them from the illegally used name of �Ethiopia�, 2. impose a systematic democratic process, 3. eradicate totally the racist Abyssinian education, replacing it with a modern systematic approach and acceptable contents, 4. produce a local democratic elite, able to undertake finally a nation building process, and thus 5. irreversibly eliminate at all costs the Racist and Neo-Nazi Amhara and Tigray elites that are genuinely perilous for the Global Security.� [ii]

B. �That is why the ultimate and imminent dissolution of the inhuman tyranny �Ethiopia� becomes top urgency for its oppressed nations and peoples.�[iii]

C. �The monstrous, colonial and tyrannical construction �Ethiopia�, the fakest of the African racist and despotic regimes, will encounter its final, most deserved, ultimate Death. To the sublime exultation of its numerous oppressed and tyrannized peoples, who will get rid of the Amhara and Tigray, Abyssinian contamination! �[iv]

A number of my friends have suggested that I need not bother my self with Muhammad Megalommatis, the author of a series of articles inciting members of the Ethiopian community and other African people to commit genocide against �Amharas and Tigrays.� Had I only looked at Megalommatis�s work as an academic work, I probably would not have bothered that much because his writing on Ethiopian history is extremely lacking of depth and extent such that it was beyond correction. And in his attempt to cover his serious lack of academic discipline, critical thinking, and shallow research, he engaged us with too broad brush strokes of ancient history and writing about obscure incidents that all boil down to mere gobbledygook. Thus, my concern with Megalommatis is based on quite different and alarming aspect of his work of incitement to commit genocide against Ethiopians, and not his obvious lack of academic rigor, as I would be concerned with Hitler�s writings had I lived during that era. When Hitler�s Mein Kampf was published and distributed in 1925-26, no one would have imagined or guessed the real intentions of Hitler�s genocidal ideas against Jews and the extent of the atrocities committed by Germany and the horror of the Holocaust.

No one at the time of the publication of Mein Kampf would have predicted that over fifty million people would be killed in the Second World War as a direct consequence of Hitler�s racist views fully explained in his book, Mein Kampf. In fact, even after the horror of the Holocaust, historians are divided into two camps on the extent of the role played by Hitler�s book: the functionalists (genocide as a final solution approved by Hitler in the 1940s, suggested by Himmler in a letter of May 25, 1940) and the internationalists (genocide planned from the 1920s by Hitler). Thus, the Ethiopian Government and every Ethiopian must take seriously the utterances and writings of Muhammad Megalommatis.  When we have a rabid dog on the loose in any community, members of such community will rally to put on leash such sick dog. For individual Ethiopians, what ever action Ethiopians (we) may take against Megalommatis is a legitimate question of self-defense.

Because it is very important to know and understand the relevant provisions of the Genocide Convention for the purpose of this article and discussion, I have cited the articles from the Convention as follows:

Article II: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a)    Killing members of the group;

(b)   Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c)    Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d)   Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e)    Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. 

Article III: The following acts shall be punishable:

(a) Genocide;
(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;
(c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;
(d) Attempt to commit genocide;
(e) Complicity in genocide. 

Article IV: Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals.[v]

The special trust placed on journalists is not without reason. In our fast paced world, the best defense is timely information against both man made and natural disasters. The genocide tragedy of Bosnia and Rwanda are still fresh in our minds that we cannot allow any state or individual instigated genocide in any part of the World. Already a slow moving atrocity in Darfur has caused the death and displacement of millions of people targeted because of their ethnicity. In case of Darfur, there is no one individual openly advocating genocide unlike in the previous cases of Bosnia and Rwanda. 

The Rwandan Genocide Tribunal entered a judgment on December 3, 2003 in the case of The Prosecutor v. Ferdinand Nahimana, Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza, and Hassan Ngeze,[vi] convicting three Rwandan media executives for �genocide, incitement and conspiracy to commit genocide, and crimes against humanity� and sentenced them to terms ranging from 35 years to life. �The U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda found Hassan Ngeze, owner of the Kangura newspaper, and Ferdinand Nahimana and Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza, executives of Radio T�l�vision des Mille Collines (RTLM), guilty of using the media to both incite and execute 1994's genocidal campaign against Tutsis and moderate Hutus.�

The Rwandan Genocide Tribunal considered as part of the evidence presented to it and studied the text of The Ten Commandments and the Appeal to the Conscience of the Hutu, articles published (authored) by the defendants. The Tribunal, in its Judgment paragraph 950, found that �The Appeal to the Conscience of the Hutu and The Ten Commandments, published in Kangura No. 6 in December 1990, conveyed contempt and hatred for the Tutsi ethnic group, and for Tutsi women in particular as enemy agents, and called on readers to take all necessary measures to stop the enemy, defined to be the Tutsi population.�[vii] Even at the Nuremberg trail in 1946, at a time when there was no formal precedent, the Court found Julius Striecher editor of Der Sturmer, who published similar commentaries like those of Megalommatis, guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced him to death by hanging.  Of course, the finding in that case did not find it necessary to establish nexus between the activities of Julius Streicher and the extermination of the Jews, it was sufficient that Streicher�s activities contaminated the atmosphere resulting in the Holocaust.  It is not necessary that there be shown result of actual genocide in order to find Megalommatis guilty of incitement of genocide under Article II, Article III (b) and (c), and Article IV of the Genocide Convention.

The writings of Megalommatis are not protected rights of free speech and expression. The literature on the development of rights both in municipal (national) law and international law shows that there is no protection from legal prosecution of such types of hate and genocidal incitement writings by Megalommatis. To wit, the Rwandan Tribunal resolved similar challenge brought on behalf the three defendants on the issue of freedom of speech and expression, in Paragraphs 1008-1010 in its judgment in the case of The Prosecutor v. Ferdinand Nahimana, Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza, and Hassan Ngeze:

�3. Direct and Public Incitement to Commit Genocide:

. . .

1008. The Chamber notes that international standards restricting hate speech and the protection of freedom of expression have evolved largely in the context of national initiatives to control the danger and harm represented by various forms of prejudiced communication. The protection of free expression of political views has historically been balanced in the jurisprudence against the interest in national security. The dangers of censorship have often been associated in particular with the suppression of political or other minorities, or opposition to the government. The special protections developed by the jurisprudence for speech of this kind, in international law and more particularly in the American legal tradition of free speech, recognize the power dynamic inherent in the circumstances that make minority groups and political opposition vulnerable to the exercise of power by the majority or by the government. These circumstances do not arise in the present case, where at issue is the speech of the so-called �majority population�, in support of the government. The special protections for this kind of speech

should accordingly be adapted, in the Chamber�s view, so that ethnically specific expression would be more rather than less carefully scrutinized to ensure that minorities without equal means of defense are not endangered.

. .

1010. Counsel for Ngeze has argued that United States law, as the most speech protective, should be used as a standard, to ensure the universal acceptance and legitimacy of the Tribunal�s jurisprudence. The Chamber considers international law, which has been well developed in the areas of freedom from discrimination and freedom of expression, to be the point of reference for its consideration of these issues, noting that domestic law varies widely while international law codifies evolving universal standards. The Chamber notes that the jurisprudence of the United States also accepts the fundamental principles set forth in international law and has recognized in its domestic law that incitement to violence, threats, libel, false advertising, obscenity, and child pornography are among those forms of expression that fall outside the scope of freedom of speech protection. In Virginia v. Black, the United States Supreme Court recently interpreted the free speech guarantee of the First Amendment of the Constitution to permit a ban on cross burning with intent to intimidate. The historical terrorization of African Americans by the Ku Klux Klan through cross burnings, in the Court�s view, made the burning of a cross, as a recognized symbol of hate and a �true threat,� unprotected as symbolic expression. Intimidation was held to be constitutionally proscribable �where a speaker directs a threat to a person or group of persons with the intent of placing the victim in fear of bodily harm or death�. In the immigration context, adherents of National Socialism have been stripped of citizenship and deported from the United States on the basis of their anti-Semitic writings.�[viii]

As a mater of fact, the language used in those articles by the Hutu hate mongers was tame compared to the type of language used by Megalommatis against �Amharas and Tigrays� and his incitement to eliminate such identifiable group, in a series of articles published widely that I have cited above. There is no question that Megalommatis has committed a crime within the Genocide Convention. The real issue is how to bring this international criminal to justice. There are several precedents from the experience of the Nuremberg trials as well as later trials and convictions of criminals, such as Adolf Eichmann, Klaus Barbie, et cetera for the Government of Ethiopia to start criminal proceedings in its own Court under its 1957 Penal Code enforcing the provisions of the Genocide Convention and the principles developed at the Nuremberg Trials that formed part of customary international law and principles.

The 1957 Penal Code of Ethiopia provides in Chapter I: Book III Offences Against the State or Against National or International Interests - Title II Offences Against the Law of Nations - Chapter I Fundamental Offences: Art. 281. Genocide: Crimes against Humanity; Art. 282. War crimes against the civilian population; Art. 283. Crimes against the wounded, sick or shipwrecked persons; Art. 284. War crimes against prisoners and interned persons; Art. 285. Pillage, piracy and looting; and Art. 286. Provocation and preparation.[ix]  

The Ethiopian Government should file without delay a diplomatic letter of protest with the Security Council of the United Nations and also with the Government of Egypt that Egypt has allowed maybe even financed activities that violate the Genocide Convention by an individual within its jurisdiction. Ethiopia may demand the extradition of Megalommatis to Ethiopia to face indictment and trial for crimes under the 1957 Penal Code of Ethiopia for the crime of provocation preparation to commit genocide, which also violates provisions of the Genocide Convention that both Egypt an Ethiopia are signatories. The Ethiopian Government also must inform the United Nations Human Rights Commission of the violations of the Genocide Convention that encroach on the human rights of Ethiopian citizens. 

We need to ask of the local prosecution team how well it measures up both on the technical side of the problem, namely issue of venue, jurisdiction, technical support, and professional assistance. �Prosecution under the Genocide Convention requires proof of three elements. The elements are that: (a) an accused must possess the requisite mens rea, namely, intent to destroy in whole, or in part; (b) the victim must belong to a national, ethnical, racial or a religious group, as such; (c) the accused must commit identifiable act or acts based on that intent.�  However, the third requirement in �c� must be read away from the strict test of criminal conspiracy in felony cases. The Rwandan Tribunal made this absolutely clear in its opinion in the case of The Prosecutor v. Ferdinand Nahimana, Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza, and Hassan Ngeze. There is also the trial of the singer Simon Bikindi who is accused of using his songs to incite genocide against the Tutsi in The Prosecutor v. Simon Bikindi, Case No. ICTR-2001-72-T, which may give us additional insight how incitement in cases of genocide must be distinguished from standards used in cases of conspiracies or attempts in other forms of crimes such as robbery, murder et cetera.

According to Alex Obote-Odora, Legal Advisor, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda,  �[T]he objective of the Genocide Convention is not only to criminalize the act of genocide, but to also criminalize preparatory acts that tend to lead to genocide regardless of whether the intentions are, in fact carried out. In other words, the courts should convict persons charged with preparatory acts because the crimes of genocide are so serious that individuals should not be free to prepare, plan, or incite others, to commit crimes of genocide and be guilty only after the actual crime has been committed. If that were the objective of the law, then the Genocide Convention would have failed in its primary purpose of preventing the commission of genocide.�[x]

III. Egypt and Ethiopia on genocide

The government of Egypt has the responsibility to prosecute Megalommatis under the provisions of the Genocide Convention and Egypt�s own laws or practice, since Egypt had already signed on 12 December 1948 and ratified on 8 February 1952 the Genocide Convention. Ethiopia, a day earlier than Egypt, signed on 11 December 1948; and a year earlier than Egypt, ratified on 1 July 1949 the Genocide Convention. [It is curious for me the fact that the United States signed the Genocide Convention on 11 December 1948, but ratified the Convention on 25 November 1988�forty years later! Please, anyone explain that time delay to me.]

The 1957 Ethiopian Penal Code has articulated the main principle against genocide in far more expansive manner than the Convention itself in Article 281, and it has also provided for incitement and conspiratorial agitations for genocide in Article 286 as follows:     

Art. 281. Genocide; Crimes against Humanity: Whosoever, with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, religious or political group, organizes, orders or engages in, be it in time of war or in time of peace: (a) killings, bodily harm or serious injury to the physical or mental health of members of the group, in any way whatsoever; or (b) measures to prevent the propagation or continued survival of its members or their progeny; or (c) the compulsory movement or dispersion of peoples or children, or their placing under living conditions calculated to result in their death or disappearance, is punishable with rigorous imprisonment from five years to life, or, in cases of exceptional gravity, with death.

Art. 286. Provocation and preparation: Whosoever, with the object of committing, permitting or supporting any of the acts provided for in the preceding articles: (a) publicly encourages them, by word or mouth, images or writings; or (b) conspires towards or plans with another, urges the formation of, or himself forms a band or group, joins such a band or group, adheres to its schemes or obeys its instructions, is punishable with rigorous imprisonment not exceeding five years.

Ethiopia has a far advanced and pioneering law than Egypt and many other countries on the crime of genocide. As I have pointed out above, the 1957 Ethiopian Penal Code has several provisions on the crime of genocide. The inclusion of �political groups� as one of the protected targets is an expansion of protected targets enumerated in the Genocide Convention, and not just limited to race, ethnicity, and religion. [It is to be recalled that in 1946 Egypt was one of the countries that objected to the inclusion of �political organizations� as one of the protected groups, in sessions in the Sixth Committee of the General Assembly responsible for the final draft of the Genocide Convention.] Egyptian law in general is fashioned after Napoleonic law and Sharia law, thus suffers the shortcomings of both systems when it comes to dealing with the evolution of modern criminal law. Although Egypt signed and ratified the Genocide Convention almost contemporaneously with Ethiopia, it did not find it necessary to legislate municipal law on the excuse that �since no national, ethical, racial, religious group exists in the structure of Egyptian society, making the crimes sanctioned in the convention inconceivable.�[xi]

This rationalization of the failure of the Egyptian Government in not following through such important international obligation is one additional example of Egypt�s very much invariance of its self-centered international role. Simply put, it is a total denial of the reality of the disparity between racial groups, religious groups et cetera that exists in Egyptian society. However, of late due to pressure from the United States (shelling out 2 billion dollars a year in aid to Egypt) there is a movement to adopt some form of local enforcement procedure of internationally acknowledged crimes such as terrorism.

Megalommatis is proof of a decomposing civil society, wherein an individual has the audacity to advocate openly the destruction of over thirty million �Amharas and Tigrays� whom he demonized and insulted, without challenge by the local government officials in Egypt. In fact, I suspect some branch of the Egyptian Government might have a hand in all of these criminal assaults on �Amharas and Tigrays� people of Ethiopia in violation of well established international peremptory norms of international law. It is one thing attacking or criticizing and seeking the destruction of a government or an organization, but to advocate the �elimination� of a group of individuals of identifiable ethnicity for any reason is genocide and beyond the pale. On the other hand, Megalommatis might as well be a spy planted at the very heart of Arab nationalism, using hate against Ethiopia as bait to earn the trust of the Arabs.  

The type of attack that Megalommatis is waging against Ethiopia can be identified as a variation of the old form of �divide and rule� tactics used by both earlier colonizers and the present day neocolonialists. The effort of Megalommatis against �Amharas and Tigrays� who make up the majority of the diverse people of Ethiopia is far worse than anything seen on the African Continent, except the Rwandan and Darfur Genocide. Megalommatis is not even an Egyptian, but a mercenary of Greek nationality (by his own admission) and yet he is advocating of the elimination of close to forty million Ethiopians. One thing is obvious that such individuals if left unchallenged would sow the seed of strife among the many people of Africa. Whether it is the Horn region or West, or South Africa, we must all keep our vigilance and be weary of �Greeks bearing gifts�[xii] for us. We must communicate with each other and challenge our enemies in what ever guise they come to us. In the case of Megalommatis, that ancient warning is very appropriate.Ω

Tecola W. Hagos

Washington DC

January 17, 2008

 

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