Awate was a trigger happy ordinary outlaw (shifta): A hero of Fascist Benito Mussolini !!!
Awate was a trigger happy ordinary outlaw (shifta): A hero of Fascist Benito Mussolini !!!
In defense of the Kunama version of the history of Awate and free speech
In the month of September, 2012 following a statement made by Mr. Kernelious Osman of the Kunama regarding Hamid Idris Awate, a lot of uproar has ensued. In the ensuing uproar many organizations and individuals like the Gulf Centre for Media Services, the Eritrean Solidarity Front, Meskerem.net, and other numerous individuals and news outlets have come up with articles condemning and demonizing Mr. Kernelious.
Some have tried to tell Mr. Kernelious and by extension the Kunama people not to cross a red line which they have put. Some of them even have gone to the extent of demanding the expulsion of his organization from the so called “umbrella organization” Eritrean National Alliance (ENA). Furthermore, ENA has taken the unprecedented and undemocratic decision of suspending the organization led by Mr. Kernelious Osman, because he exercised his God given right of freedom of expression.
These organizations and media outlets, in their attempt to create “an Awate which is beyond reproach and criticism”, they deliberately have alienated the Kunamas of Eritrea and simply told them that the pain and suffering imparted on them in the hands of Awate and his outlaw (shifta) group is not worth mentioning.
They are simply telling these indigenous Eritrean people that they and their painful history do not matter. The Kunamas which have been the victim of an aggressive persecution by the Asmara regime through its ethnic cleansing policy have been conveniently forgotten by the mainstream Eritrean opposition groups.
The persecution and suffering of this Ethnic group and the stories and sufferings of the tens of thousands of Kunama refugees have not been reported by any of the so called “Eritrean human right organizations” who have flourished these days in every conceivable corner of the globe where the Eritrean Diaspora lives. These Human right organizations that go by fancy names like “concern”, “organization”, “Gezana” etc. would rather deafen us day in and day out with their copy and paste reports about the G-15, and the burial rights of one of the most notorious Gestapo of Eritrea Naizghi Kiflu. None of them came forward to defend Kernelious’ right to hold opinions without interference and freedom of speech.
Again for these Eritrean Opposition and so called Human right organizations, the sufferings of the Kunama people is not worth reporting and sadly enough the Kunamas are “subhuman species” who do not deserve a mention. No wonder then that the Kunamas and other minority people feel alienated not only by the Asmara regime but also by the main stream Eritrean opposition groups and human right organizations. No wonder that they have incorporated in their programs “the right for self determination up to and including secession”.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 19 clearly states that,
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Article 19 also states that,
“Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.”
“To restrict anyone from expressing his views freely about any historical event directly contradicts the above human right declarations and other similar regional and global laws pertaining to civil liberties. Freedom of speech and the freedom to express one's beliefs are essential to human dignity and liberty and as such Kernelious Osman and the Kunamas have the right to express their version of the history of Awate without anyone censoring, or curtailing them.”
Who was Hamid Idris Awate? What was his history? What was his motivation if any when he led a band of his outlaws (shifta) to shoot the first bullet against an Ethiopian police post?
Hamid Idris Awate was born in 1910 in Gerset village located between Omhajer and Tessenei in Gash Setit region of South Western Eritrea, from a Nara father and Beni Amer mother. In 1935, he was conscripted by the Italians to serve in the colonial army of the Eritrean Ascaris. The Italians, impressed by Awate’s military performance and loyalty sent him to the Italian African Police training school in Tivoli about 30 km north-east of Rome, for a course in Military Intelligence. The Italian African Police force (Polizia dell'Africa Italiana or PAI) was a racially mixed organization, made up of Italian agents and native Ascaris. It was located in police headquarters of major cities like Tripoli, Benghazi, Asmara, Addis Ababa, Mogadishu, Gondar, or in small commissariats elsewhere. ...
https://asmarino.com/articles/1554-awat ... mussolini-
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