The
Sidama Owned Small Businesses on Fire in Hawassa
Press
Statement by United Sidama Parties for Freedom and Justice
It’s with deepest sadness that the
United Sidama Parities for Freedom and Justice (USPFJ) express its hear felt
condolences for the Sidama small scale business owners in Hawassa city New market
place ‘ Addis Gebeya’ for loss of lives and property. The source of the fire
has not yet been confirmed.
The incident took place on 21 February
2015 at 7 pm local time. The Fire has been left on to burn for over 2 hours. The
Sidama business community who have set up these new businesses in this
particular place over a decade ago had registered their plots of lands as they
have been pushed away far from the city centre to give room for investors from
other parts of the country.
We also condemn the slow response
from the fire brigade in the region. The response of the fire brigade was
awfully inadequate. The inept Fire Brigade only arrived 105 minutes after the
fire has engulfed the entire shopping areas, shops and residential homes
attached to these. The Fire Brigade has been delayed for a lengthy period of
time to arrive at a place less than 4 kilometres away. Moreover, peoples from the neighbouring villages
and neighbourhoods have been denied access to the area by police officers who
have been seen blocking the entrances from all corners until all shops and
attached houses have been totally burned down to ashes.
To date, the number of dead Sidama
people has exceeded a dozen by the time we’ve published this press release; and
the bodies of dead Sidama have been kept in the Hawassa municipality morgue and
the identification process of the bodies is also difficult as they have been
burnt beyond recognition. The material cost of this accident is estimated to be
over hundreds of millions of Birr.
Ironically the burnt out empty place is being guarded by the federal
police to confirm that the previous owners are unlikely to be allowed to their
places. As a result there is a suspicion among the Sidama people that the fire
might have been deliberately ignited to destroy the properties to allocate the
plots to other “investors.”
The fire began burning an entire
market place mainly owned by the Sidama small scale traders who have been as
mentioned above pushed out of Hawassa city centre which became a hot cake for
the central rulers who have all considered Hawassa, a resort town for their
personal entertainment. In Hawassa, the rulers spend their honeymoon, spare times
and hold a special national and international conferences; with very little or
nothing trickling down to the real stake holders, the Sidama people. Instead,
the Sidama people are pushed away and punished by this very regime time and
again including the May 24, 2002 massacre of over 70 confirmed Sidama civilians
who demanded their constitutional rights to regional self-determination; at the
exact place where the Sidama market has been burnt out on the aforementioned
date. The regimes federal as well as regional anti-Sidama cadres work day and
night to deny the Sidama nation their rights to regional self-administration. The
destruction of the livelihood of the Sidama People might have been planned
behind the scene to remove them from their ancestral land of Hawassa step by
step; although this will never happen as the Sidama people will never give up
an inch from their land.
About a week ago the Sidama farmer
known as ‘Hussein Kadir’, who is the father of numerous children has been ordered
by the Hawassa investment office cadres both Dehidin and SPDO’s to vacate his
land for an investor. The land he has been asked to leave was the one on which
his ancestors have lived and inherited to him. His livelihood depends on these
plots of land as are his numerous children and family members. As he has been
ordered, to leave his land for investors, he decides to climb onto a tree near
his house and told the cadres that he would rather commits suicide than
allowing his land to be taken by strangers. He vowed that unless the regime
stops ordering him to leave his ancestors land, he never climbs down. After spending
few days on the top of the tree (see bottom picture), the regime persuaded him
through customary elders negotiations by promising to give him a place to live
in, in Hawassa’s city administration owned place. It came to our attention that
he has been indeed managed to get something for his family members and moved to
a new place. This isn’t a separate incident; but it’s a daily phenomenon the
Sidama farmers around the outskirts of Hawassa and all over the region are
subjected to.
It’s the saddest era for the Sidama
nation as it is for the other subjugated nations in a number of ways. The Sidama
people for their first time in their history become beggars in their own soil
as their main livelihood security around Hawassa, their land, has been taken
away from them little by little to serve the interests of those who are enslaving
the nation. Nevertheless, the Sidama nation never rests until its quest for
freedom, justice, equality and self-governances are fully respected.
The USPFJ send its deepest and
heartfelt condolences to the Sidama families and others (if any), who lost
their properties and lives in Hawassa’s Addis Gebeya Market fire. We
emphatically condemn the manner in which the local and regional governments
managed the fire incident. Those who have planned, ordered, masterminded and
implemented such abhorring crimes against humanity can’t escape from justice
sooner or later in a free Sidama land. The Sidama nation must remain extra
vigilant and united at this trying times.
May the souls of unlawfully burnt Sidama martyrs rest in peace!!
United Sidama Parties for Freedom
and Justice (USPFJ)
February 24, 2015
