In the past week, Ethiopians all over the world have watched the barbaric acts committed against our sisters and brothers in Saudi Arabia with deep sorrow and outrage. These inhuman acts are not committed by illegal bandits or criminals operating in the underground, they are committed in broad daylight by the Saudi security forces and government backed youth vigilante. Defenseless Ethiopians in Saudi Arabia continue to face random killings, gang rape, severe beatings, and mass arrest by brutal government forces and government supported mobs. There are an array of irrefutable evidences of the Saudi government’s brutality, utter disregard for the rule of law, and common human decency. Video images and eye-witness testimonies confirm Saudi Arabians have employed extensive use of torture. These acts of gross human and civil rights violations call for an investigation by the United Nations and International rights groups’ into the full extent of the horrific crime committed by the Saudis. The plight of our brothers and sisters in Saudi Arabia begs the question of why so many Ethiopians are forced to flee their country in the first place. Why are millions of Ethiopians suffering around the world as helpless refugees, undocumented aliens, and, in many cases, beggars? What relegated Ethiopians to live a life of second-class, even third class citizens around the world is nothing but the repression, discrimination, and brutality they face in their own country in the hands of an ethnocratic regime well -equipped with the tools and arsenals of repression. Millions are forced each day to choose between a wretched existence at home and uncertain search for hope in a strange land. Fed to the brutal whips of the unscrupulous and racist slave drivers in Saudi Arabia by their own government, Ethiopians cannot look for their leaders at home to come to their aid. To those unwitting sympathizers of the criminal regime in Ethiopia, the continuing suffering of helpless Ethiopians at the hands of racist Arabs should come as a wake up call. We should not only blame the perpetrators of the crime; we must also hold accountable those who made life unbearable at home for millions of Ethiopians. A government that demonstrates no concern for the suffering of its people that it systematically drives to a life of exile, servitude and inhuman treatment should be held accountable, condemned, and ultimately removed. Today the blood of innocent Ethiopians colors Arab streets. Let there be no doubt that their blood will not be spilled in vain. This tragedy should serve as a cause for action and for redemption. It is a call for action for those of us in the Diaspora and back home, who have served as apologists for the criminal regime, trading the time-honored Ethiopian pride and patriotism for petty material gains. Today, Ethiopia is a country that is ruled by corrupt despots who have utter disregard for basic human rights. They are thugs that have no allegiance to the flag and depraved souls without an iota of national and patriotic ethos. The sacred and time honored ethos that were protected by the blood and sweat of generations of Ethiopian compatriots are being replaced by the callous deeds of morally debauched thugs who have condemned millions to a life of abject poverty, ignorance, disease and abysmal sense of hopelessness. For those who have paid attention to the reality in Ethiopia, it is abundantly clear that the dehumanization and humiliation of our brothers and sisters in Saudi Arabia did not begin on Saudi streets. Many found themselves facing the brutality of the Saudi police after being forced to leave their country because of a similar form of brutality at home. The fact is that most young Ethiopians, besides facing high rate of unemployment, are subject to some of the most serious rights abuses, including extrajudicial killings, incommunicado detention, arbitrary arrest, torture, and inhumane prison conditions in Ethiopia. The criminal regime, which has incarcerated genuine Ethiopians such Eskinder Nega, Bekele Gerba, Andualem Arage, Reyot Alemu and thousands of others, has institutionalized corruption as a means of controlling the greedy professionals. The ethnocentric tyrants lead lavish lifestyles, while millions suffer under extreme repression and lack of basic necessities. Members of the ruling ethnocentric thugs and their cohorts travel to watch a Premier League game in England, to shop at expensive boutiques in the fashion capitals of the world, or to visit a doctor in Bangkok for minor ailments, while tens and thousands are fleeing their birthplaces in search of a better life in Arab lands. When these Ethiopians who flee their country in search of hope and opportunities face inhuman treatment, including dismemberment and death, the so called government shamefully apologizes to the criminal Saudis who committed the atrocities in the first place. Credible accounts have demonstrated that the ethnic-based thugs in power have embezzled billions of dollars that they have secured in the form of aid and loans from donor nations and organizations. According to a recent report, in the past few years alone, the criminal regime has borrowed over 16 billion dollars in the name of the people of Ethiopia, and has looted the vast percentage of the money. The fraction of the loan and donation spent on sub-standard construction projects littering the country and paraded as “Development”, has trickled to the lackeys who serve as subcontractors of the Endowment Fund for the Rehabilitation of Tigray ( EFFORT) and other financial outfits of the regime. Greedy professionals, including many medical doctors, engineers and even professors, are shamelessly bowing to these criminals in their despicable effort to be the recipients of the loot. It’s no wonder, then, that thousands of our brothers and sisters risk their lives to travel to foreign lands just to be able to feed themselves and their families. The regime’s response to the onslaught against its people in Saudi Arabia has added insult to injury. Instead of demanding redress for the Ethiopian victims in a visible and public way, the officials of the thugs in power in Addis Ababa did not waste time to use the horrific tragedy committed against Ethiopians in Riyadh to beg for money from the Saudi government in different forms of appeasements and apologies. Ethiopians must unite against the unscrupulous and decadent ethnocentric dictatorship that has condemned its citizens to a life of misery, dehumanization, repression both at home and in exile. We must hold those in power responsible for the tragic predicaments of our fellow citizens in Arab lands. The ultimate remedy, therefore, is for all Ethiopians to unite in common cause to bring about freedom, democracy, hope and all the requisite social and economic conditions to lead a free and dignified life in our homeland. --- Washington, DC-based activist Neamin Zeleke can be reached at Neaminz@aol.com

Extremely Upsetting!
These past few days we Ethiopian people have been screaming our lungs out en mass all around the world in almost all continents - even in Saudi Arabia itself and Beirut - protesting the inhumane acts being deliberated on our fellow citizens. Needless to say, the only country that crashed the attempts to protest against this crime on humanity is Ethiopia herself.
In my half a decade years stay in the U.S. I have never seen or heard a gathering this big and a movement this large all over the world. Only the May 2005 election massacre protest might beat or equal it.
Clearly we are extremely angry to our nerves. And we should be.
What is Causing This?
However, how many of us took time to think what actually caused this - the intentional targeted brutal attacks on Ethiopians in Saudi Arabia (and elsewhere)? In other words, what is the CAUSE of this shame brought on our nation? I heard several people from different spectrum of life say "poverty is the cause." I would say NO! Poverty, backwardness, etc are all the SYMPTOMS. In fact what has been happening to Ethiopians in Saudi Arabia is a SYMPTOM. A symptom of what? What is the cause then!? Good question to ask really. Now it is of high importance to ask oneself “WHY HAVE WE ALWAYS BEEN TREATING THE SYMPTOMS AND NOT THE CAUSE?” This question always challenges me. By the way the only difference between this current mishap on Ethiopians in Saudi Arabia and what has been going on since the mass migration has began 22 years ago is that, on the former, the Saudi government took a wide-ranging campaign of rounding up migrant workers as a national program and the maltreatment affected all migrant workers largely targeting Ethiopians.
Symptoms
For over two decades every single day, several Ethiopian migrant workers have been beaten, tortured, killed and driven into mental disorder in Arab countries. Former Ethiopian Airlines flight crew told me they do not like to operate the Arab bound flights due to its horrific scene in-flight. Sometimes they transport a full plane half of the passengers that went mental and screaming for the whole duration of the flight. This is to say that this SYMPTOM has been there and will be there unless the CAUSE is treated and taken care of. So these horrendous crimes on Ethiopians have been happening for over two decades especially in Arab countries. It is happening as we speak.
Going back to what I initially was saying, the persistence, massiveness, and globalization of the organized protests are bringing attention to prominent media, human rights institutions, influential governments and entities. It is also exposing the Saudis’ serious crimes against humanity to the open world and that might give our fellow compatriots some relief when Saudi tries to save its face. However it may not completely deter them from continually tormenting our citizens.
Therefore, it is necessary and of utmost urgency that the sub-human conditions on fellow citizens suffering in Saudi Arabia stops and measures taken to transport them to safety either back home or accommodating countries through refugee and/or asylum as appropriate. Most agree that this should not be a campaign but a movement until all our citizens are rescued to safety.
Cause!
The cause has always been BAD GOVERNANCE in general and the TPLF/EPRDF led "government" in particular. Here we are not even going to try to state the obvious that there is a "government" that has completely gone wrong in Ethiopia – unless we are in a complete delusional state and self denial crisis. In fact, I'd love to be off the conventional term "Bad Governance" for the Ethiopian case and call it "Nasty Governance" since that is what it is. Not out of hatred but sincerity.
Whom to Battle?
But there is no guarantee whatsoever that this won’t happen again in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Lebanon etc. Well in fact there are unheard voices of Ethiopians under extreme inhumane condition in those countries I just mentioned and beyond. Are we going to go out for demonstration all year round all over the globe? We all know that is not possible. But we can do what is possible - to address THE MOTHER OF ALL THE SYMPTOMS – THE CAUSE!
Again no wasting time stating the obvious fact that the TPLF led absolute dictatorship that is ruling our country by gun point for the past 22 years is the root cause for citizens to fall in despair and leave their country to seek domestic work in brutal Arab states. Not to mention all other turmoil, in all aspects of the nation and the society caused by this illegitimate regime that is leading Ethiopia and its people to the demise of catastrophe.
The battle on the frontline must be to end the cause by any means possible. The mother cause of all catastrophes to our nation’s and people is the TPLF/EPRDF led regime. The system must be dismantled, the regime fallen, and the perpetrators face justice.
Whose Problem?
It is evident that majority of the Ethiopian peoples’ lives both at home and abroad has been severely affected by the current state of our country. Our sovereignty as a nation, our unity as people, and our pride as Ethiopians is going down the drain. Our citizenship is in question. Every single one of us, as citizens, has responsibility of getting ourselves out of this disaster.
And there’s only one way of doing that – by treating the root cause. And that, in plain language is, ending the TPLF led rogue regime.
My most favorite verse from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet play goes as:

To be or not to be, that is the question:
Whether ‘tis Nobler in the mind to suffer
The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune,
Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them