by elias » Today, 09/05/2015 00:27
[Yosef Haimanot – murdered by Shabia]Until about 2 months ago Fekadu Chere was a central committee member of Ethiopian People’s Patriotic Front (EPPF) and assistant to its chairman Meazaw Getu in Eritrea. After several years with the EPPF, Fekadu defected to Sudan a few weeks ago and entered Ethiopia. In an interview he gave yesterday, he confirmed our fear that Ethiopian-British citizen Yosef Haimanot who went to Eritrea to work with EPPF was murdered.
Yosef was an idealist young man who left his comfortable life in London to join the struggle to liberate Ethiopia from the Woyanne apartheid junta. Yosef is not the first Ethiopian to be killed by Shabia, and will not be the last.
In 2010, when I and others were arguing with Shabia officer Col. Fitsum Yisehak (who is in charge of Ethiopian opposition groups in Eritrea) about corruption and misconducts in EPPF, and later on when we stopped going to Eritrea after Col. Fitsum murdered 17 young EPPF members, Yosef stayed there. It was later, in 2012, that he has reached the same conclusion that we arrived at about Shabia’s dirty game. By that time it was too late for him to leave Eritrea. In a series of email exchanges with me, Yosef alerted me about the problems he was facing and his attempt to leave Eritrea. Then suddenly he disappeared. I have heard rumors about his death over the past two years, and I asked the British authorities to investigate his disappearance. They seem to be not interested. When EPPF chairman Meazaw Getu was asked about him earlier this year, he said that they sent him to Ukraine. Now Fekade confirmed to us what really happened to him.
Rest in Peace, Yosef.