We are the school children of Ayder burned dead by Shaibia’s cluster
bombs. We were too young, sigenat, to die a horrible death, and we
certainly did not deserve to die. But what could we have done? Those
who could have saved our lives abandoned us! A quarter of a century of
a bitter struggle to bring about peace and security failed us! We were
betrayed!

What even hurts more is that our lives could have been saved. Months
before we were incinerated, our leaders were told of our imminent
demise. The Politburo of TPLF, which consisted of Meles Zenawi, Tewolde,
Alemseged G.Amilak, Abay Tsehaye, Siye Abraha, Gebru Aserat, Sibihat
Nega, Seyoum Mesfin and Awalom Woldu) raised the issue and listened to
intelligence reports. But Meles, instead of heeding to the wisdom of his
colleagues, went into a frenzy and gave all the pretensions claiming the
report to be a complete lie and that his colleagues were crazy to think
Shabia would invade Ethiopia. Sibhat Nega and Seyoum Mesfin supported
him. The others (particularly Gebru and Siye) tried very hard to
persuade him to see the horror that awaited us. But in the vote tally
which followed, Meles prevailed 5 to 4 and hence our sentence to death!

The issue of an imminent Shaibia attack was once more raised at the TPLF
Congress, which was held a few months before the invasion. In that
meeting, people who lived in the border area told the Congress loudly
and clearly that Shaibia was about to invade and kill our people.
Various people gave evidences of torture in the border areas, military
exercise and many more. But Meles said the evidence presented was a pure
fabrication, and dismissed it as " ye Mesheta bet werae!" The Politburo
members, because they have been defeated in their closed-door meeting,
were gagged from speaking and making authoritative evidence during the
Congress. And the issue of an invasion was tabled under.

As you can see, Meles, Sibhat and Seyoum had two chances to spare our
lives. But they failed us; they trusted Shaibia rather than their
colleagues in the Politburea! And Ethiopia and the unfortunate sons and
daughters of Ethiopia ended up paying the ultimate price for their utter
neglect!

Three months later as you all know Eritrea invaded Ethiopia and killed
us dead! But what did Meles do? He told us that he was shocked by the
unexpected crime! He displayed a sense of a total surprise! And swore
and lied to the people of Ethiopia and made all those angry faces. He
made a very good theatre!

Few days after the invasion, the Politburo members who had warned him of
the imminent invasion before were furious and went to confront him. He
shocked them by saying he even had military pact with Eritrea! They
asked him who approved it since neither the EPRDF, TPLF, and definitely
not the government of Ethiopia and the parliament, which decides on such
matters of grave national issue was involved. He simply told them point
blank that "well we had one" admitting that he on his own had signed a
military pact with Eritrea! The Politburo members were furious and told
him to severe it immediately and take the issue of invasion to the
parliament. He resisted and said it should be handled only by the Prime
Minster's office. They out numbered him in vote and sent the issue to
parliament, which declared that Eritrea's invasion is war of
aggression! Clearly, if it were up to Meles Zenawi, Shaibia not only
would have gone free after extinguishing our lives but also would have
been occupying our land and terrorizing our people to this day!

But what is denying us rest in our graves is that the very people who
sentenced us to death, Meles Zenawi and Sibhat Nega, are now working
very hard to bring back our killers! Fellow Ethiopians, please speak
for us! Fight on our behalf! Do not let us die in vain! Never allow
Shaibia in our soil, and never allow Meles Zenawi and Sibhat Nega have
another chance to have our children killed again! Let us be the last
ones to have been the victims of Meles, Zenawi, Sibhat Nega and their
companion in madness Isayas Afeworki!

Sincerely,

Victims of the Ayder Massacre