Asfaw
Damte, author and critic widely known among the literary circles in Addis, has
been implicated in the disappearance in 1984 of renowned journalist and
novelist Ba'alu Girma, a new report sheds light. Authored by Abera Lemma, journalist, poet and
novelist, the report quotes Ba'alu's wife as saying: "Asfaw Damte was the
person who set up an appointment and invited my husband for an outing on the
night of March 2nd, 1984, from which ba'alu was never seen again." The
words of Woizero Almaz Abera, the wife of Ba'alu, are also contained in a
report submitted to a court in Addis about two decades ago. Though 79-year-old Asfaw Damte has made guest
apperances on national radio and TV, he has never been asked nor he talked
about his link to Ba'alu's death. Ba'alu, who was also information minister at
the time, wrote a much-talked-about book, Oromai, the possible cause for
his death during the Mengistu era. Oromai
is a Tigrinya word meaning "it is over, finished", and the book was a
narration of Eritrea's war of secession from Ethiopia, which Ba'alu summed up
as "Oromai" - the inference of which means "Eritrea is a lost
case for Ethiopia." The book, which
was considered by the military junta as a blow to its war efforts to defeat the
northern secessionists, was banned in the country but had for a long time
remained a literary sensation underground. Former military dictator Mengistu Hailemariam
denied any link to the novelist's killing, counter to public belief that no one
would have ordered the murder of the nation's numero uno novelist except
Mengistu. But the first step into the murder begins with Asfaw Damte,
a man who was a close friend of the Ba'alu family and cut off all ties after
Ba'alu was killed nearly 30 years ago in mysterious circumstances. Read Abera's Lemma full article here. Source ( Ethio Media)
Sunday, July 13, 2014
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