As an Eritrean you are born into bias. I don't doubt that your parents and grandparents struggled during His Majesty's rule. But, how were their struggles prior to the annexation of Eritrea? (less). How much did they struggle after His Majesty was deposed? (even more). Is your family Muslim, because that alone will increase the bias, and if your family was part of the Eritrean Liberation Front, then the bias goes through the roof.
Haile Selassie was pushed into integrating Eritrea back into Ethiopia, it was not His plan, yet he accepted it as He knew Ethiopians and Eritreans are one. There was a movement within Eritrea, backed by Muslim elites in Khartoum, funding an uprising of Eritreans (primarily Eritrean Muslims) against Ethiopians....it was Eritrean agitators that worked hard to start the war. Haile Selassie had no choice but to respond (that's what leaders do, or else they get walked on); you have to remember blood was shed hard on both sides, and people suffered deeply on both sides.
Haile Selassie was not a soldier on the ground during any atrocities committed in Eritrea during his reign. He was a man fighting to keep His own country unified while surrounded by corruption. You are merely speculating about His involvement in very specific choices made during His brief involvement in a conflict that would rage on for decades. Choices made in the midst of razing a village aren't made by emperors that are busy running countries hundreds of miles away.
Surely the suffering of Eritreans grew tenfold during the Derg regime's handling of the conflict, as did the suffering of Ethiopians.
As for slavery, it absurd to make the accusation that His Majesty Himself had slaves. It was (and is) against Ethiopian Orthodox Christian law to own slaves, period. He did not own slaves, and feel free to waste your time trying to prove otherwise, it's a dead end. What He did do, was inherit a country wherein a slave trade was deeply ingrained. As Ethiopian Christians were not to own slaves, it was an industry heavily controlled by Muslims both African and Arab. Most Ethiopian slaves were exported, and guess what city was home to the largest exportation of Ethiopian slaves....the Eritrean port of Massawa.
Slavery was going strong when His Majesty inherited Ethiopia, to shut it down was not a matter of just signing off on it. It was a slow process that had to be enforced, and it most certainly pissed off a lot of powerful people that He would have to continue to contend with for years to come.
His Majesty started the abolition of slavery the year He was coronated as Emperor, this was a slow process that took great effort to enforce in 1930s Ethiopia; He rewrote Ethiopia's constitution at the time. This effort then came to a grinding halt when the Italians invaded 4 years later. His abolition efforts only resumed when He returned to the country, and regained stability, but was not able to officially abolish it until 1942 when Ethiopia declared independence from the Italians. His Majesty has been very clear about His feelings regarding the equality of mankind, no one will ever convince me that He held different convictions.
As for Mugabe, I don't care for him at all. He harbors Mengistu to this day, the same man that stole Ethiopian leadership and slaughtered countless Ethiopians and Eritreans. As far as I'm concerned that blood is on Mugabe's hands too, as he harbors this criminal knowing full well what he did. And that's without even getting into what Mugabe's done to his own country.
Don't lump my King in with the likes of any other.
And take the time to educate yourself further. Im not excusing atrocities committed against Eritreans, but that cannot be blamed on His Majesty. There are always at least two sides to a story, you cannot blindly accept one without listening to the other.
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