If you are one of those human beings concerned about matters of freedom, justice or democratic transition in Ethiopia: Beware, terrorism is lurking around your doors! It would come and turn you into a hobgoblin bent on societal destruction. Do you need advice? Stop thinking, then rest assured you will not be a suspect for terrorism.

No word sounds banal like the term "terrorist” or its noun variation "terrorism”. Terrorism is not an ideology, a conviction or a political program. It signifies sheer belief in brutalizing others; innocent others at that! It never flies for something substantive. That is why seasoned scholars, for instance, avoid hollow terms like "international terrorism” and resort to the reasons that invoke people to resort to such techniques like suicide bombing.

It is not strange to summarily dismiss political opponents in crimes of "treason” and ban them as out front "terrorists.” The Rivonia Trial is remembered for charging almost all senior ANC leaders as "terrorists” set for banishment at the Robben Islands. Margaret Thatcher once dubbed Nelson Mandela a dangerous "terrorist”. Madiba featured as one of America’s terrorists. His name was not scrapped from the terrorist list until very recently. Mimi Hall on USA Today once reported "When ANC members apply for visas to the USA, they are flagged for questioning and need a waiver to be allowed in the country. In 2002, former ANC chairman Tokyo Sexwale was denied a visa. In 2007, Barbara Masekela, South Africa’s ambassador to the United States from 2002 to 2006, was denied a visa to visit her ailing cousin and didn’t get a waiver until after the cousin had died”.

Secretary Rice has to issue waivers for Madiba and his prison compatriots to visit the USA which Congress did not fix. She called the situation very "embarrassing!” Embarassing, it is! But what if you have no feeling, no consciousness, no morality left in you to be embarrassed? We have another round of charges in Ethiopia where opposition party leaders, journalists, and human rights activists are rounded up and thrown to jail for "terrorism”. Even more, the independent journalist Eskinder Nega, Abebe Belew, Abebe Gelaw and Facil Yenealem, Addis Neger journalists, Abiye Teklemariam and Mesfin Negash, who fled the country due to harassment and intimidation by the powers that be were also charged in absentia.

The charges against most of the accused is being a member of either a "legal” ( to mean operating in Ethiopia) or "illegal” ( meaning operating outside the country) opposition, and conspiring to incite terror and violence in the country. Closer home, the charges of Addis Neger journalists and others was airing the views of OLF ONLF and Ginbot 7 sympathizers on the website and hence collaborating in acts of terrorism, both directly and indirectly.

Only 8 of the 24 live in the country and hence are arrested. The remaining 16 were all outside the country. Plain Mathematics has it that the proportion of terrorists outside the country is DOUBLE the number of terrorists in the country! We have to take this data with a caution; the sampling error is not mentioned. Secondly, terrorism "infects” those who are prone to think out loud, write, blog, and debate about Ethiopian politics. This is more so for individuals who do not declare allegiance to any one single party; but could be journalists, students, civil society leaders etc. All of this is euphemism for terrorism. If you are one of those human beings concerned about matters of freedom, justice or democratic transition in Ethiopia: Beware, terrorism is lurking around your doors! It would come and turn you into a hobgoblin bent on societal destruction. Do you need advice? Stop thinking, then rest assured you will not be a suspect for terrorism.

The T word, at least in EPRDF’s parlance, has one other symptom. Any talk or discussion involving Eritrea or Eritreans is anathema. Don’t forget the only terrorist in the Horn of Africa is the Eritrean regime. Those very Eritreans who were given the chance to choose between "slavery” (meaning to live in Ethiopia) and "freedom”(to secede) and hence chosen "freedom”! Those very Eritreans who were once granted to stay or leave (whichever way they like) in post-referendum Ethiopia. Our kinfolk on the other side of the Mereb; the promised land of freedom and self determination; have now become the bastion of terrorism! See, it does not matter how you "think” about Eritrea and Eritreans. It only matters how we think about them. Once they were the land of the brave and the "free”, now they are the land of the "rogue” and the "terrorist”. Love them when we say so, hate them when we say so. Otherwise, you definitely are a terrorist! On a more serious note, this moment offers an opportunity for all those who were frustrated by the endless factionalism and fissure of parties and organizations. One particular challenge was to find an overarching ‘label” to unite them all. We now cry out loud! Long behold, "‘Terrorists’ of Ethiopia unite! You have nothing to lose but your terror!”