March 02, 2016,
By Duach Ruot Mach,

We the Nuer community of Ethiopia in Diasporas unequivocally condemned the horrific murderof Gambella Deputy Ministry of road and transportation, Ato Gatdet Gony. It is unimaginable to see that the two largest ethnic groups in the region should go on a killing rampage and take as many lives as they could get from each other’s side.

The killing of Gatdet along with other killings carried out throughout the region during the last quarter of January was the darkest period Gambella had ever seen. It was unjustifiable under any circumstances and reprehensible for brothers to turn hostile to each other. Without Nuer or Anyuak in the region, Gambella will never be Gambella adored so much by its people and the rest of Ethiopia.

We believe we are inseparable to one another and our mutual coexistent will help develop our region well pass what we see in the rest of Ethiopian regions.
However, we fooled ourselves acting with the 12th c European ego when their nations turned to each other and mercilessly killed anyone that comes each other’s way. That is exactly what we saw in Gambella.
Eventhough the onset of that was a result of what happened in Itang Kebeles, still it was not reasonable under any circumstances to end Gatdet’s life nor the lives of inmates in Gambella and Abobo prisons all of whom were serving their sentences.

We hope that the criminals who took Gatdet’s life be found and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the rules of law. We also hope that the criminals who ended the lives of inmate all of whom were serving their sentences be brought to justice as well. Failing to do so will guarantee the inability to secure a full security in the region because criminals will be well aware that they could cause such agony and still walk free.
We believe not all Anyuak represent the view of those who murdered Gatdet. The same is also true for Nuer who ended lives of inmates in Gambella Prison for matters that got nothing to do with them. The majority of Gambellians from both Nuer and Anyuak are not represented by the view of these crimals who are trying to turn our region into anarchy.

In otherwords, those murdered the innocent young man, Ato Gatdet, do not represent us in Ethiopia and Gambella in particular in anyway. It is therefore our wish as people of Gambella to distant ourselves from these criminals whether Nuer or Anyuak and not to be found or carry guilt by association.

As such we must ensure that those who committed awful acts must be brought to justice so that crimes like what had occurred in Gambella are not repeated. We the people of Gambella had been known to present our political issue through violence. Some of these examples were the killing of High Profile people like Ato Agwua Alemu, former former president of Gambella, the Police Commissioner who was from Anyuak ethnic group and now with the killing of Ato Gatdet Gony.

We just want the terrorism, destruction and incitement we have seen over last past few weeks against Nuer and Anyuak just to be the last our people would ever experience. We do not want and wish any of our future generations to go through that again.
For that to be effective, we are strongly appeal to the Federal Government of Ethiopia to hunt any criminals from their hideouts. Not only those who have killed Gatdet but also those who have killed members of the special force in Jor as well as those who killed refugees in Fugnido.

There is no good or bad killings. So even terrorist who killed people in Gambella as well as those who killed inmates needs to be apprehended otherwise the status of our police force and government will be nothing when you get victims doing vengeances in a tit for tat mode.
That is barbaric and does not represent our true image as people of Gambella. We knew there are many good Nuer and good Anyuak who die unfairly. So getting silence and not doing anything to bring to justice those who killed them would encourage more evils in our region allow the triumph of evil simply because we choose to do nothing. Then the result of our region would not be anything pleasant at all but a ghost region like parts of Afghanistan or South Sudan which we do not want Ethiopia to taste.

That is why we write this condemnation message to the Federal Government as these killings we saw in our region could not be tolerated since the victims had no fault of their own but purely ethnic hatred.
I have no words to express the horror and sadness I feel about this crime. Late Ato Gatdet Gony was so full of life in me.

I will never forget his talent. I hope that the bloody murdered is being ultimately addressed and those who responsible to his murderers are all brought to justice.

Cordially,
Duach R. Mach
St. Cloud MN U.S.
He can be reach at drmach31@yahoo.com or on Facebook@ drmach31@yahoo.com