The Silence of the Lambs

According to ancient Jewish thought, there is a special part of heaven exclusively reserved to host the pure spirits of infants who have suffered or died in the womb during or soon after birth. This sublime refuge for sinless souls is surely deserved by one very unfortunate 11 year old.
The manner in which a nation treats its children is a true measure of its societal success or failure. The people that protects and nurtures its young is also a country that is reconciled with itself – comfortable in its own skin.
Where is Ethiopia on the barometer of children’s rights and the protections thereof? It seems there exists in the Ethiopia of today a strange phenomena whereby the state is light years ahead of society at large in formulating policies (in this case, the protection of children and women). To complement the government’s world standard policies and laws ensuring the special rights of children and women, is the welcome proliferation of NGO’s such as CLPC and others, exclusively dedicated to the issues of domestic violence, sexual abuse and other forms of attacks on children and women.
The state has formulated and enacted into law the structures that will guide the nation to eliminating all forms of abuse; homegrown NGOs have also taken up this noble cause. We ask then, is the typical Ethiopian family mentally prepared to be defended by these constitutional safeguards and civil society structures? Hardly.
Our children cry silent tears seeking for help to be protected against unspeakable acts that destroy their tender bodies and lay waste their developing minds.
This week brought with it more than the usual fare of business, political and social news developments. The men and women at this publication, as must have been our colleagues at other papers, were stunned with shock by news of an incomprehensible crime perpetrated by a father upon his own daughter since when she was only 2 years old. So heinous is this act of barbarity that many of us were in tears, especially after learning that ‘Dinkenesh’-(not her actual name) is suffering from fistula as a result of the unspeakable abuse.
We went about producing this issue, overwhelmed with shock and repulsed by such father upon daughter savagery. We all felt even in our innocence, a pervasive sense of collective guilt at this societal failure to protect that unfortunate child.
A failure the gravity of which was underscored by a display of sheer incompetence by the Addis Ababa City Police. Apparently, the abusive father was apprehended only after repeated attempts by concerned individuals urging the police to arrest the suspect. In a travesty of justice, the abused child was taxed with handing the arrest warrant to her rapist father.
It was observed that the police are very reluctant to act on leads concerning rape allegations for reasons that up to 60% (unproven) of charges are found to be unjustified after cross-examination. We wonder from what God awful police training manual they have obtained such a conclusion .True there are some claims of rape and abuse that are lodged without factual basis. However, there would be no problem if the police erred on the side of caution and acted on all reports speedily. How long shall the silence of the lambs be allowed to continue?