During the five years of resistance, when I was between 4 and 6 years old, I wandered in the jungles of Merhabete and its surroundings with my father Dejazmach Abebe Shenk’ut’ and my mother W/o Lak’ech Mekit. I had unforgettable experiences of the time, four episodes that always glitter in my mind. The experiences were so horrid that the scar they left on me did not cure over the years. 
 
One relates to the fact that my father Dejazmach Abebe Shenk’ut’ was wounded more than six times while he was fighting sometimes in collaboration with his brothers Dejazmach Teshome, Lij Haile, Lij Yinesu and Lij T’ilahun, and sometimes on his own. The worst one was the day he was shot by an enemy machinegun around his thighs and his arm pit. He bled so profusely that no one believed he would survive it. This piece of information had reached the enemy camp and, convinced that it was the right moment to apprehend Lij Abebe, the enemy intensified its pursuit. 
 
Lij Abebe had to move from one locality to another, on horseback and on a traditional stretcher, supported by his wife on one side and his soldiers on the other. While trying hard to hide and recover, he once rested at the Jema River side in a field of wild banana trees under a huge oak tree. The enemy troops started shooting at the vanguard group and were fast approaching. There was commotion as they quickly removed the tents and crossed the Jema River to occupy a strategic corner and mount a defense. In the commotion, I had been forgotten. When they were aware that I was missing (MIA), T’egaw Ayele, one of the foot soldiers of Lij Abebe turned to look back in the direction of the place they had just evacuated. He saw a woman kneeling down on all fours over me, thus covering me with the intention of giving me away later on to the enemy. He quickly came to us with his gun on his shoulder, kicked the woman with his foot away from me, grabbed me with his right hand and ran into the Jema River. We had dived a couple of times when a grenade thrown by the enemy exploded very close to us. Fortunately, nothing happened to us and we safely joined our troop. Our troup managed to reorganize a defense and set the enemy troops back. We understood later on why that woman was hiding me under her; she had been hired to hijack me and keep me with her until the enemy troops reached to hand me over to the enemy. The calculation was that since Lij Abebe had had serious injuries and was unlikely to engender another child, the prospect of his only son being harmed would oblige him to surrender. They did not know that Lij Abebe would never surrender even if the enemy threatened to kill his son. As for me, the experience remained a nightmare, especially every time I see a big oak tree. 
 
The second experience I had was at a lowland area known as Belbelit during a fierce fighting with the enemy. My father had left me in custody of Ato Addissie, one of his relatives. Ato Addissie was carrying me on his shoulders and moving around when the confrontation got worse. I could hear the bullets whistling by and every time I heard one, I asked him to turn me around. He put me down and tried to help me cope on my own but I clung to his legs and would not let go. As the shots got closer and fiercer, Ato Addissie shook me off his legs and ran for his life, following the other patriots. Shots from both sides turned the place into hell. I ran around not knowing where to hide. I believe the bullets were flying over me, not a single one caught me, though. After a long horrifying moment, I sat under a bush and fell fast asleep. I had not slept for a long time and must have been exhausted. I had no idea how long I slept. When I finally saw light and woke up, the fighting was over and there was not a soul around. I was at the same time shivering with fear and starving. I ran around wildly guided only by my instinct when Providence came to my rescue in the form of a woman. She was carrying a sac full of cereals on one shoulder. She saw me from far away and came to me. She quickly recognized that I was the son of Lij Abebe and understod that I was missing in action. She picked me up, flung me on her other shoulder, took me to her house, fed me and kept me with her for three days. She then identified the village where Lij Abebe was to be found , she took me over and handed me to my parents. I was thrilled. Today, the sight of a bush brings a flash of the terrible fighting and the stampede of people in every direction. 
 
My third childhood experience is not only sad but also funny. During a fierce battle I told someone, I do not remember who, that I wanted to relieve myself. The situation was one where the enemy was getting the upper hand and retreat was in order. There, as a result, was no one in a position to accommodate my request. That was a difficult moment when dear lives had to be saved. I, on the other hand, was extremely pressed and the pressure was getting to my head. I found myself in a situation where I could no longer control the urge to relieve myself. I begged and implored but no one listened to me. Identifying a corner and finding relief was totally out of question. I was left with no choice but to release it all on my frocks – my “teferi suri”, one that was tailored for my small size. I was smeared with my own excrement which soon started trickling down into my feets. I stayed that way all day long and when our army positioned itself in a strategic position and put up a staunch defense thereby checking the advance of the enemy troops, they got me rid of the smeared trousers and cleaned me up. 

National Association Partisans of Italy
Rome
 
Your Excellency Mr. Gianfranco Pagliarulo, President of ANPI
Your Excellency Mr. Fabrizio De Santis, ANPI President of the Province of Rome
 
Ladies and Gentlemen,
 
 
On this historical occasion which demonstrates commitment of the National Association            Partisans of Italy (ANPI), to its objective of continued defense against historical revisionism' I like to recall the 2010 ANPI slogan which reads "I am a member of ANPI because the resistance is not only part of the past but is still present in current times."

On  this  day I like to express in  person  and as  President  of  the  "Ethiopian Patriots Association”, which was established 83 years ago, during ·the fascist occupation for coordinating the armed resistance within Ethiopia with the Government in exile, my rapport in absentia.
 
Ladies and Gentlemen,
 
Italy in its long history had illustrious children who had excelled in arts, science and battles. Italy has also pioneered and lived a glorious tradition of democracy. We are all indebted to Italy for all these and more.
 
Italy and Ethiopia, both members of the League of Nations, went to war in 1935. Ethiopia was the first victim of fascist occupation and the first country to be liberated  from the yoke of fascism. The Ethiopian memories of the 5-year fascist t occupation demonstrate how barbaric and callous fascism was, to the value and tradition of Italy and  the  whole  of  humanity.  The  unleashing  of  chemical  warfare,   on  poorly  armed soldiers and civilians, the massacre or 30,000 Addis Ababa residents in three days, the demolition of the centuries old Debre Libanos Monastery and hundreds of its priests, the numerous photographs sent by the Black Shirt fascist soldiers to their families showing them playing football with severed heads of dead Ethiopian patriots. photographs of brutalizing men, women and children are well documented. Marshall Graziani was the culprit in all these. He is also remembered as the butcher of Libya.
 
A recent document, acquired by the Library of Congress., testifies that Marshall Graziani was the  one  who  oversaw the preparation  of a chemical agent  he  dubbed  as the “special liquid” (different from mustard, chlorine and phosgene gas), in Italian Somaliland, that annihilates combatants civilians and animals engulfing in fire, when it is sprayed from airplanes. He was the first to use it in the Ogaden, then in northern Ethiopia and later civilian communities throughout Ethiopia for terrorizing the population to deter support to the partisan warriors.
 
Marshall Rodolfo Graziani and friends have evaded international justice and those who built a monument for Graziani were acquitted for charges of “Apology for Fascism”. At this juncture, I like to recall what President Roosevelt said when Mussolini  and henchmen had tried to escape justice by resignation during the last year of the war and prior to the Nuremberg Trial.
 
"Mussolini came to the reluctant conclusion that the Jig was up. He could see the shadow of the long arm of justice; but he and his fascist gangs will be· brought to book and punished for their crimes against humanity. No criminal will be allowed to escape by the expedient of resignation . So, our terms to Italy are still the same as our terms to Germany and Japan; unconditional surrender."
 
Suffice it to say the  Ethiopian patriots Association position is still in the same thinking.
 
Ladies and Gentlemen,
 
We proudly remember one of our late association members, Colonel Abdissa Aga, who as partisan was captured in Ethiopia and taken to Italy, broke prison and joined the Italian partisans and fought with them. The depth of relationships between our two organizations is written in blood and sweat.
 
Please allow me to repeat with you, ANPI’s 2010 slogan, “ I am a member of ANPI because the resistance is not only part of the past but still present in current times.”
 
 
Lidj Daniel Jote Mesfin
President of Ethiopian Patriots Association