Alleged Persecution

Hawera Star, Volume L, 17 May 1930, Page 11

Alleged Persecution

ALLEGING that he is being persecuted because he twice refused to obey the ordei of Ras Tafari, Prince Regent of Abyssinia, to poison other members of the Royal Family, Dr. Alexandre Garabedian has appealed to the League of Nations for protection. Dr. Garabedian was formerly physician to the Court of Abyssinia. Had he carried out Ras Tafari J s alleged wishes, the last remnants of the Ethopian dynasty, which claims descent from King Solomon, would have been wiped out. , . , Dr. Garabedian, who is an Amenian and a graduate of- the medical department of the University of Lausanne, has accompanied his formal appeal to the League. in support of his claims. The story revealed in these documents is one of the strangest .ever" to come info the, hands of the League. , Y * • After serving on the staff of the Lausanne Hospital and being a medical missionary in the Soviet Armenian Republic of Erivan, Dr. Garabedian was director of the French Hospital at Heracles. In November, 1922, he was called to Abyssinia and became personal physician to Ras Tafari and surgeon at the Menelik Hospital. AH went well until October, 1925, when Di. Garabedian was invited to tea with Ras Tafari, who, says the doctor, made a request that the court physician should poison three members of the Royal Family. Dr. Garabedian explains that poisoning is a common custom in the country, and that is generally regarded as being one of the principa duties of all physicians. The three proposed victims were: — The Empress iZaouditou (now dead), who traced her lineage directly back to King, Solomon. Woisero Sikin, mother-in-law of Prince Ras Tafari, and Lidj Tassou, sister of the legitimate heir to the throne, named in King Menelik’s will as his successor. The heir Avas a cousin of Ras Tafari. At the time of the poison proposal he Avas kept in prison by Ras Tafari. According to Dr. Garabedian, he not only indignantly refused to accede to the request of Ras Tafari, but immediately on his return home Avrote a strong letter of protest. A copy of the letter is included Avith the documents submitted to the League; also a copy of a

Story

Request to Use Poison

similar letter written after the second Royal command to poison Ras f afari s x’elatives. Then followed the steady “courting” of the physician by Ras Tafari, who paid him every courtesy before renewing in 1927 his proposal that his relatives should be poisoned. On this second occasion, the request concerned only the Empress Zaonditou and Woizero Sihin, the Prince’s mother-in-law. The doctor again refused, and sent a second letter of protest. He alleges that he was thereupon subjected to the most bitter persecution, which lasted more than a year before he could leave the country. The persecution included police raids on Dr. Garabedian’s home, his surgery, and his hospital. He was ordered ,to be expelled, _ but before the order was carried out he was exiled in the desert 50.0 miles .from Addis Ababa, the capital.;' Einally.he was. kept in enforced seclusion, when his physical condition during exile became so serious as to threaten his life.

While in hospital Dr. Garabedian was persistently refused permission to leave the country. As an Armenian, without a national government to back him, he had no passport, which was made the pretext for refusing to allow him to leave.

Appeals to the International Red Cross and other bodies secured for him a passport issued by the League under the scheme put forward by Dr. Nansen for all war refugees. Dr. Garab'edian was permitted to go when he had this document, and since August, 1928, has been living at Geneva, and devoting himself to trying to obtain redress through the League of Nations.

Dr. Garabedian, in his appeal to the League, claims the payment of his salary as Court Physician to Ras Tafari, and adequate compensation for the seizure of his home, office, surgery and equipment, library and personal effects. He places his entire claim at a sum equivalent to 359,094 talari (a talari is nominally 2s). The appeal has been submitted by Sir Eric Drummond, Secretary-General of the League, to the members of the Council and to Dr. Nansen, The League’s High Commissioner, who is reresponsible for the interests of Armenians Avho have no other government to which they can appeal.