BY SOLOMON WASSIHUN
Dead as a dodo, TPLF has gone forever. That is the hard fact. Its presence now is almost confined to the virtual world [social media], after being decimated from the real one. Or, it is now in its zombie version, shall we say.
But for those dreamers who did not yet wake up to this truth, having been hypnotized by the continued toxic propaganda in the fake news media, TPLF’s resurrection is not yet a lost cause. It does appear these die-hards stop their dreams only when pigs fly.
TPLF could never have any significance in the real world any longer. It is now almost relegated to the dark past. Apart from historians, the dramatic rise and tragic fall of TLF could be of interest only to the professionals of the fantasy world: Novelists and playwrights. Treachery, and conspiracy being the defining elements of its identity, TPLF story would certainly be an ideal material for bestsellers and blockbusters.
Let us tell it like it is. TPLF leaders have always been masters of deception, and with high acumen in strategizing ruthless clandestine operations aimed at securing their selfish economical interests and above all maintaining their vice-like grip on power. They have no qualms about being a cause for the loss of so many lives and destruction of property, if they see it necessary to achieve their selfish interests.
TPLF’s leaders’ incredibly ruthless approaches in tackling differences run contrary to the democratic ideals they advocate about. TPLF veteran leaders who abandoned the organization have exposed the party leaders’ despotic nature that does not spare even their own comrades.
Numerous top TPLF commanders that won huge respect and popularity among the rank and file have been killed in meticulously choreographed assassination plots -their crime being raising questions on the racist and divisive dogma of the party, and forwarding alternative ideas of reform. The death of those commanders and political leaders was officially explained as an accident that was a well-planned assassination master-minded by the TPLF leaders.
Having killed their own comrades in cold blood, they would join the friend and family of the dead to mourn the tragic death, order big funeral processions, write a passionate obituary and build a huge monument in commemoration of the deceased. They would even name an institution after their comrades they themselves killed.
During the tragic Ethiopian famine of the 80s, when TPLF was still in the bush controlling a few portions of the outback of Tigray, its leaders had redirected the food aid they received from overseas donors to the Sudanese market, while thousands of Tigray people who were the intended beneficiaries of the food-aid, had died of famine. This is a well-documented truth by independent investigative reports including that of BBC.
“The BBC is standing by a report that 95% of the $100M aid raised to fight famine in northern Ethiopia in 1985 was diverted by rebels and spent on weapons, despite denials by Bob Geldof and leading charities.” Wrote a British newspaper, The Guardian in 2010
TPLF has proven itself a merchant of death swapping the lives of its people with the food aid dollar. The party used the big dirty money it made from selling the food supplies to procure arms and to reinforce its political structure, to cover overseas travel costs of its leaders, as well as to bribe corrupted foreign aid-workers and journalists.
TPLF leaders have masterminded a perfect storm for massacres of thousands of civilians on various occasions, just to discredit their adversary and to make short-term political gains .this reflects their adherence to the machiavellian concept of political opportunism.
The hawuzen massacre that happened back in the days of the Derg era is one of such incidents. Several ex-TPLF leaders have exposed the cold-blooded plot in which the TPLF deliberately leaked erroneous intelligence information that led the Derg officials to order airstrikes on civilians gathered at a local open market in Hawuzen, thinking they were targeting a gathering of TPLF fighters.
Thus, TPLF leaders staged the massacre of their own people in Hawuzen and videotaped the event after the airstrike, which they later showed to the world crying foul against the Derg and shedding crocodile tears.
At the cost of over 2500 innocent lives perished by the bombing, TPLF scored a huge political gain against the Derg. TPLF cadres themselves have described the outcome of the Hawuzen massacre as follows: “the Hawzen massacre of 1988 under the ill-fated command of The Derg was the last straw. It provided the TPLF carte blanche to draw masses of Tigrayans to their side in a matter of months or weeks which they found it difficult to achieve for over 13 years.”
32 years after the Hawuzen Massacre, TPLF has continued to use the massacre as a tool and a means of creating opportunities for pushing its political agenda. When they realized the war they triggered last November is a complete fiasco, and when their misinformation campaign proves to be going nowhere, they turned to the tactic they knew and perfected so well- Massacre!
They conducted the Mai Kadra massacre killing over 600 civilians, and unashamedly accused Ethiopian and Eritrean forces as responsible for the atrocity. Like the Roman Pilate, the TPLF leaders has washed their hands of the Mai kadra massacre. TPLF cliques both at home and abroad still blindly argue on their media that the Mai kadra massacre is a crime committed on Tigrayans and TPLF has nothing to do with it.
Nevertheless, Unlike the Hawzen period, the Mai kadra massacre did not bring the result they expected. The international community did not buy their cooked-up story, in which the killer is acting like the victim and the mourner as well. Fortunately, the international human rights group, Amnesty international itself has unearthed piles of evidence indicating TPLF’s role as a mastermind in the Mai kadra massacre.
“Amnesty International has spoken to witnesses who said forces loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) were responsible for the mass killings, apparently after they suffered defeat from the federal ENDF forces. Three people told Amnesty International that survivors of the massacre told them that they were attacked by members of Tigray Special Police Force and other TPLF members.” Says an Amnesty report released last November.
The TPLF’s double acts of crime and crying for the victim is the party’s intrinsic characteristic which it consistently exhibited from its cradle up to its grave. Even after its demise, TPLF sympathizers are carrying on with this “kill and mourn” strategy by sabotaging the government’s multi-sectoral efforts to bring Tigray to normalcy.
The TPLF cliques ambush and loot vehicles transporting humanitarian supplies to the Tigray people and even in some cases they have killed the drivers of the vehicles. Then they go to Facebook and declare to the world the Tigray people are dying of hunger.
Likewise, they open fire on civilian commuters killing several students, and then they post a picture of the deceased accusing the federal forces of killing civilians. They deliberately destroy power lines rendering the whole Tigray towns lifeless, disabling public utilities, while TPLF cliques cry to the world saying the federal government is deliberately causing the suffering of Tigray people by denying access to basic services.
An official with the current interim administration of Tigray has recently confirmed the TPLF has a hand in the looting, killing, and rape crimes committed in the region. “TPLF has distributed arms to jobless youth, let thousands convicted criminals loose, and it also evicted over 10 thousand Eritrean refugees out of their camps.
All these contribute to the lawlessness we saw recently. But in the media, the TPLF cronies are rubbing salt in the peoples’ wound, telling them ‘you are being looted, raped’ .to incite the Tigray people to insurrection/war .”.
The TPLF remnants have continued to kill innocent civilians, and are running around like ahead less chicken crying in the media, with the desperate hope of returning their dead party to life, which happens only when pigs fly. The international community should be aware of the misinformation, the deception, and the crocodile tears of TPLF sympathizers as well as the international media and agencies whose presumed integrity and impartiality have already been compromised by TPLF cronies.
The Ethiopian Herald March 7/2021
