BY GETACHEW MINAS
The advent of conflicts in Ethiopia has brought its economy to the brink of collapse, creating humanitarian casualties and concerns. Immediately after losing its power, the TPLF junta has been conducting conflicts in different parts of the country. In these conflicts and civil strife there occurred violence and incessant mass murders. The mass killings included burning of dead bodies, slaughtering of pregnant women and bayonetting of fetuses in the womb. Buried bodies which had lied down in peace were taken out for further burning of their remains. There was no respect for the dead whatever they did while alive. The cruelty worsens when it applies to former party members, who have resigned from it and formed their own political parties.
Violent conflicts are spreading in the northern part of the country under the auspices of the junta. Other insurgencies which had been inspired and financed by the junta in other parts of the country have now united against it. The reason for such reversal of political association with the junta is the sudden discovery of its ill-designed mission for the dismemberment of Ethiopia. This mission is given a blessing and uninterrupted spiritual and material support by the Western powers. These powers have always been uncomfortable with the independence of Ethiopia that has lasted for three thousand years. They fear that other African countries would follow suit in search of true and practical independence that makes exploitation of the continent the task of Tantalus. This affects the quality of Western life that enjoys cheap inputs and raw materials from the African continent.
The social discomfort in Ethiopia is often hinged on several factors that are incubated by the junta. These include poverty, human rights violations, bad governance and corruption, ethnic marginalization and small arms proliferation. Regarding poverty, the Ethiopian people are condemned by the junta to abject paucity of basic necessities, including shelter, clothing, food, health and educational facilities. This is particularly true in the Amhara and Tigray regions as junta wanted to keep the people there in poverty to prevent the sprouting, emergence and growth of opposition. Poverty is a weapon that keeps any resistance at bay by weakening hostility, confrontation and resentment. The junta believes that weakening the people through hunger helps its ruling autocrats to reign in peace indefinitely. This is because the junta trusts the aliens that keep it in power than the people it subdued with force.
Many social groups including religious leaders, elderly community leaders and women groups have been making efforts to bring conflicts to an end. But, the efforts of these groups have been frustrated by the junta. Thus, conflicts continued to persist and their resolution is often protracted by the armed group. The junta has been armed with all kinds of modern weaponries, armaments, artilleries, including tanks, anti-aircraft and long-range missiles. It fired all of these weapons at mid-night on the Ethiopian soldiers that had been placed there for two decades, defending the people from all kinds of terrorists. Hundreds of soldiers who had been married with the Tigray women were massacred. Those soldiers who saved their lives hidden in caves and mounds crossed into the neighboring country of Eritrea for safety. The Ethiopian government had been forced to react to this atrocity in defense of the people. Later on, the TPLF was crushed after losing its fight. Its creators are now in jail.
The Western godfathers of the junta have been disappointed by the defeat of the armed gang. The people of Tigray have expressed their happiness on the defeat of the junta and exposed its leaders, who have been hiding underground. Those who are not captured are now roaming around in the rural areas, threatening farmers and people in other trades to surrender their children to the armed gangs. Ethiopians are fully supporting their elected government in its effort to create peace in the country. As a sign of good governance, it has brought all those captured leaders of the junta to civil courts to defend themselves. They are provided with all emoluments and benefits that accrue to prisoners. They are provided with legal advisors that defend them in courts.
The poor understanding of Western powers of the fundamental causes of violent conflicts and civil strife in Ethiopia would likely delay the reign of peace in the country. It is true that the civil disorder is the creation of the junta under the auspices of the West. This is only a cover for the global powers to intervene in Ethiopia just to prevent the country from having friendly relations with Russia and China. These countries have been sincere friends of Ethiopia in time of crises. The Russians had provided all kinds of modern weaponries to the Military Government of Ethiopia when the country had been invaded by its enemies on all fronts. The Chinese have also been providing visible investments that created jobs for the people. It is undeniable that the West has been providing assistance to the country whenever it faced economic crises. As a peace loving country, Ethiopia greatly appreciates the support given by the super powers on friendly terms. But, it does not tolerate interference in its internal affairs.
Ethiopians have continued to experience the brunt of violent, but localized disturbances caused by armed gangs. These gangs have no objectives, but exploitation of the people by means of force, as they did in the past three decades while they had been dictating the political, economic and social conditions in Ethiopia. The common people had suffered from starvation, lack of peace and armed incursions perpetrated by the then ruling dictators and autocrats. These totalitarians had also appointed their surrogates and proxies as regional tyrants and despots that had persecuted the local people, who had not committed any offenses against the state. These people, particularly the urban ones, had always accepted the powers to be as they had been weakened by means of local authorities whose mission was only spreading the reign of terror.
The local conflicts within Ethiopia are welcome by the Sudan and Egypt who have grudges on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) that would help Ethiopians beat their tragic poverty in the land of plenty. As a strategic ally that gives leadership to the Arabs, Egypt is fully supported by the West in disrupting the noble objective of GERD thereby keeping the Ethiopians in abject poverty once again. This is consistent with the Western policy on Africa which is “Keeping Sub-Saharan Africa Poor,” as it is a source of unprocessed natural resources for the prosperity of the advanced countries. As a raw material supplier, it will not be allowed to develop. It must be impoverished. This strategy is absolutely vital for the prosperity of the West. All global institutions are created with the objective of keeping SSA, including Ethiopia, impoverished so that the West could exploit the resources of these countries.
Conflicts are a means of keeping Africans poorer. They are not allowed to sell their raw materials at a sellers’ market charging prices they deserve. Instead, they are forced to sell the produces in the buyers’ market, where the consumers decide the prices they pay for raw materials. On both ends the Africans are losers. They are subjected to “neo-colonialism” in which they remain poor by supplying their resources to the West. Therefore, any effort to escape from poverty is punishable by the so-called market. The capitalist economic law of “supply and demand” is openly abrogated by the buyers of the raw materials of SSA. Any effort to escape from these horrendous actors is punishable by suspension of foreign assistance. This assistance is only phony as it is designed to cudgel the poor for refusing to accept partial economic pittance or trifle. In the process, the West configures conflicts that bring social unrest in Ethiopia that prevent prosperity among parties to the conflict and the people in general.
Ethiopia had been a target of colonialists and neo-colonialists for disfiguring its centuries old independence. During the 19th century, the colonial powers could not subdue it in several of their wars and battles. They had recruited domestic appendages and bandas or local recruits to execute the objectives of fascism. They have tried to exploit the Somali irredentism to dismantle Ethiopia, which survived it with the assistance of the USSR, Cuban and Yemeni soldiers fighting side by side with Ethiopian soldiers at the battle fronts. These three countries stood on the side of truth, reality and veracity, unlike the then US administration of Mr. Carter, who totally rejected the call of Ethiopia for help. Ethiopians have not been surprised with that, but continued to remind both friends and foes to refer to their history of nation building that would definitely guide to peace and security anywhere on the globe, including Afghanistan.
The security environment of SSA, including Ethiopia, has often been viewed by the West as one that continues to be precarious and unstable. The West found a fertile ground for multiplying conflicts, including border conflicts between Ethiopia and Sudan. The latter one is encouraged to occupy Ethiopian territory without any fear of immediate repercussions, as the latter is engaged in internal conflicts backed by Egypt and the Western powers. These powers have no interest except watching the involvement of Russia and China in support of Ethiopia. Whatever the case, the interest of the West is to sell and test weapons of mass destruction in countries engaged in conflicts. The arms industry experiments the latest weapons in those countries engulfed with conflicts. Finally, the US leaves the country after huge damages due to testing of its latest weapons.
Conflicts that have plagued SSA are violent, involving weapons of mass destruction. For decades, countries of SSA have been crippled by conflicts and civil strife in which violence and incessant killings are prevalent. Recent insurgencies in the SSA countries send alarming signals of internal and regional violent conflicts. Low intensity conflicts surge within stable regions of Ethiopia. These conflicts have resulted in the destruction of lives and property, the internal displacement of people, refugee crisis, poverty and disease, the proliferation of small arms and light weapons, human and drug trafficking, illegal exploitation of natural resources and banditry. Illegal trafficking of workers and drugs has been observed along the Ethiopian borders. All these events are supported by the West as destabilizing factors that send the country into permanent destitution.
For the West, Ethiopia should be a land of conflict instead of prosperity. Ending any conflict is tantamount to erasing the mighty power of the West in the continent of Africa. Ethiopia, as a paragon of African freedom shall not be tolerated by these powers. It should be destabilizes using “ethnic, religious, gender and other vulnerabilities,” as prophesied by Henry Kissinger, the guru of US foreign policy. As an immigrant to the US he had to contribute such a divine element of foreign policy. As an immigrant he needed to give an intellectual gift to the ruling power to establish himself in the USA comfortably. He is now overcome by age that impeded him from contributing to US intrigues that would dismember Ethiopia. The current US administration is also filled with people who refuse to learn the true history of the country except the fairytales provided by lobbyists that are imbibing the lobby fund provided by the TPLF functionaries.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD AUGUST 25/ 2021
