BY GIRMACHEW GASHAW
Today’s Guest Mohammed Hassan (Prof.) has served Ethiopian as a diplomat in the 1990’s. He was born in Addis Ababa to a family of Somali origin. “People may be confused when I say: I am of Somali origin.” He speaks several languages. The Somalis are the third biggest nationality in Ethiopia and the second biggest region of Ethiopia itself.
Back in the 1970s, he was also a member of the student movement. In 1976, he left Ethiopia for Somalia and later went to Lebanon. He was supposed to serve American and London University. Due to the instability in Lebanon, he left for Cairo and studied there and he is now living in Belgium for the last 41 years. He was also a member of the Labor Party of Belgium. He is an activist, historian, and teacher. He is a father of four and a grandfather. The Ethiopian herald presents the interview he had with Breakthrough News recently. Excerpts;
How do you explain the situation in the East Africa region in general and Ethiopia in particular? What is the reason behind the instability of the region?
East Africa now is somehow a difficult place to live. It is not because of the contradiction of the people but the major problem is the intervention of external forces in the region. They have been creating a lot of chaos, misery, suffering and so on. These had brought havoc on the total population of the horn of Africa.
TPLF is a virus that is worse than corona in the horn of Africa. It is the agent supported by external forces, getting its oxygen and pampered by American and western imperialists. It was beaten by a popular revolt and finally went to the region and its fighting capacity is reduced and it should be resolved soon. The people of Tigray are our brothers and sisters. I hope the people will come up with another party and build a new Africa working together shoulder to shoulder.
The horn is a very rich region that has never had a chance in the past and the external forces always tried to divide and rule and create chaos everywhere; as they created in Lebanon. Their tactic is weakening our body by dividing us as tall with the short, the red hair with the dark hair. They invent division and pose imperialism as a tool for domination. We have to mobilize our population, upgrade the consciousness of the people avoiding antagonism between the Ethiopian people and we are starting a new chapter in the region in Ethiopia, I hope it will be successful. I will see that soon.
As a diplomat working for the Ethiopian federal government in the ’90s in Washington and Brussels, etc, can you tell us your perspective on who exactly is TPLF? What is their agenda? How they were able to maintain power in Ethiopia as a minority group for so long before being crushed out of power?
Ethiopia is a multinational country but the previous regime of the Emperor had denied the multi-nationality of the country and the nationality issues gradually developed particularly in the student movement of 1974.
Public inquiries on issues of women, democracy, Eritrean independence and so on combined came and finally became a tsunami for the feudal system and it has overthrown by 1974. However, at that moment, there was no organized political party to lead these popular feelings and the only organisation was– the army. So the army took power and it had realized certain things for example land to the farmers but the Eritrean issue and the nations and nationality inquiries were not resolved even though the military regime had created an institute called Nationality Institute and it had made a lot of studies on the matter. Nevertheless, it refused to address the issue of nationalities. As a result, an ethno-nationalist movement developed and one of them was the TPLF.
TPLF was created from the student movement and its members gathered together and supported the Eritrean liberation as they were very near and started the armed struggle by 1974. In the preceding year, TPLF came with the Tigrayans manifesto. It said; “We Tigrayan people cannot live with the Amhara’s.” Their conclusion is to create a republic of Tigray and be independent of Ethiopia. Finally, the struggle became stronger and stronger especially on the Eritrean side and the military regime was highly defeated there. With the support of other parties, TPLF managed to overthrow the military regime, captured Addis Ababa and then took measures to adapt the political line [to its interest]. At that time they were joined by other political parties. They knew each other and prepared a charter and gradually established a new constitution and everybody was satisfied to build a new Ethiopia.
Nevertheless, the TPLF did not want that. Due to its military strength, it hijacked the transitional government, eliminated other forces and organized its constitution, conducted elections and led the country based on the divide-and-rule principle. It also dominated the state structure, the economy and everything. When I saw this, they were going in the trend with a minority rule in a country where the biggest nationalities exist, I considered that they made suicide and gambled with the power they gained by the struggle of Tigrayan people. I believed that this terrorist group does not represent the Tigrayan people.
After conducting a fake election by 1993/94, the party engaged itself in war with Eritrea due to their narrow thinking. Its major understanding of politics is to be dependent on the support of external forces. They took oxygen from external forces and served them as an agent and destabilized the region automatically.
I joined the regime. I believed that we are going to build a new horn of Africa even though Somalia does not exist at that moment. My vision was to give a chance to Somali political parties to negotiate among themselves, decide on their fate and bring them together, pacify the region and work on a new economic linkage among the different people in the region. This is my vision, the vision of Eritreans and other people marginalized during the time.
So, TPLF comes as cancer to itself and a party doesn’t represent properly the people of Tigray. It grabbed the power, eliminating the others one by one and reached the level of attacking Eritreans in war. Whom did this satisfy? Only the external forces who had a design for this region throughout the last 60 years.
TPLF’s purpose of survival is to support and to be an agent of external forces. At this time, all Ethiopians have rejected it and overthrown them and the region is in trouble because of this situation. I think their masters are trying to revive them and give them oxygen while they are already in a coma.
Can you talk a little bit about the TPLF’s economic development? That is something that I heard from some people who did not criticize? They have leftist economic development which is good for Ethiopia. What is your assessment of the TPLF’s economic development policy? Was it socialist at all in its orientation?
TPLF is a parasite organization. It is an agent of external forces. What TPLF did was that Ethiopia is an agricultural country supposed to be self-sufficient in agriculture. Ethiopia is the only country within the African continent; whose 60 per cent budgetary support is from the United States and the European Union. It is an addiction like a junky that is always addicted to external aid and so on. Ethiopia never stood on her foot on the ground during the Time of TPLF. The debt level of the country has reached almost 50 billion USD and the country has to pay some 2 billion USD annually only as an interest.
The conviction of the Ethiopian people if you see as far as water, electricity, health and so on is the worst in the African continent even lower than broken Somalia.
TPLF is a party that had read a false report written by its masters but the reality in Ethiopia and the life of the people remained unchanged. TPLF has stolen about 40 billion dollars from the Ethiopian people. They built more than 400 buildings in the capital. Now no one appeared as owner of the houses with a certificate.
TPLF is the agent of Asia and the west. Journalists reported that the country scored double-digit economic development which is far from the truth. TPLF left the country in a very miserable situation. Some 70 per cent of the young population has no possibility of getting a job. With a population of 110 million people, Ethiopians are living below the poverty line. To revive the economic condition, first of all, peace must prevail and we must have a regional concept and the antagonism must be eliminated. There is no water in Mekelle town. The terrorist TPLF did not provide any facility for the Tigray people.
On the contrary, how do you see Abiy Ahmed’s economic policy? What differentiates his economic policy from that of TPLF?
Abiy Ahmed came to power due to the mismanagement of TPLF and popular revolt. There were no other forces that come and administer the country. The popular revolt had paralyzed the TPLF and Abiy came to power. He has no organization and he brought one idea—that is a very blanket idea to work with everybody in the region.
And he doesn’t have an antagonistic idea and the regions/ states can work together. That by itself is a step forward which means the region becomes peaceful, then the economic situation will gradually improve, and by working together we can develop the region. He went to Somalia, Eritrea and signed an agreement on the economy, security and so on. This frightens the imperialist forces. They do not want this kind of understanding to happen. They do not care about the majority of the people who are living under the poverty line.
I want to ask you about how you see the situation in Ethiopia. What is the ending here? Is a political solution for the conflict in Tigray not possible?
A political solution with the TPLF is not possible. It is a terrorist organization. It has to be crashed. The people of Tigray, are Ethiopians and they have all the rights. They can join us and can celebrate with us with 100 per cent right. This agent of external forces did not represent the Tigray people and they did not do anything for the people of Tigray. When they had stolen 40 billion dollars, they kept it outside and did not distribute it among the Tigray people. They do not care about Tigray, TPLF is Tigrigna speaker’s falange. They do not represent the people as a whole.
On-time that came up solely and crushed them and we will support the people of Tigray and we want peace and a new start in the horn of Africa. What they do is that they create antagonism and hate to remain for a very long time. The external forces can use contradictions poking their finger in our affairs. I believe that everything has a limit. TPLF has no mass basis; it recruits children, women and elderly people and forces them to fight for its survival. But now I think they have run out of their oxygen.
They are encircled and they will be crushed. I am in a position that the government should not be negotiated. Negotiation is to save the criminals and that is why the American people are coming to the region time and again. You could see their pattern of coming to the region. The moment TPLF is weakened they are the first to fly to the region and they try to pressure Abiy Ahmed and ’you have to negotiate’ and so on. But, they will not succeed.
I think, in war, atrocities are going to happen. Of course, TPLF has committed many atrocities, what do you make of all these reports on the other side? Do you think that the government has overstated or the government has committed genocide? Do you see any actual evidence of that particular accusation?
First of all, genocide is first committed by the TPLF. It has been committing a massive level of genocide for the last 27 years. Nobody talked about what TPLF did in the Somali region except very few NGOs or humanitarian organizations or individuals. Even, the USA never spoke about that because we were not considered as rightful people at that moment.
What they want is our resources but not us. And TPLF as their agent. They sent them to Somalia and killed 60,000 Somalis. The Somali people resisted the way undefeated. They never mentioned that. The killing of other parts of Ethiopia, USA never mentions that.
The gutter at New York times as they are the champions of human rights? We know their propaganda system. He beat me, ran away, cried and ran quickly and accused me. This is the Revo-mentality of the US media. They discredited our people. If an American journal wrote this, I will invite you to my region and you will talk about the women who are 20, 30 and 50 years old who have been raped.
They will laugh. They are selective; I do not want the Tigray people to be raped. I also have a family of women. This is not our culture. It should not be done. But it is exaggerated. This is a technique they play in order not to paint TPLF as a victim. When they want to paint you as an enemy they demonize you and so on. We have to be aware of the technique of their media. We have to discharge our responsibilities. How the western media lies. This is the truth that I believe in.
Thank you very much!
Thank you
The Ethiopian Herald August 28/2021
