BY FITSUM GETACHEW
Founders of TPLF or Tigray People Liberation Front say it is a popular party that was founded some fifty or so years ago with the objective of trying to end the oppression of the people of Tigray by the feudal and monarchic system that used to reign in Ethiopia. It was conceived initially with a few university students who brought up their own ideology mainly of socialist origin and seemed at least initially based on acceptable premises. Indeed, Ethiopia was then not at all democratic and despite the fact that it had all the time to bring up its own form of democracy or sound government system it was one of the most politically backwards countries in Africa. And yet paradoxically it had always enjoyed independence from foreign dominion and it had the time to ponder and work on its political system albeit the influence of the monarchical system was a huge obstacle.
The Ethiopian students movement of the sixties is famous for its passion and determination. Countless numbers of students were sacrificed in the fight against the monarchy which rejected outright the demands of the students. So many rallies, strikes and protests were conducted by the students during the nineteen sixties but it was only after thousands have been sacrificed and later on the protests spread to the large masses of the population including the armed forces that finally the monarchy was deposed in 1974. In the meantime, those students who had decided that only armed struggle would bring about change joined the various ethnic based or ideology based groups and one of them was the TPLF.
As those who disagreed on certain ideas and left or were expelled from TPLF have subsequently revealed, TPLF has never been a democratically formed party. The leadership was so rigid that it never allowed any dissent. A few individuals decided for all and whoever was reluctant was either put in custody and punished until they changed their minds and swore fidelity to the leadership or, in the worst cases scenario, they were eliminated. There have been several revelations of people being crushed when they opposed to the party. When TPLF tried to recruit fighters they got into the households of each and every rural village and snatched the youths even without consulting with the parents.
Refusal to give their youth children to the party was not accepted and the consequences were ruthless. Thousands of youths were reported killed if they rejected the calls of the TPLF and those who were organized to oppose them were treated with even more vigour! The history of the development of the TPLF is full of such horrible stories and survivors have told all those tales in their memoirs.
Finally, when TPLF was fortunate enough to see the downfall of the military government it was clear that it had the support and encouragement of some western bodies, mainly the US. The transition from the Derg to the TPLF led government in Addis Ababa was in 1991 reportedly facilitated by the State Department of the US. There was no secret about it. In a way it was considered as a victory against communism and with the disintegration of the USSR and the Soviet system, the West must have thought that it had recorded a huge victory over the communist bloc.
But not everything went the way it was expected because all the promises of a democratic government that was to be contrasted with the military junta did not happen. Soon after a few weeks of honey moon, the true picture of the new EPRDF government came to the fore. Civil liberties were immediately curtailed. No protests were allowed. Freedom of the press was banned, and the new government did not take a lot of time before it showed its ugly image.
Ethiopians may have thought that better days would come but no one has thought that it would be the worst kind of government that could ever be expected. What TPLF tried to immediately apply was divisive political ideas based on ethnic rivalry. They shaped the history of the country fit to their narratives and ideology and in the end to their objectives. They presented themselves as the new ‘liberators’ but what they in fact did was suffocate the aspirations of what it called ‘the peoples’ of the country. The claim that this TPLF government would allow for every ethnic group to organize themselves and challenge the federal government (which they had prepared for this purpose) came to be a complete fabrication. Regions were formed based on linguistic and ethnic identity and a constitution was promulgated to serve this purpose of dividing the nation that had lived in harmony and peace for generations!
Immediately, all opposition political parties and groups that advocated for the unity of the country voiced their protests, but to no avail. The new government had immediately taken every element of power into its hands, in monopoly. All security and armed forces were controlled by their members or sympathizers and there was no chance of challenging the regime. Anyone who dared to oppose openly was taken to detention centers and in fact twenty seven years of oppression was to be put in place. And when all these violations were taking place the government had if not the support of allies at least the abstention from being condemned or called to rectify their policies! The US and other Western countries who indeed had every information about the abuses of human rights, preferred to turn a blind eye to the calls and protests of Ethiopians. Just as what is currently happening!
Finally when there was too much of disparity among the ruling elite and the rest of the population, and there was the mass awakening of the people, also thanks to activists on social media and certain leaders from inside the coalition, the TPLF led government was deposed without a single bullet being shot! This led to something that TPLF never anticipated. When the new prime minister was sworn in their hope and expectation was that he would be a sort of stooge for them and that he would not be outside the control of their party. However, Dr Abiy Ahmed resulted to be a hard nut to crack and he along with his close allies immediately embarked on bold reforms. They embarked upon changes in the entire party structure in a way TPLF never anticipated.
One by one, he adopted several radical changes including most critically in the armed forces, (in which he had worked and knew closely what was going on inside it) in the civil service, and later on in the cabinet as well. He took full control of the government and the national defense forces. He also suggested that the party structure itself be completely changed and when this move was taken the TPLF saw that the danger was imminent. So they retreated to their base and began to plan for how to come back to Addis in a new vest.
In all these moves they must have relied on their old allies and friends and the current situation is in a way a direct result of those alliances. TPLF prepared a plan for war during the past few years and documents now uncovered show that they had decided to wage a full scale war against the federal government.
Now many observers argue that the high level government personalities in US politics who are still strong advocates of the leaders of TPLF have not come out of the blue. They are a result of three decades of close friendship and camaraderie. No one can hide or deny the close friendship between the former US African Affairs Assistant Secretary of State (still currently in a high position in the Biden administration) and the former TPLF boss and Ethiopian premier Meles Zenawi! Other leaders in the Ethiopian establishment had close ties with people of influence in the US corridors of power and even the UN no wonder if today these people are the ones who are trying to save the lives of the renegade TPLF! No wonder that the current US authorities are seen trying to be of help to TPLF so that it remains a relevant influence in Ethiopian politics. But this does not seem to happen because Ethiopian have decided that they can have peace and continue with their prosperity trajectory only if they do away, once and for all, every remnant of TPLF.
There is a clear incompatibility between Ethiopians and TPLF leaders! Their declared objective is to dismantle Ethiopia and possibly erase it from the maps, but this can never happen as long as there is even a single Ethiopian anywhere in the world! The sacrifice has been enormous and the international community does have a full picture of the situation, but their insistence to force or pressurize the Ethiopian government to negotiate with the terrorist TPLF is not sustainable. The issue now is one of ‘to be or not to be’ and sanctions or not, Ethiopians have resolved to go to the full extent of this battle and end up winning! The truth will come out and every propaganda machine will be defeated.
Ethiopians however want to know how long will the US government and others who are now supporting the terrorist TPLF continue to do so even in light of all that has happened during the past ten months or so?! How many innocent Ethiopians must be sacrificed before these forces acknowledge that they are on the wrong side of history? The position of these governments or bodies that are siding with the TPLF becomes even more troubling when they do not refrain from doing that even after knowing that thousands of innocent civilians were massacred in what looked like a genocidal act in all the regions where
these forces got in! If these forces have any scruples at least they would not refrain from condemning these atrocities. It is sad that they consider themselves as ‘human rights advocates’!
Hence, Ethiopians now want to know for how long will these forces continue to lie in support of TPLF, an organisation that has been labeled as ‘terrorist’ by the Ethiopian parliament? For how long will they continue to support a body that has inflicted the worst of sufferings on their five million people when they can live in peace with the rest of the population? Who will come to the rescue of an entire population of a regional state taken hostage by the mere might of its armed people?
Today there are more than a million people displaced from the two regions: Amhara and Afar, (that these forces invaded during the past couple of months). The suffering of these people is immense. They have lost everything they had. Thousands have gone hungry and many more have lost their loved ones!
All these assertions are not inventions that the federal government of Ethiopia brought about but proved by humanitarian workers, observers from the UN and other aid agencies. And yet we still hear suggestions that the Ethiopian government halt its defensive mission and sit down to negotiate with a terrorist group!
Is this ever something that can be accepted? The idea of the unilateral cessation of hostilities was implemented by the FDRE so that there could be some sort of peace and negotiations could begin. But what the TPLF chose was to reject the call, look at it as a defeat of the federal forces and go on with its destructive and bloodthirsty moves! Did any government condemn these moves of TPLF?
Today, the chances of compromise have been excluded by the TPLF itself because the extent of damages and destruction to human life and property is so huge that the only alternative that the government and people of Ethiopia have chosen to adopt is launch an all out offensive and extricate the country from these terrorists with the help of the people of the regional state where TPLF boasts its acceptance and base.
Ethiopians have resolved that come what may there can never be any compromise with such devilish force founded with the intent of destroying the motherland and the only way to come out of this crisis is by annihilating it, once and for all! The sacrifices may be immense but those who support it must know that they are on the wrong side of history and they have not done their homework of studying the history of peoples! There are several living examples of such missions failing in desperate manners and we do not even need to go very much back in the years. A united people can withstand and survive any adversity as long as it is fighting for the right causes. The politics of superpower and might is destined to once again fail miserably! Imperialism of any sort is destined to fade. Ethiopians have survived countless predicaments in their history; this time as well they will overcome it and tell the tale.
The Ethiopian Herald September 30/2021
