BY JOSEPH SOBOKA
Obviously, people fight over something that affects their interests. Such fight is natural that nobody likes to givZe away what he think belongs to him legally. Apparently the war that is going on in Ethiopia especially on part of the TPLF is not just. But it is the consequence of the refusal to obey the law of the country in an attempt to establish de facto state. On the part of Ethiopia, the war is just because it is fought for a reason that is justified, and it carries sufficient moral weight – restoring law and order. In response to the unjustified war that TPLF waged, Ethiopia has used military force to demonstrate that there is a just cause to do so, primarily maintaining the sovereignty of the country.
One thing should be clearly noted that a war between the armed forces has a governing international law that the fighting parties should obey. In the process, unarmed civilians should not be the targets at any cost. Most of all, women, children and elderlies from both parties must humanely be treated in all circumstances. However, the terrorist junta, instead of the armed forces, makes it bounden duty to attack unarmed civilians brutally. In principle civilians must be protected against any act of violence, as well as against intimidation, insults which the terrorist rebels are exactly doing. In fact the unarmed victims of the circumstance should not be detained from access to accommodation, food, clothing, hygiene and medical care.
They should not be denied any human support as they are not taking a direct part in hostilities. As a matter of fact, they can be detained not in a form of punishment but only to prevent from participation in the conflict. However, what the junta does to the unarmed civilians is in direct opposition to humanly treatment of the captives or prisoners of war. As civilized members of the international community or inhabitants of the earth should act likewise by leaving alone their captives to continue their normal life without being harassed; their goal must be to fight the armed soldiers and defeat or be defeated. But here it is an outright genocide which should be condemned as war crime. The tragedy of it is that those countries that are the forgers of the Geneva Convention regarding war, who are supposed to condemn the war crime, chose to remain silent as the rebels commit such atrocious war crime unabated. Akin to that, on top of their unacceptable silence, the international community is openly supporting the perpetrators to heighten their atrocity.
But in actual sense, as a civilized measure, if justified by imperative reasons of security, a party to the conflict may subject civilians to assigned residence or to internment. Extensive protection must be provided for civilian internees during armed conflicts instead of brutally massacring them. Therefore, internment is a security measure, and cannot be used as a form of punishing the innocent victims of the war. This means that each interned person must be released as soon as the reasons which necessitated his/her imprisonment are nullified. There is no need to shed blood of the people who have no direct involvement in the fighting whatsoever. All the assassinated victims were those who were engaged in their daily business with no intention of taking arms against the invaders. They had no time to run away for their lives at all. It was a surprise invasion of shooting down all indiscriminately and that has terribly shocked all Ethiopians from one end to the other.
Furthermore, as frenzied as the terrorists were, on top of beating up and shooting, they savagely hacked, and worse of all, they would dance around the bodies of the slain. The tragedy does not end there. They go from house to house, like hungry scavengers looking for something to devour. They force the terrified civilians to give them money and even after receiving they still demand more which the victims may not have at the time. Thus, they shoot them there at close range without any sympathy. The devil incarnate enemy to satisfy its unquenched lust does the most heinous crime to women and children – raping a wife while the husband and children watch. The agonizing situation there is the gang rape while the woman cries for mercy upon which she may die or be subjected to physical and psychological illnesses. Abreast of this, the onlookers in many cases are left to severe emotional shock or trauma that may demand a lifelong psychological treatment. To date, many victims of the circumstance are crying for death and in fact many have taken their own lives being unable to stand the humiliation.
The terrorist TPLF, putting aside all the crimes it has committed against the people in the Amhara and Afar regions shamelessly appeals for justice through the mediation of the international community, principally, the West and the United States who are its strong allies. Bathed in the blood of thousands of unarmed civilians and on the verge of it burial, it desires to negotiate with the government of Ethiopia. Worse, it demands the reinstallation of electric light, communication systems and surprisingly the allocation of budget for Tigray region with the hidden agenda perhaps to reorganize itself to wage a renewed war against Ethiopia to achieve its original goal of dismantling the sovereign country in accordance with the strategy designed by the West and the United States.
Nevertheless, the Ethiopian government, after clearing the Amhara and Afar regions off the elements of the sadistic junta, has ordered the army not to proceed into Tigray region primarily in order not to repeat the mistake previously done – the Ethiopian forces’ human and material loss. At the same time, to allow time of repose for TPLF to reassess and evaluate its situation and perhaps decide to surrender itself to the Ethiopian forces. Such measure had previously been taken by the government; nevertheless the junta abused the good will and caused a vast devastation to the country far beyond a reasonable limit. It is wise to restrain oneself until situations are clear regarding the relation of TPLF and the general Tigrian population.
Obviously, the terrorist junta has lost the game. Yet, TPLF does not admit this fact that it has severely been beaten by the Ethiopian heroes. And all the same, it brags that it has made a consciously designed tactical retreat for a further attack in due course. If Ethiopian forces go deep into Tigray, which means the fight takes place in Tigraty proper and in the process many innocent people can naturally be killed without ulterior motive. After all it is a war; it is rather irrational to think of war without death of an enemy or the otherwise. Situations are slowly revealing themselves.
TPLF has declared that if the Ethiopian force particularly the Amhara militia enters Tigray region, Tigrian people will defend themselves with whatever weapons they access including knives. This is their effort to convince the world that TPLF and the people of Tigray are one and the same and the Ethiopian government is out to eradicate not the TPLF but all Tigrians from the face of the earth. However the event turns, the sole desire of western countries and the United States is to allege Ethiopia for committing genocide.
TPLF has devastatingly lost the game. The Biden administration still urges its allies to press Ethiopia to come to the round table negotiation with the terrorist group the very fact they do not do with terrorists if such thing happened to them. The situation is like exhuming a body from the grave and conducting a dialogue with it – a situation religiously or scientifically impossible to happen. It easy to pock a finger into somebody’s wound; the pain is felt only by the wounded person. It is obvious that the West and the United States are least concerned about anything rational when it comes to the so called egoistic national interest. The victims should care for themselves!
The Ethiopian Herald January 5/2022
