BY FITSUM GETACHEW
If one considers the numbers reported, one can only find it ghastly because never in the history of warfare have we heard of such devastation committed by a warring party against another one in such short time. If we go into the details we just find it absolutely disgusting and disgraceful to find out how systematically the terrorist TPLF forces routed each and every health post or center, each and every educational institution and each and every business they managed to put their hands on.
There are reports that it is in the very original essence and constitution of TPLF as an organization to loot whatever property it finds belonging to what it considers its rivals or enemies, vandalize and do whatever it takes to put it out of use completely if they cannot take it away.
Historians of TPLF say ever since its inception TPLF has apparently taken ad hoc training of how to loot property, rob banks, plunder whatever property belongs to the enemy whenever it has the opportunity from the very early days of the guerrilla warfare and never hesitated to execute people suspected of being against them or of being associated with the enemy in any way! In fact, they say it has secured the obedience of the people of Tigray using such ruthless methods and managed to grow into a huge force in the community, sowing terror and anguish among innocent well meaning citizens as well.
Another weapon it has always used was the unlimited lies it specialized in on its intentions and what the people of Tigray can expect from its exploits. It has prepared certain ‘fairy tale narratives’ that the people of Tigray are surrounded by archenemies who have vowed to exterminate it along with all its history, culture and language and that they must all rally behind TPLF in order to be able to survive such invented threats of extermination! This is of course the diabolic invention of a few people intended to secure blind fidelity to their ideology!
Those who have studied the history of TPLF have written that for years and years this narrative was made to be inculcated in the mind of all Tigrayans. The result is what we have come to experience with the kind of attacks these forces inflicted on innocent people in Amhara and Afar regions, people who are living their modest lives and were made to suffer untold assaults that are not worth carrying even against any enemy because they were so demeaning and inhuman! Those who witnessed the attacks were heard remarking incredulous: How on earth would humans do such things to other humans who are after all compatriots?! How deep has the ideology of hate penetrated these people?! It is just unfathomable!
During the months stay in the various cities and urban centers of the two regional states of Amhara and Afar, the terrorist TPLF meticulously looted all government related institutions beginning from the basic administrative units and offices to all health and educational institutions. Besides uprooting and taking away each and every item that could be useful for their region, terrorist TPLF forces duly destroyed all that they could not take away following literally their original plans and books! After all historians of TPLF have told us that was how it was first conceived and founded, and that is how it is destined to wither away once everybody realizes the true nature of this diabolic association camouflaged as ‘freedom fighters’!
Witnesses narrate when they gathered into the homes of private individuals, they took every minute to destroy what they could not take hold of such electronic gadgets as TV sets, refrigerators, computers etc while looting all they can for their consumption. Moreover, they harassed each and every family they got into, not only feeding themselves regularly using their free labour and food provisions, but also resorted to mercilessly satisfy their lust for sex raping regularly the young ladies they found in the households in front of their loved ones! Moreover, there were reports of gruesome atrocities committed against innocent residents of those towns including elderly monks, hermits and other spiritual people. They gang raped certain ladies, destroyed the households when they left, including killing all innocent domestic animals!.
We have never heard of ‘freedom fighters’ killing summarily domestic animals such as sheep, goats, cows, and camels etc just for the sake of killing! The intention may seem to deprive of the residents of basic means of livelihood for good. Furthermore, in some places these terrorists destroyed standing crops by driving their huge armored vehicles on the farms! They executed the oxen and burnt the instruments farmers used to plough their land in front of the farmers, breaking their hearts. They showed their cruelest faces by leaving the inhabitants completely without any hope of revival once they leave the areas. All these heartbreaking excesses are just too mean to be even narrated! And yet they are all true!
In past wars, we have never heard of similar devilish acts by warring parties, many people were heard nothing. They remarked, killing of the enemy could be understandable, plundering property could be taken as a means of warfare, but gratuitous killing of innocent domestic animals just for the sake of revenge on the inhabitants is totally unheard of! What is more they have executed as many youths as possible and buried them in mass graves!
It is absolutely not understandable to find out that these terrorist forces have also destroyed religious establishments to deeply hurt the psychology of the faithful. They destroyed churches and burnt down religious books. They destroyed mosques with Korans burnt down openly.
When they entered universities in the major urban areas such as Woldiya and Dessie they systematically looted all valuable objects they could have hold on and completely destroyed what they could not carry away. In hospitals they took away all of the precious imported medical equipment and all sorts of medicines including life saving ones for people with severe and perennial ailments
beside killing those in treatment and burying them in the hospital premises! They then destroyed all the rest so that no one could use it! This put the entire regions without health facilities as well as any educational infrastructure! They looted and destroyed museums and cultural sites of historical value!
Those who witnessed all these disgusting scenes were able to observe that these people were doing things in a preplanned and organized manner using all the expertise they needed to select what is precious from what is less so. There was manpower ready to carry all the materials to the trucks to transport back to Tigray. Some of the people involved in these acts were ‘insiders’ who used to work in the establishments and they were the ones who led the terrorists to the internal premises and departments!
Now all these acts were reported by journalists who had the opportunity to talk to witnesses and residents. And yet none of the so called international community who claimed to follow events in Ethiopia watching if there were excesses to be denounced said a word on these acts! They never cared to report on what has happened to innocent civilians not necessarily part of the conflict. And yet when something they do not approve of is reported to have happened in Tigray following the accusations of the TPLF propaganda wing, they have duly echoed them making them part of their headlines in their major news programs.
They regularly and repeatedly presented some TPLF sympathizers to give an ‘expert analysis’ on these reports. They then indignantly criticized western governments for not carrying out investigations immediately into alleged atrocities. They pushed for sanctions and for suspension of aid etc and condemnations against the Ethiopian government. But they never mentioned that basically the conflict began because of the treasonous attacks against the forces of the Ethiopian National Defence Northern Command stationed in Tigray. However, when it came to the barbarisms the terrorist TPLF forces committed against civilians it was as if they never occurred, or that it was invented by Ethiopia!
What has been perplexing to many is that neither the UN bodies such as WHO and UNESCO nor any international community members, nor any of the international mainstream media for that matter dared mention and still less ventured in denouncing all the heinous acts of TPLF against innocent non belligerent civilians in the two regions adjacent to Tigray. Destroying health institutions cannot be taken as part of war targets and they should have been protected.
Many have wondered how WHO refrained from saying anything about the crude violence and destruction committed against these health establishments. One may suspect that being the head of WHO himself one of the founders and authorities of TPLF before he was elected to the office, it may have influenced his organization. But it must be recalled that it was thanks to the lavish funds TPLF and Ethiopia provided him that he campaigned and lobbied to be successfully elected head of WHO. And yet no word about all those ravaged health infrastructure in the newsletters and statements of WHO which normally would be expected to denounce such acts has been considered as a failure if not deliberate.
How about UNESCO, which said nothing about the wanton destruction of educational establishments, museums and works of art? Is leaving millions of young children deliberately out of school in compliance with the mission of an organization of the caliber of UNESCO!? ‘Why is this body silent when these attacks are carried out against education and culture?” is the critical question that people pose! Is this silence deliberate or there is in fact an information gap? We would have expected vigorous statements with denunciations and accusations against such acts. But they never came out!
On the other hand, some of the acts of these bodies have shown their sympathies to TPLF. They were probably fancying the unseating of the legitimate Ethiopian government! And that was why the government of Ethiopia did present its official protest against the biased actions of UN agencies on the conflict. But does that include the total destruction of the country? This sounds absurd and makes no sense.
What is more, many observers have remarked that the silence of these reputed international bodies can only be taken as a veiled conspiracy. That is why many have observed that it must be taken as an open attack against Ethiopians and Africans, if we look at the story from another and wider angle. That is in fact why many Africans have joined the #No More movement in support of Ethiopia warning other Africans that this attempt to destabilize Ethiopia is a wakeup call for other Africans as well because international bodies and the so called international community seem to have conspired to re-colonize Africans or control them depriving them of a voice at the international fora.
That is why this must be a wonderful occasion to rekindle the campaign for a reform of the UN system which has always sidelined Africa even if it has a large amount of the world’s resources and counts more than a billion people! If one considers Britain and France for instance, they are just two countries with about a hundred million citizens and yet they both have permanents seats at the UN Security Council. Experts say the arrangements made in the nineteen forties cannot be expected to apply for the current reality of 2022. That is why it is time to push for a change in consideration of the existing geopolitical and economic situation of the world.
It is clear that we are not any more in the post-World War II scenario and things must be reviewed for more justice and fairness. Attempts to re-colonize Africa and the black people in general must be not only condemned but also rejected. As some experts have asserted, it is clear that the war in Ethiopia is one that has been somehow sponsored and encouraged by some western powers and it must be stopped.
The Ethiopian Herald January 12/2022
