Let us give the devil his due. TPLF has always remained consistent in stating its separatist ideology and its ultimate objective of dismantling the Ethiopian state. Arguably, TPLF is the only known political party that left no stone unturned to destroy the country it governed for several decades. Be it political, social, or economic, the root causes of problems beleaguering Ethiopia today have their root in the blunders and bad governance of the TPLF era.[1991-2018].From the days of its establishment up until now, TPLF has remained the number-one existential threat to the Ethiopian states. To put it bluntly, it is the mother of all mishaps, and chaos surrounding Ethiopia today.
No rational argument can challenge the Ethiopian government’s decision to label TPLF as a terrorist organization, because its ideology and action fit the description of a terrorist organization. TPLF itself has admitted that it is the one that sparked the flame of the war that engulfed the three regions, causing the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives, displacement of millions and property loss in billions of Birr. The rebel group’s war-mongering actions which are still continuing have already become a stumbling block for Ethiopia’s economic ambitions. As if the killings and destructions caused by its belligerence over the recent conflict were not enough, it is now a public secret that TPLF is now ready to launch another round of war of destruction on its compatriots. Against the backdrop of this sad reality, it is puzzling to see UN and AU officials exchanging letters and phone calls with TPLF, an organization labeled as terrorist by a legitimate sovereign country. The international community is rarely heard denouncing the terrorist activities of TPLF with the appropriate intensity and frequency.
When all its three co-founders of the former ruling coalition, EPRDF align themselves to the changing political landscape by introducing reforms that include changes to their name, TPLF remain stuck to its ideology and its name[Tigray Peoples Liberation Front], preferred to stick to its mission to secede the Tigray region. Four years after that decision, it is now crystal clear what TPLF is up to.- the dream of seceding the northern part of the country and declaring an independent ‘Great Tigray’.
Any strategy, of good or evil objectives, could only be effectively implemented if and only if the right operatives are in the right and necessary places. During its 27 years reign in power, TPLF has made impressive work beyond our expectations with regards to infiltrating its operatives on an international scale beyond the country’s key government posts. This include among others international media outlets, human rights organizations, and the UN agencies. Theodros Adhanom of WHO is just the tip of the iceberg. Some analysts dare to describe the Amharic and the Tigrigna section of the BBC as the external service of TPLF’s public affairs office.
Using the billions of dollars it embezzled during its years in power, TPLF has been able to win the favor of politicians of the western powers including the United States and Western Europe. The so-called political analysts and scholars in western institutions, dubbed by many as white Tplfites, are the major players in the implementation of the party’s evil strategy by projecting to the international community deceitful narratives with seemingly neutral and scholarly testimonies that advance the interest of TPLF.
Kjetil Tronvol of Oslo New University College, William Davison of The Crisis Group Martin Plaut, of the Institute of Commonwealth, and René Lefort the author all these men are some of the white Tplfites that advocate the terrorist group’s evil objectives stringently, in an attempt to be more catholic than the pope. For instance, in his recent article Le fort wrote: “ It now appears that Ethiopia can only reach some order in a very loose ethnic federation. Fighting this reality would only intensify the centrifugal dynamics to the point of balkanization.” This statement is exactly the concise description of the vision and interpretation TPLF and its satellite separatist groups have for Ethiopia
TPLF is not only consistent in stating its evil objectives, but it also displays impressive consistency in the strategy it employed to advance and the realization of its anti –Ethiopian objectives. Since its early days when it was an unknown small group of bandits hiding in the outback of Tigray deserts, the TPLF’s strategy has always been divisive politics, media manipulation, terror, treachery, violence, corruption, and blackmail. TPLF has used these tools of its divisive strategies to stay in power for almost three decades with absolute control over the Ethiopian people.
After barricading in Tigray since 2018, TPLF is subduing the Tigray people into submission and thus making them subservient to its war-mongering policies. Being a Mafia-style criminal enterprise, TPLF is well experienced in terrorizing its own people to be its loyal servants by taking summary killings and savage executions against those who show resistance or raise questions about the sanity of the leadership. When the Ethiopian forces liberated much of Tigray temporarily from the grip of dictatorial rule back in 2020, the majority Tigrayans people were in disbelief unable to accept they were really free from 30 plus years of tyrannical rule. That situation reminds us of the Jews found in Auschwitz who could not believe the Allied troops when they told them they are freed, no more prisoners and the Nazis are defeated.
And then, When TPLF regained control of Mekelle following the withdrawal of Ethiopian forces from the regional capital in June 2020, the rebel group members have summarily executed and hacked to death in public several civil servants working with the Provisional Regional government including Embeza Tadesse, the then chief of Tigray Regional Investment Commission.
Like in the past TPLF and its sympathizers are still manipulating the media to advance their sinister political motives under the covers of being a champion of human rights, democracy, justice, and freedom. While the truth is that TPLF is the instigator of the calamity in which the Tigray people found themselves today, TPLF portrays itself in its media as the defender of the interest of Tigray moreover, The strong financial capacity of TPLF has enabled compromise the professional integrity of several western media outlets.
TPLF has effectively used such international media giants as BBC, Aljazeera, Reuters, AFP, and CNN to spread its lies and hoodwink the international community into believing its false and groundless narratives of the past and present situation of Tigray. This fact is reflected in almost all biased news coverage of Ethiopia by the aforementioned media outlets o. For instance, the BBC and many of the major broadcasters ignored the big news in Ethiopia early last month, which was about the discovery of several mass graves of Amaharas in Welkait who were massacred by the TPLF during the time of its occupation for almost three decades.
The BBC ignored news that is well documented by research reports just because it is yet additional hard evidence against the ethnic cleansing conducted by TPLF in Welkait. In an interesting twist, BBC came up last week with an unsubstantiated news story accusing Gondar University of an evidence disposal campaign to cover up the alleged massacre of ethnic Tgrayans in Welkait. The news completely lacks credibility since it is based on unidentified witnesses. It is a story cooked up by the Tplfites to counterbalance the well-documented discovery of the mass graves last month. The freelance writer of the news [Lucy Kassa] is an ardent TPLF activist. It is indeed a shame for a prestigious international media like BBC to have its new reports written by reporters whose moral compass and professional integrity and impartiality are compromised.
Similarly, the international media turned deaf ear to the war drum TPLF is beating now. Rather they are busy trying to justify the terror group’s pretext to start yet another round of the conflict. Instead of denouncing the war-mongering tendency of the TPLF, they are focused on fanning incidents and skirmishes in various parts of the country to fuel the deterioration of the security situation and promote ethnic and religious violence across the nation. This is exactly what the TPLF is up to.
It is one of the divisive strategies the terrorist group employs this time around. One of the top names in the TPLF leadership, Abebe T/Haimanot has recently said; “We have to drive a wedge between our enemies [ethiopian Forces], so we can secure our victory. That is a major pivotal task we have to do now.” Even though the war on the ground is not yet resumed, the media and the diplomatic war have continued. Whichever divisive strategy TPLF introduced, whichever way the media manipulated, the truth shall prevail, and its lies and evil intentions shall be fully revealed.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD WEDNESDAY 18 MAY 2022
