BY SOLOMON DIBABA
The youth in Tigray are being driven to death by a barbaric, fascistic and lunatic leadership in the region. Why for? Should the youth pay sacrifices just to keep on power a team of vandals who are blood thirsty? Why should children and their mothers die at the battle front instead of living a peaceful life? Where is terrorist driving the region? This should not be allowed. The international community particularly should wake up from slumbering on the false propaganda that it is receiving from the terrorist group.
Terrorist TPLF is using the peoples of Tigray as a cannon fodder and the people in the region should ask why? The propaganda wave that TPLF has been conducting on the people of Tigray in its attempt to detach them from the rest of the Ethiopian society has become opium on the people. Even then, the people of Tigray have fought for the unity and territorial integrity of this nation. Tigray is a cradle of one of the most fascinating human civilization. This is what terrorist TPLF is trying to destroy. There is no logic or sense in attempting to destroy Ethiopia in isolation from Tigray and this will never happen.
Even if the western powers are condemning terrorist TPLF for looting fuel and in spite of the fact that they are well aware of the truth that the terrorist group would use it for conducting war on the people of Ethiopia, they did not condiment it for braking the ceasefire that has been going on for the last six months. The condemnation was indeed halfhearted.
They want terrorist TPLF to succeed in its destabilization of the country because they want to see a new regime in Ethiopia led and organized by terrorist TPLF. This is not something new because it was the west and the US that helped the terrorist group to come to power and they want to restore a repressive regime in Ethiopia against the will of the people. They have never uttered a word when Dr. Tedros ignored his routine managerial assignment in WHO and concentrated on a propaganda war on the people and government of Ethiopia.
Let me take you back to the war tactic that terrorist TPLF has always used in its attempt to weaken and destroy Ethiopia. Why did the terrorist TPLF wanted to use the human wave tactics in this war?
There are three possible answers for this question. First, using this defunct tactic, they wanted to overwhelm the ENDF with human wave with intention of accusing the defense forces for what they call genocide and appeal to the international community to make Ethiopia accountable. Second, they use human power with smaller personal ammunitions backed by artillery to scare away peaceful residents in rural and urban settlements in the country and occupy towns and villages. Third, they engage part of the human wave into looting and destroying the infrastructure and social service facilities to collect resources that they can use to infiltrate into mainland Ethiopia.
Fourth, the human wave tactic is also systematically used to change the demographic set up in the areas they occupy to claim that the towns and villages are inhabited by the people from Tigray. Fifth, they carry out socio-cultural war in the areas they occupy as a process of destroying the cultural identity of the original settlers of the areas they have occupied.
Six, they destroy the infrastructure facilities to deny education and health services in the areas they occupy by war and carry away all the necessary accessories to Tigray either for sale or for rebuilding their own facilities.
All these tactics have something in common. Apart from its military purposes, the human wave tactic is used to rewrite the history of Ethiopia in favor of Tigray and to encourage other surrogate terrorist groups to detach themselves from the general Ethiopian attitude of mind.
There is far greater link between the interest of the western countries in Ethiopia and the proxy war that terrorist TPLF has been conducting on their own behalf. When the terrorist group attacked the northern command of the ENDF, the governments and media outlets in the west falsely reversed the issue and reported that the ENDF has attacked Tigray, suffice it to mention Reuters report for the day.
When TPLF massacred more than 2000 innocent citizens in Mai Kadra, the west kept quite as if nothing has happened. They even joined terrorist TPLF in falsely condemning Ethiopian defense forces with no evidence at hand for conducting war atrocities.
The above argument clearly indicates that terrorist TPLF is being emboldened by major western powers that are always bust in accusing Ethiopia based on unverified information they receive from the terrorist organization.
Why the people of Tigray fail to resist the current enslavement they face from terrorist TPLF? There are gain several reasons why the people of Tigray are blindly following the terrorist organization?
In the first place they have no choice as they lack the power and ability to make the terrorist organization accountable for its activities. On the other hand, one should take into account the fact that they were under ideological and propaganda influence of terrorist TPLF for the last 50 years and they can hardly think of any other world outlook apart from the ethnocentric ideology on which they were indoctrinated for ages.
Although they still consider themselves as Ethiopians, terrorist TPLF has inculcated a double pronged sentiment into the public. The first is their unreasonable and artificial hatred against the people of Amhara and Afar. The second is their unfounded superiority complex on the rest of the people of Ethiopia again inculcated in their minds by terrorist TPLF.
The people of Tigray are silenced by the secret service organized in Tigray by the security forces of the terrorist group and have no saying in government and social affairs related to Tigray.
The youth in Tigray are so receptive to the ethnocentric narrow nationalism embedded in the false narration of Greater Tigray which makes them think that they can even rule the world let alone Tigray and Ethiopia.
Let us treat the issue from a different direction. The people of Tigray are now deprived of everything they need for a stable life. Family fabric and relations with kith and kin is being destroyed. They are languishing in extreme poverty and yet dance to the tune of the terrorist group. Why?
There are several reasons behind such an odd behavior. In the first place, although Tigray was communicating with the rest of Ethiopia for the last thousands of years, they are virtually tied down by a wrong self-image and a spirit of suspicion and political phobia not only on the rest of the citizenry in Ethiopia but even on people and societies outside of the country.
What should be done then? I think this involves several partners and stakeholders to reverse the current. There should be no doubt that Tigray will remain in the legitimate a sovereign territory of Ethiopia and the people of Tigray must be aware of the spirit of animosity against the neighboring regions that terrorist TPLF keeps alive to ensure its survival on power in the region. The people of Tigray should understand that their destiny depends upon their relations with the rest of the population in Ethiopia and not in the fairy story of Greater Tigray. On the other hand, the international community and the so called Tigray activists need to abide by the international law of the sovereignty of the government and people of Ethiopia and refrain from meddling into the internal affairs of the country and pressurizing Ethiopia to accept their dictate and supporting a terrorist organization which they should have condemned.
Terrorist TPLF must stop its foolish dream that it could win any war in Ethiopia and observe the laws of the country and negotiate for peace. Nonetheless, the terrorist group must be accountable for the crimes they have committed in Amhara region and face the courts of law in the country as part of the rectification process of the war. Terrorist TPLF should not be allowed to communicate with international organizations and UN systems in violation of the constitution of the country.
The western powers and the UN systems should stop communicating with terrorist TPLF as this is de-facto recognition of a national state and not a regional state in Tigray.
No two sets of armies should be allowed in a single unified country and the terrorist group should be disarmed with no delay. None acceptance of this is illegal and will be regarded as taking the people of Tigray as hostages in their own country.
After conducting a national dialogue and reconciliation, the government needs to look into issues that may need serious amendments in the constitution. This would certainly help to solve a lot of problems that have been lingering in the country for decades.
On the other hand, the government should continue to take legal measures on copa Banda who are serving terrorist TPLF while residing in Amhara and Afar. This is important to curb the activities of the fifth columnists.
Above all, the assurance of the unity and territorial integrity of the country is top a national priority and there can be no negotiations on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country. Although the government holds much more responsibilities, the people of Ethiopia need to contribute in upholding the statehood of the country and unnecessary social media campaigns on the government and the ENDF will only help terrorist TPLF to launch false propaganda on the reality in the country.
Editor’s Note: The views entertained in this article do not necessarily reflect the stance of The Ethiopian Herald
The Ethiopian Herald 30 August 2022
