BY FITSUM GETACHEW
Ethiopia is currently engaged in battling against what seems to be an existential threat from multiple directions. The latest attacks by terrorist forces in the north is just one element of these forces which are trying not only to create a state of uncertainty and instability in the country but also try to balkanize the country in to multiple entities none of which would be independent but rather reliant on foreign powers for its very existence.
Ethiopia is composed of more than a hundred and twenty million people and is the source of humanity with thousands of years of history that few can match. Throughout its history, however, it has successfully foiled aggressions and tentative of occupations by alien forces who have repeatedly tried to infiltrate its territory and waged assaults. Thanks to the sacrifices of its patriots it has defended its territory and the fact that it is composed of multiple ethnic groups and followers of various beliefs did not prevent it from uniting all its forces to resist the alien aggressive forces.
Unlike any other African country, Ethiopia has continued with its independent existence, proud of its freedom. But there have always been forces that have tried to influence its internal politics by trying to divide it along ethnic, religious or regional lines. Unfortunately, in this attempt, there have been internal forces which have sided with the enemies of the country in order to benefit in multiple ways. Sometimes the gain could be envisaged in personal political power in the name of this community or that one; at others it is just a matter of money. In short, these forces are nothing less than mercenaries at the payroll of our enemies.
There have been multiple episodes of this kind in the past both recent as well as far away in history. What the terrorist TPLF has been trying to achieve is just that. A group of people who are simply intoxicated with unlimited power for decades have been deposed from power by a reformative force a few years ago. For decades these forces exploited the people and country of Ethiopia mercilessly disregarding all sorts of problems of the people but heeding only their interests and those to whom they actively worked.
TPLF’s history shows us that the people they always said its stands for have never benefited anything from its administration. And yet the rhetoric is always one and the same: TPLF and the Tigray people are one and the same. This story has been repeated a million times to the extent that people are forced to assimilate the dangerous narrative that alleges the total unity of a people and a political party. This is unheard of anywhere in the world. We have never seen a people being equal to a political idea or will because this can only happen in an imaginary world where everyone thinks in the same way and no one has a different idea than the rest of the people. Following this narrative, the people of Tigray have been subjected to complete submission to whatever the TPLF dictates and they are made to forget that it is a few individuals at the helm of the party that call all the tunes and the rest of five to six million people are forced to support it.
In the latest attacks of the terrorist TPLF on Ethiopia, they have once again lined up thousands of innocent civilians with no clue about the ferocity of wars. And they are made cannon fodder to the ambitions of these few individuals commanding all the region’s resources. For more than three decades these forces have been on power and never did anything valuable or long lasting to the people. But in the meantime they built empires not only locally but also internationally across the world with uncountable property.
The people of Ethiopia in general and those of Tigray in particular were only spectators of the fortunes of these few hierarchies of the TPLF who divided all the riches of the country within their family circles becoming the new billionaires of Africa. In all these operations, many western countries who now support them in their war efforts have been accomplices of these violations of human rights. When it comes to the national interests of these powers all the rhetoric they use to condemn and sanction violations of human rights have never applied. In fact, the terrorist TPLF has been allowed and even facilitated with complicit silence in its continuous violations of basic human rights particularly of all those who dared to challenge their authority.
This has been the case from the very inception of this terrorist group which has reigned in the country for decades. Along the way it has physically eliminated all those it considered a threat to its monopoly of power. It has managed to install a system of control through its direct agents sent to the various Ethiopian regions to supervise the local governments which were in theory self administered. After promulgating a constitution that enabled it to divide and control the people of Ethiopia, TPLF worked hand and gloves with the enemies of Ethiopia to keep it underdeveloped and be a constant beggar of humanitarian assistance and the like.
After it was ousted out of federal authority and was asked to take part in the democratic evolution of the people of Ethiopia, this force could not accept this concept. From the very beginning, TPLF has never been tolerant of democratic ideas and equality among citizens. Its only ideology is tyranny and oppression of the masses and that is what it is still trying to achieve once it has been chased away from the centers of power.
Two years ago, it treacherously attacked the Ethiopian national defense forces which resisted its myopic ideas of working for their reinstatement to power and ruthlessly massacred thousands to then wage a full scale war against Ethiopia. It committed the most heinous of atrocities against its own nationals and declared that to be able to control power in Addis it would go down as far as hell and collaborate with all the historical and new enemies of Ethiopians! This declaration was made publicly multiple times by the leaders of this terrorist group without any embarrassment. Here, the backing of certain enemies of Ethiopia is evident while it has never been criticized by other even neutral forces.
However, the grave mistake TPLF and its allies continue to commit is that Ethiopians have a history of uniting whenever threats are imposed on them. They have done it repeatedly in history and this current threat is no exception. Ethiopians are once again called to defend the integrity and sovereignty of their country from enemies both within their territory as well as from abroad. The Ethiopian government has repeatedly warned all those who are involved in these endeavors to refrain from interfering in the internal affairs of the country. Hands off Ethiopia it has reiterated!
TPLF is clearly taking advantage of this situation in order to secure every form of assistance it manages to have. Ethiopia’s advance both economically and politically may not be palatable to its geopolitical enemies but Ethiopians have resolved to continue with their development trajectory and try to change their lives. In the process, Ethiopia has decided to use every natural resource it avails including its water resources in order to harness enough energy to be able to continue with its economic advancement but this evidently is not something that gives comfort to its rivals and enemies. Ethiopians have never relied on any foreign power for their survival and independence and that is why they are striving to do all they can to free themselves from alien influence and to the extent possible to foreign assistance that is likely to have its own conditions and strings.
There are no doubts that TPLF is an obstacle to this idea. Its philosophy is based on the exploitation of its subjects to the maximum and utter fidelity to its ideology of inequality among people. TPLF considers its people as an instrument of eternal power and hegemony. It has done that for decades undisturbed and it continues to advocate the same ideas for decades and claims authority on all its members willingly or not. Those alien forces who see their interests in alignment with TPLF ideas are eager and ready to support them and that is what we see these days even with international bodies that are supposed to be neutral in any conflict in the world anywhere.
We have heard repeated arguments in favor of TPLF forces and disregarding all the atrocities that this force has been committing in Ethiopia. This includes international bodies with a history of neutrality and integrity. And even with crimes committed in its own backyards, these forces have never dared to condemn them unequivocally and call them to refrain from their misdeeds. Instead, even knowing perfectly that Ethiopia and the federal forces are victims of TPLF aggression, they have never acknowledged it. Rather they have continued to echo and disseminate the words of the propaganda machine of TPLF. That is why we say hands off Ethiopia because Ethiopia belongs to Ethiopians and not to any single force or group, and list of all to a terrorist organization such as TPLF and all its allies in crime. These forces need to stop their complicity with the terrorist forces of TPLF and their partners. In this latest attack of TPLF on Ethiopia, there are clear indications of alien hands and involvement. And that is what we all condemn and fight!
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD THURSDAY 8 SEPTEMBER 2022
