BY GETACHEW MINAS
PART ONE
The TPLF has suffered and continues to suffer defeat in the war it initiated against the people of Ethiopia. It is still a major peace and security threat, not only for the country, but also for the Horn region. Despite the threat of the terrorist junta, the government of Ethiopia is still paying sacrifices to maintain peace, law and order in the war affected parts of the country. The resolve of the government to maintain peace is still strong. It is sacrificing huge human and material resources to maintain peace. This is very clear, starting from the early days of the reform process. It is in the tradition and history of the country to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity from external enemies and local Bandas, who take orders from alien forces. The Bandas, like their forefathers, have continued to be threats to the independence of Ethiopia, but they are bound to irrecoverably and irreversibly lose in their mission.
The mission is externally designed by the neocolonial forces, which are intent on destabilizing Ethiopia using religious, ethnic, tribal, clan and other vulnerabilities. This policy is deliberately made opaque to hide its ulterior motive of dividing the country along ethnic lines and weaken the country. The purpose of weakening the country is to exploit its natural resources using local agents. These agents have no national goal of eliminating poverty using the country’s resources. They have always attacked those persons who have shown discontent with the underdevelopment of their country due to externally instigated wars, local clashes, border disputes which could have been solved easily through traditional institutions. These institutional arrangements have been undermined by local bandas who have been guided and controlled by the neocolonial powers.
Among the bandas, the most dangerous one is the TPLF, which is supervised, instructed, funded and trained by alien powers. They use the Tigray region, neighboring countries and other corridors for attacking the people, local authorities and the government. The government of Ethiopia has only to react to the preemptive attacks of the TPLF on innocent and poor farmers in the Amhara and Afar regions. TPLF starts war during harvest time, to deliberately destroy and loot crops. This is noticeably expressed in the document which is leaked recently. Its agricultural destruction is simultaneously carried out with mass murder of peasants, shooting and maiming elderly persons, burning their granaries, slaughtering and killing domestic animals, shattering churches and mosques without any due regard. The TPLF junta has carried away teaching material, books, boards, medical instruments, medicines, after killing teachers and medical staff as well as students.
People residing nearby public health and education service facilities have also been attacked and killed. Those who escaped the horror by chance have migrated to nearby towns seeking refuge from the massacre conducted by the junta. It is really difficult to present in this short paper the awfulness, dreadfulness, misery and horridness of the crime committed against innocent people by the TPLF junta. Despite such atrocious acts of a rebel organization, which itself had been a government before it was ousted by the Ethiopians whose lives had been threatened, the government of Ethiopia has offered for “peace talks” anywhere, anytime and without precondition. But, the TPLF refused to negotiate peace with the Ethiopian government, under earlier attacked the Ethiopian National Defense Force, ENDF, of the Northern Command and massacred hundreds of them that had served the poor people of Tigray. It committed genocide against the soldiers at midnight while they had fallen asleep, after a feast organized for the ENDF by the TPLF junta. It was not a friendly feast, but a death warrant.
The TPLF had been declared a terrorist organization by both the Ethiopian government and by the USA. Its status is not yet changed as it continued to engage in horrendous acts of mass murder in other parts of the country using terrorist organizations under its auspices, patronage and sponsorship. All of these organizations conduct barbaric acts on poor peasants who have neither supported nor participated in political affairs. Despite being declared a terrorist junta, the UN Security Council and the EU have tried to defend the criminal TPLF junta in different ways.Whenever the junta leader, DebreTsion, writes letters to the UNSC, it meets to support the junta without any consideration to its historic vicious acts of crimes against the people of Ethiopia. The UNSC remains tightlipped to the atrocities committed against innocent people. In fact, the Security Council pushed for the withdrawal of neighboring Eritrea from Tigray region. They are also indifferent when Sudan invades Ethiopia and violets its boundaries. Ethiopia has repeatedly been protected from the scourge of the SC by Russia and China, the real superpowers.
The Western media, which is one-sided and pro-Tigray, has been reporting events to the dismay of the poor people of Ethiopia, who have suffered from atrocities committed against them by the TPLF junta. The media have been misreporting or underreporting deaths of people for reasons that are very obvious. As “sources” of information and knowledge, they unequivocally and indisputably support the TPLF. Of course, they never expect any financial return for the support they offered. They only invest in their future when the junta returns to power in the capital city. That is not a risky endeavor by these international media that are well experienced in events across the continent. But, situations in Ethiopia are volatile and difficult to define for aliens, except for its own people. Of course, the junta plays a trick on these gullible, naïve, innocent, susceptible, credulous, trusting alien forces about the spreading conflicts in northern Ethiopia.
Regarding conflicts, the recently leaked document of the TPLF openly and unequivocally incites violence in Ethiopia. To cover up its role in inciting violence, it underlines the value of disinformation during a war that brings support from the international community. It is determined to present itself as a peace loving force committed to resolve problems in a peaceful manner. In this strategy, it takes time to arm itself while condemning the Ethiopian government as aggressor and belligerent. It appeals to the Western powers to provide it with the means to protect itself against the government. But, this is only a false approach which is only self-defeating to the aggressive junta. With this in the background, the TPLF has been arming and fortifying itself to strike war against the Ethiopian government for a third time.
In the conduct of war, it is absolutely necessary for the TPLF to curve and adapt information that is in line with the interests of the Western powers. At the same time, it wants to present itself to these powers as a peaceloving entity that focuses on resolving problems peacefully. This strategy is a covern for the actual preparation for the hidden and undeclared war against the government of Ethiopia. The intent of the junta in “peace negotiation” is only a prelude to its hidden warmongering against the government. It has never been on the side of peace in its political history since its inception in 1975. There has never been a time when the people of Tigray had enjoyed peace and progress during the rule of the TPLF in the 27 year of its atrocious and dictatorial rule over Ethiopia. It put all its political contenders in prisons where they could never come out alive. This tradition is followed even after it was driven out of power by the vote of the people.
In its final strategy, the TPLF designed to entice several forces that would support it. In this strategy it pretended to have a strong determination that will win the big powers to its cause. It was also against the peace negotiation under the chairmanship of Olisegun Obasanjo, appointed by the AU. In its strategy document, the junta wrongly surmised that the Ethiopian government is using the peace negotiation as a cover for its preparation in defence of the country. The junta, therefore, refused to accept the peace negotiation and convinced the people of Tigray about its refusal. The alterntive to peace negotiation, according to the TPLF junta, is to use force. There is no space left for negotiation. It is determined to sacrifice the youth in the struggle toward removing the Ethiopian government and replace it with peoples’ government, along its socialist line. In this respect, the TPLF and its supporters are ready as never before.
In its struggle, the TPLF revealed the stong Western support it acquired in fulfilling its strategy of using armed force against the Ethiopian government. It revealed its stong backers including the OLF and other global supporters and the Tigray diaspora. The strategy is based on, according to the document, three pillars. Briefly these are: conductsitutaion analysis, exploiting good opportunities and minimizing challengs; develop internal capacity, strengthen the Tirgray defense force; destabilize the Ethiopian government and intensify political and social problems in the coungtry. The junta has condemened the Amhara for collaborating with the Prime Minsiter, Dr. Abiy, and for its historic role in Ethiopia. It continued blaming and openly expressed its antagosism against the Amhara for being an enemy of the people of Tigray. In the strategy, the TPLF expressed its intent to technically separate the Fano force from the Ethiopian government force, and use this division as an opportunity for further weaking of the government.
The divisive strategy, according to the TPLF, ensures the success of the junta. Once there is a widening gap between the Amhara and the government, the junta expressed its intent to device ways and means to create further animosity and hatred between the two. This division is a sign of success for the TPLF junta. The junta expresses its design to magnifying the exising animosity, using the social media to diminish the acceptance of Dr. Abiy by the Amaha people. Of course, this is an evil strategy which should be rejected by all those who stand for the unity of Ethiopians against the dvivisive TPLF junta. On the other hand, the TPLF stresses that the Fano will never be supporter of Tigray. It is, therefore, necessary to create several groups that use the name “Fano” and operate in the Amhara region. The TPLF believes that this will terribly affect the operations of the regional state. This is definitely an opportunity for the people of Tigray and it has to be used carefully.
The TPLF has also devised various strategies that involve the masses of people. It has the strategy of infesting the Amhara region using the Tigrean people in a deceptive manner as internally displaced persons and hungry travellers. This group of people should use public transport to travel to the Amhara region and then to Addis Ababa secretely. They will be contacted by assigned functionaries that provide them with information. These will perform their duties with great discipline focusing only on their services. On the other hand, the junta will focus on the Afar regional government that creates around bordering areas. This has caused panic among Tigreans living within the region. The junta also condemns Awel Arba, president of Afar Regional State, whom it alledges and contends to have the full support and admiration of Dr. Abiy, as a cause for eliminating the followers and cliques of the junta in the region
Editor’s Note: The views entertained in this article do not necessarily reflect the stance of The Ethiopian Herald
The Ethiopian Herald 22 September 2022
