BY SOLOMON DIBABA
Undoubtedly, history testifies that the citizens in Tigray are among the most patriotic section of the Ethiopian polity. As most of the foreign colonial aggressions and wars were conducted on the northern part of the country, for instance in Gundet, Gunda Gundi, Adwa, Maichew, Coatit, Ambalage, Metema and other battle fronts in which Tigrayan people have shed their blood and flesh to repulse the aggressions from the Dervish, Ottoman Turks, Italians, the Khedivates of Egyptians, Mahdists.
The entire population in Tigray have been deployed right on the war front during the Ethio- Eritrean War more than two decades back. Mothers from Tigray took care of the wounded members of the ENDF, washed their clothes and prepared food for them right at the battle front. They were fighters at the rear.
Moreover, the people in Tigray suffered from food shortage that was triggered in the region in 1974, 1984 and 1985 as well as in 2000 and 2021 by recurrent drought that occurred in Tigray and some parts of Ethiopia every ten years. To make matters worse, the proliferation of locust and army worms over the last several years have seriously challenged agriculture development in Tigray.
Putting aside the people’s priceless sacrifice to the freedom, unity and development of the country, the TPLF has diverted all their efforts towards destruction and suffering of the entire nation.
In February 1975 some political activists in the region established the terrorist TPLF as part of the long process to detach the Tigrayan population from the country and people with whom they have lived for over 3000 years through the balkanization of the country in a programmatic document called the Tigray Manifesto which actually denies the role of the people of Tigray in ensuring the unity and territorial integrity of the country.
In 1991, with the support from the western powers and some international organizations, terrorist TPLF came to power by military and propaganda campaign by exterminating hundreds and thousands of Tigrayan youth which it later on denied any reasonable access to a stable and health life. Thousands were also decapitated in the war.
In 1984, with all intents and purposes, terrorist TPLF robbed relief food meant for the needy citizens affected by the drought and bought armaments for its program of destroying Ethiopia. In 2021 and 2022they again repeated the same robbery and confiscation to feed the fighters which it had organized on the propaganda of hatred for the people of Ethiopia.
The western powers and other allies of the terrorist group multiplied the agony of the people of Tigray by providing political and diplomatic support and kept dead silent when the group committed crimes against humanity in Tigray by confiscating food, medicaments and fuel that were set aside to facilitate the efforts of Ethiopian and international famine relief efforts in Tigray. Out of the 6631 heavy duty trucks that were deployed by WFP, about 2000 trucks were confiscated by the terrorists and are now being used for logistics purposes for the war against the people of Ethiopia.
The terrorist group does not care about the wellbeing, success and bright future of the people. It simply takes advantage of them to pursue its ill intents to garner the support of its enablers, the west.
For this purpose 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.
Editor’s Note: The views entertained in this article do not necessarily reflect the stance of The Ethiopian Herald
The Ethiopian Herald September 29/2022
