De-Weyanization of Ethiopia is Imperative for the Horn of Africa

TPLF bigwigs 

De-Weyanization of Ethiopia is Imperative for the Horn of Africa

Amanuel Biedemariam

Are there any issues that the people of Ethiopia and the region have failed to discuss regarding the minority Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF/EPRDF) regime and its crimes, genocides, transgressions, misdeeds, lies, corruption, nepotism etc…?

The people of Ethiopia and the region have collectively raised all pertinent issues ad nauseam and detailed the human rights and other major violations committed by Tigray People’s Liberation Front TPLF/EPRDF that altered the makeup and trajectories of Ethiopia and the region. In 25 years the Tigrai People’s Liberation Front victimized millions and hampered cooperation within the region.

The Horn of Africa is hurting. The economies, traditional ways and cross border connections are lost. The natural cross border trade that sustained generations is halted impacting the lives of all involved negatively and unnecessarily.

If one is to ask, what the TPLF thugs contributed to foster cooperation in order to better the lives of the people in the region, the answer is none. The TPLF blocked trade, the economy and stood on the way of the people. TPLF stopped-cold cross-border-trade-relation between Eritrea and Ethiopia; Ethiopia and Somalia and, hampered trade with Kenya through Southern Ethiopia and Oromia. Due to its aggressive hegemonic stances, conflicts in Gambella and TPLF’s negative involvement in South Sudan, opportunities for free trade in the region are impossible. The only open-border and functioning is the Eastern Sudan and Tigray corridor which serves as a life line to TPLF’s home front of Tigray.

The TPLF’s primary intent is to become the hegemon of the region. The fact that the US allowed Ethiopia to become extension of US interests in the region gave TPLF thugs false sense of empowerment. With US on its side the TPLF believed that it could control the region. To that end it started war with Eritrea and Somalia on zero sum game determined-and-certain to bring regime change in Eritrea and inject a puppet regime in Somalia.

When the TPLF thugs declared war on Eritrea their calculation was that Eritrea will fold in six months. When TPLF failed they enacted No-War-No-Peace agenda, war by other means. This agenda is meant to give chance to the TPLF to annul the EEBC decision and bring puppet regime that can help them enact the Greater (Abay) Tigray agenda.

By declaring war and openly campaigning for regime change, the TPLF gave Eritrea no chance but to respond however possible. However, and for a while, it seemed as though everything was stocked against Eritrea as the TPLF thugs were accorded unprecedented diplomatic, political, economic, PR and military support from the US, EU and their allies.

The War Inside

Parallel to the war with Eritrea the TPLF thugs were also waging a war against the people of Ethiopia. In 2005, the late chief-TPLF-thug Meles Zenawi barbarically mowed innocent Ethiopians after they defeated his reign in a democratic election. At that moment Ethiopians realized that the evil in their midst is entrenched and that it is formidable. Dislodging TPLF democratically became unattainable dream. This was confirmed in subsequent sham elections of 2010 and 2015.

For over 25 years, the US and Europe funded and facilitated TPLF’s misadventures to the detriment of Ethiopia’s future.  Furthermore, when the Obama administration elected to endorse TPLF’s claim of 100% election-victory as democratic, the people of Ethiopia gave up on the US administration and international community altogether.

This meant that Ethiopians have no recourse other than to take measures on their hands. The Oromo demonstrations are direct result of the closed political environment sponsored by the West. As it stands, the Oromo uprising is on its third month. Yet, the TPLF has lost control and unable to quell the uprising. Sign of troubles ahead.

Take Two: The Beginning of the End

The US and Europe entrusted the TPLF to ensure decisive victories in order to enable them pursue their agendas in the region and failed. The No-War-No-Peace strategy that the TPLF pursued against Eritrea failed and backfired.

To the contrary, despite massive infusion of aid, Ethiopia is in dire existential struggle. Consistent claims of economic growth that Ethiopia is the fastest growing economy in Africa turned out a big lie. The BBC, Reuters and etc…have been feeding the world lies and exaggerated growth figures to prop the criminal TPLF thugs and got exposed time and again. In short, agendas that US and EU pursued through EPRDF failed. TPLF failed the West.

On December of 2015, the EU invited Dr. Berhanu Nega Chairman of Arbegnoch Ginbo7 (AG7), opposition-group fighting the TPLF, to testify on the current situation in Ethiopia. Subsequently, the EU Parliament adopted a resolution condemning the Ethiopian government for excessive use of force on innocent Oromo’s, for rights violations, and suppression of news etc…

The damming resolution is the first of its kind and for the first time the EU systematically places the legitimacy of the EPRDF in question. The resolution exposed how the minority regime choked the political space as well as the impact of land grub that displaced millions. It states,

“Whereas the most recent general elections were held on 24 May 2015, in which the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) remained the ruling party and won all the seats in the national parliament. Whereas May’s federal elections took place in a general atmosphere of intimidation and concerns over the lack of independence of the National Electoral Board; whereas the EPRDF has been in power for 24 years, since the overthrow of the military government in 1991.”

This statement knocks at the validly of the election results by questioning how, a 6% minority from Tigray garnered 100% of the votes in a country comprised-of, according to CIA fact book, Oromo 34.4%, Amhara 27%, Somali 6.2%,  Sidama 4%, Gurage 2.5%, Welaita 2.3%, Hadiya 1.7%, Afar 1.7%, Gamo 1.5%, Gedeo 1.3%, Silte and Kefficho 2.5%, other 10.5% (2007 est.)

EU stated that TPLF won by force and intimidation. The land grab that displaced millions and the fact that the TPLF/EPRDF pointed guns and shot innocent civilians raised serious questions.  If the EPRDF is killing, displacing populations and rigging election then, who is the protector of the people of Ethiopia?

Systemic Alienation of Ethiopia

The Tigray People’s Liberation Front EPRDF spent millions and exerted tremendous energy to isolate Eritrea from the international community. Every move that the TPLF made was calculated with Eritrea in mind but failed.

With fictitious stories, the TPLF tried to label Eritrea the North Korea (NK) of Africa. As if, North Korea, a country with nuclear capacity, is comparison to any African nation; EPRDF insulted North Korea to attack Eritrea by exploiting the narratives that the west uses to demonize NK. However, if one is to use the very narrative that the TPLF uses to demonize Eritrea as North Korea, according TPLF, a nation, “isolated from the international community and a pariah state,” the real North Korea of Africa is Ethiopia.

Over 12 million Ethiopians are starving and in dire need of food aid. The TPLF uses brute force to suppress opposition and have killed countless innocent civilians. Major humanitarian organizations have detailed genocide by Ethiopian soldiers in Gambela, Ogaden and other regions. The TPLF represents 6% of the population yet it suppresses 94% of the population with brute force. And contrary to its claim that it is the hub of diplomatic activities of Africa, Ethiopia’s minority regime is systematically and technically isolated at least regionally.

For long the TPLF/EPRDF used the “War on Terror” (WOT) to garner support from the West and used it to place Ethiopia as a central hub in that endeavor. TPLF used WOT to finance its army, gain political and diplomatic upper-hand over countries on the region and applied unnecessary pressures to regional groupings such as Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) to acquiesce on agendas that the TPLF pursued even when it is harmful to their long-term interest.

Ethiopia, a country that is supposed to be conduit for African diplomacy and for the greater good used Addis Ababa  to micro-manage African agendas and as cash-cow to suit its needs by exploiting its status as a host nation.

However, with one diplomatic move, Eritrea turned the table and sidelined the TPLF regionally. When Eritrea signed a security agreement with Saudi Arabia and joined the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the move sidelined and killed TPLF’s Eritrea agenda completely. The war on terror that the TPLF exploited is now effectively replaced by Saudi Arabia led coalition created partly to fight terrorism. It includes Djibouti, Egypt and Sudan neighbors that are willing to accommodate Saudi interests and it excludes Ethiopia.

Furthermore, Ethiopia’s Eritrea agenda relied on the international community not doing any business with Eritrea. TPLF aimed to kill Eritrea’s economy partly by ensuring that the ports of Asab and Massawa are not utilized. The reality however, Eritrea’s strategic location is far too important and the TPLF is not in a position to leverage Eritrea’s territories, in this case the ports of Asseb and Massawa to use as bargaining chip because the TPLF does not control Eritrea.

Furthermore, the resolution that EU adopted and the increased support to Ethiopian opposition groups waging armed resistance signals that the EU is alienating the EPRDF regime. If history is a guide, what the EU does the US follows and vice-versa.

Lo and behold, Dr. Berhanu Nega, Chairman of Arbegnoch Ginbo7 (AG7), a subject that the TPLF raised during Obama’s Ethiopia visit in 2015, where the TPLF wanted to label him and his organization terrorist, was in the US on a working visit. While the nature of his visit was not clear, based on the confidence he displayed on a recent seminar that he conducted in Silver Spring, MD it is clear that the US is keeping its options open indicating shift away from the TPLF. These developments and the fact that the regime is no longer seen as custodian of western interests will make TPLF easy target for regime change.

One strategy that the TPLF used to stay in power is sell fear to US and EU that the TPLF is the only organization that can ensure peace and stability in Ethiopia and the region. However, recent developments have exposed that the TPLF is the greatest threat to peace and stability not only in Ethiopia but the region.    

Internal Isolation

The Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front is increasingly isolated within Ethiopia. Ethiopia are actively defying and challenging its authority. Ones feared federal police are no longer. Police in different regions are burning uniforms and joining ever-growing rebellion against the regime. Ethiopians are burning TPLF’s prisons and killing Agazi commandos everywhere. Weyane is hated by Ethiopians without exception. The Oromo’s, Gambella, Amhara, Somalia,Oganden and Debub-Hizboch loath the TPLF.

What concerns human rights activists is the safety of the people of Tigray as the regime has exploited Ethiopia in the name of Tigray.  Dr. Gregory Stanton of Genocide Watch said,

 “What I am witnessing in Ethiopia is a great deal of concern for the people of Tigray because the regime is committing these crimes on their names. Tigrayan minority that created its own colonies within the country rules Ethiopia. The minority Tigrayan regime has created animosities and mistrust amongst the various ethnic groups in Ethiopia in order to divide and rule. In these circumstances a feeling of “Us-against-them” and resentment arises with deadly consequences.”

De-Weyanization Now

A nation needs nationalist leadership that can establish institutions to benefit all, a political system that inspires hope. It needs economic programs that meet the needs of a nation, judiciary that ensure legal system and empower the publics; it needs balanced social structures, governance that is representative of the diversity and defense forces that ensure national safety. Weyane failed and betrayed Ethiopia and the region.

One of Weyane’s greatest miscalculations is the fact that it failed to create alliance with the people of Ethiopia. TPLF felt safe and invincible as long as the US and EU remains on its side. Weyane naively miscalculated that they can keep milking US and EU indefinitely in the name partnering in the war against terrorism and failed.

Hence, there is absolutely no possibility that the TPLF can sustain its rule based on a platform of hate and division that it created in order to divide and rule.  Ethiopians have rejected the system completely. Today, the TPLF aka Weyane Harnet Tigrai is isolated more than ever.

Dewaynization is on full-swing in Ethiopia and the likelihood that Weyane can stave off the onslaught is limited to none. According to the Oromo Media Network,

 “The protest in the Oromia region of Ethiopia that is well into its third month has gotten even bloodier today as local militia in West Arsi killed 11 members of the Agazi forces (special kill squads of the regime) in retaliation for the killing of two protesters.”

De-Weyanization means cleansing Ethiopia of its filth. These are vile and brute thieves with nasty agenda that aimed to spill blood indefinitely so they can sit on the throne indefinitely. They have no shame, integrity, morality or mercy. They are deceptive and to confuse the world they created Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary, Democratic Front (EPRDF) umbrella organization to appear representative when all the leaders are leaders of TPLF which stands for Tigray People’s Liberation Front.

Conclusion

Ethiopia is facing serious and dangerous challenges. These challenges also present the best opportunity for change. To face these challenges head-on, the biggest hurdle is cleansing Ethiopia of Weyane and the ugly agendas of hate and division that they brought forward.

To cleanse Ethiopia and start afresh De-Weyanization must take place. To De-Waynize means to dismantle EPRDF and kill its economic base, its tentacles, re-take the mercenary army, kill it diplomatically, kill its political structures and deny it voice by rejecting its voice. Above all a united approach and united voice is what will defeat TPLF. And more than ever, it appears that there is a realization that is the only option.          

Solidarity with the people fighting the evil TPLF!

Awetnayu@hotmail.com

http://genocidewatch.net/2012/12/06/genocide-watch-emergency-ethiopia/

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