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I TOLD YOU SO

I TOLD YOU SO

 

G. Amare, July 3, 2021

 

Back in 2020, I had voiced my fear that the danger of war is looming because Tigrai’s mortal enemies have been constantly engaged in conspiring, sabotaging, and beating war drums against Tigrai. I had expressed my concerns regarding the continuous spreading of fake information to create a dilemma and a cloud of doubt in the minds of the international community in a coordinated and organized manner. I had communicated the fact that Abiy Ahmed and the Amhara chauvinists have been persistently sowing poisonous propaganda intending to annihilate the people of Tigrai.

I had also appealed to the international community to deescalate the mounting hostilities and prevent the danger of war. In addition, various members of the Tigrai community, collectively, and individually, have been informing and demanding the UN and the international community to intervene before and after the eruption of war.

The Tigrai government (TRG) and TPLF also appealed to and alerted the international community to deter the mounting danger of war before the eruption. TRG/TPLF has warned the international community not only about the impending crisis but also about the fact that conspiracy, betrayal, and outright lies have become the new normal of running political businesses and public affairs in Ethiopia. TRG/TPLF has also shared its concerns that Abiy Ahmed is only focused on pursuing his dream that he is preordained to be a king and his despotic behaviors have made a peaceful and democratic resolution impossible. TPLF also issued a five-point statement calling for an inclusive and genuine dialogue to save Ethiopia from balkanization.

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However, the UN and the international community failed to respond and intervene. They have been reluctant to pay attention to TRG/TPLF’s demands to prevent the all-out war from occurring. They pay little to no attention to Abiy Ahmed’s typical totalitarian and sociopathic behaviors and his unwillingness to accept the repeated requests for inclusive dialogues made by TPLF/TRG and many other dominant political parties. I guess that the international community might have the thinking that the information coming from the Tigrai community to be unreliable. However, even after having received credible reports of massive human atrocities and crimes of genocide, the UN and the international community have continued to be lethargic to respond.

Just recently, Pekka Haavisto, a European Union envoy, witnessed what Ethiopia’s leaders told him in closed-door talks that “they are going to wipe out the Tigrayans for 100 years.” This is what members of the Tigrai community have been informing the UN and the international community and pleading to intervene. Still, the UN and the international community opted to remain unresponsive in taking meaningful measures.

Unfortunately, the UN and the international community didn’t seem to have learned from their past failures. They have been and still are reluctant to take impactful measures against crime offenders. The UN has remained inept to stand at the forefront to practically materialize its solemn duties. The UN is repeatedly observed to be sluggish in responding at a time when peace and security are endangered, international law is infringed, human rights are violated and suppressed, humanitarian aid is deliberately hampered, and starvation, sex, and gang rapes are used as weapons of war. Rather, the UN has been busy with its tangled bureaucratic procedures and struggling with conflicting interests, and failed to take preventive and protective measures.

The international community’s failure and inaction have given the war perpetrators a leeway and freeway to jointly wage an all-out war with a clear intention to destroy Tigrai and exterminate its people as predicted.

Sadly, the international community has allowed the war to result in immeasurable destructions, massacres, and war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. The world has witnessed morally corrupt war perpetrators committing premeditated crimes. They are committing savage and indiscriminate mass massacres, human sufferings, ethnic cleansing, and gang rapes, inflicting unseen physical and mental traumas and humiliations not only to victims but also to their families and society as a whole. They have deliberately starved and displaced millions. They have looted and confiscated properties and livestock. They have destroyed Tigrai.

What makes this war peculiar is the involvement of both domestic and foreign enemies: all Ethiopian Defense Forces, Amhara Militia-Fano-Special Forces,  Eritrean Troops (in full capacity), and about 4000 Somalian Armies. UAE backed the enemy forces by equipping them with drones and operators. Architects of the war-Abiy & Isaias- have been able to procure sophisticated technologies and have employed air bombardments, long-ranged artillery, and lethal chemicals, and drones to kill civilians. They have utilized starvation and economic influence to fortify the war.

Various credible media outlets have reported that the target of the war has not been discrete to the action of armed conflict and combatant militaries. However, massive civilians and non-combatant members have been targeted and massacred. The peoples' social makeups are being damaged. Houses, churches, mosques, historical heritages, and infrastructures have been bombed and destroyed, factories destroyed or looted, crops torched or spoiled, and livestock killed or confiscated. Fruit-bearing trees uprooted. Health facilities have been vandalized or made dysfunctional and as a result, people are being denied access to health services and are suffering and dying from different treatable diseases. Thus, the war should be understood in the context of its economic, political, social, cultural, moral, physical, and psychological impacts.

At this point, there should not be any doubt that the war has been launched with the clear intention to bring the destruction of Tigrai and the annihilation of the people. The plan has been designed to constitute a multipronged scheme. It has occurred in a coordinated and systematic manner.

Recently, the international community has started to categorically call and label the war to be a crime of genocide.

The situation is different now. Thanks to the heroes and heroine, fallen and alive, TDF fighters and commanders who have repeated history by selflessly sacrificing their precious lives to defend Tigrai. Thanks to the wisdom and intelligence of TDF's strategists and leadership. They haven't failed to turn their words into actions. These gallant fighters have journeyed through all the ups and downs, without giving up to any inconceivable sufferings,  hardships and difficulties. They have fought day and night to miraculously defeat the evil forces. These aggressors failed to learn from history but Tigrai is winning against all the odds because it is fighting for a  cause.  The world is witnessing history repeating itself.

Back then, when the danger of war was looming and seemed unavoidable, I said, “Tigray Will Win, Rise, Shine and Make Another History” against all the odds. I told you so because there was no doubt in my mind that Tigrai would win. Generations come and go but Tigrayans’ characteristics of patriotism, resilience, firmness and invincible courage persist from one generation to the other. Historically, the Tigrai people made a series of selfless struggles to defend their history, value, and tradition.

One fight after another, the people of Tigrai have shown their undefeatable characters for a cause. They always stand firm and show unbreakable strengths to fiercely fight against self-willed enemies and aggressors. They are always ready to pay all the necessary sacrifices to defend their rights and identity. Tigrayans possess intrinsic values including societal Integrity: the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles and moral uprightness; the state of being whole and undivided; Resilience: toughness and the capacity to sustain and recover quickly from difficulties; Resistance: the ability not to be affected and influenced by something, e.g. illicit benefits or private gains; Selfless Determinations: keep on struggling to the death for a cause and for what they believe in, and Considerate: showing careful thought not to cause inconvenience to others.

Examples to name are the De’ki’ke Estifanos,  the 1st, and 2nd Woyane struggles. These struggles occurred at different times but they have common characteristics: integrity, resilience, and resistance to sustain hardships, and selfless determinations and devotions for what they believe in.

The 17-year struggle, 2nd Woyane, is one of the famed struggles in Tigrai’s history. It was greatly acknowledged and praised to be historic because it made a seemingly impossible possible: overturned the ingrained political, economic, and social injustice and inequalities that existed for over a century. This struggle crashed the bulwark of a unitary rule and freed Ethiopia’s Nations and Nationalities.

Following this, TPLF/EPRDF reconstituted Ethiopia by creating a language-based federal system. A new constitution was written to grant Nations and Nationalities the right to enjoy the benefits of political power and self-rule. These situations empowered the Nations and Nationalities to engage in and assume more challenging responsibilities; offered them the chance to perform meaningful projects; and enabled citizens, at all levels, to get involved in the process of pragmatic policy creations and decision making.

This wasn't the end of the story. TPLF/EPRDF pledged to continue fighting against another enemy-a deeply rooted poverty-by formulating and implementing policies and initiatives tailored to the Ethiopian situation. Ethiopia was in the process of winning this fight too until it was cut short by myopic, irresponsible, morally corrupt, and powermonger Amhara chauvinists who served as a natural-born naysayer and antagonistic to TPLF/EPRDF’s developmental initiatives. Ethiopia’s success story was well-documented and commended at a global level. Ethiopia had shown dual-digit economic development for about a decade that brought Ethiopia to the rank of one of the progressing countries in the world, changing its bad and dark image: the image of famine and poverty. Thanks to the Amhara chauvinists, such success stories are cut short and reversed.

However, these doomed chauvinists have been continuously engaged in sowing hate against the people of Tigrai and have fully engaged themselves in undermining, discrediting, conspiring, propagating, and calling for carrying out ethnic cleansing and decimation of TPLF and the people of Tigray. Ever since Abiy Ahmed came to power, they have obtained the opportunity to create chaos and jeopardize peace and turn Tigrai into a dysfunctional state. In the end, Abiy Ahmed, the Amhara chauvinists, and Isaias Afwerki have jointly waged an all-out war against the people of Tigrai which they deliberately mislabeled as a "law enforcement operation" to confuse the international community.

Abiy, his die-hard supporters, and affiliated media outlets have been in a state of euphoria and bubbling up being motivated and corrupted by money. They thought that the people of Tigrai can also be influenced by money too. What didn't cross their mind is that the Tigrai people can’t, at any cost, be influenced and trade-off their rights with money. The people of Tigrai are well informed that money is a hygienic motivator and only plays a temporary maintenance role as one’s need for money grows and changes from time to time.

What produces permanent motivation is recognition for meaningful achievements. That is what the gallant TDF fighters, commanders, and leaders have done. They refused to trade-off their principles with money and compromise their long-fought and hard-earned self-determination and self-rule rights. These heroes and heroines, alive or fallen, will remain in the hearts and minds of the Tigrai people, for generations to come. They will have a special place in Tigrai’s history and will always be remembered. This is what produces afterglow effects and drives their long-term engagements and creates memorable connections.

However, to Abiy, his die-hard supporters, and affiliates, money is their only motivator and rate-determining factor. Money can easily influence them to betray and sabotage their country and take avenging action. They are experienced in nothing but manufacturing and distributing fake news, lies, propaganda, and hate. Many of the individuals who are serving Abiy’s administration also have served as members and front runners within the EPRDF government. They have grudges against TPLF because they were either imprisoned, demoted, or purged because of their guilt of corruption, betrayal, or incompetency.

Abiy Ahmed was able to recruit and pool all enemies of TPLF and the people of Tigrai together. He was able to maneuver their weak points to form PP, a party without a road map and a moral compass. They have been busy being engaged in stirring up conflicts and mass displacements. Some of Abiy’s advisors are famous for myopically opposing any TPLF/EPRDF’s developmental initiatives. For example, they have betrayed Ethiopia by standing with Egypt against the construction of the grand renaissance dam project. 

To Abiy and his hard-core loyalists, I wish them good luck! As far as Tigray is concerned, it will continue winning, rising, shining, and making one history after another. Thanks to those heroes and heroines, fallen and alive.

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