BY TEODROSE FIKREMARIAM | THE GHION JOURNAL
Earlier this week, I noted that we should all be very careful about assigning guilt given the fog of war and disinformation that abounds in Ethiopia. However, in a shocking development, Sekuture Getachew, a high-level TPLF official, admitted on Dimsti Weyane TV show that the TPLF conducted a “preemptive strike” against the Ethiopian National Defense Forces, Northern Command.
What is now beyond question is that the TPLF initiated this conflict and forced Abiy Ahmed’s hand. No Head of State around the world would have stood pat as rogue elements within their country’s borders brazenly attacks its own military in the dark of night and murders soldiers in their sleep.
What Sekuture Getachew calls a “preemptive strike” is nothing short of treason and an act of terror.
“Israel made surprise attacks against these forces and demobilized the enemy troops to successfully defend itself. It is a similar strategy that was used now.” ~ Sekuture Getachew
Mr. Getachew acts as if the TPLF is a country defending itself against an invading force; to the contrary, Tigray is part and parcel of Ethiopia and the TPLF making a “surprise attack” against its own nation’s military is sedition.
It’s one thing to work within a political framework and oppose Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s administration, but to take up arms and subvert the rule of law in order to form their own state outside of the Constitution that TPLF itself wrote is malicious insolence. TPLF’s actions are in fact, a red line that must be dealt with lest their defiance festers and metastasizes into a wider war that has dire implications for Ethiopia and the region as a whole.
The blame lies solely on the TPLF for the conflict that is taking place in Tigray; not only did they kill without provocation, they have also plunged the province of Tigray into a state of crisis and initiated a war that has unleashed massive human suffering and strife.
Moreover, according to eyewitnesses, stories corroborated by independent media, and the report released by Amnesty International, the victims of Thursday’s gruesome terror attacks in Mai-Kadra were in fact mostly Amharas and people who survived the onslaught recounted that the instigators of the mass killings were TPLF soldiers.
While my heart continues to hurt for the innocent Tigrayan civilians who are caught in this cross-fire, it has become abundantly clear that the TPLF is hell-bent on burning Ethiopia to the ground in order to regain power. They will do so through terror and using the suffering of Tigrayans as both a human shield and a spear in their campaign to bend public perception to their will. Abiy Ahmed is correct, TPLF cannot be allowed to start a campaign of terror then set the terms for peace.
"If violent factions attacked US soldiers in their barracks or militants launched a terror campaign against French citizens, no one would demand that the respective governments enter into negotiations with zealots."https://t.co/V0rKRjNdlN
— Bronwyn Bruton (@BronwynBruton) November 14, 2020
TPLF have proven, by their own admission, to be criminals who are willing to act callously and in blatant disregard for human life in order to achieve their political ambitions. It is important to make a distinction between TPLF and Tigrayan people as a whole, the two are not the same any more than ISIS represented all Muslim people.
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