TPLF Showed No Interest to Resolve Dispute Peacefully, Say Religious Leader and Elderly

Addis Ababa, November 9/2020 (ENA) A religious leader and an elder, who traveled to Tigray Regional State in June 2020 to encourage dialogue, said the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) had not interest in resolving differences through dialogue.

Among the elders who traveled to the region, the Somali tribal leader Garad Kulmiye Garad Mohammed and Lique Heruyan Belay Mekonnen, a religious figure, exclusively talked to Ethiopian News Agency today.

“TPLF had never respected the constitutional order during its reign,”  Garad Kulmiye bitterly recollected.

Citing the Somali Regional State where he resides, Garad said the region was under the protectorate of the TPLF clique.

Thus when the group which ruined the political, economic and social values ​​of the country is told to live by the rule of law it opted for war and destruction, he added.

Garad revealed that he was one of the elders who traveled to Mekele, the capital of Tigray Regional State, to bring back the group from its destructive ways.

“The mediation that we went through at the time proved to us that TPLF is an anti-peace force that is not good for the people of Tigray,” he stressed.

Garda pointed out  that “ no matter how horrendous war could be, it is not beyond the survival of the nation.” Therefore, the group should to be stopped within a short period.

Lique Heruyan Belay Mekonnen, a religious figure, said on his part TPLF did not welcome the top religious leaders and elders who traveled to Mekelle at the time. 

When they arrived in Mekelle, they were subjected to series of screening, including harassment, he stated.

He further noted that they refused the mediation by saying ''it was too late.”

A total of 60 persons comprised of religious father, elders, and prominent personalities traveled to the region for mediation in June 2020.