Bringing Fugitives to Justice, Ensuring Safety of Citizens Gov’t Top Priorities: PM Office

Addis Ababa, December 7/2020( ENA) The Government of Ethiopia is working closely with relevant humanitarian agencies and UN partners to extend protection and humanitarian assistance to those who are impacted alongside the tasks to bringing fugitives to justice.

According to a statement from the Office of the Prime Minister, after the capture of the city of the Mekelle, without civilian causalities and destruction of property, the criminal clique warned and so many in the media echoed, the active phase of the military operations has come to an end.

The current task of the Federal Government mainly includes bringing fugitives to justice, restoring law and order in Tigray Regional State.

The statement added that guaranteeing citizens in the affected areas to have unfettered access to humanitarian assistance, resettling and rehabilitating those who have been forced to cross borders and restoring transport and communications services that have been destroyed and disrupted by the criminal clique, remain utmost priorities of the government.

The criminal group pushed a patently false narrative that its fighters and supporters are battle hardened and well-armed, posing the risk of protracted insurgency in the rugged mountains of Tigray.

It also claimed that it has managed to undertake strategic retreat with all its capability and regional government apparatus intact, it said.

The reality is the criminal clique is thoroughly defeated and in disarray, with insignificant capability to mount a protracted insurgency.

Using lies and anarchy as a political weapon may have worked during the clique's days of guerrilla warfare. But it is a lesson the hardliners within the criminal clique have failed to unlearn, it added.

Accordingly, the clique cannot be a reliable partner to the worthy cause of creating a more just and equitable Ethiopia if they themselves are fiercely resistant to accommodate any change.

More than anything else, ordinary Tigrayans seek for inclusive and equitable growth, peace, freedom, and security.

In the absence of a legitimate and just cause, sustaining a protracted insurgency is near impossible particularly by a disgruntled and reactionary clique that has few allies inside and outside, it said.

The statement further noted that the criminal clique also wanted to internationalize the conflict by spouting endless false accusations as a last-ditch attempt to force international mediation as a way out of accountability and justice.

The notion that the criminal group cares about the wellbeing of civilians is anomalous to its inherent being.

“A group that began its campaign of destruction with treasonous murder of members of the National Defense Force, then proceeded with the purging of civilians in Mai-Kadra,” the statement noted.

At the same time the clique launched indiscriminate weapons of destruction to densely populated cities in Bahir Dar and Gondar, used civilians and kidnapped members of the military as human shields, can claim no moral authority to express concern for the wellbeing of civilians.

Furthermore, its three-decade old history in power is replete with civilians suffering and mass atrocities, the statement pointed out.

The protection and security of all citizens remains an essential priority for the Federal Government, the statement underlined.

The government is actively working to extend protection and humanitarian assistance to those who are impacted by the law enforcement operations including to non-Ethiopians who are hosted in refugee camps and host communities in Tigray.

In addition, the government will return, resettle, and rehabilitate Ethiopian refugees in a short period of time.

It is to be recalled that the government signed an agreement with the UN for an enhanced coordination mechanism for humanitarian access that will enable partners to assist affected population effectively and impartially with a well-coordinated framework led by the Federal Government.