TPLF - A Terrorist Organization with Highest Record of Human Rights Violations in Ethiopia

TPLF - A Terrorist Organization with Highest Record of Human Rights Violations in Ethiopia

SOLOMON DIBABA

Right from the days of its founding on February 18, 1975 TPLF has consistently based its ideology on extreme hatred for the peoples and governments of Ethiopia under the guise of self-determination. Although Tigray was one of the most important centers of Ethiopian civilization at Axum and in spite of the fact that thousands and hundreds of citizens in Tigray have shed their blood for the unity and territorial integrity of Ethiopia at Adwa and several other battle fronts in Tigray. Today TPLF has denied all this and has given itself a liberty of claiming that our citizens in Tigray are no event Ethiopians.

TPLF came to power through the blessings of the US through the diplomatic maneuverings of Herman Cohen right after the infamous London Conference that ended before it began. These days, the US attempting to force Ethiopia into a dialogue with a terrorist forces trying to repeat the same old tactic of reinstalling TPLF back to power.  

Prior to the reform three years back, the government of Ethiopia has released thousands of prisoners from jails across the country some of which are prisoners of conscience. Apart from the official detention centers in which beatings, castrating and all forms of savage interrogations were rampant, TPLF kept secret detention centers across Addis Ababa and the government took swift actions on prison reforms as an important measure to promote human rights in Ethiopia.

The international community and all those who supported the TPLF kept quiet on all these crimes committed on ordinary citizens by TPLF. Today these same governments are falsely accusing the Ethiopian government for using food as a weapon against the people of Tigray. The truth is, even when the army left Mekel the government has set aside enough food.   

After the armed forces were withdrawn from Tigray through a unilateral truce declared by the government of Ethiopia, the government addressed the repeated request by the western powers to facilitate easy access to humanitarian relief supplies and to promote a peaceful situation for farmers in Tigray to till their lands.

Recently, State Minister Ambassador Redwan Hussien and General Bacha Debele have jointly briefed the media on June 30 regarding the unilateral ceasefire that the government declared in Tigray.

Ambassador Redwan said the ceasefire considered the objectives of the law enforcement operation, survival of the nation, concerns of the people of Tigray, and the international community. During the operation, he said, the government aimed to neutralize TPLF militarily, recapture or destroy looted ammunition, set Ethiopian troops free from TPLF, and hold criminals accountable for their impunity.

After the withdrawal of the armed forces, before the eyes of the international community and global law enforcement institutions, TPLF on the rampage of cold-bloodedly assassinating civil servants who were working for the wellbeing of the peoples of Tigray under the provisional regional government.

TPLF has now stage a situation of siege in Mekele and has launched a reign of terror among the local farmers preventing them from working on their farmlands. What could this be if not a gross violation of human rights in Tigray?

On November 4, 2020, TPLF massacred members of the Ethiopian National Defense Force swho were safeguarding the region and supporting the people in the region and yet the western powers and the international human rights agencies are not willing to mention this and condemn TPLF for this barbaric action. Does protection of human rights exclude soldiers in a restive Northern Command? If this is not gross human rights violation, what else could it be?

While more than 600 daily laborers were massacred by the so called Tigray Special Forces and militia on daylight simply because they naturally belonged to a specific ethnic group, the western powers and media outlets issued very little breaking news not even caring to pursue the issue to the bottom.

If this evidence based and fact verified by the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission and UN cannot be taken as ethnic cleansing, genocide and violation of human rights how does the world understand human rights violation?

The same grave situation has been repeated by TPLF at Humera but despite clear evidence from all corners, the international community failed to condemn this deliberate ethnic cleansing by TPLF.

But why are the international communities and the UN systems fail to make TPLF accountable for its atrocities in Tigray? Several answers could be suggested for this.

In the first place, the western powers and a number of UN systems are under the bondage of TPLF digital propaganda and Photoshop manipulation of the objective reality in Tigray and tend to believe and even present doctored videos and documents as authentic with no care for verification from any corner.

Imagine, one of the high posed EU officials gave himself the freedom to officially lie asserting that the Ethiopian Government officials told him that Ethiopia is working on exterminating all Tigreans in Ethiopia. Any person with a reasonable mind would certainly not believe this.

Now some leaders of these major powers are confusing the international community by welcoming Ethiopia’s unilateral truce and at the same time trying to pressurize the government to keep peace and stability to facilitate easy access to relief. The west is trying to teach the people of Ethiopia on how to handle their internal affairs. However, it is one thing to work in partnership with our western partners with mutual respect but bullying, intimidation and baseless accusations are not only counterproductive but also utterly undiplomatic.

International media outlets and their representatives here in Ethiopia are also very busy reporting on issues and events that they have not been able to verify. They prepare anonymous information sources and make up telephone calls as evidence for their pro TPLF propaganda and defamation of the legitimate government of Ethiopia.

When TPLF facilitates a clandestine method of sharing from the relief supplies meant for the public and yet claim lack of food and famine, couldn’t this be taken as a violation of human rights, snatching food purchased and distributed by the Ethiopian government from the needy population, this is TPLF violating the rights of the population in the region.

After assassinating the Ethiopian servicemen and women at the Northern command and other brigades under it, the TPLF embarked on destroying the major infrastructures in the region including Axum Airport, major internal roads, hospitals, clinics, factories, schools and several other service providing institutions in Tigray. Again the western countries and their media chose not to condemn such vandalism that TPLF has conducted.

When it comes to upholding the rule of law and punishing human rights violations, Ethiopia however has already mobilized a multi-dimensional operational committee drawn from the Office of the Attorny General, the Federal Police, the Federal Army and the security agency. A number of members of the armed forces have been made to appear before courts of law and get their sentences.

Whether it is on the issue of human rights or other outstanding issues, instead of repeatedly forwarding warnings, threats and intimidating statements major partners of Ethiopia including the EU and the USA are expected to support the positive actions that the government has been taking and intends to take. Blind moral support and being susceptible to false propaganda from TPLF and disseminating it at will is not only counterproductive but will only tarnish the century old diplomatic relations between Ethiopia and its partners.