TPLF leaders Debretsion Gebremichael and Abay Woldu
By Abel Kebedom
July 22, 2016
It is public knowledge that TPLF started its armed struggle in February 1975 with the sole intention of liberating and separating Tigray from Ethiopia. After EPLF pressured TPLF to abandon its objective of fighting for the separation of Tigray from Ethiopia and TPLF’s own understanding that only a radical change in Ethiopia can bring peace to Tigray, it put its original objective of the cessation of Tigray from Ethiopia to the back burner and started working for regime change in Ethiopia. However, in reality TPLF did not abandon the long preached dream of having an independent Tigray. In fact, for TPLF working for regime change in Ethiopia was considered as a good opportunity to prepare Tigray for an independent state. There are so many evidences that point to the latter argument. To mention some of them:
- During the late 1980’s whenever TPLF controlled cities in Wollo, Gojam, Gondar and later in Showa, it continued to loot public facilities such as buses, generators, tractors and even school desks and chairs and transported them to Tigray. When TPLF controlled Addis Ababa in 1991 every Tigrian who was returning from Addis Ababa to Mekelle was asked to take a car and drop it in Mekelle. As a result, big stores that were used by charity organizations to store grain around Mekelle before 1991 were filled with looted cars, buses, generators and even hospital equipment’s andambulances.
- A big arm depot was prepared and all Armaments from all over Ethiopia was collected, transported and stored in a place called Endayesus, Mekelle.
- Coffee was stolen from Southern Ethiopia and exported through Massawa. In fact, when the border war between Eritrea and Ethiopia started in 1998, EPLF was able to capture a looted coffee storage area around Zalambassa.
- The strongest evidence that supports the claim that TPLF did not abandon its dream for an independent Tigrai was its interest for Tigray to have access to Sudan and the red sea. While incorporating Wolkaite into Tigray was done easily, having access to the red sea was set as a long term agenda. The surprising part of TPLF’s claim to Wolakite as part of Tigrai was the Tigrina name of the villages in Wollkaite. The truth is before 1991 Wolkaite had little or no contact with Tigrai. The connection was with Eritrea and the tigrina names came because many Eritreans use to travel and live in these areas. There was road connection between Wolkaite and Eritrea but not between wolkaite and Tigrai. Although telling the truth is not in TPLF’s culture, Mengesha Seyoum who was the administrator of Tigrai during the Haileslassie regime unambiguously told TPLF that Wolkaite has never been part of Tigrai. Yet the Twin Mentality TPLF considers such truth as an obstacle to its hidden agenda.
- To facilitate the cessation of Tigrai from Ethiopia at a later date, TPLF insisted on including article 39 in the so called Ethiopian constitution.
Given the above evidences and incidents, the people of Gondar and for that matter the people of Ethiopia have strong reason not to trust TPLF. For them TPLF is an ethnocentric looting army with no regard to the people of Ethiopia. Superficially it preaches every state (killil) has a right to administer itself and take care of its affairs. Yet the people who are running or controlling these states are either local TPLF agents or Tigreans. Moreover, almost all federal ministries including the security, defense and foreign are controlled by trusted TPLF agents of Tigrean origin. After the expulsion of Eritreans from Ethiopia in 1998 all economic sectors are controlled by TPLF affiliated Tigreans. Hence at the center of the current turmoil in Ethiopia, whether it is in Oromia or Amhara, is TPLF’s Twin Competing Mentality. To be a government in Ethiopia and use Ethiopian resources to prepare Tigray for cessation. That includes the war with Eritrea.
After 25 years of repression, killing and humiliation of Ethiopians by TPLF goons the dangers of TPLF’s twin mentality is unraveling in Oromo, Amhara and other places in Ethiopia. There is no question that the recent public uprising in Ethiopia will facilitate the down fall of the ethnocentric regime in Ethiopia. Hence it time for all Ethiopians to think beyond the horizon. What kind of Ethiopia do they want to see after the down fall of TPLF?
Victory to the masses.