The TPLF has launched an anti Semitic campaign. In its campaign the TPLF says that the Eritrean-Ethiopian war is not about a border but about a superior Semitic attitude of the Eritrean people.
This was disclosed by a senior TPLF politburo member, Sebhat Nega, in an interview he gave to Al-Jazira Quatar Television Station on 19 March 1999." Sebhat Nega, also "one of the ideologues of the TPLF, was a founder and Secretary of the TPLF in its formative years." In the interview, he accused the Eritrean leadership of claiming to have Semitic acumen, and the Eritrean people of accepting the leadership's attitude and, as a result, of particularly looking down upon the people of Tigrai.
Hostilities between Eritrea and Ethiopia began when TPLF forces took over Adi Murug, a village in the Badda area (eastern Eritrea) in July 1997 and replaced the Eritrean administration there with their own, and culminated into war when the TPLF forces again attacked and killed members of a small Eritrean unit in Badma (south-western Eritrea) in June 1998.
To most journalists, Badma is a barren piece of land, and unable to unravel the mystery of the dispute, some of them see the war as a fight between two bald men fighting over a comb; others as "phoney" because "it doesn't sound like one village should be worth a war;" and still others as a fight over a "goat and camel-ridden areaS"
But can the current TPLF's Semitic explanation satisfy the puzzled journalists regarding the real causes for the war?
But except for making allegations, Sebhat Nega cited no incident whatsoever to substantiate the accusation.
War is a costly affair, both in terms of human and material losses. And why should an attitude be a cause for a costly affair? Have the neighbours of the Semitic people, i.e. the Jewish people and the Arabs, gone to war against their Semitic neighbours' attitudes? Of course not! The Middle East is plagued by wars, but the wars are fought over real issues, and not over social attitudes!
Most Eritreans, as most Ethiopians, have limited Semitic but dominant African heritage. Naturaly, Eritreans are proud of their heritage, but they see themselves primarily as Eritreans and then as Africans.
An expert in the region, Patrick Giles, and Africa Analysis characterize the Eritrean people as "self-confident and "proud", respectively. And these are positive assessments.
But what does the TPLF's anti-Semitic campaign tell us? I think it tells us that :
But, how much do people know of the war and TPLF? Let us listen to what Dan Connell, a prominent American writer, who is intimately familiar with the area , has to say:
" far more is going on here than a petty border dispute 'Much has been made of disputes between these two countries over economic policy \ punctuated by Eritrea's issuance of a new national currency in 1997 and Ethiopia's refusal to accept it\ but the roots of the crisis lie elsewhere. Once in power in Addis Ababa in 1991, the Tigrayans \ who launched their movement sixteen years earlier with calls for an independent Tigray\ redrew Ethiopia's internal borders on the basis of ethnic identity, establishing Tigray as an autonomous state-within-a-state."
He goes on further to explain that borders and economics are "more symptoms than causes." He believes the "cause in a sense is a surging nationalism coming out of the north of Ethiopia by a people that have been kept down for most of this century by the Amhara of Ethiopia, whom they displaced, and it's now, in a sense, their turn to rebuild the Ethiopian Empire."
He also refers to the TPLF's nationalism as "fiercely".
When you relate the expulsion of over fifty-five thousand ethnic Eritreans by the TPLF to the above description, you come to realize that the TPLF is an extremist force that will not stop at anything short of achieving its sinister designs.
And it is this same mentality that culminated in the recent Rwandan genocide in Africa and the Holocaust in Nazi Germany in World War II.
I am convinced that the TPLF is possessed by Fascism, not only because it is sermonizing anti- Semitism but because it is re-living Nazi precepts. For a full understanding of the TPLF's neo-Nazi stance, we will briefly see the meanings of anti- Semitism and Fascism..
First anti- Semitism. Both Jews and Arabs are Semitic. But anti- Semitism is usually associated with the Jews. Nazi Germany was the archenemy of the Jews because, according to A Dictionary of Modern Politics by D. Robertson, the Jews "exercised the real power in all the nations opposed to Germany, whether capitalist or communist." Likewise, the TPLF feels bitter about and threatened by Eritreans because they exercised economic power in Ethiopia.
Now Fascism.There is no "coherent body of political doctrine," according to A Dictionary of Modern Politics, "that can be attributed to fascism because all fascist movements were opportunistic, and depended on demagogic exploitation of locals fears and hatred to whip up public support." But Fascism is expressed in different forms, and Nazism was one of its different forms.
Illusive as it may be, Fascism has some common characteristics, and these are, according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica :
Let us now try to apply the characteristics of Fascism to the TPLF:
First, the TPLF is opportunistic. It marched on Addis Ababa with the assistance of the EPLF's superior mechanized force, and until it stood firmly on its "four feet", it exploited Eritrean support P military, political, material, intellectual, etc.. And when the Eritrean support was no longer needed, it first attacked the State of Eritrea and then expelled en masse ethnic Eritreans from Ethiopia as "spies".
The TPLF is now relying on the Derg forces that it discredited and disbanded as anti-people when it marched into Addis Ababa.To entice them to join it forces, it promised them 7 years back pay but when they got to the battlefield, they were told that they would get their back pay after they return victoriously. Poor folks, most of them will fall in the battlefield, and if in case they miraculously survive the war, the TPLF may not be around, or, if it is, it will always concoct excuses.
It may well be for opportunistic reasons that it is accusing Eritreans of "black Jew" mentality:
Secondly, the TPLF is fiercely nationalistic. As a narrow Tigrayan nationalist, it launched an armed struggle to liberate Tigray and not Ethiopia. And when it was in control, ironically, of the whole of Ethiopia, it carved up Ethiopia into ethnic states, and Tigray, by the annexation of territories from neigbouring Ethiopian provinces of Wollo and Gondar, emerged as a state (within a state ), headed by president! The only neighbour from which Tigray did not take land was Eritrea. To complete the mission, Tigrayan forces made incursions first into Adi Murug and then into Badma. And until the Eritrean blow at Badma on the TPLF forces proved too strong for the TPLF to go it alone, the TPLF had treated the conflict as a Tigrayan affair.
TPLF's ethnic mentality is killing Tigray and Ethiopia and destabilizing the Horn of Africa..
Moreover, the TPLF is a champion of deceit, for it is an advocate of the capitalist system in Addis Ababa, and a hard line Marxist in its home ground - Makele, Tigray - where the Marxist Leninist League of Tigray (MLLT) is the guiding force.
Whatever misleading signals the TPLF shows, it ardently sticks to its original agenda, which is the liberation of Tigray. Tigray is now on the threshold of independence, and it can become independent anytime the TPLF decides it (Tigray) is fat enough to break with Ethiopia!
Thirdly, the TPLF is ruthless and can reject appeals from the international community contemptuously. It has expelled over fifty-six thousand ethnic Eritreans to-date. The TPLF Prime Minister wondered why there should be so much uproar about repatriating Eritreans "peacefully" to their country! What he was satanically implying was that "they could have even been annihilated?" Africa Analysis characterizes Meles Zenawi as "an unreconstructed Stalinist S"
When the TPLF and OLF broke ranks and both resorted to force of arms, atrocious crimes were committed on the Oromo people, and the TPLF accused the OLF of committing the crimes. But the OLF denied the accusation and put the blame squarely on the TPLF.
Subsequently in 1996, a Scots aid worker, Kirst Scott, uncovered a "secret war", conducted by the TPLF against the Oromo people. She publicized the atrocities, of which she had video films, and warned the West of an impending "human tragedy.
From a hindsight the world now knows who was behind the atrocities that the TPLF accused the OLF of committing..
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the USA and Amnesty International expressed their concern over the expulsion of ethnic Eritreans.. The USA, in particular, told the TPLF regime that " there are fundamental humanitarian and human rights concerns raised by the forcible separation of families, the undue hardships of those detained or expelled to Eritrea, and the financial losses caused by sudden expulsions."
The USA further urged the "the Government of Ethiopia to respect international human rights norms and standards and follow appropriate due process in handling its security concerns." But the TPLF has rejected contemptuously the calls of the international community.
But the TPLF has continued the expulsions to this day by turning a deaf ear to the concerns and urging of the international community.
Does anyone doubt now the possession of the TPLF by Fascism? Fascism is real in Ethiopia.
The question is what can be done now P on the part of Eritrea, the Ethiopian people and the world community - to fight Fascism in Ethiopia? Each has a duty to avert a Fascist catastrophe.
Eritrea, I think, has no choice but to continue to defend itself and "degrade" the powers of the aggressor.
But the Ethiopian people, especially those who worship the God of Israel, and the Ethiopian intelligentsia have to deny their support to and distance themselves from this Fascist regime; for Ethiopia will not be safe if the TPLF has its way!
And the world community P in particular the USA, the Semitic world and the African continent P should do everything in their power to prevent a repeat of something that can resemble the Rwandan genocide or even the Holocaust.
As the TPLF is getting more irrational by the day, the world community has the duty to act in time to avoid one morning being taken by surprise. For as the English saying has it, a stitch in time saves nine.