Date: Thursday, 03 February 2022
[A Joke of the 21st Century!!!!]
"We were on the offensive, we were moving forward but we said 'let's hold', the international community was saying stop, don't move to Addis Ababa [because] there would be a bloodshed, so, it was a decision to give peace a chance."
SudanPost Editors
February 2, 2022
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ADDIS ABABA – The leader of the rebellious Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) Debretsion Gebremichael has dismissed suggestions that the Ethiopian federal forces thwarted their last year’s advance on Addis Ababa saying the group decided to drop their bid to capture the capital “to avoid bloodshed.”
Ethiopian federal forces in November 2020 decided to launch a law-enforcement operation by removing the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) from power in the region after the group’s military wing attacked a federal army base in the northern region.
The Ethiopian federal forces entered Mekelle and the TPLF retreated to mountainous areas of the region, but a few months on, the group made an unexpected come back pushing the Ethiopian federal forces to Afar and Amhara region sparking concerns that Addis Ababa would fall to the rebels.
Late last year however, the Ethiopian federal forces launched an offensive led by Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed pushing the rebels out of the Afar and Amhara regions, but the group made yet another announcement last month saying it had returned to Afar to thwart attacks against Tigray regions from the border areas of Afar.
Speaking on the BBC News Hour on Saturday, Debretsion dismissed that they were defeated and said they refused to enter Addis Ababa because the international community had advised them that there would be bloodshed if they were to proceed and that they withdrew to give peace a chance.
“Our withdrawal didn’t mean that we were weak, we were giving peace a chance, no military force has pushed us, we have simply withdrawn. We were on the offensive, we were moving forward but we said ‘let’s hold’, the international community was saying stop, don’t move to Addis Ababa [because] there would be a bloodshed, so, it was a decision to give peace a chance,” the rebel chief said.
•π√> ‘Systematic destruction’
When asked if his group is ready for investigation into alleged war crimes by the parties to the conflict, Debretsion welcomed any investigation, but said there was difference between the crimes committed by the federal government’s forces in Tigray, and those committed by his forces in the regions of Amhara and Afar.
“We say we are ready for the scrutiny, we are ready for the investigation but that is not in parallel with what has happened in Tigray because in Tigray they have done atrocities,” Debretsion said.
“[By being ready to be investigated] we are not saying that what has been done in Tigray has also been done in Afar and Amhara, no, what has been done in Tigray is completely different because what has been done in other areas could be indiscipline issues, while what has been done in Tigray is systematic destruction,” he added.
The rebel chief further said the current presence of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) in Afar region is for defensive purposes because Eritrean forces and regional forces have been crossing frequently to Tigray region and his forces returned to part of Afar to end those attacks by the federal and regional forces.
“Our mission in Afar is defensive, we have been attacked several times for several weeks by Special Forces from Afar, Eritrean forces and militias from Afar were conducting operations against our forces, they were crossing into Tigray borders, they were obstructing humanitarian supplies, they have killed hundreds of Tigrayans, they have looted properties, thousands have been arrested and raped,” he said.
“So finally we have to respond for security reasons, we have to remove those who have crossed into our territory, we have to remove and attack those who are in the proximity of Tigray,” he added.
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•> After you led thousands of people to death, you simply said “we returned because the international community advised us to do so”. Is that your justification your are going to give when Afar, Amhara, Tigray … mothers asked for the whereabouts of their children? That is so pity.
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