A Rejoinder to Seyoum Mesfin’s Call to Arms to the People of Tigray
Author’s Note: I am postponing Part IV of my regularly scheduled commentary on truth and reconciliation in Ethiopia to respond to Seyoum Mesfin’s call to arms to the people of Tigray.
I find it exceedingly important to record a timely response to Mesfin’s inflammatory, outrageous and alarming battle cry aimed at spreading hysteria and paranoia among the people of Tirgray about a contrived genocidal war against them in the planning by their Ethiopian brothers and sisters.
In his politically calculated message, Mesfin offers the people of Tigray a separate peace and to the rest of Ethiopians a separate war.
I cannot let Mesfin’s veiled message of hate and sickening game of divide-bamboozle-hoodwink-and-rule go unchallenged. I offer this resolute rejoinder.
An offer of a separate peace and reconciliation to the people of Tigray and…
In my commentary last week, I wrote, “TIME IS RUNNING OUT. Time is running out on a peaceful resolution of the country’s crises as the TPLF continues to unleash its killing machines and dogs of war on the people.” I wondered out loud what the TPLF wanted as the clock runs down to GAME OVER. My answer was, “Frankly, I have no idea what the TPLF as an organization wants. If I were a betting man, I would say war.”
Well, it appears I got my answer confirming my suspicion last week in a statement by Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) Underboss, Seyoum Mesfin.
Speaking at a TPLF conference, Seyoum exclusively offered the people of Tigray separate peace and reconciliation, and by default, separate war and pacification for the rest of Ethiopians.
Mesfin is an original founder (“O.G.”) of the TPLF, its foreign minister and currently its ambassador to China.
Mesfin claims the people of Tigray are today “facing a glaring danger” that is “extremely, extremely alarming.” He warned, “Unless we are able to run, and run fast and defend (against the danger) before sundown, our survival is doubtful…”
Mesfin is desperately trying to make the current crises an Armageddon between the people of Tigray and the rest of Ethiopians. The crises has nothing to do with the people of Tigray. It has everything to do with the corrupt criminal political, economic and military leadership of the TPLF.
Some may find Mesfin’s message of “extreme, extreme alarm” the same old TPLF political hyperbole.
But I do not. I find it a masked call to arms. I find his message outrageous, hateful, divisive and vile.
Mesfin’s unmistakable reference to the “glaring danger” the people of Tigray are facing is the ongoing widespread and massive resistance to its rule throughout Ethiopia. But Mesfin’ cleverly, cunningly and calculatedly conflates opposition and resistance to TPLF thug rule with a presumed and contrived existential threat to the people of Tigray.
Mesfin’s statement implies the TPLF and the people of Tigray are one and the same and their destiny is inextricably intertwined.
His warped logic dictates a number of absurd conclusions: A threat to the TPLF Establishment is a threat to the people of Tigray. Without the TPLF, the people of Tigray will perish in a genocide. The people of Tigray simply cannot coexist with the rest of their Ethiopian brothers and sisters. The TPLF is the only guarantor of the survival of the people of Tigray, their bulwark between survival and genocide. Not supporting the TPLF is the equivalent of signing one’s own death warrant in an imminent ethnic genocide. The people of Tigray have no choice but to support the TPLF lock, stock and barrel (no pun intended).
Mesfin wants to scare-straight the people of Tigray into believing the current uprising throughout Ethiopia represents the final countdown to a showdown before sundown between the people of Tigray and the people of Ethiopia.
The diabolically cunning Mesfin delivers his message of doom and gloom to the people of Tigray wrapped in make-believe humility, contrition, anguish, apprehension and distress. He urges his TPLF comrades to ask forgiveness of the Tigrean people for things they did wrong, failed to do and should have done to regain their trust, confidence and support.
To some who heard Mesfin’s statement and do not understand the “devil’s tongue”, it was a manifest public admission the TPLF leaders are worried sick about losing power in the face of mass protests and growing resistance throughout the country. They perceive Mesfin’s incriminatory statement as an expression of TPLF’s weakness and vulnerability. They congratulate each other with “I told you so’s.”
The TPLF bosses speak with forked tongue, the devil’s tongue. They don’t say what they mean and mean what they don’t say. One must be careful to read between the lines.
Mesfin was not admitting any weaknesses. He was delivering a calculated and coded message to the people of Tigray. He uses the politics of ethnic hate and fear and smear and propagates lies and damned lies to disguise his message and drum up popular support among the people of Tigray in the hope of clinging to power.
I have always said the “LF” in TPLF stands for Lie Factory.
To conceal his hateful call to arms to the people of Tigray, Mesfin sugarcoats his message with crocodile tears and empty words of contrition and forgiveness.
Comrades, the glaring danger we are facing (today) is extremely, extremely alarming. Unless we are able to run, and run fast and defend (against the danger) before sundown, our survival is doubtful… It has been a very long, long time since we betrayed the people (of Tigray) who believed we would bring them peace and justice; they who cried tears of blood as they sacrificed their children (for our cause)… The people we betrayed long ago today feel they are twice dead… They are confused about which direction they should go… Our young people we thought would inherit our legacy have abandoned the main organization (TPLF) and live in a state of confusion…To ask forgiveness is a sign of decency. To ask forgiveness points to astuteness and readiness for work. Therefore, we have to kneel down and ask the forgiveness of the people (of Tigray) we have disappointed. Comrades, we are running out of time. This is not the time to be inattentive.
But what exactly is the “glaring danger of extreme concern” the people of Tigray are “facing” today?
Why must the people of Tigray “run very fast before sundown and prepare a defense”?
From whom are they running away? Who is chasing them and against whom are they supposed to be defending?
Is Mesfin suggesting that Tigreans will be “run out” of the rest of Ethiopia into the sunset simply because they are Tigreans?
I am totally mystified and puzzled by his cryptic message of “glaring danger and extreme, extreme concern”.
Surely the crimes against humanity, the corruption, the stolen elections and flagrant abuses of power committed by the TPLF bosses, cronies, partners in crimes and their opportunistic allies and accomplices cannot be blanket-blamed on the ordinary people of Tigray.
This is not to suggest that the TPLF empire of corruption and crime is not networked.
It is an incontrovertible fact that the TPLF Establishment and power and economic elites using an extended network of political and business partnerships have a complete chokehold on the political process, the economy, the bureaucracy and military in Ethiopia.
EFFORT (Endowment Fund For Rehabilitation of Tigray), the multi-billion TPLF racketeering business empire, is ground zero of TPLF corruption.
There is no doubt many individual Tigreans have used their ethnicity as a badge of superiority, privilege and immunity from the law and have long enjoyed the benefits of exclusive first-class citizenship.
There is no doubt the TPLF has facilitated the movement of large numbers of Tigreans into areas outside of the Tigray region and settled them with rights of first-class citizenship on highly contested lands.
My question is about the ordinary people of Tigray, the 85 percent plus eking out a living scratching the land? Are they also not victimized by the TPLF, which uses their name to legitimize its own corruption and criminality?
When Tigreans are moved around by the TPLF in other regions for apparent economic advantage and are viewed by their compatriots as TPLF militia and occupying forces, are they not victimized?
When the TPLF slices and cuts historically recognized territory and purports to transfer it to Tigray region causing deadly ethnic strife and enmity between Ethiopians who have lived peacefully for generations, does that not victimize the people of Tigray as much as others?
I have no doubts whatsoever that if the people of Tigray were given an opportunity to have a referendum on the TPLF, they would throw out those corrupt criminal rascals faster than you can say TPLF (Hewahat).
But they have never been given that opportunity! When they had one opportunity in 2010, bad things happened as Seeye Abraha (a founding member of the TPLF and “O.G.”) documented in a 2010 article entitled “Election 2010: A Retrospective” (International Journal of Ethiopia Studies (Vol. V, No. 2, p. 60):
The TPLF had conducted a study on every person in every village suspected of being in any way related to me. There are many veteran TPLF members who had participated in the armed struggle against the Derg but they were pushed out of the party’s fold during the TPLF split because they were suspected of siding with me or others like me. Moreover, there are many families that had sacrificed not one but two or three of their children during the armed struggle and who are now left without anyone to care for them. The tihadisso [renaissance] of Ato Meles marginalized these people and rewarded others who had made very little contribution to the armed struggle. Because all these people are suspected of having a feeling of resentment towards the TPLF leadership, they were placed under close surveillance during the election period. Various strategies were attempted to control them.
The TPLF crucified Seeye Abraha, one of their own, one of their founders and storied rebel commander and defense minister. They railroaded him to prison on so-called corruption charges for six years. When judge Birtukan Midekssa dismissed the corruption charges, the TPLF retaliated against her by dismissing her from the bench and later jailing her twice on bogus treason and other trumped up charges.
In 2014, Abraha Desta, a Mekelle University political science instructor, opposition leader, popular social media commentator and fearless critic of the TPLF was brutally beaten and jailed. His crime was telling the truth and speaking up. He was released after 2 years of imprisonment. That is how the TPLF deals with Tigreans who have the guts to stand up and speak up against its criminal rule.
The fact of the matter is that the ordinary people of Tigray have as much to fear from the TPLF as any other Ethiopians. If they even dare to tell the truth, let alone do overt political acts of protest, they will be treated mercilessly.
The TPLF is an organization of political cannibals, political hyenas.
If the Tigrean people are facing an existential threat as Mesfin suggested, what options do they have?
Only one. Raise arms, run like hell and defend themselves. That is exactly what Mesfin said. “Unless we are able to run, and run fast and defend (against the danger) before sundown, our survival is doubtful.”
Indeed, Mesfin is calling the people of Tigray to arms. “Prepare to wage war! They are coming to get you!”
It is the TPLF that has reason to run and run fast. But it can never outrun the truth about its crimes against humanity and decades of corruption. It can run but not hide from the long arms of justice.
The logical conclusions derived from Mesfin’s reasoning are: 1) There can be no peace unless the TPLF remains in power. The only way for the people of Tigray to avoid the purported genocide looming over the horizon is for them to close ranks and line up behind the TPLF for the Battle of Armageddon. 3) Only the TPLF can win the Battle of Ethiopian Armageddon and save the people of Tigray.
But why does Mesfin think the very survival of the people of Tigray is in question or that they will be victims of genocide?
The widespread uprising in the country is not against the people of Tigray. It is against TPLF rule, the abuses of power by TPLF political leaders and the empire of corruption the TPLF has created to rip off all Ethiopians. It is an uprising against the TPLF’s diabolically divisive system of ethnic federalism which has corralled Ethiopians into apartheid Bantustan-style ethnic homelands.
For decades, the TPLF has been plying its trade of ethnic politics and hate pitting Oromos against Amharas, Tigreans against Amharas, Oromos against Somalis and on and on. The TPLF has forced all Ethiopians to drink the poison of ethnic federalism.
Today, the TPLF bosses are doo-doo-ing in their pants because they know the people of Ethiopia have finally found the TPLF’s Kryptonite, the one and only thing that can defeat them: ETHIOPIAWINET.
The ordinary people of Tigray are not responsible for the crimes against humanity and the corruption of the TPLF Establishment, its elites and opportunistic cronies. They have absolutely nothing to be concerned about. Anyone who aims to blame the people of Tigray for the crimes of the TPLF through guilt by ethnic association is not only ignorant but also hateful.
The glaring danger Mesfin’s fears must be the danger of accountability TPLF leaders will face before the bar of justice.
I find Mesfin’s crocodile tears about betraying and abandoning the people of Tigray laughable.
Why is Mesfin pulling at the heartstrings of the Tigrean people and harping on the sacrifices they have made in the lost lives of their children?
Is it not true that hundreds of thousands of Ethiopian youth from all ethnic backgrounds sacrificed their lives fighting the Derg military junta regime and for democracy? Don’t the suffering of their parents matter?
Mesfin complains, “Our young people we thought would inherit our legacy have abandoned the main organization”.
What legacy is Mesfin talking about?
The legacy of hate? Of crimes against humanity? Of murder and torture? Of corruption? Of abuse of power?
The only legacy fitting to Ethiopian youth is Ethiopiawinet, which means LOVE.
Of course, Mesfin is shamelessly and cynically trying to make an emotional appeal to the people of Tigray and drum up political and military support among young Tigreans.
Mesfin is a sick man. He has sickness of the soul. He cavalierly and without compunction proposes to make Tigrean youth cannon fodder for the TPLF’s ambition to cling to power forever. With the same forked tongue, he asks forgiveness of the people of Tigray.
A plan to sacrifice young people so that the TPLF can cling to power can only be hatched in the hearts, minds and souls of evil people whose only reason for existence on the planet is to hate.
Why does Mesfin believe his TPLF has betrayed the Tigrean people?
Of course, the answer is simple. The TPLF has been scamming the Tigrean people for decades. The TPLF has commodified, traded, sold and resold the Tigrean people for decades and used their name to commit crimes against humanity.
Now, Mesfin wonders why the people of Tigray feel betrayed?
I will give credit to Mesfin for his admission of “betrayal” of the Tigrean people. He said the TPLF has “betrayed them [the people of Tigray] for a very, very long time”.
I say, “Damn right!” Not just betrayed, but also bamboozled, abandoned, deceived, tricked, double-crossed and double-dealed the people of Tigray.
But no more! The TPLF will no longer continue to betray the people of Tigray because the people of Tigray are no longer willing to be betrayed by the TPLF, just like any other group in Ethiopia.
Enough betrayal. Enough hate. We need an endless supply of trust and love.
The fruit of betrayal is bitterness and anger. As Maya Angelou said, “Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean.” Time will tell what the people of Tigray will do with the betrayal they suffered at the hands of the TPLF.
Mesfin says the people of Tigray feel “twice dead” because of TPLF betrayal. Now, Mesfin is preparing to make the people of Tigray “thrice dead” by invoking the specter of a genocide and making them cannon fodder in its quest to cling to power.
Mesfin should stand corrected. I say, “Mesfin speak for your TPLF.”
The people of Tigray feel twice alive because Ethiopiawinet has made them ONE with their other Ethiopian brothers and sisters.
Lemma Megerssa said,
Ethiopians are like sergena teff [staple foodstuff in Ethiopia made whose multi-colored tiny seeds resemble poppy seeds eaten as flatbread called injera] that is gathered together. Milled together. Eaten together. Ethiopiawinet is an addiction. It is in the heart of each and every Ethiopian. It is in the heart of Oromos, Amharas, Tigreans, Gurages, Southern Peoples, Ogadenis, Afaris, Somalis…. If there is a way to open and look at what is in the hearts and minds of Ethiopians, what you will find is Ethiopiawinet.
Lemma Megressa follows in the footsteps of his great ancestors in his articulation of Ethiopiawinet.
Aba Doyo Wami, the great Ethiopian chieftain and uncle of the renowned Ethiopian General Djagama Kello understood the true meaning of Ethiopiawinet long before Lemma.
During the Italian occupation, certain Italians had prodded some “Oromo individuals” to persecute and drive out Amharas living in their midst.
These individuals sought the wise counsel of Aba Doyo before putting their plan into action. When they went to talk to him, he said he will counsel them after they “bring him a handful of sergena teff grain”.
When they brought him the sergenga teff, he asked them to separate the itty-bitty teff seeds of different color. They told him that was impossible. He asked them, “Then why do you also ask me to do the impossible.”
He counselled them, “The Amhara and Oromo are totally intermingled through marriage and cultural assimilation”. He told them he is the product of a union of Amhara, Tigre and Oromo, but all his family had Amhara-sounding names. Then he asked them, “Would you have me kill my own family members and the whole of the rest of the population to get rid of the Amhara?”
Therein lies a great lesson for the TPLF.
Ethiopians are a mix of Oromo, Amhara, Tigrean, Gurage, Southern Peoples, Ogadenis, Afaris, Somalis… They are sergena teff! It is impossible to separate them.
Seyoum Mesfin, Azeb Mesfin, Abay Tsehai, Debretsion, Abay, Arkebe, Abadi… whoever, the whole lot of you! Listen well!
You CANNOT separate us no matter how hard you try! WE ARE ONE.
You can mill us, grind us, abuse us, scatter us, isolate us and oppress us all you want. You can segregate and kililistanize us. You can separate us by language, region and religion.
But you cannot separate us in our SOUL, because our eternal SOUL is ETHIOPIAWINET!
Ethiopiawinet simply means LOVE.
Ethiopiawinet means brotherhood, equality, liberty and justice for all. Not JUSTUS, the TPLF.
Ethiopiawinet is the only weapon we need to fight and defeat you and your hateful ideology. And we will fight you with the most powerful weapon known to mankind: Nonviolence. Our victory is assured and your defeat is certain.
Why does Mesfin believe the Tigrean people, particularly the youth, are so confused they don’t or know which way to turn? Who has been confusing the people of Tigray for the past 27 years? Who has been leading the people of Tigray on the road to nowhere? The road to perdition.
Is Mesfin unwittingly projecting the TPLF’s own confusion on the people of Tigray?
The TPLF is on the road to perdition. Keep on trucking, TPLF!
The TPLF today is confused and does not know what to do to save its skin from the mass uprisings. The TPLF bosses have been conclaving and having meetings upon conferences. But they have been unable to come to a consensus. In fact, they have been cannibalizing each other as they dismissed each other from political positions and continue to snitch on each other’s crimes.
There is no doubt the TPLF is confused, discombobulated and stumped about what to do next. Killing, jailing and torturing no longer does the job. The people of Ethiopia have lost their fear of the TPLF. Like the American patriots fighting the British colonial masters centuries ago, young Ethiopians are today demanding, “Give me liberty or give me death.” So far, the TPLF has been dealing them death by the thousands. But for every one Ethiopian patriot the TPLF kills, there will be hundreds more to take his/her place.
That is why Mesfin says, “Comrades, we are running out of time.” That is why he says, “run and run fast”.
The people of Tigray, just like their brothers and sisters, know exactly which way to turn. They don’t need to run. They want to turn at the fork in the road and follow the sign pointing to brotherhood, equality, liberty and justice.
The TPLF can ride into the sunset by itself before sundown as the countdown has already begun. The trash bin of history awaits the TPLF at the end of the sunset. Godspeed!
My advice to the TPLF: “Go on. Take your money and run!”
Why does Mesfin believe young Tigreans have abandoned the TPLF?
The fact that Mesfin admits abandoning and betraying the Tigrean people, particularly Tigrean youth, is proof positive that the TPLF has not had the backs of the ordinary people of Tigray. It is proof that the TPLF has been trading and committing crimes in the names of the people of Tigray.
Yet, when the TPLF sees a real threat to its power, it wants to run and hide in the shadows of the Tigrean people and create a human shield by surrounding itself with Tigrean youth.
So much for the vaunted courage of the TPLF!
The TPLF establishment and elites care about no one but themselves. Now, as they are facing fierce resistance, they want to go back to the people of Tigray with their tails between their legs and humbly prostrate themselves and beg forgiveness and reconciliation. At the eleventh hour before “sundown”, the TPLF wants to indoctrinate Tigrean youth into believing that their Ethiopian brothers and sisters want to destroy them and prepare them for bloodshed.
Mesfin says, “To ask forgiveness is a sign of decency. To ask forgiveness points to astuteness and readiness for work.”
Why did it take the TPLF 27 long years to beg forgiveness of the people of Tigray?
Did they just figure out forgiveness is a virtue of moral and law abiding citizens?
Did they just become smart in a flash and figure out that people who ask forgiveness are duty-bound smart people?
Does it mean the TPLF bosses have been immoral, dishonest, wicked and depraved individuals for not having asked forgiveness for the past 27 years?
Perhaps the TPLF bosses are just too clever by half.
Why does Mesfin believe his TPLF has to ask forgiveness only of the people of Tigray? Are they so different from the rest of Ethiopians that their special forgiveness is required? Do not the rest of Ethiopians deserve to be asked forgiveness?
But what is the purpose of the “forgiveness” Mesfin wants from the people of Tigray? Is it to make amends or to trick the people of Tigray to become cannon fodder once again and ply its trade of crime and corruption in their name?
Obviously, Mesfin and his TPLF want “reconciliation” with the people of Tigray! But do they want real reconciliation?
Of course not. For the TPLF, reconciliation is just a gimmick in their bag of tricks to cling to power. They care as much about reconciling with the people of Tigray as they do with the rest of Ethiopians. TPLF talk of reconciliation and forgiveness is just a mind game, a zero-sum game. They win all the time, everybody loses all the time. Sure they will reconcile with the people of Tigray only to tighten the noose around their necks.
I am puzzled why Mesfin believes reconciliation is possible with the people of Tigray but impossible with the rest of Ethiopians.
What is so bad about asking forgiveness of the Ethiopian people? Does he feel that the TPLF has not “betrayed” the rest of Ethiopians and therefore they do not deserve to be asked forgiveness? Does he believe the TPLF cannot get forgiveness from the Ethiopian people, so why bother to try? Does not history show that the people of Ethiopia are forgiving people and forgiveness and reconciliation are the backbone of their culture, religions and society.
The ultimate question is this: If the TPLF is offering forgiveness and reconciliation to the people of Tigray, what is it offering the rest of the people of Ethiopia?
Is the TPLF putting on the table a separate reconciliation with the people of Tigray and a separate war and pacification with the rest of Ethiopians?
Does Mesfin really believe he could continue to use the old fear and smear, divide and rule tactic to gain the support of the people of Tigray lock, stock and barrel?
Could Mesfin and his TPLF succeed in using ethnic politics as a weapon of mass destruction and distraction causing strife and conflict between Ethiopians living in Tigray and the rest of the country so that they can cling to power one more hour, one more day, one more week, one more year?
The TPLF is still playing the old divide and rule game, this time by dividing, separating and isolating the people of Tigray from their Ethiopian brothers and sisters.
Of course, the TPLF has been busier than a dog scratching fleas creating conflict and contriving an atmosphere of ethnic persecution of Tigreans. The TPLF is inciting retaliatory killings in certain areas and propagandizing that Tigreans being killed and their properties destroyed for no other reason than their ethnicity.
The TPLF is using soccer matches to fan the flames of ethnic conflict among youth causing bitterness and hatred between Tigrean youth and youth from other parts of the country. They are doing everything they can to create division and strife between Oromos and Amharas and among other groups.
None of it is new.
But Mesfin’s message of genocide fear-mongering to scare the people of Tigray must not be looked at in isolation.
Mesfin and his comrades have been sounding the drumbeat of genocidal wars and fear and smear for decades to generate support not only the people of Tigray bust also other groups.
They have been fear mongering Oromos telling them the Amhara boogeymen will return and take their land if the TPLF is not at the helm. They are now fear mongering the people of Tigray by telling them that Oromos and Amharas are ganging up to inflict genocide on them.
Today, Oromos, Amharas and others are teaching and preaching true Ethiopiawinet to all Ethiopians. They are defiantly standing up to the TPLF and singing (must see video) “Oromo kegna (is ours). Ethiopia kegna (ours). Tana kegna (ours)… We will not be divided by ethnicity, language, religion or religion. We will not be divided. We are ONE.”
Ethiopia kegna because Ethiopia is built on Oromo, Amhara, Tigrean… sweat, blood and tears.
Ethiopia kegna! ETHIOPIAWINET KEGNA!
I say, “Damn right!”
The sweat, blood and tears of Ethiopians is expressed in Ethiopiawinet and today the yellow, green and red flag of Ethiopiawinet stands defiant against a diabolical pentagram in blue.
Mesfin and his comrades have been talking about the prospect of genocide being committed on the Tigrean people for some time as I documented in my September 2016 commentary, “The Truth About T-TPLF Genocide Lies and Disinformation in Ethiopia”.
Seyoum Mesfin and his comrade Abay Tsehaye have been announcing the coming Rwanda-style genocide for some time. They have been crying “The genocide wolf is coming” to drum up support and cling to power.
In 2016, Seyoum Mesfin manifestly equated (forward clip to 6:24) what the Nazis did to the Jews in WW II to what the Oromos and Amharas might do to Tigreans today.
What a sick man!
It is an outrage that Mesfin should equate Ethiopians to Nazis and Tigreans to Jews in the Third Reich?
But that is how the TPLF has been playing its game of ethnic hate politics for the past 27 years.
The late T-TPLF thugmaster Meles Zenawi used to scaremonger that after his TPLF goes, there will be the equivalent of an “Interahamwe-type Hutu militia which massacred Tutsis in Rwanda”. Zenawi repeated his prediction of ethnic bloodbath time and again.
Zenawi’s sidekick and step-and-fetch it, Bereket Simon, went one step further when he predicted, “Strife between different nationalities of Ethiopia might have made the Rwandan genocide look like child’s play.”
T-TPLF general Tsadkan Gebretensaye straight up predicted civil war when the T-TPLF is dumped in the trash bin of history.
T-TPLF underboss Abay Tsehai predicted Ethiopia will be Africa’s 21st century Rwanda. He said things in Ethiopia are getting out of control and Ethiopia and is careening into becoming the next Rwanda.
Seyoum Mesfin also predicted civil war but believes his T-TPLF will crush all opposition and remain dominant.
Now, he seems to have changed his tune. He is singing, “Run and run fast…”
Only the T-TPLF godfather Sebhat Nega got it right. “When the people become very bitter, they explode. This is a universal truth. There are no people who will not rise up when they become bitter. Historically. Now. And in the future.”
The wolf announced by the TPLF has arrived! But it is a paper wolf. It is not armed with sabers, guns and tanks.
The wolf is actually no wolf at all. It is the ordinary young people of Ethiopia in the streets armed with nothing but flags emblazoned with green, yellow and red and singing the song of Ethiopiawinet, “Ethiopia kegna”.
These young people are fighting AK47s, machine guns and helicopter gunships with civil disobedience, nonviolent resistance and noncooperation.
The TPLF should know in shadow stands a real wolf angry and hungry.
It is up to the TPLF to choose and unleash the wolves of war or set free the doves of peace, truth and reconciliation.
Is Mesfin preparing the people of Tigray for secession and establishment of the Republic of Tigray they declared in their Manifesto?
There is still one gnawing question in my mind. Is Mesfin and his TPLF preparing the people of Tigray to defend against an imagined genocidal war or actually preparing them to secede and set up the Republic of Tigray?
In 2013, Mesfin organized two meetings in Frankfurt, Germany to create a “Tigray- Tigrigna alliance” with Eritreans recalling the unity “which brought us to victory” against the Derg. He had no takers. Now he wants to go it alone with the people of Tigray.
The TPLF masters of deception and jugglery will pretend to do something to draw and distract attention while doing something entirely different. They will talk genocide nonsense while secretly planning to implement their original plan of a Tigray Republic.
I am not engaged in cynical speculation when I say Mesfin is communicating a hidden message of secession to the people of Tigray.
The TPLF was established for one, and only one reason: To establish the Republic of Tigray.
The TPLF Manifesto declares “Tigray is an independent sovereign country which was invaded by (Emperor) Atse Menelik and became an Amhara colony. Tigray is a colonial territory of Amhara. Therefore, we must liberate Tigray from Amhara colonialism and create a Tigray republic.” [To read the original handwritten Manifesto, click here]
If the TPLF cannot have the whole of Ethiopia, it wants to have the whole of Tigray.
The TPLF failed to establish a Republic of Tigray the first time around. It will fail the second and thousandth time because the people of Ethiopia are ONE.
Can the planets survive without the sun?
Ethiopia is the sun around which the diverse groups of the Ethiopian people revolve around. If there is no Ethiopia, there is no sun in Ethiopia. It will all be darkness at noon. There will be no “sundown” for criminals to run to and hide.
TPLF: You cannot fool all of the people all of the time!
Abe Lincoln said, “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”
I say to Mesfin and his TPLF comrades, “You can fool the people of Tigray some of the time, and some Ethiopians all of the time. But you cannot fool all of the people of Ethiopia all of the time.”
It is time for truth and reconciliation for all Ethiopians.
It is time to “beat our swords into plowshares, and our spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.”
If Mesfin and his TPLF really care about the people of Tigray, they should be teaching the gospel of truth, preach the message of love and practice reconciliation and not scare-monger with prophesies of a coming genocidal Armageddon
Peace be unto all Ethiopians!
ETHIOPIA KEGNA!
Ethiopiawinet is love. Love shall conquer all. Ethiopiawinet shall conquer the TPLF!
