In what seem to be rejection of report by Le Monde , Mr. Debretsion, TPLF chairman, said there will be no secret deals with Ethiopian government
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The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) on Wednesday announced that it will take part in a peace talk with the government of Ethiopia and “other parties.” It did not however specify what “other parties” are.
This week Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said the negotiations would be between the Federal government of Ethiopia and the TPLF.
In an open letter addressed to several heads of state and the African Union Chairperson, Macky Sall, the TPLF, a party which is said to have started the war when it attacked the Northern Command of the Ethiopian Defence Force, said it has been calling for peace since November 2020.
It said it is ready for a principled negotiation but not for secret deals. The letter did not indicate if there was an offer for a secret negotiation from the government of Ethiopia.
“We are prepared to negotiate for peace consistent with fundamental principles of human rights, democracy, and accountability based upon the positions agreed through the deliberations of the government of Tigray. We are not prepared to make secret deals or bargain away our principles for material inducements,” the letter said.
It came a day after the Ethiopian Prime Minister confirmed to the Ethiopian Parliament his government’s readiness to negotiate to end the conflict in Northern Ethiopia. However, he did not disclose negotiating points.
When the Ethiopian government announced the proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year, it said, among other things, that the budget is prepared with the assumption that conflict in the Northern part of Ethiopia would be ended through a peaceful negotiation by the next budget year.
Debretsion Gebremichael, chairman of the TPLF, also reflected that his organisation is not negotiating from a point of weakness. “Our readiness to go the extra mile for peace must not be misunderstood as a readiness to abandon our principles from weakness or greed,” he said.
TPLF was critical of the African Union over what it called “silence” in the face of “war and atrocities.”
Not just that, Mr. Debretsion also blamed former Nigerian President and current African Union Special Envoy to the Horn of Africa, Olusegun Obasanjo.
It accused him of “proximity” to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. Mr. Obassanjo was seen with PM Abiy Ahmed when the latter was visiting a wheat farm in the Bale area of Ethiopia sometime last week.
Mr. Debretsion expressed “confidence” in mediation facilitated and supported by the government of Kenya and Tanzania. However, it also wants the U.S government, European Union, the United Arab Emirates, and the African Union to be part of the negotiation.
Last week, Le Monde, a French news source, reported that the TPLF and Ethiopian government are scheduled to meet in Tanzania for secret peace talks.
Mr. Debretsion closed his open letter by saying “we shall participate in a credible, impartial, and principled peace process that engages with the parties to the conflict in a serious, inclusive, and considered manner. We stand ready to dispatch a high-level delegation, fully mandated and briefed, to talks convened and hosted by the government of Kenya” the letter said.
A report published by VOA Amharic, on Wednesday, cited Debretsion Gebremichal as saying that there will be no negotiation unless the people of Tigray decide so.
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Peace must be the word from dawn to dusk and from dusk to dawn. What should not be lost Iost in everybody’s mind is after all the people of Tigray are blood brothers and sisters of everyone in that country. They have lived in harmony with each other for centuries. The saddest thing is now they are broiled in bloody conflict that started for utterly stupid reasons. Once it started it was fanned and perpetuated by internal and external bigoted groups and individuals including those here among us. No matter how of these bigots view the following question I am gonna pose it anyway. The cardinal question is ‘What did this violent conflict gain for the people of Tigray and those in nearby regions?’ The clear clarion answer is nothing but deaths and maiming of hundreds of thousands and destruction of property valued in billions of US dollars. Millions others have been left with serious emotional scar that will remain with them the rest of their lives. That is what was forced upon the people of Tigray, Afar and Amhara. Enough is enough!!! The next sound should be not that comes out of the barrels of the guns but the soothing sounds of hammer and shovel rebuilding the senseless destruction. Call me naive and call me a dreamer. That will be a badge of honor for me if you catch me dreaming peace raining from the skies of Tigray, Amhara and Afar but not bombs and missiles!!! Let peace rain in buckets over Mekele, Semera and Wolkait. Let peace rain over the skies of that gem of the colored we still hold dear to our hearts!!! Peace! Peace!! Peace!!!
If tplf disappears from the face of the earth, I will join you, be it day or night dream, after all tplf has made life not only to Ethiopians but to the Horn at large.
What do you mean by ‘after all tplf has made life not only to Ethiopians but to the Horn at large.’? In what ways? Are you for peace of not? That is the question.
It is as real as daylight that the TPLF will never negotiate in good faith. This latest “openness to negotiate” is only a ruse for buying more time and preparing for its next military assault on North Western Ethiopia ( what used to be called appropriately Begemder & Semien) which it has the audacity and shamelessness of calling Western Tigray. I have no claim of knowing if the government of Dr. Abiy is seriously preparing for such eventuality or not. But if it is not, then we are in for another round of senseless war and destruction. It has always been known that the TPLF does not negotiate, it only bides its time. What the government of Dr Abiy should do is to simply fortify the siege on Tigray until the time the TPLF comes out with hands raised or whatever emerges from its destruction.
Let me be innocently naive, bold, straightforward and foolish.
The PROBLEM is NOT within the people of Tigrai and the overall people of Ethiopia. I repeat: It is NOT.
The problem is with self-appointed “LEADERS” for their own Agenda, at any cost on life of the people. Their own tranquil Life is their ultimate goal at the sacrifice of the ordinary people. Let us be honest. NOTHING ELSE!!!
The perpetrated crime by individuals is NOT new phenomenon in World History. But that does not make it right. But it must be emphasized that human life of honest human beings have always been sacrificed for the benefit of smart aleck charlatans. IT IS HUMAN HISTORY. And as long as human beings multiply themselves there will always be smart aleck charlatans who see personal motives as more superior than the LIFE of ordinary human creatures. The marauders do not consider themselves as ordinary human beings. Their SOUL is much, much, more superior than the ordinary mass of the people. Just look and concentrate on our own African leaders — and be honest with the answer for your OWN CONCIOUSNESS.
THE END & SEE YOU IN OUR COMMON DESTINATION — GRAVE, THAT CAN NEVER BE AVOIDED.
I suspect the junta would not want peaceful end to the conflict. It is comfortable with food and medical donations from America and Europe, which may stop or be reduced, if peace resumes. Peace would put the regional management and development responsibility on the Junta, which it would be totally unable to deliver. Therefore, it would be more comfortable wailing about regional miseries, getting attention from allies in America and Europe, and deflecting from itself the responsibility for miseries it brought on the region by blaming Ethiopia and Eritrea instead.
Ethiopians have had it with Tigres, and would never allow them to control and plunder the country’s finances ever again. I prefer they separate from Ethiopia and be “independent’. Ethiopia would then rid of a whole group that has been/is the root cause of Ethiopia’s economic, political, and social problems. They are the face of primitive tribalism, and act in exactly the same way as wild animals do in jungles to hunt together, fight competing species, and survive.