Telephone hotline established between TPLF and Ethiopian government officials
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The African Union has convened a follow-up meeting between Ethiopia’s Defense Chief of Staff, Field Marshal Berhanu Jula, and the rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF)’s military commander, Tadesse Worede.
The meeting started in Nairobi on Monday and is expected to last until Wednesday. The purpose of the meeting is, as disclosed by the African Union, to work out detailed modalities for implementing the agreement on matters like disarming the rebel forces – among other things.
The African Union anticipates agreement for modalities on silencing the guns, humanitarian access and restoration of services in the Tigray region of Ethiopia.
When the two sides signed a peace agreement on November 2, in Pretoria South Africa, it was agreed that senior military commanders from both sides would meet to discuss a range of confidence-building measures including the rebel groups.
What is known so far is that the two sides have established a telephone line as part of the effort to safeguard the peace deal. They are expected to call one another in the event that there is an issue that needs to be addressed.
African Union mediators are expressing hope that the peace talk will succeed. Former Kenyan President and one of the African Panelists in the talk, Uhuru Kenyatta, said “We started in Pretoria. We are inching closer; we are in Nairobi now. We are very hopeful that we will be in Mekelle for our meeting and ultimately celebrate together in Addis Ababa.”
Although the majority of Ethiopians do seem to be relieved by the signing of the peace deal, from local media reports and social media conversations, some fear that it may not take root.
Ardent TPLF supporters, mostly based in the Diaspora, are now blaming the organization for accepting the peace deal. In some parts of the United States, there is an open mobilization against it.
There are also some media personalities who have launched their own campaign to oppose the agreement. Tewodros Tsegaye, an activist and media professional, was vocal against the TPLF and ethnic-based politics for which he got a considerable support base. But he did not remain that way. When the TPLF started to lose military grounds, he turned out to be a harbinger to echo the “Tigay genocide.”
His latest campaign is against the peace agreement. This week he produced an hour-long Youtube media session to make the point that the peace agreement “sold the people of Tigray to its slaughterers.”
He also made points that rebel combatants are “Tigray Defense Force,” not TPLF’s fighters and that the TPLF can not sign peace agreement to disarm it.
But the TPLF officials seem to reflect a different view that underscores the peace agreement was the right decision.
Getachew Reda, who has been working as the spokesperson for the organization, said “Peace is what our people need more than anything.”
He tweeted : “Everything we do, every move we make, or every agreement we sign is driven by the need to ensure the interest of the people of Tigray. Peace is what our people need more than anything. Whether we will deliver on our promise in a manner that satisfies our people time will tell…”
The war, which the TPLF triggered when it attacked the Northern Command of the Ethiopian Defense Force in November 2020, claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and people’s livelihood in the Afar, Amhara and Afar regions.
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Once this peace agreement starts moving in the right and agreed position with all its disarmament and resumptions of public services there should not be any talk making oneself a winner over the other. The suffering citizens are the sole winners. With peace firmly in place they can go back to their places of work without any fears and any sound of the deadly guns. Let’s all forgive each other and be mongers of peace and stability. Insha’Allah!!!!
Finally if this meeting fails to come up with the next detailed plan and everyone goes back to the old repugnant habit of death and destruction, I will be holding these two military commanders responsible for every bloody fracas that follows. What they have done with this unprecedented meeting can send them to the hall of shame for eternity or put them with other legends in the hall of fame of that gem of the colored and humanity. Let’s go guys!!!!!
What do you think the idea of constitutional remedy for those contested areas? And what does it exactly mean?
In my book there are no and should never be any contested areas. Such irresponsible issues were created by connivers who are severely infected with bigotry. As far as I know prior to 1974 anyone can choose and live anywhere in the country. That small railway station I spent my childhood formative had residents from various parts of the country imaginable. There were even those who migrated from the present day Sudan. They never needed a special permit to make a living unless they were business people. Those very few aliens from the Sudan were not merchants but ordinary farmers who till the land alongside my Itu clan. There were Yemeni farmers, not shopkeepers as they were mostly known, but ordinary farmers well inside the Amhar Mountains around Bekaa and the vicinities. Those diverse people did not take too long to assimilate and intermarry. My understanding is such diversity was not confined to those railway stations but it was a widespread reality. Then things started changing after that demonic ideology of Marx, Lenin and Mao got smuggled into the country by trusted foreign college professors who infected the gullible youth. The first national treasure those young convert commies began attacking was that centuries old interwoven social fabric. They divided the society along line what they called ‘classes’. You are not recognized/seen as farmers, shopkeepers, laborers or home owners anymore. You are either the enemy of the people oppressor or the oppressed. Then that country and its society went into a dizzying tailspin. This stupid destructive conflict that cost the lives of probably into millions is the byproduct of that ideology of non-believers instigated by conniving commies. Tens of thousands of the youth of Tigray, Amhara and Afar have perished. When your and my children and grandchildren were going to school those youths were being marched into raging infernos and never had the chance to see the light of the day again. When I think about them it just makes my blood boil. There is nothing you and I can do to bring them back. They were mowed down absolutely for nothing. I hope and pray that this peace agreement will hold and the guns will go silent in the northern part of the country once and for all. With peace is firmly in place in the northern part of the country then the attention should be directed to the other parts of the country where vagabonds have been running amok for the last 3 or so years. They tell me they are ‘liberation front’ this and ‘liberation front’ that. As far as I know the ‘national’ question has been amicably addressed in 1995, dumb asses! Those who are pushing this divisive issue are those who are hell bent to yank away a territory just to call it their personal fiefdom and nothing else. All this is the byproduct of that philosophy of demons. Unless that country finds a prudent/peaceful way to erase this destructive ideology from the psyche of the youth, commies will always find ways to reinvent themselves and once again send that country into another bloodshed and destruction. That has been my enduring take for more than 50 years now. Blessings!!!
The bravado of many anti-peace, agitators and rubble rousers among many ethnic Tigrains surprise no one. A thirty years of power excess, flagrant human rights abuses , entitlement, self-aggrandizement, self-promotion and indulgence in public resource ,etc gave them sense of invisibility and godly chosen black race among multitudes of Ethiopian nationalities. They became too deaf and blind and immune to human sensibility., justice, fairness and th eff daily reality in Ethiopia. But they won’t be any longer. The road to mass rehab is unpleasant and torturous. Good riddance