Ethiopia. Abiy’s Mea Culpa?
Ethiopian Prime Minister, cornered by international reactions and facing war crimes and systematic ethnic cleansing evidances, admitted for the first time on Tuesday 23 March the presence of Eritrean troops in Tigray and some of the several crimes committed without naming the accused forces. A belated mea culpa perhaps to avoid the balkanization of the country. Is Abiy Ahmed Ali era over?
“God bless Ethiopia and its people! We entered in Mekele without innocent civilians becoming targets. Now, the police will arrest the leaders of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front. We have kept civilian casualties very low. The war fortunately it was short.“ November 28, 2020. Speech to the nation by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali on the occasion of the capture of Mekelle, capital of the Tigray region, Ethiopia.
March 23, 2021 (113 days later). War Bulletin.
Fierce fighting between Eritrean soldiers and Tigray forces in the Hintalo district. The infantry divisions of the 21st, 27th, 31st, 53rd and 59th as well as the 49th mechanized and 524th motorized division of the Eritrean army are engaged. Eritrean forces suffered heavy casualties including various divisional commanders. Most of the TPLF leaders have not been arrested. On the contrary, they are organizing counter offensives against the federal army, the Eritrean army and the Fano Amhara fascist militias. Tigrinya forces launched a counter offensive in Amhara territory too, destroying a battalion of Fano militias near the city of Tsata, in the district of Waghimra.
Ethnic violences between Oromo and Amhara in the special area of Oromia and in the northern Shewa area, in the Amhara region. The conflict broke out on March 19 and the violence also saw the burning of churches and the murder of Orthodox priests. In the city of Ataye, a mosque was also set on fire.
Sisay Damte, the head of peace and security of the regional state of Amhara explained that the violence broke out after the murder of an individual, specifying that the attack was carried out by an unspecified armed group. However, Hassen Hadiya, a resident, tells the Addis Standard newspaper that the violence began after the Amhara special police shot an individual in front of the Ataye Grand Mosque after night prayers.
The Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), the military wing of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), launched an offensive occupying 13 districts 70 km from Addis Ababa, The understaffed Prime Minister Abiy asked the Eritrean dictator to send part of the divisions that are fighting in Tigray to defend the capital. According to Kush Media Network (KMN), Eritrean troops are now reportedly involved in the ongoing ethnic conflict in the Oromia special area. The identity card of an Eritrean soldier who was allegedly killed in the fight with the OLA militia was found and shown to the media. The OLF announced that Batte Urgessa, head of the Public Relations office, and his driver Wondosen Abdulkadir have been arrested by police in Burayu, Oromia regional state. Batte was arrested while visiting colleagues (leader Oromo) detained at the Burayu police station. (sources: Verified local witness and Martin Pault https://twitter.com/martinplaut)
Tigray conflict is both a regional war (due to the participation of Eritrea) and an ethnic war. In addition to the risk of a border war with Sudan and a generalized conflict with Egypt, the Tigrinya conflict has opened the gates of hell: the Oromo rebellion and the now real risk of the country’s balkanization. The United Nations expressed concern over the atrocities committed in Tigray during the conflict, while US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the acts in the region “ethnic cleansing”, allegations that Ethiopia has denied.
The Ethiopian Prime Minister, cornered by international reactions and facing war crimes and systematic ethnic cleansing evidences, admitted for the first time on Tuesday 23 March that Eritrean troops entered Tigray during the conflict. In a parliamentary speech, he also recognized for the first time that atrocities such as rape or looting had been committed during the fighting and that the promised perpetrators would be punished. In listing (reluctantly) the crimes, the Prime Minister avoided listing the most serious: ethnic cleansing, extrajudicial executions, massacres.
Abiy began his speech by attempting to justify the presence of foreign troops. “Eritrean soldiers crossed the border because they feared being attacked by the forces of the TPLF which repeatedly fired rockets at Eritrea after the start of the conflict. The Eritreans have promised to leave when the Ethiopian army can control the border. “ Abiy explains. The reason explained is associated with the one that should justify the military intervention of the federal government. The TPLF was about to organize a rebellion with the intention of marching on Addis Ababa and removing the government. This official version has never been demonstrated. As for the launch of missiles towards Ethiopia, the authors are still not clear.
The governments of Eritrea and Ethiopia have repeated denied Eritrea’s involvement in the war, despite reports from rights groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, which documented the killings of hundreds of civilians by Eritrean soldiers in the holy city of Axum.
Abiy said he contacted the Ethiopian government raising concerns over allegations of widespread looting and rights violations by Eritrean soldiers in Tigray. “The Eritrean government strongly condemned him and said he will answer in person if any of his soldiers have committed these crimes,” he said.
Dozens of witnesses in Tigray told Reuters that Eritrean soldiers routinely killed civilians, gang raped and tortured women, and ransacked civilian families and crops. Some provided images of Eritrean trucks loaded with furniture and goods after ransacking civilian homes. All testimonies agree that Ethiopian federal soldiers were present during the violence without intervening. Photos and videos confirm the testimonies. In a viral video, a federal soldier incites Eritrean soldiers to kill a civilian suspected of being a TPLF spy. “Kill that Tigrinya dog” the federal repeats several times, laughing. This proves that the Addis Ababa government was not only aware of the crimes committed by Eritrean allies but did not order its troops to protect civilians from the primitive Eritrean blood orgy.
Regarding the crimes attributed to federal soldiers, Abiy states: “There have been atrocities committed in the Tigray region … reports indicate that the atrocities were committed by raping women and looting property,” he said, without naming the accused forces. “Any member of the national defense who has committed rape and looting against our tiger sisters will be held accountable.” Yet the police service in Tigray is no longer functioning and civilian authorities are not allowed to investigate the federal or Eritrean military.
In his parliamentary speech, Abiy also addressed the border dispute with Sudan, which is home to some 60,000 refugees from Tigray. There is also a dispute between the two countries over the gigantic hydroelectric dam that Ethiopia is building on the Blue Nile. Abiy has tried to cool tensions on Sudanese agricultural land claimed by the Amhara where a low intensity and undeclared war has been going on for two months from Addis Ababa and Khartoum. “Sudan is a fraternal country. We don’t want to fight Sudan, “Abiy said.” Sudan is unable to fight against neighbours; it has a lot of problems. Ethiopia also has a lot of problems, we are not ready to go to fight so we don’t need war. It is better to resolve it in a peaceful way. “ He reassured Abiy.
Washington sent Senator Chris Coons to Ethiopia to discuss the conflict in Tigray with the Ethiopian Premie. The senator is satisfied. “Prime Minister Abiy has publicly pledged to deepen a meaningful dialogue with the international community to address this conflict in Tigray, and has also publicly shared his condemnation of human rights violations,” Coons said.
Though twisted and stuffed with half-truths, the Premier’s speech to parliament seemed like an admission of guilt. Abiy did not get a quick victory over her political enemy: the TPLF. He has choose as allied Isaias Afwerki and the far-right leaders Amhara. Now is unable to control them. Both are dedicated to ethnic cleansing and territories annexation. The elections scheduled for next July may not take place. This time not for a second “strategic” postponement made by the astute Abiy but for the security situation in the country. There are rumors that he could suffer a coup organized by the Amhara leadership to regain the power lost in the 1970s when the last Amhara emperor was deposed: Haile Selassie.
A day before Abiy’s speech to parliament, a federal army general in an interview with national media revealed that preparations for the war with Tigray were planned together with the Eritrean ally long before the official start of the war: the 4 November 2020 …
