Ethiopia. Amhara regime hunts down its collaborators of Tigray interim administration.
Prosperity Party regime and fascist Amhara leadership, after using Tegaru collaborators to form a puppet government during the military occupation in Tigray, accused them of being the main cause of the military defeat suffered last June. Now the Ethiopian judiciary on the orders of the Amhara regime is persecuting them one after the other.
On 7 November 2020, 3 days after the invasion of the northern region: Tigray, Prosperity Party regime officially appointed a provisional administration to replace the TPLF, legally in power thanks to the elections of September 2020, not recognized by the central government. The interim administration took office only after the occupation of the capital of Tigray: Mekelle on November 29, 2020.
The federal government, dominated by Amhara nationalists allied with Eritrean dictator Isaias Afwerki, appointed Mulu Nega Kahsay as chief executive of the Tigray region to replace Debretsion Gebremichael who had been democratically elected in September. Mulu Nega, an academic, held the post of federal minister of science and education under the government coalition led by the TPLF.
Beginning on November 28, 2021, the Prosperity Party regime ordered the interim administration to promote public consultations to gain popular participation in the new government and select the new officials prepared to lead the institutions in Tigray. Public consultations were systematically boycotted by the population. The Ethiopian regime was forced to proceed with office appointments on local officials from the federal government to the wareda (districts) and kebele (urban neighbourhood committees). These officials were never accepted by the population who demanded the restoration of the previous government they had elected in September 2020.
The nationalist Amhara leaders dictated the spheres of power of the interim administration to Mulu Nega. Ensure law and order in close cooperation with federal forces; ordinary administrative management; plan and manage new elections in Tigray scheduled for 2021 on a mandate from the National Electoral Council of Ethiopia, NEBE.
To interim administration was denied decision-making powers over the budget and financial management of the public administration, police control and regional defense forces, the judiciary, regional development plans and other powers granted to Ethiopian regions by the federal constitution. Everything had to be decided by the Amhara leadership in Addis Ababa. The Prosperity Party regime ordered the interim administration to sign the consent of the annexation by the Amhara region of the Tegaru areas of Ray, Talemt and Wolkait.
On December 15, 2020, the federal government ordered Mulu Nega Kahsay to appoint three opposition parties to leadership positions in the Tigray regional government: the Areba Tigray, the TDP — Tigray Democratic Party and the ADP — Assimba Democratic Party. The aim was to make the interim administration more popular in the face of the blatant opposition of the Tegaru population who considered Mulu and the other officials to be collaborators of the Amhara leadership and the Eritrean occupation troops. Abraha Desta, president of the Tigray Arena, became head of the Labor and Social Affairs Bureau.
Having failed to involve the population in the appointment of local officials, the Addis Ababa regime decided to use only 5 interim administration leaders to promote its policies in Tigray. In addition to Mulu Nega and Abraha Desta, Assefa Bekele (head of the road and transport office), Alula Habteab (head of the construction office) and Gebremeskel Kassa head of administration office were appointed.
With the evolution of the civil war in Tigray and open popular opposition, the first defections began within the interim administration which further weakened the fragile regional government structure, discrediting it in the eyes of the citizens.
In February 2021 the Arena Tigray (historical opponent of the TPLF) denounced the human rights violations by the Amhara militias, the illegal annexation of the Tigray territories bordering the Amhara region, the extrajudicial executions of civilians and rape committed by Ethiopian federal army and Eritrean occupation troops. The Arena Tigray claimed to be an opponent of the TPLF but totally opposed to war by calling for peace negotiations between the federal government, TPLF and the political parties of Tigray to restore peace.
The Assimba Democratic Party also strongly protested against Eritrea’s involvement in the civil war, underlining the blatant violation of Ethiopian sovereignty, denouncing the worsening of the humanitarian crisis in Tigray and the refusal of the central government to assist the population exhausted by military occupation and related violence and suppression. In January 2021 the Prosperity Party regime arrested the party leader: Dori Asgedom due to his refusal to issue a state statement in favor of Federal governmental laws applied in Tigray.
Only the TDP expressed support for the interim administration and Addis Ababa government. Its president, Aregawi Berhe, lent himself to the fabrication of false accusations of atrocities committed by the TPLF against the people of Tigray and the concealment of crimes against humanity committed by Ethiopian and Eritrean troops.
In January 2021 Mulu Nega submitted his resignation stating that the interim administration was powerless and could not respond to the plight of the people of Tigray who are “starving and sexually harassed by foreign forces”. He was replaced on May 6, 2021 with Abraham Belay
Abraha Desta, president of the Tigray Arena, resigned in February 2021 by withdrawing his support for the federal government due to the numerous crimes against humanity committed, publicly promising to fight the Prosperity Party regime to restore freedom in Tigray. The head of the administration’s cabinet, Gebremeskel Kassa, launched an open opposition to the presence of the Eritrean forces, demanding their withdrawal. He also accused forces in the neighbouring Amhara region of violently moving many thousands of Tegaru from Western Tigray, where ethnic cleansing had been committed.
The interim administration, never accepted by the population, fled Mekelle on June 28, 2021 together with the retreating federal and Eritrean soldiers following the TPLF Alula offensive that liberated Tigray. The leaders who remained loyal to the Prosperity Party regime were taken to Addis Ababa to wait to reinstall them after the reconquest of Tigray, which has never happened until now.
The nationalist Amhara leadership and Premier Abiy Ahmed Ali (controlled by Amhara leaders), starting from July 2021 began accusing the interim administration leaders of Tigray in exile in Addis Ababa of being the primary cause of the military defeat suffered in Tigray. A strange accusation given that the administration was civil and that most of its powers were the exclusive prerogative of the federal government.
It was a short step from the accusations to the persecutions. On 2 October 2021, Areba Tigray president: Abraha Desta, was arrested on charges of inciting rebellion against the central government and illegal possession of a firearm. The arrest came the day after Desta addressed an open letter to the new mayor of Addis Ababa (posted on Facebook), denouncing the arbitrary arrests and increasing discrimination of Ethiopian citizens of Tegaru origin in Addis Ababa and various other Ethiopian cities under the control of the Amhara nationalists.
Six days after Desda’s arrest, on 8 October, the head of cabinet of the Tigray administration in exile, Gebremeskel Kassa, has beedn also targeted by the Prosperity Party regime. Amhara judiciary system is mounting a series of charges against Kassa in order to arrest him, including spreading false news about the presence of Eritrean troops in Tigray and contributing to the defeat of federal forces between May and June 2021. The charges, not yet formalized, were disclosed by senior Amhara leaders during a meeting with Gebremeskel Kassa.
The former Tigrinya executive of the interim administration has not yet been arrested and has forwarded an asylum request to a foreign country whose identity remains unknown. The hybrid situation in which Kassa finds himself could be the result of under-the-table compromises if he holds information and evidences “embarrassing” for the regime that could allow him to avoid arrest on condition of choosing exile.
The statements made in recent days by Gebremeskel Kassa reveal that he has some tricks up his sleeve to play. In the face of the violence of the Amhara leadership and the subordination of the judiciary system, prudence and silence were expected from Kassa. On the contrary, in addition to defining the accusations against him as unjustified and unfounded, Kassa has made a series of revelations to the international press that are certainly against Amhara regime.
Among them was the revelation that the federal government since December had ignored the interim administration’s pleas to stop military collaboration with Eritrean soldiers who were massacring civilians in Tigray and to initiate peace talks.
According to Kassa, the interim administration in January 2021 had asked for the talks to begin after noting the popularity of the TPLF among the population, its ability to resist and the escalation of crimes against humanity committed by Eritreans and feds troops in Tigray.
“The central government has always refused our request to open a dialogue with the TPLF. They kept answering us: The TPLF has been completely destroyed, why should we now negotiate with these losers? Four months later the federal government was forced to flee the Tigray because it has been annihilated and defeated, ”Kassa told Agence France Presse.
Gebremeskel Kassa’s revelations were made almost simultaneously with the current federal offensive in the Amhara region. In this regard, Kassa told to international medias: “If the Ethiopian federal army will be able to re-enter Tigray it will be a catastrophe and a deplorable moment for the international community.” In his statements, Kassa repeatedly stressed the grave humanitarian situation of the Tegaru people, urging the international community to intervene to prevent further suffering.
