I am not celebrating the news of the “indefinite humanitarian truce” because I don’t see any tangible progress except a repeat of a game that has been played before. I wonder why so many are celebrating and why they keep falling for this game again and again.
For Abiy, there is nothing sacrosanct. Everything is a tool for winning. He has lied big time, broken promises, deceived, and played games. Let’s highlight some examples.
On July 29, 2020, Abiy Ahmed had an interview (starts 58:20) with Fana TV’s Tigrinya program where he emphatically asserted that he had no plans of war with Tigray. About his government collaborating with Eritrea to attack Tigray, he said the following:
It is even a sin to think that the Eritrean government would ask the Ethiopian government to jointly attack Tigray. How could they ask us to jointly attack our people? Okay, let’s forget about them. It is impossible that we, the government of Ethiopia, can invite the Eritrean government to attack our country. This has never happened in the history of our country and I don’t believe it will ever happen, even in the future.
Abiy Ahmed
And yet, it did happen. The goal of that interview was to thwart preparation on the part of Tigray and to catch it off-guard.
On the 30th of November 2020, after the onset of the war on Tigray, Abiy Ahmed claimed that not a single civilian was killed in Tigray. This was after tens of thousands had been killed, many massacres committed and Eritrean troops had committed grisly atrocities including the well-documented Aksum Massacre and Mariam Dengelat Massacre.
On the 10th of December 2020 at a UN presser, a Reuter’s journalist asked United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, if the UN had seen any evidence of Eritrean troops fighting in Ethiopia? (Question starts at minute mark 26:00). António Guterres answered as follows:
“We have no proof of the presence of Eritrean troops inside Ethiopia. I confronted the prime minister with that question, and he guaranteed to me that they have not entered Tigrayan territory. That the only area where they are is the area that corresponded to the disputed territory between the two countries that in the peace agreement was decided to give back to Eritrea. So this was the testimony that was given to me by the prime minister when I confronted him exactly with that question.”
António Guterres
Of course, the Eritrean government and troops were involved from planning to execution, when the SG relayed these assurances. A few weeks after this international human rights organizations and the media would start reporting in great detail on the crimes they had already committed [HRW, AICNN] by this time. Meanwhile, Abiy continued to deny Eritrean presence until March 2021, when he made an abrupt U-turn and announced he and the Eritrean dictator Isaias Afewerki had agreed for Eritrean troops to withdraw from the “Ethiopian border”. In response to that, on March 27, 2021, I wrote:
Abiy’s grand lies are always to deflect international pressure and they have always worked for him. There are no scruples when Abiy lies, and surprisingly there are still media outlets, shallow so-called analysts, international organizations, and diplomats who accept his lies and deceptions.
In the article above, I also attempted to highlight the big lies until the end of March 2021. Abiy had lied and promoted deception more times than one can even keep count since that time.
On June 23, Abiy had a lengthy interview which was broadcast on state media outlets. Asked about Ethiopia’s challenges by the journalist, [see from minute mark 21:41] he likens winning the war on Tigray to winning a football game by any means including by breaking the rules, in front of the referee if necessary but preferably without being seen.
When we look at it in relation to the ongoing football game, two opposing teams are playing football on one football field. The challenges that a striker faces from the opposite team when he tries to move forward to score a goal are almost all known. One is being better skilled and snatching the ball from the striker without breaking any rules. If you are not able to match the skill of the striker, then without being seen by the referee, you either hold him or cause him to trip over, do whatever is necessary, and stop him from scoring. If you are not a match to the striker and you can’t stop him by committing a foul without being seen by the referee, then the third option is to stop him by committing a foul while the referee is watching you. Any foul. What comes after this is not for the players, but for the referee. If the referee is a skilled one, one that watches well and is self-confident, then when he sees a foul being committed he gives a red, yellow [card] or awards a penalty. But as we always see, when there is foul, a referee may do nothing about it. How we see the current challenges is that we will be tested, we will learn from it and we will reach the summit.
Abiy Ahmed
On the 29th of June 2021 following the recapture of Mekelle by Tigrayan forces, Abiy declared a “unilateral cease-fire … on humanitarian grounds so that desperately needed aid can be delivered”. Many celebrated. But, the genocide only became deadlier. In reality, it was the start of a shutdown of all services and an imposition of a deadly blockade on Tigray that is still in place.
Since July, Abiy has made many promises and headlines by promising humanitarian access and sometimes allowing one or two trucks as a public relations stunt. Many organizations celebrate that and news headlines are made. But his regime goes on to fully reassert the blockade until yet another round of promises and/or token trucks.
A week ago, the regime said 20 trucks with food and 3 with fuel started moving to Mekelle. They are nowhere to be found. But the congratulatory messages and headlines had already been broadcast and as far as Abiy is concerned that is all that matters. Many celebrated and reported it, Abiy curried favor from the international community with just empty words. I don’t blame Abiy anymore. What can he do when everyone is desperately waiting to be willingly deceived?
This week, Abiy recycled his words from June 2021 replacing ceasefire with a truce and many are celebrating, once more. I wonder what they are celebrating. Don’t they get tired of being deceived? Why the need to continually celebrate empty promises when the situation in Tigray gets only deadlier and half a million civilians have already perished?
Abiy and his allies (Eritrea, Amhara, and Afar) know that an extension of the blockade even by a day is additional time to execute their genocide policy in Tigray. Utilizing Eritrea’s experience in dealing with the short-memory of the international community, and Abiy’s new methods of deception they have successfully taken advantage of the reality that the international community is not only an ineffective “referee” that does nothing when a foul is committed but is also easily manipulatable and gullible. They have therefore come up with a division of labor to continue the Tigray Genocide: for Abiy to change language and ease international pressure and for Eritrea, Amhara, and Afar to continue enforcing the blockade. One only needs to listen to what the heads of state of Afar and Amhara are saying to see the division of labor. The humanitarian truce is no doubt an attempt to curry international favor while continuing the genocide.
If the Abiy regime is genuine about easing the suffering of civilians in Tigray, it can immediately restore services (internet & phone lines, and banking) which can save millions of lives and also allow humanitarian aid through ground and air transport via all routes. It should also tell Eritrea and Amhara to withdraw their invading forces from the constitutional borders of Tigray.
The international community has failed its responsibility in Tigray and it continues to do worse. If it wants to help Tigrayans, it needs to at least measure progress by practical progress in terms of alleviating the catastrophic humanitarian conditions in Tigray decimating Tigrayans.
Gebrekirstos Gebremeskel is a researcher, runs http://mermru.com (NLP resources & tools), and manages Tghat. He is interested in science, history of ideas and the politics of the Horn.
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2 Comments
Stop fake clergymen spreading hate against Tegaru and must face justice
March 27, 2022 at 12:05 pm
You, Prosperity party ring leaders and Eritrean counterpart and war crime accomplice, were preparing for more than 2 years to come up with north command attack pretext to justify your massacre and robbery in Tigray . You waged war on our people once you all Amhara elites and rest of prosperity party supporters agreed to use north command attack as false ground as to why you are really committing genocide. It is clear to everyone, irrespective of the knowledge we have about mercenaries and their conspiracy , that crooked goons like you behave and attempt to conceal their crimes and repeat things to brainwash the public and paint their lies as general facts. No matter how you recite your fictitious story of north command attack a million times, it will not be a substitute for truth and can’t replace the reality we all know, and you do know. Don’t deceive yourself by playing the victim, make excuses, shift the blame, minimize your war crimes and genocide, put self-deception in its place and take back control of your life, and then you will save your own Ethiopia from total collapse . When you import Somalians and Eritreans to commit genocide against your own people and who identify themselves as ethiopians , they have no choice but to support any political party that could intervene to avert a threat potentially killing their own children, elders, and rest of their family members. In the face of serious potential threat which involve foreign and domestic mercenaries like this, unity among people of the same ethnic members who share the same language and culture, is the most crucial element to avert the upcoming danger. Hence, stop crying now and then by saying people of Tigary support TPLF etc etc . Don’t whine time and again about this anymore. People of Tigray are very kind to strangers, and you could assume the fact that they will endanger their lives to protect their family and their people-flesh and blood. I have never been a supporter of TPLF even if we all love and honor those all martyrs who died for our liberty in 17 yrs of bitter and bloody struggle but was subtly been deceived to be a fan of the so called Kingit (ቅንጅት-ቅንጅትየአሁኑ ኢዜማ ), hoping to see a change .Eventually ቅንጅት-ቅንጅትየአሁኑ ኢዜማ reveal its true indenity by working with with eritrean regime , PFDJ, arche-terrorist and principal enemy of Ethiopia and its unified state, , like judas-backstabber-enemy of ethiopia . Some of your statements are reflecting your hate and don’t look that you have well-founded ground other than being envious, sick-minded and strong desire for revenge. May God help you to come to your sense. I heard one of your pedantic pastor who claim to speak on behalf of EOTC leaders , but he was propagating hate against Orthodox church members of Tigrean Origin. Why do you have to recognize such hateful and barbaric clergy as your leader and pastor when he is using the word of God and tenets of the church for personal gain and create hostility among two ethnic groups who have the same religious stance and attend the same church. It is about a clergy man who appeard at Yeneta youtube channel on 26th March 2022 named Memhir Haile-Giorgis Tefera living in Canada the program entitled « We Ethiopian Orthodx Church clergy hang our head in shame on the account of the speech made by His Holiness . Clergy men like Mmhr Haile-Giorgios and Dn Daniel KIbret dislike His Holiness , because His holiness exposed these corrupted church leaders in His recent speech . As to me, when one leader like His Holiness exclusively expose the war crime and speak up in defense of the followers of the church and all civilians subjected to unspeakable atrocities , the rest of the clergymen like Daniel Kibret and Memhir Haile-Giorgis Tefera feel that their support to the genocidal regime of Abiy exposed to the public, lose respect and trust from the laity as a result-clear fact and general truth and no need to study a rocket science . In other terms, this sacred moment will paint them as supporters of the genocidal regime, and false prophets who abandoned their flock in times of adversity in search of strong ties with actors of the genocide committed against our People. What surprises us most is that every man who was hiding himself to talk about plotting against hardworking neighbor , colleague, classmate or friend, now gladly and freely walk and talk about his murder plans and ethnic cleansing openly in public media since the regime supports killings of innocent civilians based on their ethnic ties, political stance, and their level of resistance or dissension against its regime. All these false prophets like Mhr Hailegiorgis and Dn KIbret and others are seeking fame, money and they know most people now support masscre against Tegaru. John the baptist, Jonas the prophet,Prophet Jonathan and many other prophets and sainst were risking their lives while spreading the word of God and conveying the message of God to the people and even before dreadful and terrifying kings without holding anything in their hand and facing all dangers alone . Do we have an orthodox church leader who speak for both Tegaru, Amhara, Oromos, Kimant, Agew and others without making ethnic distinction ? YOu can dare to blame others when you are doing things fairly ? Don’t beat around the bush as well, many of your pastors talk something else that captures attention while doesn’t relate to the topic but simply to attack an opponent. Nepotism, favortisme, corruption has been part of our history , and His Holiness can’t be blamed for it. You should ask your own leaders, I personally know the fact that many of local church leaders were disobiodent to the Patriarch and corrupted and robbed the EOTC riches.During the patriach recently passed away , many church servants were from Gonder, and you see in some churches clergy men from Gonder, another church from Showa, and another church entertains only its own tribal member if not you got poisoned or become victime of Tila wegi , ugly story of your church servants. Stop brainwashing and misleading Ethiopian Orthodox Church laity and Ethiopian at large, and stop misusing the Word of God for political propaganda. Stop Genocide on Tigray and Oromia against any unarmed civilian, irrespective of his or her ethnicity and religion. Humanitarian corridor to all affected people by the interethnic conflict.
Stop Genocide in Tigray , Oromia and elsewere in Ethiopia
March 26, 2022 at 4:38 pm
It is as clear as day/crystal that Abiy Ahmed, trustworthy person before UN dignitaries, and Nobel Prize winner in abroad while genocider and warmonger in his own country(at home), declaring this truce to the complete satisfaction of his masters and allowing them to claim that their mediation and facilitation work brought such long awaited solution to a 17-month-long Conflict. All past lies, and fake cease-fire declarations made by this habitual liar, genocidal leader Col. Abiy Ahmed , disguised doctor and masked agricultural expert, are serving as pretexts for many of the global leaders who are too hesitant to take decisive measures and save lives by opening humanitarian corridors to the people affected by the war other than falling for his lies non-stop. Upon hearing the immediate truce, we all felt a glow of contentment, hoping to see our people getting lasting peace and obtain access to humanitarian access, and we will still continue to cross our fingers as opposed to the past failed promises which were one of the common tactic of despotic genocidal regime of Abiy to throw dust in our eyes with fear and ceaseless terror in order to subjugate us and prolong its days in power.
However, We still insist on urging the international community to put pressure onAbiy’s government in order to make sure that the current immediate humanitarian truce comes into effect as introduced to the public.
International community(US Envoy for instance) : Will you be willing to open the humanitarian corridor at this time ?
The disguised Doctor(Col. Abiy responds): Viola, I declared immediate truce, to allow aid .
People affected by the Conflict and their famillies(We) : Abiy is a habitual lair and can’t be trusted.
Abiy Ahmed responds: Ask me no questions, I’ll tell you no lies !!
Abiy always be curious to please mediators arriving Finfine and give promises to western powers because such moments gives him a chance to propagate lies as usual and he was even heard saying “I offered my opponents a deal: if they stop telling lies about me, I will stop telling the truth about them.”
Stop asking questions to aAbiy about his future plans , and please intervene and save precious lives eagerly and desperately seeking your help. Stop genocide in Tigray and bring Abiy and his supporters to justice.
——–Humanitarian Corridor for the people affected by the war- no need to wait the genocidal Aby Ahmed to act ——-
Stop fake clergymen spreading hate against Tegaru and must face justice
March 27, 2022 at 12:05 pm
You, Prosperity party ring leaders and Eritrean counterpart and war crime accomplice, were preparing for more than 2 years to come up with north command attack pretext to justify your massacre and robbery in Tigray . You waged war on our people once you all Amhara elites and rest of prosperity party supporters agreed to use north command attack as false ground as to why you are really committing genocide. It is clear to everyone, irrespective of the knowledge we have about mercenaries and their conspiracy , that crooked goons like you behave and attempt to conceal their crimes and repeat things to brainwash the public and paint their lies as general facts. No matter how you recite your fictitious story of north command attack a million times, it will not be a substitute for truth and can’t replace the reality we all know, and you do know. Don’t deceive yourself by playing the victim, make excuses, shift the blame, minimize your war crimes and genocide, put self-deception in its place and take back control of your life, and then you will save your own Ethiopia from total collapse . When you import Somalians and Eritreans to commit genocide against your own people and who identify themselves as ethiopians , they have no choice but to support any political party that could intervene to avert a threat potentially killing their own children, elders, and rest of their family members. In the face of serious potential threat which involve foreign and domestic mercenaries like this, unity among people of the same ethnic members who share the same language and culture, is the most crucial element to avert the upcoming danger. Hence, stop crying now and then by saying people of Tigary support TPLF etc etc . Don’t whine time and again about this anymore. People of Tigray are very kind to strangers, and you could assume the fact that they will endanger their lives to protect their family and their people-flesh and blood. I have never been a supporter of TPLF even if we all love and honor those all martyrs who died for our liberty in 17 yrs of bitter and bloody struggle but was subtly been deceived to be a fan of the so called Kingit (ቅንጅት-ቅንጅትየአሁኑ ኢዜማ ), hoping to see a change .Eventually ቅንጅት-ቅንጅትየአሁኑ ኢዜማ reveal its true indenity by working with with eritrean regime , PFDJ, arche-terrorist and principal enemy of Ethiopia and its unified state, , like judas-backstabber-enemy of ethiopia . Some of your statements are reflecting your hate and don’t look that you have well-founded ground other than being envious, sick-minded and strong desire for revenge. May God help you to come to your sense. I heard one of your pedantic pastor who claim to speak on behalf of EOTC leaders , but he was propagating hate against Orthodox church members of Tigrean Origin. Why do you have to recognize such hateful and barbaric clergy as your leader and pastor when he is using the word of God and tenets of the church for personal gain and create hostility among two ethnic groups who have the same religious stance and attend the same church. It is about a clergy man who appeard at Yeneta youtube channel on 26th March 2022 named Memhir Haile-Giorgis Tefera living in Canada the program entitled « We Ethiopian Orthodx Church clergy hang our head in shame on the account of the speech made by His Holiness . Clergy men like Mmhr Haile-Giorgios and Dn Daniel KIbret dislike His Holiness , because His holiness exposed these corrupted church leaders in His recent speech . As to me, when one leader like His Holiness exclusively expose the war crime and speak up in defense of the followers of the church and all civilians subjected to unspeakable atrocities , the rest of the clergymen like Daniel Kibret and Memhir Haile-Giorgis Tefera feel that their support to the genocidal regime of Abiy exposed to the public, lose respect and trust from the laity as a result-clear fact and general truth and no need to study a rocket science . In other terms, this sacred moment will paint them as supporters of the genocidal regime, and false prophets who abandoned their flock in times of adversity in search of strong ties with actors of the genocide committed against our People. What surprises us most is that every man who was hiding himself to talk about plotting against hardworking neighbor , colleague, classmate or friend, now gladly and freely walk and talk about his murder plans and ethnic cleansing openly in public media since the regime supports killings of innocent civilians based on their ethnic ties, political stance, and their level of resistance or dissension against its regime. All these false prophets like Mhr Hailegiorgis and Dn KIbret and others are seeking fame, money and they know most people now support masscre against Tegaru. John the baptist, Jonas the prophet,Prophet Jonathan and many other prophets and sainst were risking their lives while spreading the word of God and conveying the message of God to the people and even before dreadful and terrifying kings without holding anything in their hand and facing all dangers alone . Do we have an orthodox church leader who speak for both Tegaru, Amhara, Oromos, Kimant, Agew and others without making ethnic distinction ? YOu can dare to blame others when you are doing things fairly ? Don’t beat around the bush as well, many of your pastors talk something else that captures attention while doesn’t relate to the topic but simply to attack an opponent. Nepotism, favortisme, corruption has been part of our history , and His Holiness can’t be blamed for it. You should ask your own leaders, I personally know the fact that many of local church leaders were disobiodent to the Patriarch and corrupted and robbed the EOTC riches.During the patriach recently passed away , many church servants were from Gonder, and you see in some churches clergy men from Gonder, another church from Showa, and another church entertains only its own tribal member if not you got poisoned or become victime of Tila wegi , ugly story of your church servants. Stop brainwashing and misleading Ethiopian Orthodox Church laity and Ethiopian at large, and stop misusing the Word of God for political propaganda. Stop Genocide on Tigray and Oromia against any unarmed civilian, irrespective of his or her ethnicity and religion. Humanitarian corridor to all affected people by the interethnic conflict.
Stop Genocide in Tigray , Oromia and elsewere in Ethiopia
March 26, 2022 at 4:38 pm
It is as clear as day/crystal that Abiy Ahmed, trustworthy person before UN dignitaries, and Nobel Prize winner in abroad while genocider and warmonger in his own country(at home), declaring this truce to the complete satisfaction of his masters and allowing them to claim that their mediation and facilitation work brought such long awaited solution to a 17-month-long Conflict. All past lies, and fake cease-fire declarations made by this habitual liar, genocidal leader Col. Abiy Ahmed , disguised doctor and masked agricultural expert, are serving as pretexts for many of the global leaders who are too hesitant to take decisive measures and save lives by opening humanitarian corridors to the people affected by the war other than falling for his lies non-stop. Upon hearing the immediate truce, we all felt a glow of contentment, hoping to see our people getting lasting peace and obtain access to humanitarian access, and we will still continue to cross our fingers as opposed to the past failed promises which were one of the common tactic of despotic genocidal regime of Abiy to throw dust in our eyes with fear and ceaseless terror in order to subjugate us and prolong its days in power.
However, We still insist on urging the international community to put pressure onAbiy’s government in order to make sure that the current immediate humanitarian truce comes into effect as introduced to the public.
International community(US Envoy for instance) : Will you be willing to open the humanitarian corridor at this time ?
The disguised Doctor(Col. Abiy responds): Viola, I declared immediate truce, to allow aid .
People affected by the Conflict and their famillies(We) : Abiy is a habitual lair and can’t be trusted.
Abiy Ahmed responds: Ask me no questions, I’ll tell you no lies !!
Abiy always be curious to please mediators arriving Finfine and give promises to western powers because such moments gives him a chance to propagate lies as usual and he was even heard saying “I offered my opponents a deal: if they stop telling lies about me, I will stop telling the truth about them.”
Stop asking questions to aAbiy about his future plans , and please intervene and save precious lives eagerly and desperately seeking your help. Stop genocide in Tigray and bring Abiy and his supporters to justice.
——–Humanitarian Corridor for the people affected by the war- no need to wait the genocidal Aby Ahmed to act ——-