Mereja.Forum

[Halafi Mengedi]

quote from a book

One issue of importance in the relationship was the possibility of passing through each others’ controlled territory. TPLF had the right to pass through ELF controlled territories and though there were difficulties, this had greatly helped the TPLF to establish foreign relations. The ELF also had the right to pass through TPLF controlled territories. Not only that but it had also the right to organize militias and mass organizations and even to administer some areas. If the ELF leadership was genuine to exploit this in a proper manner, it could have given the Eritrea’s peoples struggle great boast. There was a lot of propaganda at that time. ELF leaders used to state that it was the ELF who armed the TPLF and helped it to develop. It was told that TPLF was only a recipient of ELF support. This was not correct. For the record, the only help that TPLF got from ELF was 124 automatic and semi-automatic weapons. TPLF gave the ELF small vehicles, bulldozer that helps in making roads and other items. The most important thing to be stated in this regard, it is not the material support or material loans that define a relationship. Any material support is meant to help an organization to struggle. The result is that it is not only helping the recipient organization, it is also meant to support the supporting organization, too. This is not meant to say we gave more material aid to the ELF than they gave us. If it were possible, we would have even given more; as that would have helped both peoples’ struggle, and we are not sorry for the help we gave. It is not meant to undermine the help we got from the ELF. We just want to make it clear that the claim that the ELF was always the giver and TPLF always was recipient was false.