Juy 3, 2020
The TPLF will soon realize, if they have not already, the true meaning of Napoleon Bonaparte’s regrets.
Death is nothing, but to live defeated is to die every day.
BY SENNAY ZEMEN
The relationship between the EPLF and the TPLF during the armed struggle was full of incidents despite both joined forces against their common enemy, the Dergue. After independence, Eritrea was deeply committed to the belief that both Eritrea and Ethiopia would ‘cross the river in the same boat’ to help each other promote common goals or mutual interests.
In the shadow of looming danger over unresolved border friction and growing inconspicuously anti-Eritrea feelings, both set to open a new page of cooperation in all fields and, as such, signed agreements on economic, political, military and set up committees to push ahead with the agreements. Leaving the past behind, Eritrea was aiming high to bring the two countries to a shared future of common prosperity.
Many African politicians hoped that the two ‘comrades-in-arms,’ who joined forces to defeat one of the strongest military regimes in black Africa, would do miracles in reviving their economy devastated by 30-year war so much so that they could blaze a new trail for many African leaders.
Most, unfortunately, things didn’t go well the way Eritrea and others expected or wished. No sooner did Eritrea declare its independence and began revitalizing its economy from scratch by the ‘sweat of its brow,’ the TPLF, in no time at all stepped up touting ‘Badma’ rhetoric with temerity as “it is part of Tigray.” Its police and militia, flouting the OAU Charter of 1963 on colonial boundary agreements, in which Ethiopia was one of the signatories to it, embark on fixing or marking out new boundary lines between Eritrea and Tigray by setting up heaps of stones over the border as coordinators. Due to the avaricious acquisition of land, the tension that had been lingering over 18 years ago started again to gather momentum.
Eritrea stands by the principle of dialogue rather than confrontation and partnership rather than alliance. To put it another way, the border dispute between the two could be settled only through consultation and negotiation in a peaceful way, which was the EPLF’s unwavering stand during the armed struggle. Against a background of rising tension, in October 1993, the EPLF and TPLF agreed to form a joint committee tasked with investigating the situation on the ground and reporting the findings to top political leaders. The committee met and held talks several times. For example, in Eritrea (in Shambko) and in Tigray (Shire), and was reporting the outcome of the meeting to the higher authorities, respectively.
From the onset, Eritrea sensed that something treachery was afoot inside the TPLF. The committee was unable to make any tangible progress or made no headway since its formation due to the TPLF’s political chicanery and prevarication over the truth of the situation. It reiterated its stance over Badma, saying the issue is “not negotiable,” which indeed gave the committee a rough ride. In spite of the fact that any peaceful negotiation between two parties is a two-way street, the TPLF sticks to “my way or the highway” attitude and, as a result, the situation was going from bad to worst. There is no political will of the TPLF to the border conflict in sight, dark cloud of the dangerous situation was slowly hanging over the border.
Does Badma, a small village in a backwater area inhabited by Kunama ethnic group until recently, bear an ancient and honoured name in Tigray history? The answer is ‘no.’ But the TPLF has invented an apocryphal tale that
Without delving into this nonsensical and captious story, why was the TPLF so interested in Badma for years?” Does it endow huge deposits of natural resources such as oil or natural gas? Whether the TPLF claim was driven from natural right, historical right, legal right, divine right, or any other right remains a puzzle. Without ascertaining its veracity, however, it went on to claim shamelessly that it has been part and parcel of Tigray since “time immemorial.” Having said that, it was not hard to guess how things would pan out as the TPLF continued grabbing land by force and defying negotiation. In light of this fact, it was with certain naivety to expect any enduring or long-standing relationship between the two. Indeed, the claim was a disposition to stir up future conflict.a king named Azena, from Kunama, was ruling Axum. Maybe the king was from Badma!!
Without having any element of truth or justification, police and militia of the TPLF took the matter into their own hands and annexed Eritrean territories. They treated harshly Eritreans, banned them from tilling their lands, burned their crops, raided their villages, beaten them with sticks, arrested them for weeks, and intimidated them to leave their villages through excessive force. Though Eritrea was communicating with the TPLF leadership and informing them about the situation, the TPLF remained deliberately blind to the realities of the situation. The ‘militia’ continued expelling Eritreans, grabbing their land, and confiscating or looting their property. This morally repugnant practice and an appalling act of aggression became, to borrow a modern phrase, the order of the day.
After consolidating its power through political shenanigans, securing an abundance of wealth, and winning international support, the TPLF flexed its military muscles and began to look for trouble in order to realize its political apocalypse of Eritrea predicated by its fortune tellers, which presaged the end of Eritrea. It is worth remembering that the TPLF had been discomfited by the previous EPLF’s political stand towards Ethiopia. This is to say that, it opposed strongly the Manifesto (1976) and since then the TPLF has yet rankled with it. It was at its wits end worrying what to do with the EPLF since its dreams could not be achieved as long as the EPLF was in power. To this end, it engaged deeply in political machinations to get rid of the EPLF.
To make the matters worse, in October 1997 the TPLF started to make waves with Eritrea. Without giving a lot of consideration for Eritrean sovereign rights, it contracted a private German company, GTZ, to demarcate the border between Eritrea and Tigray. By definition, Tigray is an independent state within an independent Ethiopia. It should come as no surprise that the cabinet and parliament of the TPLF-led Federal government of Ethiopia were ignorant of what was going on in Tigray. The self-made map, superimposed on the map of Eritrea, became ‘official’ after it appeared in the front-page of the TPLF newspaper ‘WEYN’ and henceforth it was distributed to schools and government offices. When Eritrea asked an explanation about the unusual activities on the border, the TPLF replied that
Most shockingly, their relationship further took turn for the worse when on July 18, 1997 the TPLF under the pretext of pursuing “ugugumu’, a small band of Afar rebels fighting for Greater Afar, deployed two-battalion equipped with heavy weapons made an incursion into Eritrea and occupied an Eritrean village, Adi Murug, under Badda administration, and put the surrounding areas under their full control. Indeed, the Afar rebels had never posed a threat neither to Eritrea nor to ‘Ethiopia’. The deliberate incursion aimed at annexing Eritrean lands further highlighted the lingering potential danger and augured signs of confrontation. When Eritrean military officers tried to meet the aggressors, they were told that “the land belongs to Tigray.” The invaders refused to pull their troops out of the occupied land and instead dismantled the Eritrean administration and replaced it by Tigray administration. The residents were told either to leave the village or remain part of Tigray region.we are surveying agricultural lands for development.
Following the incessant aggressive acts and encroachments on Eritrean sovereign territories, in August 1997 Eritrea sent a delegation to Addis to protest against the incursion and other provocative acts. Similarly, President Isaias wrote also a letter to late PM Meles regarding the calculated iniquitous activities of the TPLF, but to no effect. Out of arrogance, it paid a deaf ear to Eritrean concerns over the border incursions and annexation. Though Eritrea was committed to the belief that a peaceful solution can be reached with common efforts through negotiations, the TPLF was on a different wavelength towards its future relationship with Eritrea and resolving the border dispute.
The tension between Eritrea and TPLF further mounted after Eritrea introduced its own new national currency to draw independently its own fiscal and monetary policy. Though Eritrea informed the TPLF authorities about of its new currency, they threw up their hands in despair at the plan. Long before the new currency came into circulation, Eritrea put forward a proposal for discussion to the TPLF which include among others: how both countries would deal with exchange rate; how Ethiopia would collect its birr which was in circulation in Eritrea; how Ethiopian traders would pay port services; to consider the system followed by COMESA countries; or, as a last resort (ultima ratio) trade transaction would be conducted by foreign currency. The TPLF defied giving a reply or comments despite repeated telephone calls by the head of Eritrean Commercial Bank to his counterpart in Addis.
It should be noted that the IMF was invited to help both countries solve currency swap disagreements and set procedures for collecting Ethiopian currency. The TPLF rejected the recommendation of the IMF and requested additional advice from the WB. After it asked both countries to send a delegation, the TPLF failed again to do so. In addition, an expert from Czechoslovakia was invited to share his experience how the country dealt with such cases when it was partitioned into many states. When all attempts to solve the financial disagreements come to nothing, on November 8, 1997, Eritrea’s new currency, the Nakfa, came into operation. In the same breath, the TPLF threatened its people living on the border and at all points of entry in no circumstances should they make any exchange with the new Eritrean currency. TPLF cadres started to tear up and burn Eritrean new currency to express their anger and frustration. As a result, trade between the two countries came to an abrupt halt.
To put further Eritrea’s patience to test, in February 1998, the TPLF army made similar inroads deep into Northern Red Sea region Eritrean, Asseb-Bure road, from 71 km border to 57 km and entered Sereru village. The TPLF army dismantled the administration of the village and gathered the people to tell them that this area ‘belongs to Ethiopia,’ just as they did in Adi Murug. Before they left the village, they destroyed the AfriCare water project funded by NGO and robbed thousands of cement sacks of the project. It goes without saying that the repeated incursions into Eritrean territories were aimed at turning up the heat on Eritrea in order to fire the first shot so as to serve it as an occasion of war for its war agenda. But Eritrea remained loyal to its commitments to principle of a peaceful resolution to the bitter end and warned its army not to take any action in face of fast-developing dangerous trend and pugnacious nature of the TPLF in order to save the situation from further escalation, lest it should be dragged into armed conflict.
During the Amhara Imperial times, the Ethiopian people including Tigraynas were subjected to all kinds of inhumanity and indignity. In addition, the Emperors introduced the ‘divide and rule’ policy and treated them badly that verged on slavery. They impoverished intentionally the people and reduced them to penury in order to make them toothless so as not to pose any threat for their imperial rule. Because of this, the people were experiencing many ordeals and forced to face humiliation, injustice, and other crimes, which was more than anyone could bear. The TPLF’s deep-seated and chronic inferiority complex, therefore, took root in the 1940s, started to take shape during the armed struggle, and become institutionalized in the TPLF mind after they took power in 1991. Put it briefly, the feeling grew gradually from a seed into a towering tree and started to bear poison fruits after they controlled the country’s politics.
Most, unfortunately, the new Tigray Emperors inherited, revived and fanned the flames of ethnic hatred to fulfill their political ambition. Since then, they have been playing politics with the old policy to seek vengeance for the humiliation they suffered and make good use of it to create fissures among the people. The existing division among the different ethnic groups in Ethiopia was, therefore, the result of the policy pursued by the TPLF in the past 27 years. By all intents and purposes, they established a one-ethnic group political system based on ‘master-slave’ relationship, pretty much the same to the previous regimes. What is more, Ethiopians were forced to pay tribute to the TPLF for the sacrifice paid by its people.
Notwithstanding the fact that the TPLF’s inferiority complex is the product and legacy of the previous regimes, it set to make a drama out of it and tried to shift the blame on Eritreans who have nothing to do with the tribulations that its people had suffered for long. Despite this fact, the hostile policy, both in word and deed, against Eritrea and its people came in all shapes and sizes. As of early 1991, it raised its people on extreme forms of complex and deafened them with gratuitous and mendacious propaganda that “Eritreans treat Tigriyans with derision,” in an effort to pass on their long-held hatred to their people. It also played on the divide and rule policy to isolate the people of Tigray from Eritreans. Hate speech, accompanied by bellicose mood, was echoed and heard across the region.
Furthermore, its security agents were ordered to register secretly Eritreans living in Tigray and other regions in order to keep track of them. They were organizing local gatherings to peddle their hostile propaganda against Eritreans. In one gathering, for example, one participant stood up and said "we are told by the Eritrean government to wash our cars before they arrive in Asmara."
The TPLF was intoxicating its people with pernicious lies and innuendos to unheard levels in order to play the two people off against each other. They were also cultivating young cadres and indoctrinating them with a similar old sentiment. In short, the intensive campaign in all forms against Eritrea and its people became a flavor of the day.
But the question is: do Eritreans really despise Tigrayans? The answer is emphatical No. As saying goes “there is no necessity for proving the existence of light,” there is no need to say more about the two people’s strong relationships. The tissue of lies of the TPLF can be easily refuted by referring to past and present history. A good example was when the two people met in 2018 after 20 years of separation, they hugged each other while tears were rolling down their faces. Did anybody sense any signs of contempt from Eritreans towards Tigrayans. The so-called ‘Eritreans contemn Tigrayans’ is, therefore, all in the TPLF heads.
TPLF-A Thorn in the Flesh (Part-2)
July 3, 2020
BY SENNAY ZEMEN
In spite of many indelible facts, the TPLF leadership has been deluded into believing that ‘Eritreans treat Tigryans with contempt.’ This fictitious threat has been deeply rooted in their political culture and, as a result, impacted negatively their relationship with Eritrea and many other political parties during their 27-year unbridled power.
They were throwing dust in the people’s eyes to make them believe that Eritreans despise them and massaging an imagined fear and non-existent grievances to fuel enmity between the two people. The rhetoric of hate speech was aimed at gullible people who were so worried about their deplorable living conditions.
There is no doubt that the TPLF leaders have borne grudges against Eritreans which are manifested in speeches made repeatedly on different occasions. To mention but a few: In the early 1990s, Abbay Tsehaye, one of the politburo members of the TPLF and designer of the evil strategy of the TPLF, was attacking Eritreans with an aggressive tone and offensive languages at workshops, seminars, or meetings. His speech set a pessimistic tone for the future relationships between Eritrea and the TPLF. He was telling the participants that
In other words, “people despise us because we are poor” Isn’t this a hate speech linked to an inferiority complex as well as an act of revenge?those [Eritreans] who are calling us dirty and lousy people will continue to say so unless we work hard and lift our people out of poverty through developing agriculture and industries so as to show them that you are better than them in every way.
Another example was, just a few days after the TPLF declared war against Eritrea, the then President of the Tigray region, Gebru Asrat, one of the notorious advocators of the war, made an acerbic speech on May 28, 1998, in front of large crowds to fan their feelings of hatred against Eritrean and said:
His speech was a clear manifestation of the TPLF’s harbored hatred against Eritreans for years. In addition, he revealed the secrets behind the war that it had nothing to do with border dispute other than political payback.Eritreans treat you with derision. One cat for 50 mice; a fly killer spray for thousands of flies. Therefore, the war must continue whatever price it takes.
Against the deep hatred backdrop, no sooner had the war started than the TPLF expelled more than 80,000 Eritreans from all ages and walks of life from Ethiopia without giving much thought to future negative consequences. They were expelled in a dehumanized way and with nothing more than the clothes on their backs.
Worst still, Eritrean women who married Tigrayns were also expelled leaving their beloved ones behind. The war was fueled by hatreds that decades-old and taken as a good opportunity for the TPLF to settle the old account with Eritreans and gloat over their misfortune or suffering. The Eritreans never committed any crime, except for being Eritreans and the ‘colour of their eyes is not likened in Ethiopia. Without a doubt, the expulsion clearly manifested the TPLF’s extreme hatred for Eritreans.
It is a sad fact that hate speech has become the music in the TPLF’s ears. For instance, during the 45th anniversary of the TPLF held in February 2020, Sebhat Nega, a member of the politburo of the MALELIT, made a speech in front of mass rally and said without shame
Isn’t this a speech coated with an inferiority complex?they call you [Tigrayans] disgusting and loathing people; they regard you as contemptible people.
It is a shame for the TPLF to air live on its TV such as indecent and scurrilous speeches. Imagine how people would feel when a ‘trusted politician,’ uttered such hate speech in front of thousands of gatherings. But, the Tigray people are not so credulous as to believe the hate propaganda of their leaders.
It stands to reason that the noxious speech, which is the index of the mind of the three TPLF and other leaders, bears similar vocabularies of inferiority complex intended to inculcate feelings of isolation among the people, arouse narrow Tigray nationalistic egoism, develop a cult of personality around the political elites and instill chauvinistic influences in the society. They are trying hard to ‘trickle their hatred down’ the impressionable minds at seminars, meetings, and gatherings in Tigray and other places. In short, the speeches, which have ever been uttered by human lips in this day and age, are utterly abhorrent.
The hate speech was used as a strategy to achieve many objectives. To name just a few: to isolate the people of Tigray from Eritreans/Ethiopians; plunder Ethiopian wealth by crying crocodile tears and by presenting Tigray as a war-torn and a poverty-stricken region; motivate people to work hard in order to boost fast economic growth; make Tigray one of the richest region in the country at the expense of millions of poor Ethiopians who are still living in abject poverty; and, arouse narrow nationalistic feelings to pave the road for the Republic.
Then and only then can the people of Tigray trample their feet on the heads of their ‘enemies.’ In short, the whole strategy was to wreak vengeance on Eritrean and Ethiopian people and fulfill the imperial ambition.
Though the TPLF robbed mercilessly Ethiopian wealth for 27 years and build a huge economy in Tigray through EFFORT, second to Shiek Alamoudi, a Saudi billionaire, they have not yet freed themselves of complex feelings even after they have sucked Ethiopian wealth at an alarming rate. Of course, the new Emperors had at their disposal plunder and tribute amassed through shenanigans. But the question is: has the TPLF strategy paid off? The answer is yes and no.
The TPLF elites and war generals including their families have emerged as wealthy people in Ethiopia while millions of Ethiopians have become indigent and many regions are left in the dust. They are trying to hide their corrupt practices under the veneer of ‘Tigray people paid the heavy sacrifice for Ethiopia.’
In the subsequent years that followed, the TPLF continued its aggressive acts and wave of atrocities against Eritreans in Badma in scope and intensity. Using threat of force, the police and militia of the TPLF expelled Eritreans from their homes, banned them from tilling their lands, looted or set ablaze their properties with the aim of compelling them to leave their villages where they had been there for decades. Despite its frivolous political maneuvers, the TPLF clung to its old mindset and defied negotiation as a means to solve border claims. The tension escalated to a new height, worsened the gravity of the situation and the mission of the joint committee finally reached the end of road.
The intimidation and harassment against Eritreans became an unstoppable snowball and stoked political tension. However, Eritrea, unfazed by the provocative and aggressive acts of the TPLF, displayed remarkable phlegm in the hope of defusing the tensions and averting the threat of war, which was on the horizon. Amid increasing atrocities against Eritreans in the occupied land, incursions into its sovereign territories, the intensive hostile campaign against its people living in Tigray and other places, the simmering tension that was developing steadily finally boiled and turned to border accident.
On May 6, 1998, the TPLF militia ambushed and killed seven from Eritrean armed forces who were on patrol duty, that is, on the track of jihadists who were crossing from Sudan. This incident had greatly impacted the magnitude of the crisis and led to a violent face-off between the two armies at the border. Unfortunately, the incident was taken as a golden opportunity for the TPLF and deployed a huge army in the contested territory where it soon became a battleground.
Eritrea was on the cusp of state-building and collecting bodies of its fallen martyrs buried in many war-fronts and laying them in honor since they were not accorded proper funeral honors during the armed struggle in the hope of no more Eritreans would die in a battle as the war was drifted into in history. However, few days after the incidents took place and when the Eritrean delegation was in Addis for a meeting, on May 13, 1998, the hawkish TPLF politicians jumped the gun and declared all-out offensive amid peace efforts was underway to de-escalate the tension.
The casus belli of the invasion was the more than three-decades-old illegal land claim and through which to gain other political ends. The Badma incident was indeed a pretext for the TPLF to cover expansionist policy. Befuddled with arrogance and contemptuous attitude, the TPLF made a Himalayan blunder, or a strategic error, in declaring war against its ‘brothers-in-arms,’ who brought them up to political power in Ethiopia with their military ingenuity and blood.
The decision to go to war flew in the face of joint cooperation made between the EPLF and TPLF to defeat the Dergue, of the historical relations between the two neighbouring people and of Eritrea’s vision of building a shared future with Ethiopia and other neighboring countries. The TPLF ignored completely the fact that war would make a rod for its back in the future and went to it without a slight consideration for future political, economic, and social consequences of both people.
Worst of all, the war tore the aspiration of the people to shake off poverty and to live in peace to shreds. It also left a black mark on the history of the people and the legacy of hatred. Despite Eritrea attempted to dissuade the TPLF from entering into conflict, the war was viewed as a political choice for their political agenda and a panacea for their psychological ills. It is time to put it on the line that the TPLF’s empty rhetoric that it had ‘sincerely’ backed Eritreans for their independence was merely an imposture. Behind the façade of supporting their cause, a shocking political agenda of the TPLF was hidden.
Failing to draw a hard lesson from past mistakes of its predecessors, the TPLF was hell-bent on winning the war at all costs using a military infantry tactic of human wave attack. The other reason that fooled the TPLF was that Eritrea had disbanded its hard-bitten army and replaced it with Warsay, young and new Eritrean army. It also bragged that it could win the war without much difficulty because it knew very well the tactics of the EPLF to the extent that “the TPLF army will lunch in Asmara,” as if they were walking and singing behind a marching band.” Not only this. Ethiopian ambassadors abroad invited international diplomatic corps in their respective receiving states to announce that “Ethiopian forces would enter Asmara within hours.”
The TPLF launched total war against Eritrea and its people believing that the Eritrean army would easily be brought under. It hoped also that its army would do wonders for the war employing a huge army and advanced weapons. After the offensive started, the heroic Eritrean army faced wave after wave of enemy troops and it was most unfortunate to see when thousands of Ethiopian army were dropping like flies, not by the spray of flies as Gebru Asrat once said, but by spray of bullets, for a nonsense war just to fulfill the TPLF’s political ambition and cupidity. After Eritrea made some changes in its military strategy, the TPLF ‘won’ Pyrrhic victory with much fanfare in controlling of Badma.
The TPLF floundered through the swamp of war for two years to achieve its political agenda but turned out to be a phantom thanks to the Eritrean people’s grit and determination in the highest form. The dream of ‘eating lunch’ in Asmara, winning the war, and establishing the Greater Republic of Tigray also vanished like a mirage. Shame on the TPLF! They confused themselves and misled their ambassadors. War is no picnic. The TPLF political leaders and other war generals were kept on tenterhooks to receive a telephone call from Asmara. To the TPLF dismay, they were forced to hang their head in shame for their idiotic war plan. History repeats itself endlessly for those who are unwilling to learn from the past.
It should be noted that the military strategy of the TPLF went up in smoke, which was destined for failure only because when they were making a prognosis for winning the war, they left out to include the war-experience of Eritreans gleaned from 30-year of bitter armed struggle, the grit and strength of mind of Eritreans, their unyielding courage in the face of hardships and of being true-blue patriots. If that was not the case, the Eritrean struggle would have been defeated much earlier and the TPLF wouldn’t have come to power.
The TPLF faced with a dilemma after all its gambits ended in smoke. Of course, the war put a lot of strain on its shaky economy, which has been heavily reliant on foreign loans and aid. Besides, It suffered unbearable human cost and material devastation. The two-year intensive war and 18 years ‘no peace, no war’ situation brought the TPLF up against the realities that military success was next to impossible other than admitting humiliation and accepting the international call ending the war. Finally, Eritrea and the TPLF agreed to end the war peacefully in Algiers, Algeria, in December 2000. In short, the internal and external pressure and untiring peace efforts made by some African leaders and international community saved the situation. Eritrea expresses its deep sense of undying gratitude to those who made sincere and profound efforts to end the two-year senseless war.
Against the peace agreement backdrop, the Border Commission, which was established on the basis of Algiers Peace Agreement, gave its final and binding ruling in 2002 and awarded Badma to Eritrea and, as a result, the more than three decades political mumbo jumbo of woyane has come to an end. The law sometimes sleeps, but it never dies. Flying in the teeth of Eritrean people, Ethiopian constitution, AU Charter and the international tribunal ruling, the TPLF defied the ruling of the Commission and has still occupied contemptuously Eritrean territories, which is tantamount to an invitation to war. Besides, the ruling made the TPLF eat crow in front of its people, Ethiopian people, and the international community that the implausible story of Badma was nothing less than a political humbug.
Without reciting chapter and verse of the two-year bloody war (1998-2000), the TPLF launched three large-scale military offensives with avowed intent was to dance on the Eritrean grave, impose a regime change, install a puppet government, capture Assab and to redraw a new map of Tigray by annexing Eritrean territories which included western part of Eritrea, northern part of Seraye, vast lands of Akeleguzay linked historically to the Axumiate period, and from Red Sea coast to the border of Djibouti including Assab and invoke Article 39 to establish the Republic of Greater Tigray and to kiss Ethiopia goodbye. In the true meaning of the word, the sole aim of the TPLF’s military offensive was to decolonize or swallow up Eritrea. In the TPLF mind’s eye, they could see a more powerful and prosperous Tigray with access to the Red Sea. Despite this beautiful illusion, the Republic has not a wide currency all over the people of Tigray.
When the TPLF faced with the reality that winning the war militarily was beyond the realms of possibility or highly unlikely, it devised, few days after it signed the peace agreement in Algiers, a clever ruse to bring Eritreans to their kneel, which was indeed a real delusion, through economic sanction and containment policy, to isolate Eritrea diplomatically from neighboring countries and international community with the final objective was to reconsider its independence. According to woyane’s visionaries, Eritrea would be buckled under pressure of economic sanction and diplomatic isolation. To achieve this end, it colluded with some leaders of the region, Western countries and international organizations.
The IGAD and the AU did little-to-nothing to stop the war but instead conspired with the TPLF and Western allies to impose unjust sanction (2009) on Eritrea without an iota of truth just to satisfy the TPLF’s expansionist strategy. Their betrayal to the Eritrean people has been a blot on their respective Charters escutcheon for years to come. Against their expectations, the Eritrean people remained steadfast and braved the wicked plan whereby the TPLF hoisted by its own petard, meaning that, it was caught in the trap that it prepared for Eritrea. Other than Eritreans, nobody thought that Eritrea would beat the odds and survive the huge pressure bearing down on it for 20 years.
Finally, this month twenty years ago, after the TPLF failed repeatedly to break through the strong Eritrean defense lines to capture Asmara, it launched a desperate military campaign to capture Assab. It knew it wasn’t likely to win the war, but decided to chance its arms. The TPLF army met its Waterloo after its algorithms to capture the Eritrean port turned into a complete fiasco. The gallant Eritrean army bravely repulsed its army back and put them to rout. In addition, it was forced to end its military operation in Eritrea after facing a painful and disastrous defeat. Eritreans again embroiled themselves in a 20-year war against their will and paid heavy prices to uphold the sovereignty of their country and defend their dignity. Once again, Eritrea, the land of tenacity, becomes a graveyard for hundreds of thousands of woyane’s army. Indeed, the TPLF is a real thorn in the Eritrean flesh and will continue to remain so until it goes to hell in the handcart.
Eternal glory to our Martyrs!
