After three weeks of military offense in Tigray region to enforce law and bring in the so called criminal group of Tigray Peoples Liberation Front /TPLF/ leaders on the evening of Saturday, November 28 government has said, “The third and final phase of the battle came to an end.”
On Monday, November 30, a day after announcing the end of military operations in the northern part of the country Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed told parliament, “The victory is Ethiopia’s, truth has won and the prayers and tears of Ethiopian mothers have-not gone in vain.” The Prime Minister also emphasized that people need to be humble and should not celebrate the win because the major battle is in front us, ‘poverty’, which must also be tackled.
Also to foreign countries the Prime minister emphasized through saying, “We don’t want to look like others. We want to look like ourselves. If you want to be friends with us, please understand us first. We have many years of experience, even more than most countries. We may be poor but we are not a country that will negotiate our sovereignty. Threatening Ethiopia for coins will not work.”
As Prime Minister Abiy said that national forces did not kill any civilians in Tigray, in what could be the latest accusation of mass murder on the part of TPLF fighters, Ethiopian National Defence Forces (ENDF) avoided civilian installations, including towns.
“Why would we strike Mekele? Mekele is ours. It’s Ethiopia’s. ENDF operate with utmost discipline and care for civilians,” the Prime Minister said.
The TPLF had already been accused of a massacre of civilians after Amnesty International and the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission separately said unarmed civilians were killed in the Tigray town of Mai Kadra.
“There is no way to explain the Mai Kadra massacre perpetrated by TPLF. It is the epitome of moral degeneration,” Abiy said.
He told the audience that the ENDF opted not to destroy all tanks owned by the TPLF because they had stationed them in civilian quarters, endangering life.
The fact that we didn’t sit down with the criminals for dialogue doesn’t mean we weren’t interested in dialogue. “We love to discuss, we hate wars. We begged, we are known for peace,” he said, Ethiopia has one government, a government that respects the law, and can be asked according to the law, even in the time of the war we were having dialogues but it was with the legal interim government lead by Mulu Nega,” he added.
The TPLF once ruled Ethiopia for three decades, mostly as part of a coalition known as the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). When Abiy came to power in 2018, he sought to dismantle their grasp on power.
In Parliament, he said the TPLF wanted to manipulate everything in their favour and went as far as pretending to be on his side.
“The impression that TPLF left when EPRDF decided to merge is a false narrative,” Abiy said referring to the merger of EPRDF parties into the Prosperity Party last December.
“TPLF itself endorsed the merger. TPLF itself had also voted for the decision to adopt the Algiers decision and forge peace with Eritrea. But they went public to say they didn’t,” Abiy explained.