Breakdown
of peace and order in Ethiopia, the Tigray Factor,
and the Confusing Ethiopian-Eritrean Relations
Ghelawdewos
Araia, PhD
IDEA Editorial January 9, 2019
In
the last eight months, i.e. beginning end of April
2018 to present, the whole of Ethiopia is
disturbed by ethnic clashes and confrontations
that, in large measure, are mysterious and
difficult to explicate and define. The victims of
disturbances, now close to two million internally
displaced, thousands dead, and hundreds upon
hundreds that fled to neighboring countries like
Kenya and Sudan, have tried to make sense out of
the unfortunate phenomenon that they have
encountered by saying, “we have lived with our
neighbors for millennia, but we never have had
such calamity of clashes; we were unable to figure
out the agents of chaos who come and disappear
after they ignite the quarrel among the people and
burn down our properties; we never had such kind
of social insecurity caused by criminality, and
despite our desperate appeal to the Government for
help and rescue, we were left on our own and as a
result we have become refugees in our own
country.”
We
at the Institute of Development and Education for
Africa (IDEA) share the despair and helplessness
of the Ethiopian people vis-à-vis the breakdown
of peace and order in Ethiopia. We have done our
best in the past by producing several editorials
while the cynical Western media and the so-called
human rights watches kept silent and don’t even
bother to report the Ethiopian peoples’ current
ordeal. But we still don’t quite fathom why the
Ethiopian Government was unable to restore peace
and order as well as rule of law in the country.
At this juncture, the Government is well equipped
in terms of the capacity of its federal police and
defense forces, because it is abundantly clear
that Ethiopia is one of the most militarily
strongest in Africa, not to mention its
well-trained and organized federal police that are
also reinforced by the respective regional
states’ police forces. So, it looks that it is
not lack of capacity but lack of commitment on the
part of the Government.
The
Ethiopian Government must seriously consider and
recognize that lack of peace and order could
ultimately result in total instability, that, in
turn, could engender the fall of the Government,
and this scenario could further precipitate
turbulent and unmanageable chaos. Therefore, our
advice to Dr. Abiye in particular and the
Government in general is, to undertake immediate
and instant measures by deploying its military and
its police forces, especially in the areas that
are mostly affected by ethnic clashes and
disorder. It should also immediately take measures
to open the closed highways in all Ethiopia and
apprehend the forces that are engaged in the
closure of main roads.
One
interesting but quite enigmatic phenomenon is the
Tigray factor, a unique equation in the midst of
major turbulence. This northern-most Ethiopian
Regional State is the cradle of Ethiopian
civilization, without which other regional states
could not find meaning of their existence, and by
this we mean ‘authenticity’ and not mere
existential quantification. For this rationale
alone, Tigray remains a true exemplar for other
Ethiopian regional states’ authenticity. On top
of Tigray being hub of ancient Ethiopian
civilization, it was also the defense frontier for
Ethiopia; all Ethiopian enemies first met
Ethiopian counter-offensive led by Tigrayans: The
Ottoman Turk Egyptian forces in 1875 and 1876; the
Italian forces of 1885 and 1887; the Mahdi-led
Derbush (Dervish) Sudanese forces in 1889 in which
the Emperor Yohannes was altruistically
sacrificed; the Battle of Adwa of 1896 led by
Emperor Menelik that managed to mobilize all
Ethiopian forces, was a culmination of earlier
Tigrayan confrontations with the invading Italian
forces in the early 1890s, that is, soon after the
Italians officially declared and established their
first and new colony of Eritrea in 1890. The
second coming of the Italian occupying forces also
conducted military operations in Tigray (Maichew,
Tembien etc.) in 1935/36. And in our present era,
it is the Tigrayan forces who got rid of the most
despicable and brutal regime of the Derg that
virtually destroyed thousands upon thousands of
Ethiopian youth by Red Terror and also annihilated
innocent civilians by series of bombardment of
villages in Tigray and Eritrea.
In
all of the major wars mentioned above, the people
of Tigray have made huge sacrifices unparalleled
in history and they deserve respect and tribute
from their Ethiopian brethren, not enmity and a
foolish strategy to isolate and encircle them.
However, it should be known that the majority of
Ethiopian citizens (not including the disgruntled
elites and misguided youth) in various regional
states like Afar, Somali, Debub, Oromia, Gmabela,
Benishangul-Gumuz, and Harar are in sympathy and
solidarity with Tigray, although like many
Ethiopians, Tigrayans have been subjected to
ethnic clash attacks in these states as well. In
point of fact, close to forty thousand Tigrayans,
frightened by the present insecurity and chaos
have gone back to Tigray, leaving their properties
and investments behind.
The
other astonishing phenomenon in the midst of the
Ethiopian pandemonium is that Tigray remained the
only regional state that has managed to secure
peace, tranquility, and serenity. The original
intention of the Diaspora Ethiopian opposition to
unite all Ethiopians against Tigray has failed
ignominiously, and the framers of this
ill-motivated plan of genocide against Tigrayans
are now in Ethiopia; thanks to Dr. Abiye’s
open-door policy, the so-called opposition that
are fiercely opposed to Tigrayans, without ever
making distinction between the TPLF and the people
of Tigray, are now waiting, like the Serengeti
hyenas, to seize the moment and capture state
power; they could fail or succeed in controlling
the state apparatuses by conducting pretentious
cooperation with Dr. Abiye although their
calculated but opportunistic long haul plan is to
use the Prime Minister as fulcrum and eventually
sidetrack him or overthrow him. The majority of
these ex-Diaspora opposition are bottom feeders
who place selfish interest above principle, and If
they succeed, they might temporarily establish
their own liberal government guided by the
neo-liberal economic policy but they will not be
able to govern the people, and if they can’t
govern they might resort to Fascist-type
governance akin to a totalitarian state.
Adding
fuel to the fire or insult to injury, on top of
the breakdown of peace and order, Ethiopian
politics is now further exacerbated by the newly
reestablished but confusing Ethiopian-Eritrean
relations. There is no doubt that the opening of
the Ethiopian-Eritrean border after two decades
was an historic event, especially in terms of
ending the ‘no war, no peace’ stalemate
between the two nations. Moreover, the opening of
the border at Zalambessa did not only signal peace
to the peoples on either side of the border, but
it also provided overwhelming hope and joy to both
Ethiopians and Eritreans. Soon after the opening
of the Zalambessa and Rama border entry points,
trade exchanges of goods and services resumed and
continued for at least four months until it was
shut down again; following the closure of the
Zalambessa and Rama entry points, the
Humera-Omhajer border on the western front was
officially opened a couple of days ago.
The
opening of the Humera-Omhajer border, apparently
stirred controversy and confusion among the
Ethiopian and Eritrean people; the people of
Tigray especially inquired ‘why Gedu, the
president of the Amhara Regional State,
participated in the border opening ceremony, when
in fact he was not supposed to be there.’ The
border is between Ethiopia and Eritrea and more
specifically between Tigray and Eritrea, and given
the present geographical demarcation of Ethiopia
and subsequent formation of the Kilils
(regional states), all Eritrean borders are
contiguous with Tigray and the Afar Regional
States. What was then Gedu doing in the border
opening ceremony unless there is a stake or
potential interest of the Amhara state; this is
quite puzzling and confusing indeed, but it looks
some answer to the puzzle is being furnished by
the Eritrean Embassy in Japan; in a frivolous
attempt to denigrate the Tigrayan administration
of western Tigray, the Eritrean ambassador said,
“The border opening was between Eritrea and the
Amhara state.” The ambassador’s careless and
irresponsible expression reflects diplomatic
ineptitude, but wait, there could be some message
of a hidden agenda in his bizarre statement. After
all, the confusing Ethiopian-Eritrean relation is
probably oriented and/or conceived from its
inception toward forming a new demarcation of
Ethiopian territory and a new confederation
arrangement between Ethiopia, Eritrea, and
Somalia.
However
to the confusing Ethiopain-Eritrean relations, Dr.
Debretsion Gebremichael, Presdient of Tigray
regional state, seems to have a different take. In
a live press release on January 8, 2019, the
shrewd politician, who is probably destined to
uplift the spirit of Tigrayans during crisis, told
the journalists in no uncertain terms that the
border of the Humera-Omhajer front was no
compensation to the closed Zalambessa border. He
further underscored that the newly opened border
was meant to be opened ahead of time, at least a
month before the current schedule of opening
ceremony but it was delayed for some reason.
Additionally, he told the journalists that he
raised the issue of Zalambessa in a conversation
with President Isaias of Eritrea and that they
have reached an understanding or consensus, which
was but vaguely put on the part of Debretsion.
However, the head of the Tigray regional state
also contradicted what he already articulated in
the press release; on the one hand he said he
“did not know about the closing of the
Zalambessa border”, and on the other he tried to
reason by emphasizing that the need of some
regulation like customs, passports, and visas in
order to reopen the border. Furthermore, the
Deputy President of Tigray seems to be comfortable
and confident with respect to the
Ethiopian-Eritrean relations while at the same
time he repeatedly underscored the significance of
Tigrayan unity, organization, patience, and
alertness during the crisis.
We
at IDEA appreciate peaceful resolution to
conflicts and in order for the Ethiopian people to
coexist peacefully, as they have done it for
millennia, and in order to achieve a more honest,
constructive, and peaceful relations between
Eritrea and Ethiopia, more viable and wise
political parameters must be installed. The
precondition for the wise political measures are
the patience virtue as opposed emotion-ridden
actions; farsightedness as opposed to narrow and
transient policy spectrums; and most importantly,
the employment of dialogue to resolve the overall
crises amongst the Ethiopian people and the
respective regional states, as well as relations
between Ethiopia and Eritrea. That will be the
day!
Good
Luck for Ethiopia and Ethiopians as well as
Eritreans
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