By Weyraw Ergete
November 28, 2020
On November 27, 2020, BBC Hard Talk anchor, Mr. Stephen Sackur was interviewing Ethiopian attorney general, Gedion Timotheowos, about the government’s final push to bring law and order in the Tigray region capital, Mekelle, and the possible civilian casualties during the operation (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYpLcnZhnXo). During the talk, Mr. Stephan can be seen favoring issues of the criminal group TPLF (Tigray Liberation Front) and turning every stone he possibly could against the Ethiopian government. He called the just internal war of Ethiopia on TPLF criminals as “an action of committing war crime”. He purposely tried to create a confusion and then a contradiction between the Nobel Prize Award of the Prime Minister of Ethiopia and the execution of his noble duty as Prime Minister & Commander in Chief.
Mr. Stephen shamefully was mentioning how badly Mekelle town is out of fuel and banking service. But he said no words about the tens of thousands of army members ethnically selected and slaughtered by the TPLF criminals in and around Mekelle. He said no word about the 600+ innocent people of Amhara killed and buried in mass graves. He said no word about the rockets repeatedly being shot to remote Amhara towns to indiscriminately create mass casualties. This is sad. More than this, he was trying to frighten Ethiopians saying that EU commission has said this… and that… about the just war of Ethiopians and the dirty politics of the criminals. Mr. Stephen again said that president elect of USA, Joe Biden’s adviser has said that… and this…etc. One thing must be clear for all – that we Ethiopians have never let actual forces of aggressions stop us or make us under their control, let alone such groundless statements like those from Mr. Stephen and the like. We are free and proud people who always have kept our freedom and decided our destiny by ourselves.
It was and remains the desire of the Ethiopian people to make the war on the TPLF junta get done in the soonest time possible. But the government was excessively patient to make that happen and it has already cost the country a lot. The more the Junta stays in power, the greater the already catastrophic damages to the country become. Therefore, we sincerely like to inform the world, BBC, and Mr. Stephen himself that the 300-400 individuals at the top leadership of TPLF from the Tigray region of Ethiopia will no longer be allowed to destabilize the country. Members of this small Junta clique have big mouths, big stolen money, and big networks (paid from the hundreds of billions of dollars stolen and hidden abroad before the group was overthrown from power). If you, Mr Stephen, do your research as a journalist, the crimes that this group committed on its own ethnic group are lengthy. Their decades-long thievery and network-building in high places is what has gained them the ability to reach you, Mr. Stephen, and that is why you are doing your best to speak up for them. Sad reality again. Otherwise, why hasn’t BBC Hard Talk, if genuine, listened and stood for the plight of other Ethiopians of non-Tigrean origin (95% of the entire population) who do not have long arms to reach a person like you and/or other big news outlets of the western world. Why hasn’t BBC Hard talk, if genuine, done a focused report on the 600+ Amhara people massacred and found secretly buried in mass in a small town called Mai Kadra. The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, Amnesty International & others, of course, except BBC, have reported and documented this massacre and mass burial. The killers of these 600+ innocent people are now in Mekelle together with the master Junta group. How does this sound to BBC Hard Talk?? How would Mr. Stepehen’s country, the UK or for that matter any other country have tried to solve such an issue any differently? What would the UK government have done if such a criminal group killed tens of thousands of its own British army members in the dark somewhere in UK? Do you call this operation a war crime? Shame! Justice must be served.
Dialogue with such a criminal group is a dream that will never come true. The Ethiopian government has to continue all of its ongoing communication efforts to inform the residents of Mekelle to either leave the town, not go outside of their homes, or to be far from possible military targets. This might help to minimize and/or avoid unwanted civilian casualties. But the usage of military force to bring the criminals to justice or to finish them by force is something that cannot be compromised at all costs!! Let the world know that in the last minutes of this offensive, the Junta group has prepared its killing squads in the town. The squad, wearing Ethiopian military uniforms, has finalized its preparation to assassinate many non-Tigreans & some innocent Tigreans living in the encircled town of Mekelle. This inhuman act is a dirty calculation by the master criminals for the sole purpose of making the world believe that the assassination was done by the Ethiopian army. This information is currently under dissemination to the people in the town now. On the other hand, if, in any unfortunate way, any external force is going to push the prime minister to sit down for dialogue with these criminals, then the unwanted but highly consequential result will immediately take place all over the country. This action will primarily make the Tigreans targets for a direct revenge all over the country and an unstoppable full-scale civil war will start in the entire country.
n (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYpLcnZhnXo