May 2 2021
Hager Wodad,
Western governments are currently stooped in meddling in the internal affairs of Ethiopia. US presence, first by crude and ugly interference of its previous administration duo of
President Trump and Secretary Steve Mnuchin’s attempt at arm-twisting PM Abiy on the Grand Ethiopian Renaisance Dam (GERD) negotiations …(first US by feigning as observers, then becoming defacto ‘impartial judges’ , and finally as unabashed defenders of Egypt’s interest).
Furthermore , when that did not work, bombing the GERD was suggested by president Trump, a presi- dent nicknamed by his former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson a “f**ken moron”. These acts are nothing short of meddling in the internal affairs of Ethiopia!
This was followed by the new president Joe Biden’s administration and his new Secretary of State AntonyJ. Blinken who became Ethiopia’s (humanitarian champion) declaring “grave concern about the deteriorating humanitarian and human rights crisis”, “the risk of famine in Ethiopia’s Tigray region and insecurity in other parts of Ethiopia”. The Secretary insisted on “Eritrean troops withdrawal from Tigray immediately, in full, and in a verifiable manner.”
We do have man made humanitarian crisis in Tigray but it is obvious for everyone to see, the scale of the Secretary’s piped up assertions of Tigray’s growing humanitarian disaster and human rights abuses don’t match the clamor of the US & EU diplomats make it out to be through their media outlets. If what is coming out of their bullhorn was true, it would by comparison dwarf that of Yemen’s disaster.
The world clearly sees Yemen’s disaster and we haven’t heard from Blinken a demand for the ongoing humanitarian disaster there and documentation of “ human rights abuse and the need for justice and accountability measures to hold those responsible to account”.
The tune is a little different in the United Nations. “On March 4, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) held a closed-door meeting on Tigray, as it did on April 15, to discuss the unfolding crises in the region but they failed to reach a resolution calling for ending the violence as Russia and China op- posed the adoption reasoning that this is Ethiopia’s internal matter.” (ETHIOPIAN REPORTER 7 April 2021By Brook Abdu)
To push his demands further, Secretary Blinken has appointed “a Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa” and the notorious Ambassador Feltman would go to the horn of Africa , it was communicated, to pressure PM Abiy to implement US demands. Ambassador Feltman would travel to Ethiopia and his mission is to continue with the stated aims of breaking up PM Abiy’s military defense posture i.e. the alliance of Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF) and Eritrean forces and to put a damper on the strident and growing Ethiopian nationalism on the GERD issue and Ethiopians approval of the law and order campaign in Tigray.
Also, under the guise of negotiating, Ambassador Feltman will be looking for an internal ally or some remanent of the TPLF cadres or volunteer trainers to push US agenda. It seems that his visit maybe the kick-off the US search for traitors if it is not in the works already.
It is obvious that the TPLF leadership’s head has been cut off (some captured in the woods are in prison awaiting their day in court, others met their demise in the backwoods of Mekele, still others act as straw men playing a game of “now you see me, now you don’t” on social media.
Hammered by the combined force of the Ethiopian National Defense Force, the Amhara militias and the Eritrean forces, today’s remaining TPLF units don’t see much light of day as a result of the Ethiopian air force raids that keeps them in check.
TPLF hit and run guerrilla tactics can hardly be distinguished from hits of local thieves and bandits, whose activities emerged when TPLF’s frightened heads let loose all criminal elements(estimated up- wards of ten thousand) from prisons in and around Mekele as Mr. Debretsion and cohorts sped out on noisy pick up trucks as they left Mekele.
Ignoring Ambassador Feltman’s threat and pressure, PM Abiy and his party are gearing up for the Ethiopian elections in early June 2021. US and EU want to dictate on how to run the Ethiopian elections , but it was rebuffed by the Ethiopian government. US and EU’s role appears
diminished in the Ethiopian elections and they seem to be engaged in trying to find ways to
delegitimize the election process.
In fact, a signed letter by five democratic senators has urged Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman (on his way to the horn of Africa) by calling for the postponement of Ethiopia’s national elections and that it shouldn’t go forward.
Ethiopians however are looking forward to a historic election on June 5, 2021 propelling them towards a country that is more on a democratic path.
Hager Wodad, Los Angeles, CA USA
