The TPLF and its surrogates amaze you with the kind of distance they traverse to have us believe Kinijit-CUD leaders are violent politicians. I only wish they make a little more plausible fabrications just that they save us defending the obvious. I have lost count of stories of bombs exploded by phantom terrorists and the number of times such explosions were foiled. It seems that these fabrications are made with three objectives in mind.
Objective number one is to create doubt among the population and unsuspecting foreigners about the sincerity of the opposition and the legitimacy of their demands. The second objective is to intimidate any attempt at clandestine operation, just in case some members of the opposition want to resort to. This is a proactive technique borne out of a nightmarish fear that the opposition would go underground as did the EPRP during the degue. It is the “don’t try it – we are good at catching trouble makers” message. The third objective is to produce a justification for the blatant and widespread violations of human rights in the country and mitigate the unease expressed by donor countries whose aid is being used to perpetrate these crimes.
In the past, every time the OLF gains some strength and creates some conditions for upheaval, a bomb will explode or be defused somewhere in Addis Ababa or down in Ambo or Wollega or Hararghe. On multiple occasions we were told the OLF was stopped when they were going to blow up some oil depot. At one time we were told they were apprehended with the bombs in their pockets near an oil depot. At other times these bombs would explode somewhere only to be followed by a scathing charge that the opponents were about to disturb public peace, stability and democracy. Sometimes we are told the perpetrators are apprehended at the speed of light and paraded on television. Even children read the faces of these so called criminals as either actors or individuals who were tortured to agree to take part in the play. The same thing was done to fabricate the lies that led to imprison the late Professor Asrat Woldeyes and his colleagues. When Meles Zenawi had a faction problem within the TPLF a bomb went off in a hotel frequented by ethnic Tigreans in the Piazza area. Lives and property were destroyed. It was blamed on poor OLF. Insiders tell us that was a tactic used to sway ethnic Tigreans from supporting the faction and line up with the Meles group.
In June 2005, during the election fraud protests, where hundreds died and thousands were thrown into concentration camps, we were told three bombs were thrown at the police by protestors. We are also told two houses belonging to ethnic Tigreans were burnt down during the riots. Many people argue that the houses were set on fire by the security itself looking to concoct a proof for their accusation of genocide against Tigreans. I am told this is one of the craps submitted to the court to prove the genocide allegation. In the same week, in the Kasainchis area, Addis Ababa, the security people were filming a drama where two young individuals were snatching guns from two policemen and running. People were watching as the play was being filmed. I am told this film is one of the evidences to be submitted against the CUD leaders to prove that they were attempting to overthrow the government by force. Right after the election, local CUD offices were closed and leaders were imprisoned on fabricated charges that they were in possession of weapons. During the November protests where another major massacre took place, we were told bombs exploded near student dormitories at Black Lion Hospital and another one was “diffused” before it exploded near the gate of the Main University Campus. Recently, another mysterious bomb exploded destroying a part of the branch office of the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia. A day later government media told us that the governor of the bank committed suicide. It is an amazing coincidence.
In what seems to be a sequel to this pattern, we are recently told that a terror plot was foiled in Addis Ababa. The government says that the “terrorists” who were apprehended along with their terror paraphernalia, have relationship to the CUDP, whose leaders are locked up in prison since November 2005 on charges that, had there been a serious and independent judge, would have been thrown out in minutes. A make believe story was read on the radio and television about the terror plot and was given as a talking point to the cadres of the TPLF. Now the cadres are repeating different versions of it through all their news outlets.
The pro-TPLF newspaper, which has turned fulltime CUDP and Diaspora basher and campaigner for the TPLF, has added to the visibility of its true colors by carrying a shameful story hatched to lend credence to the story fabricated earlier by the government.
The story on the Reporter published on February 26 (Online) states that Ato Andargachew Tsige, a member of the leadership council of the CUD, who is one among the 131 falsely charged in absentia, was in Asmara the previous week, leading a delegation of Ethiopians from London to engage in discussion with the officials of Eritrea. The story includes an insinuation that the talks have to do with the “terrorist plot” that was allegedly aborted by the government. Along with Andargachew, the Reporter also says that [former] Ambassador Kassa Kebede was also on a similar mission. Everything was a naked lie since both individuals have never set out of the US in the stated time. I hope the two individuals would submit their travel records to US officials who, not only have refused to wrench themselves of their association with a police state, but also think that there is a real court in Ethiopia that is capable of fair delivery of justice.
Andargachew was in Washington DC over the last six weeks working on matters related to CUDP, making numerous public lectures, participating in panel discussions, giving talks to small and big groups of civic associations and Americans concerned about conditions in Ethiopia. I have met and talked to him virtually every day as do many Ethiopian Washingtonians. As a close friend, I know his itinerary and activities. Andargachew was in the United States and only in the United States over the last several weeks and went back to London only three days ago. This is the truth and a testimony you can take to the bank.
I am not even motivated to react to this absolute canard about the allegation against Andargachew by any belief that going to Asmara and talking to Eritrean officials is a bad idea as the Reporter and the TPLF want Ethiopians to think. On the contrary, I believe any Ethiopian opposition would serve a positive national goal by engaging in dialogue with Eritreans. After all, our future is inextricably tied and there is no way round it if one is to have a stable Horn of Africa. I don’t even think any serious Ethiopian, except TPLF functionaries, would give a damn bit relevance about such a story. And hey! Who the hell do they think they are to choose who we want to talk and not talk to any way? Did they consult us when they agreed to make our country the biggest landlocked country on the planet? I also think Andargachew has the competence to make intelligent choices about talking to Eritrean officials if he so wishes. He is a brilliant and visionary individual to be able to see what merits his country. Andargachew, the author of a magnificent must read book “Netsanetin yemayawk Netsa Awuchi” (A Freedom Fighter who doesn’t understand Freedom), was a prisoner in Ziway Concentration Camp during the June 8 Massacre. He has been a victim of the brutality the regime and his belief in the value of the peaceful struggle has not diminished. He derives his added commitment from the thousands of determined young Ethiopians who suffered with him and who tried to take care of him when he was suffering in pain inside the concentration camp. I have always wondered why Andargachew walked out of the EPRDF on his own at a time when the Dawit Yohanes’s and the rest of the live to eat animals and robber barons were scrambling for villas and other leftovers of dergue officials early in the days when he was a member of the EPRDF. I have come to know Andargachew as a selfless human being with a stellar sense of integrity and self respect. Everyone can rest assured that he would make an intelligent choice when he so wishes. But this one is pure fabrication.
This crap about Andargachew and Ambassador Kassa Kebede is repeated by all the echo chambers of the TPLF as usual. Famous among these is little Mulugeta Asrate Kassa who has not taken minutes to check the authenticity of the story before he posted his usual diatribe against these individuals and the CUD. Am I the only one who thinks that all his writings look like job applications to EPRDF officials? He comes out to me as person who believes he can add size to his brain whenever he makes rude remarks against people like professor Mesfin, a man who I believe can make Mulugeta’s kind of head out of pure mud. (By the way, someone tipped me information about this guy the implications of which, I believe, reflect on his behavior of opportunism. Does anybody know the psychological implications of being raised without knowing that the house servant that raised and breast fed you is actually your real mother? Where are my psychologist friends?)
The thing that surprises me the most is that the TPLF and its supporters spew and practice their hate in the open and whenever you hate back what they do, they accuse you of promoting hatred. They don’t feel ashamed when they kill you and accuse you of genocide. Leaders of the TPLF are set to raise their children in happiness by killing other people’s children and criminalizing all dissent against injustice. This paradox cannot continue for long. We are all very near to the abyss now.
