Who were they then? Who are they now?

Gebremedhin Araya former
TPLF head of finance

July 27, 2013

Gebremedhin Araya, Perth, Australia

Translated by Yinegal Belachew, Ethiopia

Note from the translator ‘the hyena’s belly?’

It’s good to hear something from the horse’s mouth. This vitally important piece of my fellow Ethiopian, Gebre Medhin Araya, was written in Amharic and posted on some Ethiopian opposition websites. This article is all about the genocidal nature of TPLF, Tigrian People’s Liberation Front. The translation of this article is all about exposing the satanic behavior of this mafia before the English speaking Ethiopians, and, needless to go to that sensitive historical section, of course, if they wish before the “International Community” whose intrinsic interest seems to be all about happily observing an ethnic cleansing, especially of the ill-fated Amharas in Ethiopia. This hero, one of my Tigrian gods, a man who liberated himself from mundane ethnocentric and sanguineous fetters, had been one among the ‘Founding Fathers’ of TPLF and well knows the purpose of the establishment of this historically a

nti-Ethiopian and anti-Amhara group of amoral creatures. But as soon as he came to realize that the majority of the people in the leadership of TPLF were anti-Ethiopians, he left the group and united his efforts with Ethiopian forces to save the nation from the threat these crooked citizens posed. Now he is abroad trying his level best to salvage his nation from these historic enemies. The registration and documentation section of Ethiopia will remember him forever. The original title of this Amharic article was “እነማን ነበሩ? አሁንስ ማን ናቸው?”.

My incapability to properly understand something of the original article or any emotion-laden unintentional detour from the original shouldn’t implicate the writer of the article to any of the wrongs I may exhibit in this endeavor. Therefore, I take all the blame for all the mistakes in this translation. I tried to use formal correspondence and dynamic equivalence in translating. I wish you good appetite, genuine Jobic patience, and healthy conscience to have good understanding and the necessary change of outlook or attitude thereof, if need be.

Sorry for the delaying preamble, now the translation follows…

This article tries to dig out and show who the TPLF leaders were and still are along with their insincere plan to destroy Christendom and Islam religions and especially the Amhara ethnic group as of the commencement by the group (TPLF) of the armed struggle in Tigray.

From the very beginning, TPLF has utterly been undemocratic by its nature. I myself have been expressing in different media outlets that this mercenary group was and still is anti-Ethiopia and inhuman in general. Though the people of Ethiopia well know the nature of TPLF with regard to its nihilistic and destructive behavior, on my behalf, I would like to give some factual accounts as to how it has been trying to destroy the pillars of both religions based on its anti-religion policy.

From the start of 1977, in its ‘Woyyin’(which means ‘revolt!’) bulletin, TPLF or the then TLF had a column known as ‘Christian Religion and the Amhara’ under which the following was repeatedly published in bold for years:- “Christian religion is the major instrument through which the Amhara regime sustains its ruling. Therefore, the target of our struggle, the Amhara regime, and its ruling tool, the Christian religion, should both be destroyed.” This bulletin was distributed among fighters and the common people to distract their attention from staunch Ethiopianness to the then fledgling anti-Ethiopianness. In its August 1977 edition, this bulletin added that not only the Amharas, but also the Amharic language should also be eradicated from the surface of the Earth along with the speakers.

The high officials of TPLF who used to propagate poisonous anti-Ethiopia(n) and anti-religion stuffs from the Propaganda Bureau of this devilish group were Sebhat Nega, Abbay Tseahye, and Meles Zenawi. These three individuals in the higher hierarchy of TPLF have been known among the fighters, even among the people by and large, for the hatred-charged madness they exhibited towards the Amhara and for both the Christian and Islamic religions.

The Public Relations Office of TPLF was also led by these same mad people. In September 1978, these individuals designed a new wave of campaign to be launched on the eradication of Orthodox Christianity in Tigray. To this end, they organized a seminar/workshop to sensitize their cadres who will have to carry out that destructive scheme. In that seminar, which took place in an underground secretive conclave found in Egela district, the following rebels had participated.

1. Meresa Redda

2. Haleka(Boss) Tsegay Berhe

3. Tewodros Hagos

4. Abbay Woldu

5. Hadas Alemu

6. H/Silasie G/Kidan

7. Harya Sebagadis

8. Kidusan Nega

9. Guesh Gua’edad

10. Bitew Belay

11. Hadsh Gezahegn

12. Roman G/Silasie

13. Aferra T/Haimanot

14. W/Gebriel Modern

15. Addisalem Balema

The aforementioned cadres were baptized in the philosophy of anti-Ethiopianism and anti-religion in the seminar took place for three days. After they finished the training, they were assigned in three groups to accomplish TPLF’s mission in three regional locations.

The allocation was done as follows: (‘L’ signifies Region Leader)

Grouped and organized in this manner, they kicked off their destructive campaign in Tigray and went to the respective regions they were assigned to. After that they continued to wage heavy-handedly extensive anti-Amhara, anti-Christian, and anti-Islam propaganda accompanied with forceful actions such as killings and kidnappings. Following their master plan of eradicating Christianity which they strongly believe is imposed by the Amhara upon the people of Tigray to make them submissive, TPLF’s cadres launched tough restrictions upon the ordinary people and the churches not to adhere to the doctrines of this religion; they prevented churches from doing their routinely performed rituals such as making Holy Mass and celebrating Sundays as usual. These crooked people of the TPLF exerted their full energy to dismantle the church and sever the bond between the clergy and the lay. The people were not allowed to go to churches on Sundays or other days on which Saints were commemorated due to the fact that holydays were declared to be working days. TPLF cadres warned the priests and the entire clergy not to go to churches and give any liturgical service anytime, if they were caught doing so, they would be punished severely. Occasionally, there were resistances from the people and the clergy as well. In such instances, the cadres in the lower echelons used to consult the upper ones and they were advised by Sebhat Nega et al. to mercilessly kill those recalcitrant priests, monks, nuns, or deacons in front of the congregation so that that action could be taken as punitive to the rest of the population. That circular or directive from the above was blindly implemented by the lower cadres. In light of this, in Endatsahma district of Adwa province, at a historical church known as Endasilasie, the leader of the church, Abba Haile Silasie, was killed by Tsegay Berhe in front of the people. The cause of the killing was nothing else but these words – “Please do not desecrate our religion; it is a blessed religion!”  At that time, the people got extremely shocked and rushed helter-skelter in a bid to save their lives from additional massacre that would ensue. After the massacre, the killer, Haleka Tsegay Berhe, along with his friends, looted the church and took away all the property the church had. In a similar vein, the leader of a church in Zana district, namely Abba Araya, along with a nonagenarian monk were instantly shot dead by Arkebe Ouqubai himself, who was sent with Belay Bitew then as reinforcement to the group, for the simple reason that the priest said, “Please, do not desecrate our Christian religion.” The anti-Christian group/committee of TPLF led by Sebhat Nega, Abbay Tsehay, and Meles Zenawi along with all its 15 members had plundered destroyed and burnt many churches. Moreover, countless priests and deacons, monks and other church goers had been kidnapped. Surprisingly, the whereabouts of all those kidnapped people have not yet been known to date and it is believed that they all are killed.

Concerning Islam, though they tried their level best to desecrate this religion and its leader, Prophet Mohammed, they couldn’t succeed as they wished. The followers of Islam were not as easily submissive as the Christians. Of course, the TPLF cadres attempted to defame the holy Koran and downplayed the role of the prophet in front of the congregation when the people gathered for praying. But the cadres encountered serious protest in all the three regions. Especially in region three, the Afars decided to fight those anti-religion bandits neck and neck and managed to check the rein-less whims of TPLF from flourishing in their localities. To this effect, those Muslims in region three hunted and killed the TPLF cadres who were assigned there to destroy their religion. Among those killed cadres, Tigist Assefa, Yehualashet G/Medhin, (Alamin), and Tsehaye Abraha are just few. Many more unlucky TPLF cadres faced such ill-fate in this region. But surprisingly, when TPLF leaders were/are asked about the death of those cadres, they unashamedly keep on saying that the cadres died due to fighting with the Dergue regime or with this or that rebel group with which they encountered skirmishes. They are naturally big liars. Other cadres such as Addisalem Balema, Tewodros Hagos, and Aferra T/Haimanot escaped at night fearing the fate descended upon their colleagues. Nevertheless, for fear of reprisal by the Afar people, TPLF couldn’t dare to enter the Afar region until the year 1984.

This time around, TPLF’s stores were full of confiscated and looted holy Bibles and Korans. According to eye witnesses, the atheist TPLfites used to utilize those holy books to ignite fire as ordinary pieces of useless papers. This shows their atheistic nature and contempt to religion.

The followers of Islam in all the three regions stood firm in unison and made clear that TPLF should never violate their right of believing in Allah and following Islamic religion. They dedicated their lives for their belief and to ‘die or defend Islam’ was their communal motto. The leadership of TPLF was highly frustrated by the unexpected stand of Muslims. The Muslim population in and out of towns understood that the architects of the anti-religion campaign were Sebhat Nega, Abbay Tsehay, and Meles Zenawi. The life of these top planners of TPLF was endangered and because of that they were forced to reconsider their free movement, rather, they were obligated to have bodyguards for any of their field trip. On the other hand, that time was a time during which TPLF was invaded by two resistance movements, namely EDU and EPRP, and hence the fighting morale of the TPLF combatants was becoming unspeakably low. In this crucial time, the upper echelon of the TPLF issued an order to the cadres to temporarily suspend the anti-Islam campaign but to rigorously go on the anti-Christian one, for the campaign to destroy Christianity did not face that much threat like in the case of the Islamic one, rather, it was proceeding according to the plan, even to the surprise of many in the religion, there was substantial support from the clergy themselves to denounce Christianity and become renegade in a bid to expanding Marxism and Leninism. Muslim Ethiopian sisters and brothers in the ‘liberated’ areas of the TPLF stopped obeying TPLF as of that time and remained respected and feared by those bandits for a long period of time. But on the other hand, the Christianity followers continued to serve TPLF as loaders, unloaders, and coolies [up until the present time].

In the First TPLF Conference, held in February 1979, Sebhat Nega was elected as Chairman of TPLF while Meles Zenawi and Abbay Tsehay were elected as chief propagandists. These three anti-Ethiopian people individuals united their efforts to implement the newly designed several action plans of TPLF. The major action plan from which many others had been derived was formulated in the aforementioned conference:-

In the First Conference held in Feb. 1979, the leadership of TPLF had unanimously decided the following: In the first place, we people in TPLF never believe that there is God. In any case, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, the main instrument for the Amhara regime to sustain its ruling, must be wiped out of the liberated Tigrian soils. In the long run, when we will have established our own Tigrian Government [in the State of the Democratic Republic of Tigray], we shall create a [communist] society that doesn’t believe in any form of God.

Based on the above anti-Orthodox stand of TPLF, the following actions were taken by its cadres in the Dergue-free areas of Tigray.

1. All churches were ordered to deliver their mobile and fixed assets and properties to TPLF.

2. All priests and monks were instructed to put off their religious head scarves and covers or hoods and instead, they were ordered to put on TPLF’s cap which reads ‘woyyenti’(rebellions!). This instruction was practically seen and many priests and the clergy were turned out to be rebellions carrying rifles on their shoulders, instead of serving God carrying Jesus’ cross and the Bible.

3. All newlywed deacons and priests were forced to divorce their wives and join the armed struggle. To this effect, countless marriages were dismantled and ex-wives and ex-husbands    voluntarily or involuntarily joined the armed struggle, leaving aside the church and the Orthodox dogma they had been strictly following before.

As a result of TPLF’s atheistic actions with respect to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in Tigray, parents were left without their children to look after them at their old age; churches were left closed for not having deacons and priests to give ecclesiastical services, lots of precious items, such as  parchments of antiquity and crosses, were looted and sold by TPLFites and a great number of churches along with their historical documents were set on fire in a bid to erase the old history and write a new one which is devoid of any cultural and traditional tie with the Ethiopian Orthodox Church [and by the extension the Amhara people].

The general command and detailed instructions given to carry out an all out destruction upon the church was given by those three devilish people of the TPLF; Sebhat Nega, Abbay Tsehay, and Meles Zenawi. In addition, Arkebe Ouqubai, the Eritrean Tsadkan G/Tinsay, Awu’alom Woldu, Zer’ay Asghedom, Siye Abraha, and Seyuom Mesfin should be mentioned here as chief collaborators with this regard. These gullible servants of TPLF and Sebhat-Abbay-Meles syndicate have played a great role in the untold suffering of Christians and Muslims. They had burnt so many churches in the northern part of our country, Ethiopia.

4. As the destruction of churches by TPLF was on unabated continuation, the following group of high          level cadres was assigned to give a seminar to those church people who voluntarily or involuntarily           left the church in a bid to serve ‘their organization’, TPLF.

1. Mulugeta Chaltu

2. Zer’ay Asghedom

3. Meresa Redda

4. Aklilu Denbarqay

5. G/Kidan Desta

6. Gobezay W/Aregay

7. Abbay Woldu

8. Kidusan Nega

9. Gidey Berhe

As of the year 1981 and the following six months, these cadres were dispatched to region 1 and 2 to pollute the clergy in changing their religious mind and force them to rebel against their God, to Whose service they once dedicated their soul and flesh, and make them ready to serve TPLF. After being hammered for about six months, those ex-clergy traitors started to serve TPLF as political cadres to preach Marxism and Leninism among the congregation they used to preach the words of God. The ones who once upon a time promised to sow the words of God and save the non-believers from eternal peril literally became not only anti-religion but also anti-God. The priests, upon their graduation ceremony, sang and danced along with the then TPLF’s music band leader, the late Eyasu Berhe. They condemned God for their stupidity to believe in Him up until then, and most of all those ex-priests and deacons shouted a slogan in all the openings of meetings and conferences:- “Down with the Amhara and their Orthodox Church.” Who knows, some of the clergy might have regretted for their being ‘foolish’ to serve God before they ‘received’ their new religion, TPLFism, coated with the cursed communion of Marxism and Leninism.

The following social events were forbidden by law in TPLF’s free territories.

1. Wedding feasts

2. Memorial services to the dead and funeral prayers

3. Baptism to the newborn or any baptism to a convert

4. Traditional memorial feasts made in the name of this or that Saint

5. Annual ceremonial holidays of churches in the name of this or that saint/ark

Anyone who tries to disobey the aforementioned instructions would be labeled as anti-TPLF and would as a result be harshly punished after taken to a secretive underground known as ‘06’[bado shidshte], a code given to their hellish prisons. The Public Relations Office orders its ferocious staff to take strict punitive actions and they promptly confiscate all the property of victims who were said to have transgressed those unfairly and unjustly imposed jungle rules and regulations of TPLF. In line with implementing this rule, so many people were accused of breaching this directive, at times even falsely to take revenge those who were not on good terms with them, and as a consequence thousands of people were sent to ‘06’(Halewa Woyane – Security of TPLF) and all of them were executed there. This policy of TPLF which was begun in early 1967 went on unabatedly for the ensuing decades up until today. As a result many people lost their lives; churches and monasteries were changed to nothingness in both material and human resources.

In 1967, TPLF incorporated its core belief that ‘Amharas are arch enemies of Tigrian people’ into its program and that stand was enshrined in its documents as one of the vanguard policies the organization should fight against. Let us see the following anti-Amhara mantra stated in the political progrm of TPLF.

The Amhara [regime] has impoverished Tigray and its people to the extent of exposing Tigrians to economic exploitation, absolute poverty, starvation, migration and displacement, and finally as a result of these and other oppressive measures by the Amharas the entire people of Tigray were subjected to have a contemptible social status to which people were ashamed of their being Tigrian. This suppression and segregation upon Tigrians was purposely enhanced by the Amhara [regime]. As a result, Tigrians were forced to lead an atrocious life everywhere; they were obligated to suffer low standard of living, unemployment, beggary, immigration, and prostitution. In addition, Tigrians were influenced by the Amharas to go off their own history, forget their own language, and detach from their culture. The Amharas snatched the 3000 years rich history of Tigrians and used it to glitter theirs in front of the rest of the world. Today’s history of Ethiopia [which may not include Tigray] is a kind of hodge-podge created within the last 100 years since the coming into power of [the so called] Menelik II. Therefore, the general lifespan of Ethiopia is not that much longer than the Amhara’s expansion during the reign of their King, Menelik the II, in the past 100 years. Before that historical coincidence, there has never been a country known as Ethiopia.

The Amhara nationality subjected Tigrians to pay high taxes and tributes to the central government led by the Amharas and thereby impoverished the region to the extent of changing the social and economic life of its people into a nonentity. The people of Tigray have been considered by the Amhara regime as speaking animals and have been immersed in an untold oppression characterized by inhuman handling and boundless cruelty. In addition, the people of Tigray have been discriminated against and none of its human and political rights have been respected by the regime. The oppressive Amhara ruling class [TPLF uses the ‘she’ pronoun to address the ‘Amhara ruling class’] has employed suppression and subjugation to elongate her system of exploitation upon Tigrians.

The anti-Amhara statements of TPLF which I have randomly expressed here above are explicitly indicated in the political program of the organization from pages 8 – 14, 15 – 16, and 18. Generally speaking, this document of TPLF incriminates the Amharas from the beginning to the end. … TPLF staunchly claims that the Amharas would never get any peace and stability until the time their doom eventually comes to effect. (cf. page 16 of the document)

As all Ethiopians know, there is no such a thing as “Amhara Regime”; there has never been as well up until this period of history. In Ethiopia, there have been so many kings reigned over the entire nation or in some part of it. As a matter of historical fact, all those kings used to assume their kingship based on their regional not necessarily of their ethnic background. … In light of this, after the seat of the Ethiopian kingdom was transferred from the north to the hinterland, Shoa, during the reign of Emperor Menelik the II, Ethiopia was said to have been joining the rest of the modern world in terms of introducing modern way of administration. This process of modernizing the state apparatus and the nation by and large was begun by Menelik II at the newly built capital, Addis Ababa, and continued by Emperor Haile Silasie I until the time he was deposed by a military coup accompanied by popular uprising.

The seat of Emperor Haile Silasie I was Addis Ababa. After Menelik’s reign, the mobility of the Ethiopian kingdom, which had been subject to a relay system for centuries,  along with its palace from one region of the country to another was outdated for once and for all. Before Addis Ababa was selected by Menelik’s wife, Empress Taitu, to serve as capital city, historical towns and cities like Axum, Lasta-Lalibela, and Gonder have served the same purpose in the past. In those past relays of power, the people of Ethiopia had never seen such anti-unity and anti-people group as TPLF.

Like the previous ones, the government of Emperor Haile Silasie I as well was composed of all able Ethiopians irrespective of their religion and ethnic background. In light of this, that government had Cabinet Ministers from the Oromo, Tigray, Eritrea, Amhara, Afar, Guraghe, and etc. The governments of Haile Silasie and [Dergue] had no room for discrimination one against the other in terms of empowerment; in the first place, the heads of state in those eras were themselves multi-ethnic by birth [the Emperor and the chairman of the Dergue, Mengistu, were mixed ethnics.]. Therefore, the governments used to facilitate the presence of an equal opportunity to all the children of the country based on their merit, not on their ethnic background. To this end, there were many Tigrian higher state officials in both regimes who, along with their colleagues, used to exercise their real political power in deciding the fate of their country. [Now? It is absolutely unthinkable to see a non-Tigrian exercising such a luxurious right of deciding even the dogs’ budget of the palace a little bit more than being a guard at the gate of some idle offices; leave aside the theatrics!]

On the other hand, we can say that Tigray province has been one among the beneficiaries of the national pie; the reality was not like the TPLF talks to fool citizens and get poorly calculated blind support. The health and education sectors were budgeted in not less a degree than the others in the nation. There was no budget discrepancy from region to region. Nothing special has been seen in Tigray other than the plight or the delight that has been observed in others. There was no national or ethnic based discrimination then like what we see now vividly. To speak the truth, especially the government of Haile Silasie I had a motto known as “The best of things to Tigray!” Due to this, the people of Tigray used to love Haile Silasie I as he was also fond of Tigray and its people.

When the people of Tigray knew that Dergue had killed him during the [hijacked and failed] revolution, the new military junta was severely condemned in Tigray among the youth and the elders.  After the fall of Haile Silasie I, it was eminent that Tigrians became exposed to harsh economic life and social problems. But that was the fate of not only Tigray but also that of other regions as well. Tigray didn’t face any particular problem different from other regions; truth be told, Tigray had never been treated differently in both past regimes. On the contrary, the Dergue regime was not that much cruel and harsh to Tigray when compared to others. For example, it did not implement the declaration proclaimed on arable land, considering that the arable land Tigray had was and still is comparatively very little.  Dergue never mistreated Tigray or Tigrians. Even in the time of the red terror, it was not Tigray which was much suffered; relatively, it was rather the Amharas who lost many lives and encountered much suffering. It doesn’t mean Tigray was safe with this specific point of discussion; it is to mean that, comparatively speaking, the Amharas were victimized in a degree more atrociously than Tigray or maybe some other provinces. Therefore, it is not the Amharas who have brought the suffering mentioned in the political program of TPLF upon Tigray and her people; it is rather TPLF that has produced untold suffering and historical wound upon the people and the soil of Tigray.

Let us see some points as to how TPLF has implemented its program.

But before that, it is better to see some other points as an introduction to this particular section of this article. Let’s remember the fact that the government of Emperor Haile Silasie I was all inclusive; it never belonged to this or that ethnic group. Frankly speaking, no ethnic group had a special privilege. By the same token, the Amhara people had nothing as special privilege from both the previous governments. They suffered or delighted the same cruelty and equal opportunity. If we deny this fact, history will never forget the objective reality that had happened in the past and what is happening now. History never knows bias and prejudice. We all will be judged upon based on our merits and demerits. The fact being this, TPLF always condemns the Amharas as its arch-enemy and wants them to be eradicated for good. While the fact on the ground is diametrically different from what the TPLFites say, perhaps bad luck has made it inevitably clear that the mantra of TPLF happened to be “Down with the Amharas!” I tell you the truth that the 48 pages of the TPLF’s political program, which is intended to incriminate and attack mainly the Amharas, is an absolute insanity and even a genocidal crime. No one else designed such a 48 pages of document to attack one specific ethnic group except TPLF. Now, even after it has assumed the leadership of the entire nation, its crave for eliminating this ethnic group is not quenched; rather, it has continued the ethnic cleansing and genocide upon the Amharas and other opposing citizens including Tigrians themselves using all the state machineries it controlled by force. No world history has seen such group of mafias in a form of government.

The following are members of TPLF who drafted and implemented the poisonous anti-Amhara political program.

1. Aregawi Berhe

2. Sebhat Nega

3. Meles Zenawi

4. Abbay Tsehay

5. Seyoum Mesfin

6. Aw’alom Woldu

7. Tewolde W/Mariam

8.Gebru Asrat

9. Arkebe Ouqubai

10. Tsadkan G/ Tinsay

11.Zeray Asgedom

12.Siye Abraha

In addition to these, Ataklt Ketsela ( a TPLF rebel who was shot dead by Sebhat Nega himself),  Asfha Hag’as (who died of natural causes), and Gidey Zer’atsion (who deserted TPLF in 1985 after trying for so long but finally failing to correct the undemocratic nature of  TPLF) were among these ulcerous committee members. By the way, in this document of the TPLF, on page 16, there it says that the Dergue regime is that of the Amharas. But in actual fact, Dergue was free of ethnicity; it was rather a mixed nature. The cause of all the lies propagated by TPLF against the Amharas was to get ground for attacking this nationality so that it can easily fulfill its target of dismantling the country’s history and territorial integrity.  That is why the motto of TPLF is [The oppressive Amhara] ‘She shall never get social stability and peace of mind!’

In TPLF’s “Woyyin” bulletin, it is indicated from the very beginning that the Amharas should be eliminated from the surface of the earth or at least should not get any peace of mind and social stability wherever they live. This has been the central motto, the primordial objective of the core leadership of the group which was expected to be strictly obeyed by the rank and file as well in a long and short term plan of action. In the plan it was/is clearly stated that TPLF would take a radical action against the Amharas and their elite leaders. Then, due to such reprisal revolutionary actions, the Amharas would never get any chance to settle peacefully anywhere and gradually they will face extinction [like dinosaurs?]. In line with this basic fiery interest of TPLF, the program was in its full swing as of 1967 and as a result an all out genocidal massacre on the Amharas was declared in Tigray and Wolqait Tsegede of the then Gonderite area; unfortunately, so many innocent citizens lost their lives and/or (im)migrated to other areas of the planet.  There was a manifesto which states, among others, the following:-

1. Any Amhara in the liberated areas of Tigray should immediately leave that place leaving behind all what they have.

The Public Relations Office of TPLF carried out an amazingly alarming campaign to loot and eradicate Amharas who used to live in Tigray as retired pensioners of all kinds of state jobs such as military, police, and finance, or those who were merchants, or those dwelling in any form based on a variety of social interactions intermingled by marriage with Tigrians and who had seen two or three generations out of their interethnic marital bonds. All those with the Amhara blood were ferreted out and sent to ‘06’, inferno of TPLF, from where no one has a chance to come out alive and see the sunlight again.

2. EPRP should go out of Tigray, lest, they shall be wiped out by force.

The stronghold of EPRP, Asimba, is known to be located in Tigray. They went to that place to start the armed resistance with the Dergue after they failed the battle in the townships. But when TPLF got strength and began controlling some part of Tigray, it sent a message to them and warned them to leave Tigray immediately. But they refused to heed the autocratic instruction from the TPLF saying that Tigray is also Ethiopia and they have no reason to go out of Ethiopia to ‘Ethiopia’ or somewhere else. Nevertheless, EPRP was fallen prey of TPLF following their refusal to leave Tigray. They faced that of the fate of the Amhara due to their stand in the Ethiopian unity.

TPLF’s “Woyyin” bulletin, as of its first edition tries to reflect the central objective of the rebel group TPLF. It stresses that both the Amharas and their language Amharic will gradually but definitely face their inevitable death and the resultant historical burial.

As clearly stated in the political program of TPLF and incessantly propagated by “Woyyin”, TPLF believes that the sole enemy of the people of Tigray is the Amhara ruling class and hence the major objective of this organization remains to be eliminating Amharas along with their obsolete social system that oppresses Tigrians and favors Amharas to get richer and prosperous. “Woyyin” elaborates that destroying the Amhara is the first vital step for the realization of eliminating Ethiopia from the map of the world. Based on its program, on the preface section, No. V., TPLF has implemented its plan of annexing fertile arable lands from Gonder and Wolo provinces and thereby increasing the size of Tigray. TPLF has a plan to establish “The Democratic Republic of Tigray” after it destroys the Amhara and its influence in Ethiopia. This plan of TPLF will be implemented when Tigray is replenished with all the necessary provisions and fertile lands after the fulfillment of which no body will challenge it to undo things and bring forth the old Ethiopia with all her ancient grace.

In the first place, TPLF has never had an ambition or dream to rule Ethiopia. This interest of TPLF was unexpected phenomenon, a bonanza created by the weakening of the Dergue regime at the time of its downfall in late 80s due to a number of national and global mysterious coincidences erupted here and there after the fall of the USSR, after the end of the so called cold war. Observing that there arose a power vacuum in Ethiopia due to the fall of the ETHIOPIAN Dergue, TPLF instantaneously drafted an emergency policy and made it practical then through the blessing of the west, especially the US. But it never forgot its major objective of destroying the Amhara which until then was one of the backbones of the country’s politics. In line with its ethnic politics, TPLF as government of ‘Federal’ Ethiopia continued uprooting from their settlements, massacring, destabilizing and plundering the Amharas, wherever they happen to live. TPLF’s new names coined for the Amharas, ‘neftegna, expansionist…’, were unashamedly used on state controlled medias. Rebuking and insulting this ethnic group became the fashion of the day and TPLF seemed to reward those who keep on degrading and killing the Amharas everywhere as if they are extraterrestrial beings. Through state sponsored massacres, thousands of Amharas all over the country – babies, kids, the youth, adults, elders – were and still are killed by the TPLF messengers; the genocidal killings at Benchi Maji zone, Guraferda, Bedeno, etc. are just few examples. When killing seems unprofitable, TPLF resorts to other destructive options and instigates chaos so that its stooges destabilize Amahas’ peaceful settlement and wipe out them from the areas they lived for decades. TPLF does all this purposely only to accomplish its primordial objective s of anti-Amhara and anti-Ethiopia sentiments.

TPLF has been doing whatever it could to psychologically belittle the Amharas and diminish their regional land. Its efforts to hammer the Amahars are infinite. Apart from detaching them from qualitative and standardized education and healthcare facilities, the TPLF’s evil deeds upon the Amhara include annexing and selling their fertile arable lands to foreign countries such as the Sudan and confining them in narrow areas of limited localities in Gojam and Gonder. We cannot enumerate now and here all the evil activities TPLF has been doing for the realization of the “Systematic elimination and genocide” it declared upon the Amhara nationality. Let us see why TPLF has cornered the Amharas as its arch enemy.

1. It is obvious that the Amharas, like others, are proud of their country Ethiopia. TPLFites think that eliminating the Amharas is the main precondition to eliminate Ethiopia and Ethiopian-ness, for the Amharas are believed by the TPLF to have unreserved love for Ethiopia. Therefore, it is the conviction of TPLF that breaking the backbone of the Amhara is crucially important to destroy Ethiopia.

2. TPLF’s nature is charged with divide and rule method. Therefore, the leadership believes that the divisive wedges it employs, i.e., ethnicity and language, are vitally important to create havoc and distrust among communities in the country that would help TPLF to stay in power at least until the time they believe is conducive to go to Tigray and establish their own dreamy state on the fairy land they have in mind, as per the nightmare of the ‘founding fathers’.

3. Thousands of languages are spoken in this world. Some countries may not have one definite official language. But in Ethiopia, amongst nearly 85 languages, we have Amharic as an official language that serves as a bridge to bring together all the people in the nation. This should be taken as positive and Amharic should be praised for such a precious service. To whichever direction we go in Ethiopia, almost all nationals of the country communicate in Amharic with one another. This linguistic service of Amharic has been in place for the last good number of centuries. And that phenomenon has not been imposed upon the people by any force in the political hierarchy in a form of proclamation or declaration; it was through the course of linguistic history that Amharic happened to be the national language of the country. It was neither the goodwill of the governments nor the interest of the Amhara that made Amharic to serve as a bridge in Ethioipa. But being ignorant of this globally agreed-upon linguistic consensual convention, TPLF tries hard to eliminate the role of Amharic due to their hatred towards the speakers of the language, the Amharas.

In light of the above, TPLF believes that Amharic is a language of the enemy and should go away with the speakers. And this notion has been put in practice since the time TPLF was emerged as a rebel group. As soon as TPLF seized the central political seat in Addis Ababa, the ensuing activities clearly assured that the group was not only anti-Amharas but also anti-Amharic language. It began doing all what it could to put Amharic out of service. As a result of this, by now there are millions of children and young people from all corners of the country who cannot speak Amharic and as a consequence who are situated in a big [psychological and economic] problem when they come to Addis or bigger cities and towns out of their small localities; the problem is not the inability to speak the language per se. But whatever the language might be, they should speak a language, any language for that matter, to get along with the rest of the society they happen to mix anew. This is the crime of TPLF. Different people of a country need to have one common language; TPLF has been trying to deprive us of such a natural and human right in the past 22 years. People may ask what benefit(s) may TPLF get in doing so. Let me explain some more points with this respect:-

1. When people lose their common identity, they gradually lose their national sentiment and in the long run the country remains to be lacking owners that bother about her existence.

2. If people do not have national language(s), they are confined to only their local languages and in spatial terms to a narrower identity that may not enable them to higher privileges. Accordingly, the new generation of TPLF in Ethiopia is exposed to an acute problem the cause of which is TPLF’s divide and rule ethnic politics. People cannot get job opportunities if they are obligated not to learn a common language. And they may be embarrassed when they go out of their small localities due to regional and linguistic restrictions imposed by the divide and rule system of ‘their country’.

3. When people are forced to be confined to certain areas and culture, they forget their common identity and become prisoners of man-made new identities.

4. If there is no national language, it is not possible to think growth and development that benefits all. Indifference and carelessness would prevail and the development of the country would at last be stunted.

The aim of the action of TPLF that divided the country into language based regions is to eliminate the role of Amharic and destroy Ethiopian-ness. When people are divided into various pockets of linguistic and cultural entities, it is likely that they get into discord and conflicts. TPLF is a renowned architect in creating commotions and chaos among communities. But I would personally like to say that the people of Ethiopia have fought TPLF by not being blind obedient of its destructive rules and directives.

Let me list down those responsible individuals who exerted their maximum effort to destroy Ethiopia along with their pedigree. [‘traitor’ is meant to mean ‘banda/kehadi’ who serves the enemy, historically the Italian colonialism.]

1. Meles Zenawi – himself traitor, his Eritrean parents as well traitors

2. Sebhat Nega – his mother Eritrean traitor, his father Tigrian

3. Abbay Tsehay – son of a traitor, Axum

4. Seyoum Mesfin – son of a traitor, Eritrean

5. Arkebe Ouqubai – son of traitor, Adwa

6. Dr. Solomon Enquay – son of traitor, his father Eritrean

7. Tsegay Berhe – son of traitor, Eritrean

8. Tsadkan G/ Tinsay – son of traitor, Eritrean

9. Tewodros Hagos – son of traitor, Eritrean

10. Abbay Woldu – son of traitor, his father Eritrean

11. Tewodros Adhanom (now Dr. and Minister of FA) – son of traitor, Eritrean

12. Debretsion G/Michael – son of traitor, was member of Eritrean suicidal mission

13. Azeb Mesfin – brought up in Tsegede, Sudan and Eritrea, granddaughter of an Amhara traitor

It is the irony of history that that all of the aforementioned ambassadors of the satanic mission to destroy Ethiopia are the children of traitors who served the Italian invaders back in the history of the country. Their parents helped those foreign invaders and caused the death of innocent citizens. Following the furrow of their parents’ bad history, these children of theirs are also causing the country to once again pass through a dirty tunnel of historical calamities as we all know today. The so called ANDM or OPDO or other similar satellite parties are creatures of TPLF which do not have their own existence; they are the results of the craftsmanship of TPLF designed in a bid to fool the fool when they crossed the territories of proper Tigray at around the closure of the resistance movement, sometime before they controlled Addis Ababa. These puppets are also criminals and will be responsible for what they are doing in collaborating TPLF to gallop the country.

Finally, I would like to suggest that TPLF’s destructive moves cannot be stopped by condemnation or simple protest such as demonstrations and the like and hence we all have to be united leaving aside our minor differences. It is when we mobilize our people and all our efforts in unison that we can remove these historical ticks and bugs that are changing our mother Ethiopia into hell wherein her children are not able to survive as humans.

Let’s all unite to save Ethiopia and her people!

Ethiopia shall prevail forever!

For any comment to this translation – yinegal3@gmail.com

I am impatiently waiting any comment from my dearest brother Gebremedhin Araya, if he is in a position to read this work of his in English.