On 13 - 14 February the US Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa David Satterfield visited Addis Ababa, during which he held talks talks with Ethiopian government, African Union, and United Nations officials, as well as representatives of humanitarian organizations. Satterfield then went on to Sudan and was due to visit Abu Dhabi for discussions related to developments in the Horn of Africa, but had to cut his visit short for what were described as “personal reasons.”
There was no official announcement of what Satterfield achieved during his travels, nor whether he consulted the Tigrayan government, but with the visit out of the way, the Tigrayan President, Debretsion Gebremichael, appeared on television on 17th February to lay out his government’s minimum conditions for peace.
The background to this is an acknowledgement by Debretsion in a BBC interview that indirect talks were already under way with Prime Minister Abiy’s government.
As Will Ross, the BBC Africa editor put it: “Mr Debretsion suggested that the shuttle diplomacy was having an impact and said there had been signs of improvement after indirect talks with the Ethiopian government. The TPLF chairman told the BBC he wanted a peaceful resolution but added that if necessary they would fight on to protect the rights of the Tigrayans.”
Minimum conditions
Now the Tigray President has laid out the minimum conditions his government would accept for a negotiated end to the war that erupted in November 2020.
He explained that negotiations were necessary, since: “Time is running out. We all have to know that we can’t remain under blockade and siege.” But he went on to assure the Tigrayan public that “the basic demands of the people of Tigray are not negotiable.”
The minimum conditions include:
- The Tigray Defence Forces will remain intact, retain its weapons and will not be reduced to a policing function.
- Tigray will retain the regional borders established by the Ethiopian Constitution.
- The Eritrean army must withdraw from all of Tigray - not just the western areas seized at the start of the war.
- The future of Tigray will be decided by Tigrayans through a referendum, up to and including self-determination, as guaranteed by the Ethiopian Constitution.
- The blockade of Tigray must be lifted in all its forms.
- All those responsible for genocide against Tigrayans must be held to account.
Debretsion said that the Tigray army remained a powerful fighting force and that if negotiations failed, the war would continue. “The peace initiatives [of the US, EU and African Union] came about because we fought for them,” he declared.
If peace failed, and the blockade remained, he warned that Tigray would fight its way out.
“We will pay whatever it takes to break the siege. If it happens peacefully, well and good. If not, we will do it through our struggle and our might. Our readiness should always remain in place. The peace was realized through our might; we will sustain it through our might. If it fails, we will bring about a solution through our might.
Put fanos behind bars and free Amhara , and never forget to dismantle so called Mahibrekidusan
Genociders , Amhara elites , try to use your ties with the UAE, Saudi and Turkey to help prisoners in Saudi top help them got freed . Satan has a good side : Worshiping God . However, amhara elites never have tendency for good act. Unlike Satan and his devilish team ( dark forces) , Amhara elites who praise themselves as progenitors of all tribes like Adam and Eve never erroneously exhibited a good manner and never been good to Ethiopia and even to their own people.
I kindly ask future Oromo leaders to dismantle the so-called mahibrekidusan which is a hideout for extreme amharanized ideology and autocratic leadership over the rest of ethnic groups in the guise of serving the church and spreading the Gospel. They are famous advocates for a monarchical form of government led by one ethnic-Amhara . Long before this conflict, Mahibrekidusan was involved in an anti clergymen campaign by defaming, accusing, and deterring good servants of the church from the pulpit and their priestly function or duties. Many have joined other denominations and some remain anti-orthodox church on the account of the devilish act of this commercial organization. They are now using the same evil tactic in interethnic conflict. It might be funny or an ordinary rumor, the orthodox church has lost many precious servants who spent their entire lives in traditional orthodox schools to serve their church, which sponsored all their studies as per its own capacity. These fanatic business men calling themselves aggregates of saints reportedly own mini shops of powdered pepper for sale and giant companies bearing costly items, including sacred ecclesiastical items (niwayate kidsat). They describe themselves as the one who has invented trousers and shoes to all Ethiopian tribes and created first alphabets . There are many fairy tales, and this only the tip of the iceberg. When Satan fails to invent lies , he visits his jars( =gehirn der Amhara-Eliten) where he archived his past lies. Satan is now suffering from Alzheimer, as he gets older and older and he obliged to consult Amahare elites when he is not able to recall & recover satanic deeds from his own satanic nature.Put fanos and PP elites behind bars and free Oromia and Tigray-future strong independent nations.
Mi sembra ragionevole, per una pace che garantisca, dopo tutto ciò che è successo, la sicurezza, la salute, lo sviluppo del Tigray
It doesn’t matter what type of positions Dr Debretsion he has taken, I would at least think of him and his close associates as intelligent individuals. I find some of the conditions either foolish or just an empty rhetoric to mobilize their supporters at best. If the conditions are as huge as ends, what’s left to negotiate?
I could understand the withdrawal of the Eritrean Army and the lifting of the blockade as reasonable conditions. But if they expect the national government to recognize a regional force to maintain an Army, (worse still, for this recognition to happen before even negotiation starts) what makes it a national government? Even confederated nations like Hong Kong and Macau don’t have their own foreign ministry and defense.
Another illogical precondition is “Tigray will retain the regional borders…”. We have seen the boarder of Tigray growing and shrinking if we are comparing the official maps between the Derg, the TPLF and the current eras. So, the more rational approach would have been proposing on who would be impartial enough to decide on such matters, including war atrocities.
Whatever happens, as African people, we need this war and hatred end asap to to focus on development.
I guess they don’t want peace.
War it is then.