The price of indifference and shortsightedness
EsaTed 21/07/2021
The rush to gloss over what happened in Tigray since November 4, 2021, and push Tigray to accept a meaningless ceasefire by some in the media in Ethiopia and in the diaspora has been almost as painful to see as the indifference by many fellow citizens to the atrocities committed against Tigray. It’s also an indicator of how awfully unprepared we are to move forward and learn important lessons from this war waged to only keep one man in power indefinitely and reinstate a political past that was long replaced after a bitter and destructive civil war of almost two decades. But what seems to be happening following the abrupt and disorganized exit of what’s left of the ENDF and the puppet regional leadership of the PP government in Tigray after a resounding defeat by TDF is a new narrative taking up the airwaves and social media calling on TDF to take this “good gesture” by the federal government and honor the nonexistent ceasefire while a third of Tigray’s land is still under the control of the Amhara reginal government and a redrawing of the internal map of Ethiopia was undertaken by arms coupled with a complete siege of the region after ransacking it and leaving it with no means to support itself. It’s also important to understand that the so-called unilateral ceasefire of the federal government is no more than a delusional plan to buy time to resuscitate the dead ENDF and prolong the inevitable end of the criminal PP government in Addis Ababa and Bahirdar as well as an effort to avoid prosecution for crimes committed against the people of Tigray by Abiy Ahmed and co. Unfortunately for people who started this war and the opportunistic forces who hopped on the chance to get what they could, there is no moving forward before redress and justice for the victims of their callous and criminal actions. There is no let bygone be bygone. The crime is too awful, and the pain is too great to ignore and move on for Tigray. And more importantly the need to insure this would never happen again is a debt we owed to those who paid the ultimate scarify for their people. Ethiopia’s opinion leaders need to understand the time is now to act not the way they have in the last three years in particular and for a few decades in general, which is unsophisticated, oblivious, and shortsighted, but with genuine desire and hard work to lead the mass and hopefully create: a society that condemns and fights against genocide, rape, and destruction, a society that questions and believes democracy and freedom, not dictatorship is the redemption and the answer for all political problems, a society that asks what is in it for me when its government starts a war under any pretext, a society that asks what it means to have a foreign force kills and rapes your own fellow citizens, a society that believes the answer is not force for any political disagreement but more discussion, a society that recognizes and respects others right to organize and choose who leads and represents them, a society that critics and opposes based on facts and understands that political differences should never be settled through war.
