[TLM Editorial Viewpoint]
The small group of outspoken Tigray Diaspora TPLF members who support violence and terrorism should be held accountable for the many lives lost. Their continued efforts to spread misinformation and create instability deserve strong condemnation. Defeatists sometimes resort to destructive tactics, even desperate acts. Those who feel ostracized and deeply resentful have deliberately spread many lies and deceptions among the public, undermining the ongoing war against the people of Tigray and, in effect, becoming “fathers of all lies.”
It may be difficult to say, but it’s still true that those who spread hatred helped create the conditions for imagined realities to take hold—realities far removed from what was happening on the ground. As the French philosopher Alain Badiou put it, the truth is “indifferent to difference” and, in essence, universal—it isn’t defined by ethnicity, nationality, or race: truth is “the same for all.” We must challenge their trail of lies and deception in the cyber world. If we fail to stop them, we risk letting cowards like them hijack the very idea of freedom.
At the same time, the gutter of the Earth, such as Dedebit, Zara, and Tigray Press, and all others disseminating the same extermination propaganda as the Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines did in Rwanda, are responsible for any genocide perpetrated by the extremists and Shaebia slaves of the TPLF leadership. These self-appointed cyber watchdogs may seek personal gain and spread misinformation by attracting well-meaning people eager for news. They may mislead YouTube viewers with false “breaking news,” criticize TPF and current elected officials, and contribute to tensions in Tigray. It’s important to address these concerns thoughtfully while upholding free speech and justice.
They lack ethical standards in reporting balanced news, and their contempt for current elected officials, cloaked as freedom of speech and expression, is nothing more than a gambit to hide their main intention of submitting to chauvinistic and power-hungry maniacs. Their half-baked truths might only impress Debretsion and his accomplice. Without revisiting the details of the 50-year struggle that led to the TPLF government’s fall, we must acknowledge the miscarriages of justice.
The people of Tigray deserve our recognition for their patience, civility, and generosity. They made immense sacrifices to defeat external oppression and dictatorial, corrupt political oppressors. They remain ready and willing to live in freedom, peace, security, and prosperity alongside all their fellow Ethiopians. The Tigray Peace Force (TPF) have never been vindictive and never will be. They hope to be recognized for the civility, compassion, generosity, and patriotism they demonstrate as Ethiopians, alongside the Federal Army.
Civility, humility, and patience are strengths, not weaknesses. The pursuit of justice and the need to address historical grievances deserve our care and attention.
This generation of Tigrayans can make it clear that it will not stand by as injustices that have caused lasting harm to Tigray continue. Together, we can work urgently to remedy these miscarriages of justice.
First, we must address the remaining TPLF members and their leaders operating in Tigray, along with Isaias Afewerki’s foot soldiers, who were invited into our sacred Tigray. Indigenous Tegrawot must form any new political organizations themselves—not as proxies for aging TPLF remnants or ambitious octogenarians in exile. Democracy, justice and accountability are on the way in Tigray. Let us begin working to build the looted Tigray by Shaebia and the TPLF.
It’s worth acknowledging that, amid the TPLF split, Meles Zenawi and the TPLF leaders who supported him may have harmed Tigray more than Mengistu Hailemariam did during his seventeen years in power. Meles and his supporters eliminated nearly all senior TPLF members with the potential to learn and lead, leaving the organization with little depth. We can see evidence of this in the collapse of a once-powerful organization under its own weight and its eventual sidelining. You can shout all you want, but you won’t find a single well-educated, experienced potential leader among the current TPLF leadership.
But resentment in Tigray did not boil over overnight. Like many people elsewhere in Ethiopia, Tigray’s youth initially greeted the recent upheaval with optimism. The sudden euphoria of change raised hopes for a new democratic order, but those hopes faded as the TPLF declared the Pretoria agreement void and seized power by force, removing a puppet general Tadesse Werede. Skepticism grew among young nationalist parties, some of whose members were former university professors and students.
The divide widened as the TPLF began enforcing conscription, removing popularly elected leaders, and carrying out mass arrests and killings. These actions further hardened the TPLF’s resolve. Finally, in the first week of October, the TPLF leaders were caught off guard and forced to flee to their godfather, Isaias Afewerki, in Eritrea.
However, they ransacked government offices and looted more than 800 vehicles to Eritrea, including ambulances, along with money, gold, medical equipment and medicine. Their actions left a stark record of ruthlessness, wickedness, and betrayal. These are hard realities. Many of us may have hesitated to acknowledge them at first, but the weeks following senior TPLF generals and officers’ surrender should have helped us learn from them. The TPLF brought about its own downfall, ending its political life in Tigray; it is gone for good.