One has to understand where they were coming from to really appreciate their perpetual state of denial. They are in such a terrible state of existence as the quagmire they find themselves mired in Somalia and battling various Ethiopian armed opposition groups - all by their own making. It is their ill-conceived but non existent machismo strategy that has made them cross the line into the Somali fire ball. There are ambitions; and there are blind ambitions and those may be termed as pretensions. The latter scenario usually leads one into a situation of no return regardless how onerous the end result might be. Sadly, that is exactly what we are witnessing as happening in the Weyane land.

Recently, many political pundits and commentators alike have made it somewhat central, the issue why TPLF worked for the independence of Eritrea especially after Ayte Sebhat Nega’s and Ayte Meles Zenawi’s claim to the holier-than-Thou “Dedication” for Eritrean independence. So really, did the TPLF “Fought for the independence of Eritrea” as it claims; and what for?

There are, at least four glaring wrong assertions in such wildly disparaging statements that are being fed by the Weyanes - primarily as an attempt to assure the Eritrean people not to fear Weyanes’ good intentions for they will not touch Eritrean independence.

1. It is ludicrous and absurd for the Weyane to claim that they have fought more for the independence of Eritrea than their independence movements have. It is true that the Eritrean Peoples Liberation Front (EPLF) and Tigrean Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) occasionally cooperated in the field during the independence struggle to a varying degree. They also co-coordinated their efforts to finally drive Mengistu Hailemariam into exile, which heralded the liberation of Ethiopia and Eritrea in May 1991. In fact, it is no secret about the widely reported camaraderie the EPLF showed by dispatching its elite tank force to accompany the TPLF forces right to the heart of Ethiopia. Nobody, not even the Weyane pathological liars, can deny that.
2. To really understand this crazy behavior of the Weyanes, though, one has to appreciate the TPLF’s long term desire to secede from Ethiopia and create a state of its own which it baptized “The Republic of Greater Tigrai” in its 1976 “Tigrai Manifesto”. If the ideals spelled out in that “Manifesto” were to materialize, the TPLF realized that it probably could not get away with taking some sizable chunks of land from Wello, Beghemdr and Afar administrative zones if it is not on the best of terms with its neighbor to the north. It also felt that it could not afford to antagonize the militarily superior EPLF which was and is on the record for opposing Tigrai’s secession from Ethiopia proper without the wish of the people. Moreover, the creation of the so-called “Greater Tigrai” meant for the TPLF to snatch a large swath of Eritrean territory and claim it as its outlet to the coveted Red Sea.
3. The TPLF leadership also realized that such a huge military operation could not be achieved without the guidance of the EPLF until the TPLF felt that it had placed a strong muzzle on the Ethiopian people’s mouth, placed the Ethiopian economy under its total control and transferred more economic and military assets to its home base. So, as one can see, it was a marriage of convenience and political expediency more than a matter of principled stand for the TPLF to work with the gullible EPLF with a clear plan to later betray the Ethiopians, the Eritreans and anybody in between at some opportune time. That “Opportune” time came when the Weyane regime started encroaching into sovereign Eritrean territories, which it started with the dismantling of the Eritrean Administrative center in Adi Murug (Dankalia) in July of 1997. Moreover, there was no reciprocal attempt by the Weyane for EPLF’s concerted effort to resolve any existing “Misunderstanding” in an amicable and legal way. Of course the EPLF effort did not bear any fruit and the Weyane, believing the EPLF was pleading for peace on account of its weakness, unilaterally declared war on Eritrea in May 1998. They did this despite of Eritrea’s persistent and principled call for calm and “Dialogue”. Subsequently, they launched three major military offensives against Eritrea and took some Eritrean sovereign territory. In spite of their superiority in men and arms, however, they were dealt a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Eritreans when they were forced to agree to sign the Algiers Peace Agreement in December 2000 before internationally renowned personalities and the rest is history.
4. Finally, as dimwit as the Weyane thinkers are, they believed in the following fallacies:
1. That they can militarily defeat Eritrea once they hoodwinked the Ethiopian masses into believing that the Eritrean independence could be reversed or, at least, the Asseb port could be regained with no problem.
2. That the UN recognized Eritrean “National Sovereignty” which the Weyane and its handlers would really have to work against all odds to undo it officially, could be left alone as long as the Weyane was able to overthrow the current Eritrean government and replace it with a puppet “Eritrean” administration, which would be at the command of the TPLF masters and whose existence wouldn’t matter at all.
3. Again, once the Weyanes were able to control the Ethiopian might and were able to install a weak and nominal government in Eritrea which would literally depend on the TPLF for its existence, then the TPLF would easily be able to secede from Ethiopia and declare their dream child – “The Republic of Greater Tigrai” after acquiring a section of the Red Sea coastline they could practically call as theirs. The funny thing about all this fantasy is that all these activities were supposed to have happened with no opposition anticipated from either the Eritreans or the Ethiopians. Talk about “Hlmi derho” or dream pipe as it were!

I believe the natural and special relationship of the Eritrean and Ethiopian peoples - based on mutual respect of each other and common advantage of living side by side peacefully - will continue to flourish. Unfortunately, however, some Ethiopians must drop their century-old chauvinism and unequivocally accept the simple fact that Eritrea is a sovereign nation and member of the United Nations for what it is worth. It simply is unthinkable for that positive development or a “Win- win” situation to develop fully as long as the Weyane type mentality continues to be the governing doctrine in Ethiopia. While it is the Ethiopian peoples’ responsibility and indeed their call on what type of government they like to have in their country, as a citizen of a neighboring country, which has seen more than its share of oppression by various Ethiopian regimes, I urge all Ethiopians to redouble their effort to install a truly representative government which would work with all its neighbors for the mutual benefit of all the peoples of the Horn. Everything else is empty conjecture which does not do any good for anybody including the chauvinists!

Berhane Alazar

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