In a Press Statement yesterday (20th March), US Secretary of State yet again raised unsubstantiated and defamatory accusations against the Eritrean Defense Forces in relation to the two-year conflict in north Ethiopia triggered by the TPLF’s deplorable War of Insurrection and choice.
The allegation, which is not new, does not stem from factual and incontrovertible evidence. Indeed, it constitutes an embodiment and continuation of unwarranted hostility and demonization that US Administrations have pursued against Eritrea since 2009 to advance their ulterior political agendas.
The illicit and unilateral sanctions imposed against Eritrea and Washington’s untenable conduct in the past two years – primarily geared to absolve and salvage the TPLF – only accentuate its complicity and accountability for the tragic consequences that have unfolded.
As it happens, the current cheap demonization campaign is designed to blackmail and intimidate Eritrea and the Federal Ethiopian government through fallacious accusations and keep them hostage while bolstering the TPLF to create further chaos. The ensuing mayhem would then create the pretexts and conditions for illicit and continued meddling and intervention.
The timing of this announcement is also telling, occurring as it does, when US misguided policy is being challenged globally; and especially so in the African continent.
The facts of the matter in this particular and sordid episode are otherwise too evident to merit much elaboration.
The devastating war occurred because the TPLF launched premeditated, extensive and coordinated military assaults against Ethiopia’s Northern Command, killing more than 3000 soldiers in its initial blitzkrieg. TPLF’s war plans included massive long-range missile attacks against Eritrea in its initial phase alone, in violation of fundamental tenets of international law.
Furthermore, the litany of TPLF’s crimes, including massive and forcible recruitment of tens of thousands of children in its human wave assaults in the Afar and Amhara Regions of Ethiopia, are too many to be recounted here. But they were deliberately downplayed and glossed over as US overarching objective remained salvaging the TPLF under all circumstances.
In the event, moral and legal accountability should not be eviscerated, once again, on the altar of US overriding geopolitical priorities. After all, it must be recalled that the Biden Administration has invoked the full force of law to indict and take draconian legal measures against what it calls “Insurrectionists” and who breached the Capitol Building on 6 January, 2021.
Washington must thus extricate itself from duplicitous and cynical acts as well as illicit meddling. The peoples of Eritrea, Ethiopia and the region as a whole are endowed with, and entitled to, inalienable rights to find enduring solutions to their own problems. And above all, the US has no moral or legal right to act as the prosecutor and judge in these matters.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Asmara
21 March 2023