Addis Ababa, July 3 , 2012 (Walta) – Demeke Mekonnen, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Ethiopia, and State Minister Ambassador Redwan Hussein gave a briefing to ambassadors and representatives of international organizations on the rationale of declaring a unilateral humanitarian ceasefire in Tigray.
In his speech, Ambassador Redwan listed out the main reasons that the government of Ethiopia decided to evacuate its troops from Tigray and declare the unilateral humanitarian ceasefire.
According to Ambassador Redwan, the Government of Ethiopia has decided to withdraw its soldiers from Tigray assessing that most of the political and military leaders of the TPLF have been either killed or imprisoned.
As neutralizing or apprehending the criminals was one of the objectives of launching the law enforcement operation in the region, he said protracting the conflict just to upend the remaining few TPLF leaders is not feasible.
A few months into the law enforcement operation, many people, including children, have been used as human shields to cover the TPLF leaders, which made it dangerous to make a surgical operation in neutralizing the wanted criminals, and the Ethiopian government, had to call on the ceasefire to save innocents.
Given the irresponsible nature of the terrorist group, he said, the federal government should also show magnanimity and declare the ceasefire, understanding that the people in the region should use the farming season undisturbed.
Although the frequent calls of humanitarian operators for unfettered access in the region were caused by the atrocious acts of the criminal group, the government has to declare the unilateral humanitarian ceasefire to give chances for humanitarian actors to save more lives, he added.
According to the Ambassador, the government also needed to declare the ceasefire, understanding that the first receivers of the brunt of the conflict are the people of Tigray who deserve peace and seek a peaceful solution to the problem.
Before the TPLF attacked the Northern Command of ENDF, they were funding and masterminding conflicts in many parts of Ethiopia, which caused untold suffering on the people of Ethiopia, he said.
We want the international community to know that we are dealing with a rogue element who, despite the ceasefire, publicly vowed to attack the Amhara region and pursue Eritrean forces crossing the borders, he said, although the group continued to lament that the Eritrean troops didn’t leave the Region.
According to our sources, after the withdrawal of our forces, he said, the TPLF has made ethnically motivated killings that took the lives of 70 people in Mekelle, most of whom were working under the interim administration of Tigray.
Although the media have been caught up with the destruction of a bridge over Tekeze River, pointing fingers at the government, as usual, he said the fact is that there were two more bridges destroyed by the group.
We cannot force organizations to continue giving their services, such as flights, banking, and telecommunication if we fail to guarantee the protection of their lives. The other party has to stop belligerence for that to happen.
According to data found from the Ministry of Agriculture of Ethiopia, 400,000 quintals of seeds and fertilizers had been stored in Mekelle, well beyond the needs of the farmers in the Tigray region, he said.
In finalizing his briefing, Ambassador Redwan reiterated the federal government’s commitment to work closely with the humanitarian operators, addressing their quest for access to communication equipment, visa, and others through proper channels of the government which has already been set up.
The ambassadors, the diplomatic community, and representatives of international agencies have participated in a question and answer session raising some of their concerns and also appreciating the government of Ethiopia for declaring the humanitarian ceasefire and conducting peaceful and credible elections.