Mekelle፡Telaviv, Nairobi, Pretoria, London, (Tigray Herald)
“Reconciliation Without Justice is a Political Fraud: Exposing the Moral Bankruptcy of TPLF-Affiliated ‘Tigray Public Diplomacy'”
Prepared by:
Horn of Africa Geopolitical Review (HAGR)
In Collaboration with Leading Regional and International Political, Diplomatic, and Security Experts
April 2025
Executive Summary:
This document presents a comprehensive and deeply critical analysis of the recent shameful, misleading, and ethically compromised press release issued by a TPLF-affiliated civic front known as “Tigray Public Diplomacy” (TPD) or ጉባኤ ህዝባዊ ርክባት ትግራይ. Their hollow call for “reconciliation” is exposed as a politically motivated maneuver designed to whitewash heinous crimes committed by TPLF militias and to undermine legitimate reformist movements, including the reform-led Tigray Interim Government under Getachew Reda.
This document strongly condemns TPD’s silence during atrocities and criminal acts, their complicity in the cover-up of systemic violence, and their recent attempt to exploit the language of peace and forgiveness without truth, justice, or accountability. We argue that reconciliation without apology, acknowledgment of wrongdoing, and institutional justice is not peacebuilding — it is propaganda.
I. Introduction: The Danger of Weaponized Reconciliation
The so-called Tigray Public Diplomacy has issued a statement calling for reconciliation — but this is not a call for healing. It is a calculated, opportunistic political intervention aimed at shielding TPLF’s army militias and political operatives from scrutiny, prosecution, and accountability. This “reconciliation” is a disgraceful political cover-up, staged to legitimize the coup against the reformist interim administration and distract the people of Tigray from calls for justice, truth, and democratic transformation.
We ask: What credibility does this group hold? What integrity remains when reconciliation is used as a weapon to suppress justice?
II. The Silence of TPD During Tigray’s Darkest Hours
Where was the so-called Tigray Public Diplomacy when:
The TPLF’s militia factions waged a brutal internal war on young, reformist Tigrayans?
Reformist leaders including Getachew Reda faced assassination attempts and systematic efforts to undermine a people-led transition?
Entire zones of Northwestern Tigray were ravaged by illegal gold mining, operated by TPLF-affiliated military-commercial enterprises, destroying communities and displacing thousands?
Young people across Tigray were beaten, imprisoned, kidnapped, and in many cases killed, simply for organizing or expressing support for reform?
Their utter silence during these atrocities invalidates their moral and civic standing. Now, they reemerge, not as advocates for truth, but as gatekeepers of impunity.
III. TPD: A Fusion of Political Manipulation, Religious Co-optation, and Corrupt Business Networks
The composition of Tigray Public Diplomacy is deeply problematic: it is a toxic amalgamation of:
Religious figures coerced into political messaging;
Business entities with direct or indirect benefit from TPLF-linked operations, including mining and contracting;
Former political cadres repurposing themselves as civic actors.
This structure makes TPD not a genuine civic institution, but a front organization for political rehabilitation of discredited elites. Their current campaign is not a national healing project, but an extension of TPLF’s psychological and political warfare — a diplomatic propaganda tool.
IV. Reconciliation Without Justice: A Betrayal of the People
True reconciliation demands:
Public acknowledgment of crimes;
Apologies to victims and survivors;
Independent investigations into crimes, including war crimes, corruption, and political assassinations;
Genuine accountability processes, led by impartial institutions.
What we witness today is the opposite — a public relations stunt orchestrated by individuals and entities that either participated in or enabled violence, silence, and sabotage.
Their statement is, in every sense, “an insult added to injury.”
V. Critical Questions to TPD Members:
We demand answers to the following:
- Where were you when young Tigrayans were being hunted, detained, and assassinated by TPLF militias?
- Why were you silent during the violent overthrow of the Tigray Interim Government, led by reformists with public legitimacy?
- Have you ever called for investigations into illegal gold mining and its devastating impact on Northwestern Tigray?
- Have you acknowledged the systematic abuse of civilian populations by TPLF’s military operatives?
- Have you apologized for your silence during the war declared by internal actors against the people of Tigray?
Your silence was not neutrality — it was complicity.
VI. Towards a Real Path of Justice-Based Reconciliation
Tigray does not need a fake, politically compromised reconciliation effort rooted in lies, propaganda, and elite rehabilitation.
Tigray urgently needs:
An independent, internationally monitored National Reconciliation Commission involving:
Religious leaders of integrity;
Civic leaders untainted by past political affiliations;
Victim representatives;
International legal and truth and reconciliation experts.
A National Inquiry into Internal Crimes committed since the Pretoria Agreement — including intra-Tigrayan political violence, economic crimes, assassinations, and militia atrocities.
An inclusive national political dialogue free from the ideological impositions and outdated worldview of the TPLF’s old guard.
Only through truth, apology, accountability, and justice can reconciliation be real, legitimate, and lasting.
VII. Conclusion: Reconciliation Is Not a License for Impunity
The people of Tigray are not naïve. They remember. They resist political manipulation masked in moral language. What the so-called Tigray Public Diplomacy has issued is not a road to healing — it is a road to continued injustice and elite survival.
To reconcile means to tell the truth.
To forgive means to receive an apology.
To move forward means justice must walk before peace.
Appendix:
Recommended Structural Principles for a Genuine Reconciliation Process in Tigray:
Establish an Independent Tigrayan Reconciliation Commission (ITRC)
International Monitoring and Oversight Panel
Victim-centered approach: documentation, truth-telling, reparations
Lustration measures for political and militia figures implicated in internal war crimes
Legal mechanisms for criminal accountability
Historical reckoning with TPLF’s internal crimes post-2022
Published by:
Horn of Africa Geopolitical Review (HAGR)
April 2025
For distribution to diplomatic missions, human rights organizations, policy think tanks, and the Tigray Interim Assembly.
