Mekelle፡Telaviv, Nairobi, Pretoria, London, (Tigray Herald)
THE “I CAN’T BE SILENT ABOUT TIGRAY”
Open Letter to Tadesse Werede, President of the Tigray Interim Administration Tadesse Werede
Subject: Urgent Call for Action to Prevent Civil War and Protect Tigray’s Future
Dear President Tadesse Werede:
We, members of the I Can’t Be Silent About Tigray, are writing this letter to express our deep concern about the escalating crisis in Tigray and call for immediate and decisive action against rouge military leaders and
their allies within the TPLF who are responsible for prolonging and compounding the suffering of our people.
We make this plea in light of the growing tension following Dr. Debretsion’s inflammatory remark about his plans to forcibly remove civilian administrations in southern Tigray. We condemn, in the strongest possible terms, any plan or action aimed at removing local administrations by force. Allowing these plans to go forward is not only illegal but it is also detrimental to Tigray’s continued as existence as a political
entity.
Mr. President:
Mindful of your role in deepening the crisis in Tigray, we held cautious optimism that you, as president,would rise to the occasion and carry Tigray through the storm. However, your actions and/or inactions so far suggest otherwise.
1. You did not just fail to characterize what transpired in Tigray as coup but you also failed to hold the TPLF faction and its allies in the army who unleashed violence against civilians.
2. You rewarded perpetrators of the coup in the army by reinstating them to positions from which they were suspended. This is nothing short of endorsing criminality.
3. You acquiesced to demands of the TPLF oligarchy by letting it control most cabinet positions in your administration.
4. You dismissed the interim council and failed to meaningfully engage with its members in furthering our common Tigray agenda.
Worse, you continue to pretend all is good as the TPLF oligarchy continues to strengthen its ties with the genocidal regime in Eritrea whose only wish for Tigray is that it gets wiped off the map.
Trivializing the genocidal crimes that were perpetrated on our people, the illegal and abnormal talk of normalizing with
Shabya has become normal in the echo chambers of the TPLF crime syndicate. If history is any indication, the only good alliance that one can have with Shabya is no alliance – and the Tigray tragedy of the last 50
years and counting is a testament to it.
As someone who understands Shabya’s opportunistic nature, your silence on this unholy Shabya-TPLF alliance is deafening and your lack of resolve is profoundly disturbing.
However, all of this pales in comparison to the danger that Dr. Debretsion and his allies in the army are currently posing to Tigray’s internal unity. Recent statements by Dr. Debretsion and General Yohannes THE “I CAN’T BE SILENT ABOUT TIGRAY”
indicate that plans are underway to overthrow local administrations in Raya.
In so doing, the oligarchy aims to evade accountability for past and present crimes by holding on to power indefinitely and killing Tigray’s appetite for change by crushing it where it is alive and thriving. Further, it aims to turn Raya into a battlefield for a possible war between Ethiopia on the one hand and the Shabya-TPLF alliance on the other.
The immediate result of any such campaign by rogue army generals is a civil war that could end Tigray as we know it.
Mr. President:
The specter of Tigrayans killing each other in a civil war should terrify you like is terrifying all of us. This war will devastate an already devastated Tigray. It will further divide an already divided Tigray. It will re- traumatize an already traumatized populace. Worse, it will allow Shabya, the architect of the Tigray
genocide, to finish Tigray once and for all.
And, this is your last chance to stop the train wreck and save Tigray from the TPLF crime network. It is your chance to redeem yourself and go to the annals of history as the leader who saved Tigray from literal extinction.
Mr. President:
You recognize that as president the buck stops with you. No matter who fires the first shot, the ultimate responsibility for the destruction of Tigray rests on your shoulders. Not doing anything to stop this crime
network today is tantamount to greenlighting Shabya’s plan for Tigray, a plan in which Tigray has no future.
This is time for your administration to hold all bad actors including Dr. Debretsion and army allies accountable.
As the highest political authority in Tigray, your silence will be interpreted as complicity. Your inaction will be remembered as consent. The time to act is now. We urge you to:
1. Condemn publicly and unequivocally any effort to use military force against civilian
administrations in Sothern Tigray and elsewhere.
2. Take concrete steps to hold accountable those who are conspiring with Shabya to destabilize Tigray.
3. Reassert the rule of law and restore the legitimacy of your administration through inclusive governance, not political patronage.
Tigray cannot endure another war. Our people cannot bear another betrayal. The legacy you leave behind depends on the actions you take now.
Sincerely,
The I Can’t Be Silent About Tigray
Email: cantbesilent4tigray@gmail.com
