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ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia
Agrewi Berhe, a 72-year-old living history of conflict in Ethiopia, has vivid memories of the rise and fall of the now-banned Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TRLF).
A former guerrilla commander, who was also the first president of the TPLF until his expulsion in 1979, Berhe recalls the organization’s journey from revolutionary zeal to degeneration into oligarchy and authoritarianism.
Formed in 1975, the TRLF dominated Ethiopian politics, particularly the northernmost region of Tigray. By order of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopian federal forces recently defeated the TRLF and cleared the Tigray region from their ranks.
On a sunny day in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, when radio stations were playing patriotic songs and people in cafes were talking about the war that had just ended, the former commander said: “Fortunately or by design, it was made me witness and narrate the rise and fall of TPLF and the calamitous end of my old comrades. ”
Rumors fly through the air about the fate of top TPLF leaders, who fled the regional capital, Mekelle, after it was captured by federal forces in November.
Tall and quiet Berhe, who is the CEO of the Ethiopia Great Renaissance Dam Public Participation Coordination Office that is raising funds for the construction of the $ 5 billion mega dam, was one of the few young nationalists Tigray Marxist-Leninists who formed the TPLF in 1975.
Author of a widely cited book titled A Political History of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (1975-1991), the former commander said that while a recent swift military campaign by federal forces led to the downfall of the 46-year-old organization, the collapse it had started in its infancy.
“From the beginning, TPLF was determined to build an omnipresent authoritarian political institution,” Berhe said. Added that [TPLF] he had managed to build a one-party system that ruled Ethiopia with an iron banquet for almost three decades. ”
Single party rule
The TPLF had brought together four ethnic parties and formed the now-defunct one-party Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) after overthrowing the dictatorial military regime of Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991.
“The TPLF had also asserted its dominance over the EPRDF by avidly controlling the highest positions in the army, security and all law enforcement agencies,” the former commander said, adding that the move had angered the other members of the EPRDF and the nation by creating an ever-growing institution akin to a minority government.
In November 2019, Prime Minister Abiy dissolved the EPDRF and formed a new coalition, the Prosperity Party.
Over the years, Berhe said, the TPLF led the authoritarian state, which committed egregious human rights violations and removed all opposition parties from the political landscape.
He said that political domination was deliberately combined with economic control through corrupt means.
“The TPLF leadership had been illegally awarding lucrative contracts to its business institutions, family members and selected supporters,” he noted, adding that over the past three decades the TPLF had morphed into a powerful economic class and oligarchy.
“The TPLF had ruled Ethiopia from before, and its commercial institutions and new riches had ruled from below creating a weak ethnically divided state institution,” Berhe said.
He noted that the authoritarianism, political and economic domination of the TPLF had sparked a rebellion by the Oromo and Amhara members of the EPRDF coalition.
“The rebellion resulted in the appointment of Abiy Ahmed as Ethiopia’s prime minister in 2018 and ushered in the final downfall of the TPLF,” Berhe said.
The TPLF withdrew to Tigray staunchly opposing Ahmed’s reform agenda.
Incorrect assumptions
According to Berhe, the TPLF launched what it called a “blitzkrieg” against the Northern Command of the Ethiopian army on November 4, with the intention of reestablishing its dominance over the federal government.
”They [TPLF] it overestimated its military strength and underestimated the federal army, ” he said.
They also thought that the people of Tigray would support them. Consequently, the whole assumption went wrong, resulting in the TPLF losing the war, Berhe added.
“My old companions withdrew to an area where we began the armed rebellion against the then military regime,” said the old commander.
He said he had mixed feelings and, as a human being, felt sorry for his former colleagues, as reports suggest that some of the top leaders may have been arrested or killed.
“I’m sorry for them, but they were destined to end like this,” he added.
There are other people also in the capital, Addis Ababa, from the Tigray region who share these mixed feelings regarding the fate of the TPLF.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Tsega, who declined to give his middle name due to security concerns, said that he had not yet come to terms with the fate of TPLF.
“They shouldn’t have started the war they can’t win in the first place. Who knows if they can go back, but this would not be good for the poor people of Tigray, ”he said.
Desta Tesfay, another young man, a former TPLF supporter, said that the fall of the organization would be good for the people of Tigray.
“I hope that the negative stereotypical presentation that rudely labels our community as anti-reform and anti-peace will disappear with the disintegration of the TPLF,” he added.
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