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Toronto – This week, a U.S. based pro-Ethiopian government cyber media, Lualawi, published an hours long interview with Ethiopia’s Defense Chief of Staff, Field Marshal Berhanu Jula.
As was the case in the past, the Defense Chief addresses the questions at times deeply delving into what appears to be a purely political arena.
He was asked if it is not a problem that the TPLF is still armed years after the Pretoria Agreement which stipulated that the TPLF, which is now reduced to an opposition party – an armed one, should disarm within a month. The question was also in the context of worsening division within the TPLF organization.
Berhanu Jula responded that “it is a problem,” but “what to do about it?” And then he added that the Federal government is consulting with the Interim government of Tigray region so that the situation is not out of control. He said that if the armed group makes a different move, “Defense will take measures.”
Sisay Agena, owner of Lulawi media who was awarded a medal by the Defense Force and hailed by the Prime Minister as an example of “good journalism,” asked the Field Marshal why the TPLF is not disarmed in the first place as per the Pretoria Agreement.
The Defense Chief linked the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) problem to the funding issue. He said that “no country in the world” can handle DDR on its own without support from other stakeholders. He also highlighted efforts on the part of the government to secure the funding.
Furthermore, he said that work is underway to disarm 75,000 TPLF fighters but he did not specify the timeline.
While there are reports of indication that the TPLF is still armed with heavy weaponry, the Defense chief projected an image that the TPLF has fully disarmed heavy weaponry, and that now it only has individual and group arms.
The assessment from the Federal government is, as revealed by the Defense Chief, that the “TPLF is no longer in a position to topple the government by force. “
The TPLF has been recently meeting with Eritrea outside of Ethiopia. The organization itself has confirmed it but the Eritrean government did not remark about it. TPLF has been accusing Eritrean forces of “committing genocide in Tigray.”
The two years war between the TPLF and Abiy Ahmed led Federal government is said to have claimed more than 600,000 lives.
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