By Samuel Estefanous
I believe the Pretoria Peace Agreement or officially -the ‘Agreement for Lasting Peace through Permanent Cessation of Hostilities’ -is a breakthrough achievement both for FDRE and TPLF. Of course it has also granted the rest of us one big relief to cherish, particularly for the people of Tigray it was a life line extended through the benevolent indefatigable office of the middle parties. Beginning from its designated effective date, the 3rd of November 2022, the central objective of the accord is maintained-Cessation of hostilities. Question is how permanent is it going to be?
Unfortunately, recent developments don’t promise us ‘a lasting peace’. Post Pretoria’s vicious scramble for power in Tigray is so banal and devoid of any measure of decency that the whole war of tug among the officials calls to mind a cartoon movie. The FDRE is loath to get caught up in the middle of it, though article 10 (1) of the Agreement in no uncertain terms dictates that until the next General Election, TPLF and the FDRE shall establish an inclusive Interim Administration through political dialogue. In his latest post addressing the Tigrean intelligentsia and influencers, the Prime Minister imitated Pilate almost to the choice of words.
1- The West Tigray Gold Rush
I guess growing up most of us didn’t have the multi-choice buffet of entertainment channels a palm distance away available to the Millennials. We were TV enthusiasts and watched Tom and Jerry well into adulthood. That is right-Tom and Jerry.
One of my all-time memorable episodes is titled ‘When the Truce Hurts’. Just like the political parties and interest groups in our country, Tom, Jerry and Spike had ruled out the possibility of peaceful co-existence and as a matter of regular way of life, they hack away at each other with or without palpable cause or reason. As a bolt from the blue, suddenly it occurred to Spike that peaceful friendly co-existence is actually possible and convinced even his mortal nemesis Tom to sign up to the idea. So what they did was, they signed a beautiful Tripartite Peace Treaty and began living life as never before until one fateful day when a butcher’s van dropped a large juicy steak amidst them by accident.
Naturally, equitable sharing couldn’t be settled up on as per the Treaty, hence while all three were trying to have undue share the steak is thrown into a ditch and was lost never to be retrieved; and right after Spike tears up the Peace Treaty and the ‘high contracting parties to the treaty’ begin beating the living light out of each other as usual. Hence the title of the episode-the Truce Hurts!
Now more than anything ‘the West Tigray Gold Rush’ is dictating the course of implementing the Pretoria Peace Agreement. Not to mention laundering the ill gains by acquiring property overseas. There isn’t much talk about those kids who had lost their limbs and sight at the very dawn of their young lives. It sounds kid cartoonish stuff, I know, but kid stuff that has claimed the lives of over a million Ethiopians. Shame on all of us, the living!
2-The FDRE’s Unquestioned Territorial Presence in all Regions
The Pretoria Agreement was drawn and adopted with the assumption of some self-evident truths. Thank God we weren’t made to look ridiculous barring Federal institutions and agents from Tigray National Regional State. The fact of the matter is TPLF was ‘silently reprimanded’ for violating the ‘Sovereign Authority’ of the Federal Government in this respect and to redress the harm it has expressly committed itself and representatives to ‘Respect’ the power of the FDRE in all of Tigray.
I just don’t understand the bickering between the two factions of TPLF accusing one another of being a Judas to Tigray by ‘inviting’ over the FDRE Government. It is fait accompli as far as the Constitution and the Pretoria Peace accord goes. As to the manner of establishing the Interim Administration the FDRE and TPLF had agreed to a good faith political dialogue, in other words though TPLF is a signatory as a party to the peace agreement there is no way the Interim-Administration is going to be designated by TPLF even if Team D.Zion’s is a legitimate representative of the Front.
I cannot but laud the wisdom of the representatives of both parties as well as the distinguished honorable mediators. I mean the document might not be a masterpiece of legislative drafting but no one denies that it is concise, crystal clear in the most definitive domains and its scope is defined with a wise combination of convenience and respect for supreme law of the land complete with conditions for possible amendment.
3-Inter-Regional Boundary Dispute Settlement
Incidentally, TPLF did the right thing by designating Ato Getachew Reda (a lawyer) to head the delegation to Pretoria and Nairobi. Recent developments in Mekelle kinda give one a good idea of the chaos which could have been perpetrated by TPLF had the delegation been composed of members of Team D.Zion.
They would have required a clause declaring and maintaining the ‘territorial integrity of Tigray’ to have a commanding significance in the Agreement. Following and in due course they could have demanded the international community in general and AU in particular to guarantee it. Naturally the issue is exclusively in the domain of the Constitutional jurisdiction of the House of Federation and the attempt would have precipitated strings of bad precedents. That is why the Agreement took a simple ‘note’ of the Constitutional superiority in this respect and refrained from dwelling on the subject extensively.
4- The sad fate of the Transitional Justice
Two days ago a guest on one of the vitriol conservative podcasts of America had laid bare the liberal fad that is Transitional Justice. He was explaining to the American public-what we have known all along- the ‘ruins’ the taxpayers money has been inducing in communities all over the world through the agency of the now disgraced USAID.
Unfortunately one of the fault lines of the Pretoria Agreement is the section that commits the FDRE to draw, adopt and implement a Transitional Justice Policy. It was a dismal failure. I have reason to believe it had offended the high profile American delegation which had recently arrived at the Capital to review it. I mean the Policy should have exclusively limited its temporal scope to the one defined by the Agreement or default on its obligation instead of going back and forth through the quagmires of five decades of accumulated atrocities.
God Bless.
The writer can be reached at : estefanoussamuel@yahoo.com
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