Africa-Press Ethiopia<\/p>\n
A speech delivered by Commissioner Abere Adamu, Chief Commissioner of the Amhara Regional State Police Commission, added a new dynamic into a cascade events leading up to the armed conflict in Tigray regional state, which broke out two months ago on November 04\/2020.<\/p>\n
In his speech delivered at the inauguration of his newly published book, Commissioner Abere narrated how Amhara regional state Special Forces, led by the region\u2019s Assistant Police Commissioner Biset Getahun, retrieved members of the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF) steel-clad mechanized forces stationed near Humera and commanded them to return back \u201cto face the enemy\u201d in the armed conflict involving the federal forces and forces under the Tigray People\u2019s Liberation Front (TPLF).<\/p>\n
Commissioner Abere also revealed that Amhara regional state had \u201calready done [its] homework,\u201d and \u201cdeployment of forces had taken place in our borders from east to west. The war started that night after we have already completed our preparations,\u201d he told an audience to several rounds of applause.<\/p>\n
Cascade Of Heightened Events Between November 01 And 04\/2020
\nCommissioner Abere\u2019s account add to a cascade of events that took place shortly before the armed conflict broke out in Tigray. The following are the major events that took place between November 01 and 04\/2020, all except for one, were reported by Addis Standard at the time.<\/p>\n
On November 01, more than 50 civilians were killed in West Wollega zone, Guliso Werda, Gawwa Qanqa kebele of Oromia regional state in what eye witnesses said was shortly after the evacuation of members of the federal armed forces from the area. But the news of the killing has surfaced only a day later, on November 02. There was no official explanation on why the defense forces were evacuated for the area, where there is an ongoing armed conflict with members of the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA).<\/p>\n
Other reports on November 01\/2020 also indicate the mobilization of \u201c16 buses\u201d of ENDF members from a military camp in the city of Shilaabo in the Somali regional state.<\/p>\n
On the same Day on November 01, Eritrea issued a statement accusing TPLF of obstructing regional peace and stability, and that \u201cthe TPLF led group\u201d that has been declared \u201cGame over\u201d for a while.<\/p>\n
On November 02, Tigray Region President Debretsion Gebremichael aired a 36 minutes televised message in which he said that the regional government has \u201cprepared our military of Special Force not in need of a war, but if the worst comes, to defend ourselves.\u201d And cautioned that Tigray region \u201cshould give attention to the situation that is advancing to a war and everyone should be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n
These events were followed by a release of a statement on November 02\/2020, by EU High Representative\/Vice-President Josep Borrell on growing tension in Ethiopia in which he said: \u201cdevelopments in Ethiopia are a cause of deep concern. All parties as well as Ethiopia\u2019s neighbors must act to reduce tension, eliminate inflammatory language and abstain from provocative military deployments. Failure to do so risks destabilizing the country as well as the wider region.\u201d<\/p>\n
On November 04\/2020 Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced that federal forces were authorized to militarily intervene in Tigray regional state after TPLF \u201ctook measures\u201d and \u201ctried to rob the Northern Command.\u201d<\/p>\n
On November 13\/2020, Sekoutoure Getachew, a former TPLF official, said in a regional TV that TPLF forces took \u201cpre-emptive strike\u201d on the army\u2019s Northern Command stationed near Mekelle, before federal forces began the military operation in the region.<\/p>\n
Commissioner Abere\u2019s Speech At His Book Launching
\nCommissioner Abere\u2019s speech was delivered at the launching of a book he wrote titled (loosely translated) \u201cThe Supremacy of the Law for Development of a County.\u201d The video was uploaded on December 20\/2020.<\/p>\n
Below is a direct translation of Commissioner Abere\u2019s rare account of the first day of events which saw the participation of Amhara regional state forces from day one.<\/p>\n
Excerpt
\nBecause it is history let me tell you what happened during this time. At the time, Amhara region police and Temesgen [Tiruneh] who was the president of the Amhara Region, already knew that this thing was going to happen, especially TPLF\u2019s preparation, as they were next door to us. Therefore we have already done our homework, and accordingly deployment of forces had taken place in our borders from east to west. The war started that night after we have already completed our preparations.<\/p>\n
At that time, Assistant Commissioner Biset [Getahun], the Commander of the Special Forces, called me\u2026and told me that the war had begun and that we were engaged. Because we had so many discussions in military languages, I told him to continue as discussed, he agreed. I then immediately called our president Ato Temesgen, and told him the news; he told me to engage and said, \u201cJust grab on!\u201d and I told him \u201cI am on it.\u201d After that we were all at work.<\/p>\n
A little later, Assistant Commissioner Biset (Assistant Commissioner, in the house of Police is equivalent to that of Brigadier General \u2013 and I wish I could call him as such because that is a familiar title), he called me again and told me that it was going as per our discussion.<\/p>\n
What we have talked about was, because it is now in the past, let me make it clear for you today: what we discussed was that we had communication with those from within; with whom we had close relations, especially with those members of the Mechanized Forces stationed near Humera; we had relations with them and we have already studied how to retrieve the force to come to us if something happened. So when I and Assistant commissioner Biset say \u201caccording to what we discussed\u201d we understand what we were saying. So he told me \u201cthings are going as we discussed.\u201d What it meant was to make members of the steel-clad mechanized Special Forces to come to us under the protection of our Special Forces, and after they reached us, to commander them to turn back to face the enemy. So he asked me \u201cthey are coming, what do I do with them?\u201d so I told him to divert them back face the enemy; he did it. The armored mechanized members that we provided protection and retrieved from there provided protection for our forces and the foot soldiers marched in. You all know what happened next. This is how the war started; this was the day.<\/p>\n
In the process, after the war started and after we have allied the armored mechanized members with our forces, I called General Berhanu Jula and told him \u2018General we have retrieved your forces and allied them with our forces\u2019 and I asked him to bring down a directive of alignment; at times of war, there is this language of directive of alignment, otherwise there could emerge incidents in which allies end up hitting each other. So we needed to do that and when I told it to General Berhanu, his speech [response] was a mix of joy and doubt. Joy because we retrieved the armored mechanized forces and directed them to face the enemy; and doubt because I think he wondered how that could possibly be. That is what I understood from hone tone. In any case, I told him what was done was done and asked him to give us the alignment directive and he agreed; the war continued that way.<\/p>\n
A few days later, General Ababaw Tadesse called me and said that he was coming to Bahir Dar and asked me to welcome him. I agreed and welcomed him. When he arrived, he was accompanied by General Belay and General Kumara. After introducing me with them, he told me that General Belay had previously returned from [Mekelle] airport after he was assigned as the commander of the Northern Command. General belay is a joyous man; and I jokingly said to him, \u201cwell you have not been able to enter by air before, but now you are going to enter on foot.\u201d It looked like an order. He told me not to have doubt. At this moment General Abebaw pulled me aside and said, \u201cI\u2019m going to get in from the top in the north and you are going to hold up from here.\u201d I told him not to think of anything. For a moment we forgot about COVID and hugged each other.<\/p>\n
They then drove north with my car. As a matter of fact, the Generals\u2019 enthusiasm did not look like they were going to a war, but to a wedding. I was 100% sure that we would win the war, and we won. I would like to say congratulations.<\/p>\n
As a result, we had to wait for this season to launch this book [which took] more than a month after we thought we would. But many people are saying now it is the right time. It indeed is.<\/p>\n
The purpose of this book was to prevent this war from happening. As I told you before, war devours us; it gets worse when it is with each other. That war could only be stopped if the rule of law was obeyed; law is obeyed only when we know the benefits of the law. AS<\/p>\n
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Africa-Press Ethiopia A speech delivered by Commissioner Abere Adamu, Chief Commissioner of the Amhara Regional State Police Commission, added a new dynamic into a cascade events leading up to the armed conflict in Tigray regional state, which broke out two months ago on November 04\/2020. In his speech delivered at the inauguration of his newly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":1389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[241],"class_list":["post-1386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","tag-africa-press-ethiopia"],"yoast_head":"\n