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<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class="field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item field field--name-body"><p class=""><br class=""></p><p class="">By Ann Garrison of The Black Agenda Report: </p><p class="">US
hostilities towards Ethiopia and Eritrea look more and more like those
preceding US wars in Yugoslavia, Libya, and Syria, writes Ann Garrison. </p>
<p class="">On May 20, the US Senate passed <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-resolution/97/text" rel="nofollow" class="0" target="_blank">Senate Resolution 97<span class="0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a> "calling
on the Government of Ethiopia, the Tigray People's Liberation Front,
and other belligerents in the conflict in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia
to cease all hostilities, protect human rights, allow unfettered
humanitarian access, and cooperate with independent investigations of
credible atrocity allegations." The resolution also called on
neighboring Eritrea to withdraw troops from Ethiopia.</p>
<p class="">On May 21, Cameron Hudson told <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/05/21/biden-visa-restrictions-ethiopia-tigray-conflict-eritrea-war-crimes-humanitarian-crisis/" rel="nofollow" class="0" target="_blank">Foreign Policy<span class="0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a>,
“This is a major strategic shift in the Horn of Africa, to go from an
anchor state for U.S. interests to become a potential adversary to U.S.
interests.” <a href="https://twitter.com/_hudsonc" rel="nofollow" class="0" target="_blank">Hudson<span class="0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a> self-describes on Twitter as former CIA, State Department, and White House staff, now with the Atlantic Council.</p>
<p class="">On May 23, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken issued a <a href="https://www.state.gov/united-states-actions-to-press-for-the-resolution-of-the-crisis-in-the-tigray-region-of-ethiopia/" rel="nofollow" class="0" target="_blank">statement<span class="0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a> announcing
sanctions on both Ethiopia and Eritrea, including official travel
restrictions and aid cuts, most of which targeted Ethiopia, which
receives the largest share of US aid in Sub-Saharan Africa. </p>
<p class="">On May 24, Ethiopia responded angrily with their own <a href="https://ethiopianembassy.org/press-statement-on-the-u-s-decision-to-impose-visa-restrictions-on-ethiopian-officials-may-24-2021/" rel="nofollow" class="0" target="_blank">statement<span class="0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a>,
saying, “As the Ethiopian Government has made it clear, time and again,
the attempt by the U.S. administration to meddle in its internal
affairs, is not only inappropriate but also completely unacceptable.
Ethiopia should not be told how to run and manage its internal affairs.”</p>
<p class="">On the same day, the Telegraph published “<a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/05/23/exclusive-ethiopians-suffer-horrific-burns-suspected-white-phosphorus/" rel="nofollow" class="0" target="_blank">Exclusive: Ethiopians suffer horrific burns in suspected white phosphorus attacks<span class="0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a>,”
citing anonymous “leading chemical weapons experts” who had “evaluated
footage” from Tigray. The publication acknowledged, “The UN and other
bodies were called to investigate. But nobody would, and nobody
condemned its use because it’s very hard to prove it was used with
‘intent’ against people." </p>
<p class="">International law allows for the use of white phosphorous to
illuminate the battlefield at night or to provide tactical smoke
screens, but the United Nations’ Geneva Conventions classify its use to
harm civilians as a war crime.</p>
<p class=""><strong class="">We all know this playbook</strong></p>
<p class="">We all know this playbook. The US and its ancillary powers and
publications allege atrocities, usually in the Global South, then claim
to be the exceptional arbiters of peace, justice, and human rights for
the entire world. Jeff Pearce, who identifies on Twitter as “historian,
novelist, career surrealist,” wasted no time responding to the
unsubstantiated white phosphorous alarms with a sardonic analysis on his
Medium blog: “<a href="https://jeffpearce.medium.com/ethiopia-manufacturing-more-outrage-6c1e0d84ac9c" rel="nofollow" class="0" target="_blank">Ethiopia: Manufacturing More Outrage<span class="0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a>.”</p>
<p class="">Pearce’s blog and <a href="https://twitter.com/jeffpropulsion" rel="nofollow" class="0" target="_blank">Twitter page<span class="0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a> are
a hilarious running commentary on the demonization of Ethiopia and
Eritrea, and I recommend them to anyone trying to keep up with this.
Recently he tweeted, “They keep telling me the earth is flat, and
they’re going to push this African country off the edge to prove it.”</p>
<p class="">I asked Pearce if I could use the above screenshot from his Twitter page with this article, and he responded:</p>
<p class=""><em class="">“Sure, but could you please mention that I'm the author of a book on Ethiopian history, </em><a href="https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/prevail-the-inspiring-story-of-ethiopias-victory-over-mussolinis-invasion-1935-1941_jeff-pearce/11280957/item/20009750/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwwLKFBhDPARIsAPzPi-JnfBbuXs-aogkFhGYwjF4zjLgAwoZZPrWPwdErcS4fV2MiBST3vjQaApbJEALw_wcB#idiq=20009750&edition=13195801" rel="nofollow" class="0" target="_blank"><em class="">Prevai</em><span class="0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a><a href="https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/prevail-the-inspiring-story-of-ethiopias-victory-over-mussolinis-invasion-1935-1941_jeff-pearce/11280957/item/20009750/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwwLKFBhDPARIsAPzPi-JnfBbuXs-aogkFhGYwjF4zjLgAwoZZPrWPwdErcS4fV2MiBST3vjQaApbJEALw_wcB#idiq=20009750&edition=13195801" rel="nofollow" class="0" target="_blank"><em class="">l:</em><span class="0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a><em class=""> The
Inspiring Story of Ethiopia's Victory over Mussolini's Invasion,
1935-1941? This is because folks are quite entitled to wonder why anyone
should listen to this bald, white doofus about African affairs.</em></p>
<p class=""><em class="">“And the other thing that you may wish to mention is that I've
written articles on Medium that have investigated the Axum Massacre, the
Mai Kadra Massacre, and United Nations officials allegedly threatening
Ethiopian aid workers, and that none of the mainstream news operations
have bothered to pick up or check any of these stories, even though they
are clearly taking some cues and tips from social media.</em></p>
<p class=""><em class="">“While this last bit may sound self-serving, frankly, it's
downright damn appalling that NONE of these stories are being pursued
with proper investigative zeal.</em></p>
<p class=""><em class="">‘Their mainstream narratives are treated as already established
facts. Same with the white phosphorus story in the Telegraph, for which,
if you actually go over the details, nothing is proved at all yet.</em></p>
<p class=""><em class="">“All that Ethiopians have been asking for is BALANCED coverage
and not to be penalized in the international community, which is relying
on a version of events put forward by a terrorist organization/criminal
oligarchy, the TPLF.</em></p>
<p class=""><em class="">‘They deserve far better than this.”</em></p>
<p class="">Indeed. And we know that in instances including Yugoslavia, Libya,
and Syria, these fabulist human rights campaigns are often followed by
US/NATO bombing, asset seizures, international criminal indictments and
arrests, CIA-engineered coups, proxy wars, and/or occupation. The US
leads the world in creating chaos in the name of human rights.</p>
<p class=""><strong class="">The US is scrambling to regain control of the Horn of Africa</strong></p>
<p class="">I spoke to Eritrean American medical doctor Simon Tesfamariam, as I did in March when the <a href="https://www.blackagendareport.com/european-union-screams-eritrea" rel="nofollow" class="">EU imposed new sanctions on Eritrea</a>.
Tesfamariam lives in New York City, but he has a long history of
organizing and activism within the global Eritrean community. He has
lived and worked in Eritrea, volunteering in Eritrean hospitals and
lecturing at the University of Asmara. He says that the US counted on
the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tigray_People%27s_Liberation_Front" rel="nofollow" class="0" target="_blank">Tigray People’s Liberation Front<span class="0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a>,
commonly known as the TPLF, to control Ethiopia and thereby the Horn of
Africa for 30 years, but it’s struggling to regain control now that the
TPLF is out of power in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital. </p>
<p class=""><strong class="">Simon Tesfamariam: </strong>America basically bet on the TPLF
to maintain control of the Horn of Africa, but the TPLF rule was
repressive, based on tribalism, and it built up resentment throughout
the country until the people removed them from power in 2018. Now
America’s scrambling to figure out how to regain control.</p>
<p class=""><strong class="">Ann Garrison:</strong> What do you mean when you say that the
US used the TPLF to control the Horn? What sort of control did they
exert that benefited US interests? </p>
<p class=""><strong class="">ST:</strong> Prior to 2018, TPLF was, first, what we call a puppet or client regime for Washington. </p>
<p class="">Second, TPLF was a minority regime in that it preferentially
represented the interests of the Tigrayan people, which make up only six
percent of the Ethiopian population. </p>
<p class="">Third, TPLF was a bourgeois nationalist regime in that it only
represented a small group of Tigrayans. Over the last three decades, the
US showered the tribalist, bourgeois TPLF minority regime with roughly a
billion dollars a year in aid under the guise of humanitarian
assistance. (This is generosity akin to that the US shows to Egypt and
Israel, which respectively receive $1.5 and $3 billion annually). In
exchange, TPLF served as Washington's policeman in the Horn of Africa
and used its influence in the African Union, which is based in Addis
Ababa, to protect Washington's interests on the African continent. Think
about that for one minute: one six-percent minority tribe in Ethiopia
was exercising that much power over the whole of Africa. </p>
<p class="">More than anything, the US seeks to control the Horn militarily and
strategically. Resource acquisition is secondary. Thus, with undue power
and influence, the US-backed TPLF illegally invaded both Eritrea and
Somalia in 1998 and 2006, respectively, to bring those countries under
US control. </p>
<p class="">Then, when Eritrea stood up for the Somali people by opening its
doors to all the exiled Somali political leaders who were looking to
unite to expel the TPLF-led Ethiopian invaders, it was denounced by the
US as a "spoiler" in the Horn, accused of militarily supporting
Al-Shabaab, and consequently sanctioned in 2009. </p>
<p class="">TPLF committed unspeakable war crimes against the Somali people, even using <a href="https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2007/08/ethi-a13.html" rel="nofollow" class="0" target="_blank">white phosphorus bombs on the civilian population<span class="0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a>. </p>
<p class="">Let's also not forget about TPLF's war on Eritrea from 1998 to 2000,
under the guise of reclaiming the supposedly contested border town of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badme" rel="nofollow" class="0" target="_blank">Badme<span class="0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a>. </p>
<p class=""><strong class="">AG:</strong> I’m glad you brought that up. Badme seems to be a
nowhere desert town with nothing to fight for on the border of Eritrea
and Ethiopia’s Tigray Province. So I guess it was just an excuse?</p>
<p class=""><strong class="">ST:</strong> Yes. And during this totally unnecessary war,
TPLF sent to their death hundreds of thousands of mostly ethnic Oromo
peasants as "minesweepers" barbarically launched in human waves against
the Eritrean Defense Forces. This reveals the class-based and tribalist
nature of TPLF. Anyone who doubts this, should read the groundbreaking <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/may/18/ethiopia" rel="nofollow" class="0" target="_blank">1999 article by David Hirst<span class="0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a>, who wrote about this in the Guardian back when it was still a somewhat progressive paper. In that article he wrote:</p>
<p class=""><em class="">"It was Oromo peasants it [the TPLF] selected as human
minesweepers, and Tigrayan officers who shot them from the rear. Yet it
showed hardly less contempt for its own people. Local Tigrayan villagers
were pressed into that suicidal baggage train, and mainly Tigrayan
soldiers died in the tanks that were entrusted to no other nationality."</em></p>
<p class="">During the so-called border war, TPLF also ethnically cleansed
Ethiopia of almost 80,000 Eritreans living there on account of the
"color of their eyes" and then seized their assets. TPLF would go on to
do to Ethiopians themselves what it had already done to Somalis and
Eritreans—invade their lands, ethnically cleanse innocent people, and
seize their resources. </p>
<p class="">The US not only turned a blind eye to TPLF's crimes against innocent
Ethiopians, Somalis and Eritreans and provided them international cover,
but also actively took a hand in supporting TPLF in their assault on
the peoples of the Horn. </p>
<p class="">The US integrated TPLF's security architecture with its own. It has
sent drones, armaments, and troops to Somalia, but, interestingly, 80
percent of US weapons ultimately end up in Al-Shabaab's hands. This has
kept Somalia weak in a "forever war" and essentially rendered it a US
colony. </p>
<p class="">The US also pursued a hostile isolation strategy against Eritrea and
sought to implode its economy. However, Eritrea survived and became the
final bastion of resistance in the Horn. To put it simply, the Eritrean
state and its defense forces served as the primary obstacle to
Washington's total control of the Horn through its TPLF puppet
regime. It is the only African country still refusing to collaborate
with AFRICOM, the US Africa Command.</p>
<p class=""><strong class="">AG: </strong>Has anything changed in Ethiopia's posture toward the US aside from its alliance with Eritrea? </p>
<p class=""><strong class="">ST: </strong>Yes, Ethiopia is boldly asserting its
sovereignty in defiance of Washington. When you consider TPLF's 27 years
of neocolonial servitude to Washington, the mere assertion of
sovereignty alone is revolutionary. Lately, America has done a lot of
"urging" and expressing "concern" every time Ethiopia does something it
doesn't like. We’ve heard a lot of this from Blinken in regards to
Tigray. But Ethiopia refuses to submit. Instead, it continues on its own
sovereign path.</p>
<p class="">At one point, Trump threatened to "blow up" Ethiopia's Grand
Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) through its Egyptian allies because
Ethiopia refused to bend to his will. Instead of backing down, Ethiopia
is moving forward with filling its dam.</p>
<p class="">When Washington's EU allies threatened to cut off roughly $100
million in aid if it didn't commit to a ceasefire that would largely
benefit the terrorist TPLF forces, Prime Minister Abiy responded—to the
shock of many Westerners—by saying, "<a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-considers-aid-cut-to-ethiopia-amid-conflict-violence/" rel="nofollow" class="0" target="_blank">threatening Ethiopia for coins will not work<span class="0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a>." When Blinken pressured Abiy to force Eritrean troops to leave Tigray in February, Abiy followed by publishing an <a href="https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/ethiopia-removal-of-tigray-tplf-will-benefit-region-by-abiy-ahmed-2021-02?fbclid=IwAR35UKjNj5A6oRO61io9PABbQzkaKLrTONwqVhDghGmYWcN-plwDFV2AwNk&barrier=accesspay" rel="nofollow" class="0" target="_blank">article in Project Syndicate<span class="0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a> that
established his new doctrine—the Abiy Doctrine—that a “New Ethiopia”
will push for regional integration among neighbors with which it is
“inseparably linked”:</p>
<p class="">“<em class="">An Ethiopia free of the TPLF will champion peace and inclusive
development. Internally, our ‘New Ethiopia’ will be based on equality
among all of our constituent groups, including the suffering people of
Tigray. Externally, we will act in a way that recognizes that our
national interests are inseparably linked to those of our neighbors.”</em></p>
<p class=""><strong class="">AG: </strong>In January 2021, Global Firepower released a
ranking of 140 militaries with the most power to wage conventional war.
It ranked Ethiopia 60th in the world and sixth in Africa, with 140,000
troops in a population of 12 million, and 2 million people reaching
military age annually. Ethiopia also contributes more troops to UN
Peacekeeping Missions than any other nation in the world, so this
represents a major disruption of US strategic and military alliances in
the Horn and in Africa. </p>
<p class="">Eritrea's military is, however, ranked 134th of 140 nations overall,
and 33rd of 36 African nations that Global Firepower bothered to rank.
It seems to have 200,000 active duty soldiers in a population of about
3.5 million, but it has nothing like the weaponry that the US has
bestowed upon the Ethiopian army. Why is the US so irked by Eritrea and
now by Ethiopia's alliance with Eritrea?</p>
<p class=""><strong class="">ST: </strong>Eritrea follows its own progressive
developmental model based on self-reliance and socioeconomic justice and
does not submit to Washington's diktats. Basically, it rejects the sort
of neocolonial, neoliberal model that has led to the super-exploitation
of Africa by Washington, Brussels and other predatory powers. Eritrea, a
nation of fewer than 5 million people, is, like Cuba, an example that
Washington finds intolerable. </p>
<p class="">Ethiopia's alliance with Eritrea and increasingly bold defiance of
the West suggests the formation of a new resistance bloc in the Horn of
Africa. </p>
<p class="">Add in Somalia under the leadership of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamed_Abdullahi_Mohamed" rel="nofollow" class="0" target="_blank">Farma<span class="0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamed_Abdullahi_Mohamed" rel="nofollow" class="0" target="_blank">a<span class="0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamed_Abdullahi_Mohamed" rel="nofollow" class="0" target="_blank">jo<span class="0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a> and
you have potential resistance spanning from the Red Sea to the Indian
Ocean and down into the interior of Africa. In January 2020, Eritrea,
Ethiopia and Somalia signed an agreement to form a tripartite alliance.
Looking at a map, their close proximity to one another and situation
near coast lines shields and insulates them from cross-border threats.
If they can continue the current course and shield off Washington, one
can only imagine what this means for Africa. The implications are
enormous. Will we finally be talking of a genuine African resistance
bloc? </p>
<p class=""><strong class="">AG:</strong> It seems that Ethiopia's border war with Eritrea
was really a war between Tigray and Eritrea prosecuted because the TPLF
were in power. Eritreans and Tigrayans both speak Tigrinya, so they
must share history, however distant, that made them one people at some
point in time. What's the story of that fracture?</p>
<p class=""><strong class="">ST:</strong> First, Eritrea is a multi-ethnic state with no
official language but rather nine different languages spoken by
different ethnic groups. Tigrinya just happens to be commonly used as a
working language given that Tigrinyas make up roughly 60 percent of the
population. </p>
<p class="">Second, it's important to note that the 1998-2000 war was the TPLF’s <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=irredentist&oq=irredentist&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j0l3j0i395l6.526j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8" rel="nofollow" class="0" target="_blank">irredentist<span class="0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a> regime change war against Eritrea’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Front_for_Democracy_and_Justice" rel="nofollow" class="0" target="_blank">People's Front for Democracy and Justice<span class="0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a> (PFDJ)
government. The TPLF were trying to reverse Eritrean sovereignty and
capture Eritrean land, so as to have access to the sea. This plan to
expand Tigray's borders to reach the Red Sea has its roots in British
meddling in the 1940s and was officially pursued by TPLF in 1976 after
it published its manifesto calling for the formation of a "Greater
Tigray," which was not unlike the old "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_of_Israel" rel="nofollow" class="0" target="_blank">Eretz Yisrael<span class="0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a>"
claims for Biblically established land title. That manifesto also
stated that secession from Ethiopia was among its goals. It does not
represent the ambition of the average Tigrayan peasant but rather the
aspiration of the TPLF elite and their brand of bourgeois nationalism.</p>
<p class="">After 2000, the so-called border war morphed into an outright war of
attrition—a war to the death. Either TPLF would fall or PFDJ would fall.
This is due to the fact that TPLF's <em class="">raison d'etre</em>, as outlined
in its 1976 manifesto, was to expand into and capture Eritrea, which is
impossible given everything the Eritrean people sacrificed to achieve
independence. </p>
<p class="">Again, this is not the aspiration of the Tigrayan people. There may
be some sympathizers in Tigray, but the average Tigrayan, when pressed,
would not be on board with this agenda. If the TPLF were removed from
power, the relationship between the Tigrayan people and Eritrean people
could finally begin to be reconstructed and reconciled on the basis of
their shared ancient history.</p>
<p class=""><strong class="">AG:</strong> Samantha Power, Obama’s UN Ambassador and now
Biden’s USAID chief, and one of the main architects of the US/NATO War
on Libya, has been alleging Ethiopian and Eritrean army atrocities in
Ethiopia’s Tigray Province, as she did prior to US military action in
Yugoslavia, Libya, and Syria. Some on the US left, including prominent
Black Lives Matter activists, young anarchists, and Democracy Now, have
given some credence to Power’s argument. Democracy Now has relied
heavily on London-based Sudanese CNN correspondent <a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2020/12/3/nima_elbagir_ethiopia" rel="nofollow" class="0" target="_blank">Nima Elbagir<span class="0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a> as a source.</p>
<p class="">Have you made any effort to reach out to Democracy Now or any of
these young activists with the Ethiopian and Eritrean side of this
story?</p>
<p class=""><strong class="">ST: </strong>We’ve made efforts to reach out to many forms of
progressive media, including Democracy Now and outlets further to the
left, but the response has been abysmal. Why progressives and leftists
remain silent is truly confounding. I don’t think they truly understand
what is at stake here. Eritreans and Ethiopians have been protesting
together around the world, which is truly a sight to behold, especially
in light of their long history of Western-manufactured hostilities.</p>
<p class="">We need regular, daily coverage of this matter as things are
escalating quickly. The US is becoming increasingly desperate and seems
to be following the Libya playbook that led to the invocation of
“Responsibility to Protect” and the no-fly zone under the guise of
opening up humanitarian access. They could do the same to Eritrea and
Ethiopia.</p>
<p class="">However, the world is very different in 2021 than it was in 2011.
It’s more of a multipolar world. There’s social media to challenge
mainstream media narratives. Also, the highly mountainous Eritrea is no
cake walk, and the Eritrean people, who are highly unified at home and
abroad, have been mobilized and vigilant for this type of eventuality
since 1998.</p>
<p class="">The Ethiopian people are also following suit, with Ethiopia quickly
training conscripts in preparation for whatever is to come. It will be
hard to justify intervention against Eritrea and Ethiopia. You can’t
conceal a US and/or EU intervention. Publicity will only lead Western
audiences to start reading more about Eritrea and Ethiopia, which will
lead them to see the unbelievable absurdity of the lies by journalists
like Nima Elbagir. Because of the West’s racism and disregard for Black
Africa, they were sloppy with their lies, which are out in the open,
extremely absurd and obvious. Hopefully, it will only be a matter of
time before leftists, progressives, and even liberals see what’s really
going on.</p>
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