Tedla Asfaw
Since the Badme war more than ten years ago the TPLF regime and its supporters have accused the armed opposition movements inside Ethiopia as Shabia agents. OLF, ONLF and EPPF are the major movements "armed and financed" by Isaias to "destroy Ethiopia" according to the TPLF propaganda. The TPLF invasion of Somalia two years ago was also sold as an exercise to neutralize the gathering threat of Shabia supported ICU.
This accusation if it is true Shabia must be strong militarily and financially to launch all these operations in Ethiopia and Somalia. Isaias is also accused by the Obama administration recently in supporting the Islamic extremists in Somalia and some die hard TPLF supporters are renewing their regime change call in Asmara with the help of Obama.
The truth, however, is that Isaias' Eritrea was saved by Meles Zenawi in the Badme war. Meles has its own reason not to overthrow Isaias because there was no stooge prepared to replace him on the eventual "capture" of Asmara then. Meles also did not want to be outshone by the victorious army to challenge him in the future. No wonder Meles was spending his time far from the war front that took the lives of more than seventy thousands Ethiopians writing his own version of "Bonapartism", that has nothing to do with the defense of Ethiopia or the huge sacrifices paid.
During the Badme war Meles was plotting a coup with the help of Adissu Legesse's led Amhara wing of TPLF to lock up those who accused him of being "soft" on "Shabia". Meles' coup succeeded and became the "Supreme Commander" of TPLF and those who led the Badme war the likes of Seye Abraha were sent to jail by false accusations. Many Generals have also fled to Asmara after the stolen 2005 election and this month General Tefera Mamo who was a leader on Tsorena front during the Badme war along with many officers have been jailed for plotting to "kill" Meles and other TPLF leaders.
Meles Zenawi who gave second life for Shabia had accused General Kemal Gelchu and high officers for joining OLF and EPPF. This accusation is mainly designed to satisfy the Tigrean nationalists who hate Shabia for looking down on them. Unlike OLF and EPPF, the diaspora opposition movements have no tactics and strategy when it comes to Isaias and Shabia. They are just bystanders on this game. Many soldiers and civilians who escape the TPLF regime,however, have made Eritrea their home, the "safe" heaven, in hostile Sudan and Djibouti who handed back political opponents to TPLF.
The defeat of TPLF on election in 2005, however, is the only loss for the regime that was not blamed on Shabia by TPLF supporters. The rallying cry for this apartheid regime supporters is Shabia in order to avoid the freedom,democracy and a one man one person vote, the burning issue in Ethiopia, and the rallying cry for our people back home and here in the diaspora. They failed miserably to recruit new supporters to fight the boggy man, Shabia. "Talk" with Isaias becomes a litmus test for being "Ethiopian".
The Ethiopian Review (ER) Editor Elias Kifle has been accused as a "Shabia" agent for his clear stand of fighting TPLF with the collaboration of Isaias is now elevated to "one hundred percent Shabia" for conducting an interview with Isaias in Asmara this past week. The video has not yet been aired but Elias Kifle is now the number one "enemy of Ethiopia" for TPLF and its one hundred percent loyalists.
We all know the TPLF boss is busy giving "lectures" on foreign medias like BBC and others. If Meles is free to spit his venom on foreign medias, why is this not "allowed" for an independent Eritrea dictator Isaias Afeworki to talk to whomever he chooses ? Do Meles supporters really know what free media means ? Or do they have to think always in terms of "Shabia" to protect their untouchable "supreme' leader from embarrassment ?
There is no one on this planet who knows TPLF than Shabia's boss, Isaias Afeworki, the man who raise it as a "baby", feed it to build muscle and bone to fight Shabia's war on the mountains of Eritrea. If Al Jazera has the right to interview Isaias, so does Elias Kifle.
