What happened to the Tegaru, in 2016 should be used as a wakeup call
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What happened to the Tegaru, in 2016 should be used as a wakeup call
What happened to the innocent and peace loving Tigrai people in Gonder should be a serious wakeup call
for the whole community all over the courtry. We should not allow this kind of madness to happen every quarter of a century!

What happened to the Tegaru, in 2016 should be used as a wakeup call

Yared G/hiwot Bairu
Tigrai Online, January. 22, 2017

Facts and untold stories keep emerging lately that the northern state of Ethiopia, Tigrai region is not at all new for unfair treatments, ill-wishes and negatively-crippling influences.  For centuries, different authoritarian regimes in the country kept, especially this region of Tigrai under severe suppression and suspicion.  

Facts are coming more vividly now that there was no time in each of the past governments in Ethiopia when the Tegaru were not “under surveillance”. 

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It sounds a common sense to ask as to why in the world could different leaders have something in common, having a harsher and unfair leadership on certain nations and nationalities of the country they are “leading”, Tigrai and the Tegaru in this case.

I believe that it’s fair to say that it could be in the Tegaru’s DNA to fearlessly and selflessly stand for what they believe is worth standing.  Slowly but certainly, facts which were most likely intentionally kept hidden (truth did not get a chance to be told, just to avoid somebody else’s unhappiness) sound to be on the verge of coming out, about time!

For so long, Tigrai has been the State where its people, the Tegaru courageously refused accepting rules and regulations from the self-appointed and self-centered totalitarian Ethiopian rulers.  Doing that, the resilient Tegaru kept irritating and deeply upsetting the morally and ethically corrupt regimes.  The chauvinistic leaders, who did not bother to care even about the majority of the people, the same ethnic group that they themselves came from, the Amhara,  did not have guts to accept the reality that the fearless and selfless Tegaru were disobedient, for the mere fact that the rules and regulations were unjustly imposed on them.

As it was not their nature for fairness and humanity, they (the ruthlessly arrogant and barbaric leaders) instead took revenge as a primary tool and they systematically and more aggressively continued treating Tigrai as a State, literally

“under siege”.  The Tegaru were labeled as “worriers” for example by Menelik.  The ruthlessly arrogant leaders made sure that the unfair-ruling resisting Tegaru would have stayed under pressure and lived a “slave – like” lives.  They mercilessly did what they could to undeservedly cripple Tigrai, the origin of civilization and cultural wealth, in different ways, including the fact that they were succeeding, that the historic language of the State, Ethiopia for that matter, Tigrigna was under extinction.

Regardless of the ruthlessly continued harsh treatment and revenge based situations, the “born to fight” for freedom, justice and equality, the Tegaru never got deterred or gave up.  The unfair treatment instead made them be more resilient and determined to fight the divisive and arrogantly self-centered regimes. 

The Ethiopian centuries long dark history (time of starvation, death, war…) was about to be confronted, that a few of the historic State, place of heroism and wisdom, Tigrai youth, reached a historic decision. They decided to do what the Tegaru historically did, fighting against some cynical, fairness deprived and arrogant leaderships.

These selflessly brave young Tegaru had no doubt that they, along with the decent, history making and culture – rich Tigrai (Tegaru) would make miracle, that through their heroic determination and scarification, the unimaginable would be imaginable, that the savagery and absolute barbaric Mengistu regime, that was highly armed with tones of sophisticated weapons, (militarily, one of the few top in Africa), would be toppled, and gone forever. 

The proud Ethiopians, the courageous Tegaru, with the history of winning and standing for freedom, had a clear vision that with their heroic scarification, Ethiopia, their Ethiopian brothers and sister, would have a hope at the end of the tunnel and better future.

To make their plan real, the selfless and precious Tegaru, (college students), left the capital, Addis Ababa and joined their parents (their people, the Tegaru) in the history – wealthy Tigrai.  Where else to start fighting against the brutal regime and succeed?  Yes…, Tigrai…, the proud Ethiopian state, the region of heroism, loving and caring for others, was where the fight to free Ethiopia out of barbarism, starvation, and hell like lives, was conceived.

With the heavy burden and responsibility on their shoulders, the selflessly heroic young Tegaru fought the lengthy and deadly war, that claimed 60,000 young lives and left over 100,000 wounded.  The war that lasted over 17 years was fought in Tigrai, the historic Ethiopian state, home of the uniquely and historically brave and culture rich Tegaru.  The bitter fight and heavy sacrifice made by the precious sons and daughters of the historic Tigrai State was not just to free Tigrai from the barbaric regime, it instead was to root it out from the country, Ethiopia completely.

The young Tegaru fighters, with the “winning DNA in their blood”, fought the savagery regime with no doubt for victory.  They were never deterred by the number of military, armed with the most sophisticated weapons at the time.

Regardless of the length and hardship of the fight, the absolutely courageous and determined young Tegaru, were able to destroy the barbaric regime’s military from Tigrai and the other Northern parts of the country.  And moving forward to the capital, Addis Ababa, the unimaginably smart and well organized Tegaru fighters, decided to team up with other Ethiopian fighting groups ( such as  Amara, and Oromo fighters) that were trained and assisted by themselves, the Tegaru, (TPLF). 

And, of course, the vision and 100 % confidence of the uniquely brave and historically heroic Tegaru became reality, that the 17 years long absolute barbaric and utterly heinous Mengistu Hailemariam leadership came to an end.  The

Capital, Addis Ababa was controlled by the fighters. And the massacring and public suffering head, the evil minded Mengistu shamefully fled the country. 

Thanks to the precious (selflessly courageous) sons and daughters of the historic Tigrai Sate, the Tegaru, Ethiopia’s image of horror, starvation, death and war started changing.  Ethiopia started showing the world that has never been seen (imagined) before, it started breathing healthy air, developing and rising!

Thanks to the tremendous sacrifice and historic bravery of the Tegaru (TPLF) fighters that Ethiopia started treating all of its children, the nations and nationalities, equally for the first time in the country’s history.  Each nation and nationality, including the ones whose existence was not even known existed, got recognition as people, as equally Ethiopians, for the first time.  Each nation and nationality’s culture and language started enjoying equal respect and recognition for the first time, in the country’s history.   Each nation and nationality started sensing the pride of being equally Ethiopians and started participating, as equal citizens, in the process of development and historic progress their country is under.    

Yes… reality matters, nothing is being made up here!!.  This is rather loud and clearly seen or being observed by any sane one, by all Ethiopians and the whole world, that thanks to the uniquely and extra ordinarily brave and heroic Tegaru (TPLF), with historically “winning DNA in their blood”, the nation, Ethiopia, that all of us were embarrassed to have come from,  is not a model of a horrific life style, death and starvation any more.  It rather is a proud model of peace and progress, hope and bright future, unity and stability in the most volatile and unstable region. It sounds unreal but true!!

What could possibly someone have thought would have happened here, after the dramatic and incomprehensible toppling of the heinous Mengistu regime?

Our world would have been a perfect place to live, had it not been shared by some hodgepodge human – like “creatures” with low and self-centered mentality, having no consideration whatsoever for others. These are the people out of whom terrorism, killing of innocent and destructive activities are bred.      

Well, it was these kinds of individuals (group), especially with a mind-set that anyone to stay in power in Ethiopia was supposed to be from the same tribe, NEFTEGNA “forever”.   And, as this sickening and selfish belief was firmly and irreversibly implanted in their minds, they started yelling and agonizing the next day the arrogant Mengistu shamefully fled the country and power was under the uniquely brave fighters.  These morally and ethically corrupt were the very individuals who enjoyed life in Ethiopia when the majority lived in a earthly HELL.  These selfish and evil minded individuals could not afford to live in Ethiopia, watching it being ruled by the mighty TPLF initiated leadership.   Many of them left the country and started being busy right away, spreading hateful and defaming talks about the precious and brave sons and daughters of Ethiopia.    Not only that, these chauvinistic and narrow minded neftegnoch started disliking (hating) any Tigrawai, anyone from the state of Tigrai. 

These arrogant and self-centered haters “aggressively” continued their wishful and dream-fighting to bring the brutal and savagery Mengistu regime back, from long distance.  Based on wishful thinking, all they have been doing for the last 25 years is cowardly spreading negativity and hateful rhetoric against the regime, that is changing the country from absolute poverty and darkness to never seen before progress and impressive advancement, ONLY because this was made happened by the Tegaru!!  It’s mind boggling that the bright side of many turned out to be the dark side of the few.

What’s interesting here is the fact that even though these selfish and evil minded haters continued enforcing their evil acts –lying, cursing, name calling, defaming…., not only the heroic Weyanes, but the whole nation and nationality of

Tigrai, the Tegaru for a quarter of century, not even a single Tigrawai, took them seriously until recently.  And the conceivable reason for it was that, normally and historically, the Tegaru are, not only patient but peace and unity loving people as well. They are not people of talking and negativity spreading.  And conflict and war are considered as last resort by them.  However, it’s unfortunate that the decency, the morally - ethically richness, and the patience for love and peace has been translated by the coward, self-centered, hateful and chronically hate-sickened ones as weakness and insensitivity.  And even though undoubtedly reality, not empty talk and wishful negativity matters, sometimes, a million lies can make someone confused and tend to doubt that there might be some “truth” to them (the lies), at least temporarily, unless the lies were exposed in a timely and proportional manner. 

And as times went by, the severity of hate of these remnants of the for good buried regime and incurably hate sickened groups  and individuals towards the Tegaru got at its highest level, that they went as far as deciding to mercilessly wish and dream wiping them all (the Tegaru)  (declared genocide!!) out. And what happened to the innocent Tegaru, in the Amara region, Gonder is the living example of this absolute savagery mentality.  Innocent Tegaru’s lives were lost and many of them robbed, abused and displaced just for being who they are, Tegaru.

And, I strongly believe that what happened to the innocent and peace loving Tegaru should be a serious wakeup call. For us acting or responding appropriately to what needs to be acted upon in a timely manner is not just a smart choice, but can be a life saving choice as well. The fact that we, the Tegarus remained negligent and non responsive to all kinds of negativities and defaming by the hopelessly barking and cursing neftegnoch for a quarter of century might have resulted in the death and displacement of our innocent people, (even though of course the key roles to have avoided what happened must have been played by, especially the Tigrai region administration).

We, the Tegaru, as we keep doing the morally and ethically right things, ( respecting and loving ALL of the other Ethiopian brothers and sisters, as we expect them to love and respect us…), we should certainly learn from the unfortunate and totally undeserving incident, that staying negligent and non-responsive to what seem to be “irrelevant”  could regrettably be pricy.  We should be models for other Ethiopian brothers and sisters as well in being united, loving and helping each other, giving respect and appreciation to our identity, culture and language.  It’s like, cleaning your house first, so as to be able to help clean your neighbor’s house, or having pride in self before attempting to respect someone else’s identity……  And of course, we should be trouble shooters in a timely and civilized manner.    

Thanks

Yared G/hiwot Bairu

Colorado, USA

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