Top TPLF General warns Ethiopian exiles against taking part in armed insurrection

The Horn Times Newsletter 20 December 2012

by Getahune Bekele

The most pre-eminent among hordes of loathsome TPLF warlords, he became famous after threatening the entire Eritrean population with genocide during the 1998 – 2000 boarder war.

However, when he later turned his anger on the late despot Meles Zenawi for bringing the war to an abrupt end without his consent, and threatened him with a coup, the General lost his job as the army’s chief – of – staff.

He then miraculously avoided execution or long term imprisonment due to his popularity in the army and remained critical of Zenawi’s iron hand rule, but after the death of the tyrant, the man who is unwittingly the most violent in the TPLF rank, rejoined the ruling junta along with warlord Seye Abreha.

Gen Tsadkan Gebretinsay

On Tuesday 18 Dec 2012, Gen Tsadkan Gebretinsay (pictured) was in the republic of South Sudan capital Juba, where he issued a stern warning to Ethiopian refugees against wagging armed insurrection to overthrow the minority junta.

In the meeting organized by the Ethiopian embassy in Juba and held at Juba’s grand hotel conference hall, General Tsadkan vowed to deport all refugees back to Ethiopia if the attack on government installations and foreign owned farms in Gambella province intensifies.

Flanked by Juba city residents such as Tilahune Hailemariam, younger brother of former ruler Mengistu Hailemariam, Ethiopian embassy officials and a high ranking S.Sudan interior ministry official, Tsadkan told refugees to report any suspicious activities directly to the Ethiopian embassy or to South Sudan police or interior ministry officers.

According to our sources in Juba city, the meeting was hastily arranged after a rumor spread in the city that some senior opposition figures were secretly recruiting Anuak fighters to destabilize the troubled province of Gambella.

“All this meetings and warnings are is designed to intimidate the Anuaks who are still struggling with the trauma of thousands of deaths through brutal repression since 2003. The ruling minority junta is extremely worried. If a fire starts in Gambella, it will be hard to put out.” An Ethiopian medical practitioner working in Juba told the Horn Times reporters.

However, contrary to the junta’s warmongering, the well respected and popular leader of the Anuaks, Obang Metho has repeatedly rejected using violence as political tool and he is still calling on the TPLF to end repression.