Welcome to hardtalk, im stephen sackur. The humanitarian crisis in northern ethiopia is worsening as conflict continues on multiple fronts. Tigrayan rebel forces have won a string of victories over the ethiopian military. Ethiopias Prime Minister now says all of the states Military Resources will be deployed to halt the rebels. My guest is getachew reda, spokesman for the tigray Peoples Liberation Front. With the Death Toll rising and man made famine taking hold, what is the endgame for tigray s rebels . Getachew reda in mekelle, tigray, welcome to hardtalk. My pleasure. Let me ask you this we see the terrible suffering that millions of people are experiencing in your region as a result of, what, 8 9 months of conflict . Why is it that your side, the tigray Peoples Liberation Front, appears intent on intensifying the fighting rather than ending it . Well, its exactly the same reason why we took up arms and tried to liberate our people from the Suffering Youve alluded to. In fact, we do
Getachew reda in mekelle, tigray, welcome to hardtalk. My pleasure. Let me ask you this we see the terrible suffering that millions of people are experiencing in your region as a result of what, 8 9 months of conflict . Why is it that your side, the tigray Peoples Liberation Front, appears intent on intensifying the fighting rather than ending it . Well, its exactly the same reason why we took up arms and tried to liberate our people from the Suffering Youve alluded to. In fact, we do not consider ourselves rebels. We are a legitimately elected government who was removed from the capital by abiy and his Partners In Crime, the Amhara Expansionist Forces and the eritrean regime. So these people, these Partners In Crime, have brought all kinds of untold miseries on our people. And we did everything in our power to bring together all our efforts to liberate every square inch of tigrayan territory from the invaders. Of course, this crisis, the humanitarian crisis you have been alluding to,
People by both eritreans or ethiopians, or the amhara expansionists, we will continue to take whatever action is necessary. so to be clear. yep, let s keep this as concise as we can. to be clear, you are saying that as things stand right now, you have on your side, that is the tplf side, tigrayan people s liberation front side, you have no interest in a ceasefire right now. we have made it abundantly clear that we will agree to a ceasefire, a negotiated ceasefire, as long as the conditions we have put forward are met. these conditions have nothing to do with additional infrastructural facilities on abiy s part, no additional arrangements on the federal government s part. it s about switching on telecommunications, about switching on banking services. it s about switching on electricity. this does not require any amount of effort on abiy s part. he switched off those services, and even people who would otherwise have eked out a living going about their
The prime minister of ethiopia, declared a ceasefire. the ethiopian forces withdrew from the city you re in, mekelle. you claimed a victory and he said that his forces would stop fighting. but since then, your forces have pushed beyond tigray s regional borders, into amhara, into afar. you are now taking the fight beyond your own borders. look, we have not yet liberated a significant part of tigray. the western part of tigray is still in the hands of either eritreans or amhara expansionist forces, as well as federal endf forces, and the joke that abiy declared a unilateral ceasefire on 20 june is simply a joke, because it was only a decision made by abiy once his strongest military units in tigray were absolutely decimated by our forces. so we vowed then, and will
Live in a territory which we, thanks to the struggle of our people, have liberated from the chokehold of abiy ahmed except that he wants to extend his chokehold through other means because he happens to control the switch in addis. so that s your agenda, is it? it s separatism. what this is really all about. no, no. and it s important people around the world know this, is that you are seeking entire separation from ethiopia. you no longer regard addis ababa and prime minister abiy ahmed as legitimate rulers of your country. no, i don t consider abiy ahmed as a legitimate leader, not only of tigray but also of the 0romos or even the amhara. so as far as we are concerned it s separatism to the extent that there is a tendency of separatism in tigray, it s imposed on us. it is because abiy and his partners in crime caused the kind of suffering which no one in their right mind could have imagined