In his recent interview with a YouTube channel called “Axumite Media”, General Yohannes Gebremeskel intentionally tried to misinform the public using dubious claims on several issues. For those who do not know General Yohannes, he is a retired General of the Tigray Peoples Liberation Force (TPLF). During the 2018-2020 Tigray war, he was appointed by the Prosperity Party to serve as the security chief of the Tigray region. Although most of his interviews are filled with false claims, in this article, we will focus only on two of them.
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COMPARING THE SIZE OF EPLF’S MECHANIZED UNITS WITH THE SIZE OF TPLF’S INFANTRY ARMY.
To set the record straight Eritrean People’s Liberation Front’s (EPLF) support to the TPLF during the 1989-1991 march to Addis Ababa included High-Ranking war planners like General Ramadan Awiliyay, Commando units, and major Mechanized personnel. To make it clearer except for the commando units that were led by Wedi Berhe, EPLF’s support to TPLF during the 1989-1991 March to Addis Ababa was mechanized. As General Yohannes knows, Mechanized units require less personnel than infantry. For instance, a tank carries a crew of four: commander, gunner, driver, and loader. EPLF’s mechanized units that supported the TPLF had more personnel than General Yohannes described in his interview. But for the sake of convenience let’s assume his estimate of 400 mechanized army personnel was true. If you divide 400 personnel by four, the EPLF personnel that was supporting the TPLF army could operate about 100 tanks, including anti-airplane guns. Imagine how significant the contribution of such highly skilled EPLF’s Mechanized Army to the TPLF’s pure infantry Army. My advice to General Yohannes is he should have listened to the interview by late Zerezghi Dawit who commanded one of the three EPLF mechanized units. His unit was the one that captured the Arat Kilo palace in Addis Ababa. Please listen to his interview below. You will be surprised by his memory and informative description of the events.
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HIS FALSE CLAIM ABOUT TPLF’S ARMY’S KILLING, THEFT, RAPE, AND DESTRUCTION DURING THE 1998-2000 BORDER WAR WITH ERITREA.
General Yohannes toiled to minimize the TPLF’s Army’s civilian killing, theft of public and private property, rape, and wanton destruction of infrastructure during the 1998-2000 border war. He may have forgotten it, but we would like to remind him that he would never get his bloody hands cleaned through false claims. In addition to the widespread rape, killing, and wanton looting of private property, here is a sample list of Eritrean private and public institutions that were purposely destroyed by the TPLF Army.
- Hirgigo power plant.
- Senafe Hospital
- Senafe telecommunications building.
- The Belew Kelew historical monument.
- Barentu Hospital.
- Berentu Gashsettit hotel.
- Alighider Cotton Ginning Plant
- Shambuko Maryters cemetery.
- Looted close to half a million cattle and sold them in Tigray cattle markets.
- Looted large-size irrigation infrastructure and generators.
The above-listed sample private and public Eritrean institutions were not destroyed during an exchange of gunfire. They were purposely demolished by powerful dynamite. Below are a few pictures of some of the buildings destroyed by the TPLF army during the 1998-2000 border war.
Senafe Telecommunications building
Barentu Gash Setit hotel.
Shambuko Martys Cemetery.
Destruction of private houses.
Destroyed houses in Serha
CONCLUSION.
A lie is TPLF’s modus operandi and General Yohannes may have tried to cover the sun with his lies. Fortunately, the evidence of the destruction, looting, theft, and rape that his army incurred during the 1998-2000 border war is still fresh in our minds. It would have been appropriate for him to apologize but that is not possible from a blood-thirsty war monger. The point is he should know that regardless of the injustices Eritreans suffered under backward Ethiopian successive rulers they will always get up and punch back. What goes around comes around.
Awet N’Hafash and Eternal Glory to our Martyrs.