Pretoria Deal before Pretoria!
Have no doubt, do not make extraneous efforts to disguise facts. Do not pretend either. The Tigrains paid the price hoping things would not turn out the way they did would not happen. But they did. Unprepared for a genocide on slaughter, they were slaughtered out in every corner until they reached the last standing post to survive or not.
Then and there they fought on taking death for granted they could not avoid. However, heroically they turned the table upside down:- dvandva, waesucks , bittersweet; death that was guaranteed delivered instead life of super liminal spirited fighting Tigrians who turned out to be unassailable, routing the enemy forces from their ditches and taken for granted indomitable trenches, until they reached the enemy’s last hiding out.
At first the enemy and its foreign supports didn’t think the Tigrayians would go thus far against odds; an Impossible feat to perceive and unfathomable to cogitate. but when the Tigrians threaten to take over the capital and nothing could stop them busting it to dust, the old foreign nemesis – America had to bite their lips forced to rethink.
They had to go back to the drawingboard and come up with with Plan B. True to their colonial trait, they threaten the Tigrians to pullout to keep Ethiopia from falling apart.
The Tigrians understood deeply well the Amhara elites resent them to their bones and would not rest in peace unless they are in charge of the throne and rule the country to serve their self interests. The Tigraians introduced polity and equality for 30 years and it was rejected and binned.
Realising the gravities the Tigrians faced they consent to pull out as long as the USA kept its deal to maintain the Status que Ante of the federal state and sovereign land of Tigray State was to be respected.
The consensus of the Statues Quo Ante was reached by all involved.
The forces controlling the federal force were fully aware that the Tigrian Forces were pulling out as stipulated by the consensus.
However, and it is not surprising how an what blatherskites would do in hide their their damaged egos, Abiy Ahmed fully aware and confidant of the deal reached, he put on military fatigues, slinging a rifle for a show purportedly as a war leader, flew over to Afar to join the remaining force pretending he would fight on, giving the semblance that they were winning the war.
As the Tigrians started their retreat in earnest they were confronted by enemy forces, instead of gracefully accepting the deal, and giving the Tigrains a free and safe corridors to exit.
It is the nature of cowards and pretenders always to exploit opportunities without respect to any norms. As ever they lack decency, integrity and moral compass – a trait of aggressors you find were. Aggressors are stubborn even to the last hour rooted and refuse to badge even when defeat inevitable.
Obviously, the Tigrains spent months fighting to reach the gate of the capital and positioned within reach.
That said, all of a sudden when they were ordered to pull back. After all the sacrifices and planned logistics resources to cover the extensive span to reach their target destination to replenish resources, the order to retreat back was of a demoralising disappointment and short of ammunitions and logistic they were attack from the back and front.
Even the Eritreans came out from their shells and began to knockdown and destroy Tigray for the second round.
The attack from the enemy forces knowing fully well why it was done with consent is not difficult to comprehend. It was done on purpose.
It was with the intension that before the Pretoria deal was signed and sealed, to wipe out as many if not all Tigrians and their bartering deal would be weak and unsustainable.
The Amharas and Eritreans would claim that there is no effective force in Tigray to enter in to a deal, therefore the deal would be null and dead before it is enacted.
However, their plan did not entirely materialised, the USA called the Pretoria Agreement to be signed as planned when the Tigrians were at the gate of the capital, irrespective of the counteracting manoeuvring of the Eritreans and Amhara and Federal forces.
Tigrains were stopped by the USA entering the Capital. When they challenged the USA they were left with no option to survive as Tigrians. They handed over the leadership in 2019 to the rest of the Ethiopians to run it. Instead of running the State, the leadership they restored conspired with foreign forces to destroy Tigray.
Following the war they fought for their survival and reached the fate of the Capital and then the USA turned adamant the Tigrians ought not come and assume power.
Hence the Pretoria Deal/Agreement.
The Pretoria Agreement was intended to save Ethiopia and not Tigray per se contrary to what most were led to believe.
It was a deal in exchange from taking over the capital by the Tigrians for whatever strategic and diplomacy reasons the USA has in mind.
The deal was conceived and agreed with the forces in power including the Amhara Prosperity Party. In the face of ultimate and inevitable defeat they had no option but to accept and agree the Pretoria Deal before they arrived at Pretoria which they later dld sign the deal. Otherwise like a dog with its tail between its legs would have been taken to prison or dead on the battlefield.
However knowing that they had no option but sign the Agreement, they came up with another dirty tricks. They encouraged to create and mushroom an extra judiciary force/ፍኖ Fano to emerge. They did this with intent when you see what they did by releasing characters the likes of zemene Kassaye from prison to join Fano. It was only after walking 500 Meters away from the prison cell he was kept and allowed to carry an automatic rifle and declare war against the government that set him free despite his crimes.
The same was the case with Eskinder. He was captured and arrested but realised to carry on this campaign.
The idea was to obstruct, delay or even scupper the Pretoria Agreement, pretending these forces are outside the control of Federal Amhara Prosperity Party and they wash their hands from its actions against Tigray. But the Pretoria Agreement is a deal Ethiopia cannot avoid no matter how dirty tricks are on play.
Belay Ambelay