After at least 100,000 people have been slaughtered, more than a million of people have been displaced, and more than one billion dollar has been squandered in the two years war, the guns are now silent on the Ethiopian-Eritrean border. Even before the guns were silenced, there were questions raised about the causes and the necessities of the war.  After the dust of the war settles, after jingoism wears out, after adrenaline drops to its normal level, and after the cost of the war -- both in terms of human life and material destruction are accounted for -- there will even be more questions of accountability that those who led all of us to this abominable state of affairs will have to answer.  And as usual there will not be any answer, there will not be any accountability, and those who lost their life for nothing, yes for nothing, will be forgotten, just like millions before them who died fighting the fights of the ruling elites.  And business will continue as usual, as if nothing happened.

The Ethiopian rulers want to convince us that the war was imposed upon them and that they were waging a war of self-defense, and defense of sovereignty.  They even want to tell us that the culpability should rest on the one who shot the first bullet.  Given their claim that this is a border war relating to the Yirga triangle, and even for a moment accepting that the war was started by Eritrea, was the sacrifice made to secure this land justifiable?  Is there no limit to the sacrifice that one should make to defend borders?  How much life is one life too many to sacrifice to get lands as unimportant as Badme?  Was there not some other way of dealing with the problem?  Would it not have been better to have tried to resolve it through political peaceful means whether it takes ten or fifteen years?  Were all venues of conflict resolution mechanisms exhausted?  Mind you, from Ethiopian standpoint, we are not talking about an enemy that came to overrun the whole country, or came to colonize the whole country or even a substantial part of the country.  It is understandable that there are situations when countries or peoples take a conscious decision of sacrificing a lot to defend or acquire their liberty. There are times when huge sacrifices could be justified.  But the big question is, does this war from Ethiopian angle fall under such a situation?

Given the enormous number of lives wasted simply to gain control of a very small wasteland, the answer is a resounding NO.  It is totally insane, no it is in fact criminal to go to total war over this land and sacrifice this many lives and squander this amount of resource.  No amount of propaganda, no amount of politicking, no amount of brains washing can whitewash this.  Countries do have border conflicts, but do not immediately go to full-fledged war, they can clash on the border, but they do not take that into total war.  They negotiate, arbitrate, take time until emotions settle, opt for a cooling period, etc, etc,.  But the Ethiopian leaders, as if they have been waiting for that opportunity, when Eritrea took over the contested land, promoted the border conflict overnight into a full-fledged war.  Instead of exhausting all the venues of resolving the conflict, they frustrated all means of peaceful resolution by using different tactics, some skillful some crude.  For peace, rational nations, go extra miles, they do not jump the gun whenever there is a minor conflict.

This war has proved to us what we knew all along about the TPLF government.  This is a government known for its total disregard for human life.  This trait has been the hallmark of the TPLF even before they came to power.  No sacrifice is too much sacrifice for them to get what they desire.  May be this had been their strong side before they came to power and when they were fighting against Mengistu.   Their policy and move never takes into consideration the saving of human lives.  Human lives is for them, simply something you can use and dispense with to achieve your goal.  This attitude, when you come to power can be extremely dangerous.  It is if you understand this trait of the TPLF that you can understand how in the world they went into the war when more than 8 million people were starving.  What made their action even more obnoxious and inexplicably cruel and criminal is the fact that they chose to go to war instead of saving lives.  What more can clearly demonstrate where they stand on their priorities! 

The cruelty of TPLF has in fact contributed one more criminal method of warfare to world history.  Use thousands and thousands of disfranchised subjects as minesweepers in a warfare in order not to expose your core army.  Let them go and blow up themselves, and you will move your army after that.  This is the TPLF contribution to method of warfare.  And this is the lesson that Oromos and other southern ethnic groups learned from this war.  Our hope is that it will not be imitated in other parts of multiethnic societies around the world.  We know the best way of avoiding this is by making the TPLF accountable for their criminal act.  But the question is how, and who can bring them to justice?  For healing to exist there should be justice, there should be accountability, and without these there will not be lasting peace!! Let us pray for that day to come and come soon!

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