Ethiopia is ready for unconditional talks with TPLF anytime, anywhere: official
By Tesfa-Alem Tekle
July 28, 2022 (NAIROBI) – The Ethiopian government on Thursday announced its readiness to hold peace talks with Tigray leaders regardless of the date and venue for negotiations.
The federal government “is ready to talk anytime, anywhere,” and “talks should begin without preconditions,” said Ambassador Redwan Hussein, the Prime Minister’s National Security Adviser.
Hussein made the announcement during a briefing to Horn of Africa Special Envoys of the UN, the EU and the U.S. as well as to Ambassadors of the U.S., France, Germany, Italy and the UK to Ethiopia.
During the briefing, Hussein was joined by Justice Minister, Gideon Timothy and five other government officials.
The two senior officials are members of a seven-member peace committee tasked by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to negotiate with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
The “AU leads the process and can solicit logistical support from any source,” he added, signalling that other mediators can get involved in facilitating the talks, but the peace process takes should be under the leadership of the Africa Union.
Peace talks between Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and the federal government were initially expected to commence by the end of June.
Disagreements over who leads the mediation process, and the venue for talks are major factors that delayed the launch of the political process.
Addis Ababa insists that the AU leads the mediation. While the TPLF, however, doubt the bloc’s neutrality and indicated their preference for Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta adding he should lead the mediation and include the U.S., EU and the UN alongside the African Union (AU).
Tigray leaders are yet to comment on Thursday’s announcement which has come as a surprise.
Since its eruption in November 2020, the conflict has claimed the lives of thousands of people and resulted in a severe humanitarian crisis, subjecting to 90 per cent of Tigrayans to famine-like conditions.
Tigray’s precondition
In a recent interview with the local Tigray TV, Debretsion Gebremichael, President of Tigray regional state, said Tigray is committed to ending the war with peaceful means however said certain preconditions must be met initially.
“Basic services must be restored,” he said referring to the government-imposed blockade which is preventing life-saving medicine and emergency humanitarian assistance from reaching millions in the region.
He further said that the government in Tigray has asked the central government when the halted basic services such as electricity, banking, telephone, air and land transport will be restored.
“We have given them a deadline to tell us if there is anything that bothers them [to start the basic service]. If they don’t answer, it’s an answer for us. It means they didn’t want to [negotiate]. If they agree to our request, we will talk about how to execute the details. There is no such thing as just waiting,” he said.
Failure to meet Deadline
Debretsion didn’t disclose the length of the deadline set for the long-awaited resumption of basic services to Tigray.
He however warned that if the government failed to meet the deadline, the Tigrayan forces will launch a new wave of fighting against the federal government.
Blocked UN experts
Meanwhile, the Ethiopian government has allowed a team of UN experts to travel to the war-torn Tigray region.
The TPLF leaders accused the Ethiopian government of blocking the travel of international diplomats trying to facilitate peace.
Also, they claimed that the Ethiopian government deliberately obstructs fragile regional and international efforts to put an end to the 18-months long bloody conflict in the country’s north.
During Thursday’s meeting, Ambassador Redwan said that the diplomats were briefed “regarding efforts made to create a collaborative environment to narrow gaps with a commission of experts of UN”.
He added that the UN Human rights experts “are allowed for a round trip to Mekelle.”
(ST)