Ethiopia must atone for its immorality before any peace can come with Tigray

The moral hypocrisy of Abiy Ahmed and his supporters is the greatest impediment to seeking a peaceful resolution to the Ethiopian Tigray conflict.

Now that the war has spread to include more than a one third of the Amhara region with millions being displaced and severe disruption of life the previous silence seen from most of the rest of Ethiopia towards the inhumanity and death in Tigray that has gone on for almost a year has been ignorantly replaced. Today this silent majority who once actively encouraged rape, mutilation, starvation, and killing without even a whisper of protest, who believed that they had rightfully killed a “rabid dog” mercilessly now contends that they are the victims. 

They bear no responsibility for enthusiastically even some would say manically obsessively demonstrating a clear intention to wipe out a whole ethnic group, the Tigray. Ethiopians fail to realize most importantly that they are the victims of their own nefarious intentions.

When the “elected leader” Abiy Ahmed makes fun of atrocities to women you laugh. When aid agencies want to feed the starving children you accuse them of a conspiracy and want them removed from the country. Now however that the crisis has spread to Amhara you complain that they left. You said “hands off” Ethiopia that Ethiopia should have Ethiopian solutions. Yet you invite a foreign  country with one of the worst human rights records on the planet to do your killing, maiming, and deprivation. You seek to get tools of destruction from Turkey and Iran to kill Ethiopians. Now you are begging for the Western democracies who you denounced to protect you from the natural consequences of your own actions.

A chance for peaceful resolution can only come when both parties begin to trust each other and show some basic signs of humanity. Ethiopia must admit it wanted to commit genocide and punish those responsible. Abiy Ahmed and his supporters have a long way to go before this can happen.