TPLF Regime: Enemy of the Dead Too
By: Shabait Staff
March 10, 2004

It is to be recalled that five years ago in May 1999 the TPLF regime launched a reckless war of aggression against Eritrea. Its aim was to penetrate the defense line of the Eritrean Armed Forces in the Tsorona Front with a massive force of tens of thousands of troops and numerous tanks. The site was at Egri Mekhel and the battle was unparalleled in military history in its scope of reckless adventurism. The numerous corpses of Ethiopian youths killed in the fighting were in its time, one of the extremely unfortunate scenes that shocked world public opinion.

Even more sad was the fact that the inhumane TPLF regime denied to receive the corpses of these youths, victims of its faulty battle tactics, claiming as if they were not its citizens. At that time, the Ethiopian government’s spokesperson told members of the world news media: “How did you know they were Ethiopians? By their smell?” This very mean remark, made upon the fallen young members of the Ethiopian forces is something that cannot be easily forgotten by both the people of Eritrea and Ethiopia.

The callous TPLF regime hardly shows pity or mercy on its citizens. When its repeated acts of aggression were dealt humiliating rebuff and it signed the peace agreement involuntary, it did not demonstrate willingness to accept gracefully the corpses of its dead troops. When the peacekeeping forces of UNMEE made plans to hand over the corpses of fallen soldiers to each nation, it verified that the corpses belonged to Ethiopia and asked the regime to accept its corpses. The TPLF again denied that that the corpses were its citizens. Upon being presented with irrefutable proof that the corpses were indeed Ethiopians, the TPLF regime reluctantly accepted the corpses in an undignified manner.

The expansionist TPLF regime is no only an enemy of the living but also of the dead. This has been proved on numerous occasions. It is a regime that degrades the dignity of its troops who fell in battle. Thus, no one expects it to respect the dignity of others. Whenever the TPLF regime occupied any territories through aggression, it destroyed public property. Worse, it unearthed martyrs’ graves, displacing the bodies and looting the funeral boxes. This constitutes an inhumane and lowly deed never witnessed
anywhere before!