Obang Metho’s Letter to the Chairman of the TPLF

Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia (SMNE)

Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia (SMNE)

Open letter to Ethiopia’s ruling Tigrai People’s  Liberation Front (TPLF)

August 2, 2014

Abay Woldu,
The Chairman of the TPLF
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

 

Dear Abay Woldu and Members of the TPLF Central Committee,

I am writing this to you on behalf of the Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia (SMNE), a social justice movement of diverse Ethiopians; but foremost, I am writing to you as a fellow member of our Ethiopian family, of which you are also members. When family members are in conflict is it not the responsibility of family members, especially the elders or those who care deeply about the well being of the entire family, to make every attempt to solve the problem? Is it not far better to honestly address these deep conflicts since we share an identity, a land and a future?

Mr. Obang Metho

Mr. Obang Metho

The purpose of this letter is to invite the Chairman of the TPLF, members of the TPLF Central Committee, and our Tigrayan brothers and sisters to enter into a process where we would start talking to each other rather than about each other; ultimately leading to a national reconciliation effort. Also, I want to be careful to distinguish between the TPLF and the people of Tigray. I am addressing those in power, not the people of Tigray in general, who are often unfairly lumped together with the TPLF.

I am not writing this letter out of hatred, but out of love because there is so much bitterness and generalized resentment towards our Tigrayan brothers and sisters because they are so closely associated by ethnicity to the ethnic policies of the TPLF. Because of this, we are stuck in an impossible situation. In 2009 I sent a similar open letter when the purpose was to confront the elephant in the room—an ethnic apartheid system of the TPLF—that no one wanted to talk about….

Please click on link below to read the letter in its entirety.

Open Letter to Chairman of the TPLF