By Addis Standard Staff
Addis Abeba, November 18/2021 – The Government Communication Service announced that the government was working to end the war in a short period of time.
In a presser to state owned media he gave this morning, Dr. Legesse Tulu, Minister of the Gov’t Communication Service, accused the TPLF forces of spreading false propaganda to undermine trust between the security forces and the people of Ethiopia, EBC quoted him as saying.
However, the entire public and the security apparatus are working together better than ever. The minister cited victory at the front line and the arrest of suspects allegedly linked with the TPLF as result of the close collaboration between security forces and the public. Foreign currencies used to carry out terrorist activities as well as counterfeit uniforms of the federal and state special forces were also seized by security forces due to the close collaboration between the public and security.
Dr. Legesse dismissed reports that Tigraynas were being summarily rounded up and held incommunicado as unfounded rumors.
The minister further said repeated attempts by Tigrayan forces to capture Mile and Wereilu had failed. He accused the TPLF of “spreading false propaganda” to compensate for its military losses and push for “pressure on Ethiopia, repeatedly accusing Ethiopia of committing genocide in Tigray,” EBC reported.
Dr. Legesse dismissed reports that Tigraynas were being summarily rounded up and held incommunicado as unfounded rumors.
In a statement it released on November 17, Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said “it is estimated that thousands of people were arrested in Addis Abeba alone as similar arrests were made in other sub-cities and arrests continued.”
Similarly, in Dire Dawa, up to 300 people were arrested . “While some people were arrested on the basis of information provided by the security forces, most of them were reportedly arrested based on community tips. Large numbers of the detainees were of Tigrayan ethnic background,” the commission said.
However, Dr. Legesse is quoted by state media as saying that more than half a million Tigrayans live in the city and no one has been arrested due to their ethnicity.
On the contrary, he said, more than 7 million people are currently in areas surrounded by Tigrayan forces in the Amhara and Afar regional states and called on the international community to “impartially denounce the atrocities perpetrated against these communities.”
Locally, regional states and city administrations are continuing to support the national armed forces and the IDPs, he said adding that efforts were also underway to end the war in a short period of time following the recent inclusion into the national army of of thousands of former armed members, veterans, civil servants and the youth, among others. AS
