Afar revolutionary party vows to continue struggle.
borkena
October 20, 2020
The Executive Committee of the Afar Revolutionary Party ( which is struggling for the self-determination of Afar people) accuses the regional government of what it called “failure to implement” the peace agreement signed in 2019.
In a press statement released on Monday this week, the party says it will not be held responsible for the consequences.
The press release reads as follows :
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The Afar Revolutionary Party (popularly known as the Afar UGUUGUMO) has been waging an armed struggle for 41 years from 1978 to 2019, against the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF), which imposed Tigray ethnic hegemonic rule on the Afar People to control over their land and its natural resources when the TPLF was fighting the Derg regime in our vicinity.
In 1991, when the TPLF (EPRDF) became the ruling Party in Ethiopia respectively, the Afar UGUUGUMO continued its armed struggle against the TPLF repressive rule to maintain the unity of the Afar People and to ensure and enable them to freely determine their political status and freely pursue their own form of the economic, cultural and social development independently.
The Afar UGUUGUMO signed a Peace Agreement with the Ethiopian government on March 14, 2019, in Eritrea, Asmara, just as other Ethiopian oppositions forces did, following the call for change and reform led by Dr. Abiy Ahmed in Ethiopia in 2018. In accordance with the said Peace Agreement, the Afar UGUUGUMO entered the Afar Region peacefully with the hope of giving them the freedom to take part in the civil and political life of the Afar Society and to exercise and enjoy the democratic, political and human rights enshrined in the Constitution of Ethiopia without fear of being discriminated, intimidated and persecuted because of their political opinions.
The Afar UGUUGUMO have often and repeatedly written to the Federal Government to discharge its legal and constitutional responsibilities and duties to carry out the implementation of the peace Agreement. Unfortunately, we have not received any positive response from the Regional authorities. The Regional Authority in the Afar Region never showed any good will to implement the Peace Agreement that we have signed with the FDRE on March 14, 2019. Instead of implementing the Peace Agreement the Afar regional government has imposed upon the Afar UGUUGUMO political marginalisation, economic and social deprivation. Our legitimate political demands were rejected. Our civil, political and human rights are systematically denied and violated by the government by preventing us from exercising them. The families and children’s basic rights of our former fighters were denied.
The Afar traditional elders have worked hard for almost a year by providing their good offices and their indigenous knowledge and expertise to the Afar government to encourage them to carry out the implementation of the peace agreement fully and in good faith. However, their tireless and noble efforts are undermined by the Afar government. The Peace Agreement has failed.
The Afar People and the Afar traditional elders deserve our deepest gratitude and utmost respect for the moral support and guidance they have been providing us to be patient and to cope with unprecedented difficulties and challenges we faced in the Afar Region.
We are informing the Afar people and those concerned parties in the Federal and the Regional levels our ‘organisation’ that the Afar UGUUGUMO cannot be held responsible for the consequences arising out of the gravest violations of the Peace Agreement by the Afar Regional Government.
In conclusion, we would like to assure all that we will continue to struggle, together with the Ethiopian peoples for the realisations of the inalienable rights of the Afar people to self-determination, freedom, democracy, justice and good governance.
Victory for the Afar UGUUGUMO!
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