A video clip emerged on YouTube on June 17, with a thumbnail on which is written a claim that the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) stated that it is not interested to hold a negotiation with the federal government of Ethiopia.
Though the thumbnail and the title of the video claim that TPLF has no interest in negotiation, the content of the video explains the five preconditions set by TPLF for the supposed negotiation.
HaqCheck, thus, rated the video clip MISLEADING.
The federal government of Ethiopia and the TPLF have been in an armed conflict since November 2020.
The belligerents declared a humanitarian truce in March 2022. Since then the flow of humanitarian aid flow was improved.
There have been unconfirmed reports of direct talks between senior leaders of the Ethiopian federal government and TPLF.
Claims also emerged that the federal government of Ethiopia and the TPLF were preparing for potential negotiations.
Last week, Le Monde, a French newspaper published a news article claiming that the Ethiopian government and TPLF will conduct a negotiation in Arusha, Tanzania at the end of the month of June 2022.
The news by the French newspaper also claimed diplomats told the paper that TPLF was gradually abandoning its claims to ‘Western Tigray’ territories.
TPLF later denied the claim that it dropped its claim to the contested territories.
Later on, the chairman of TPLF Debretsion Gebremichael wrote an open letter and confirmed that his administration will send a delegation to the peace talk initiative that will be held in Nairobi, Kenya.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, during a parliament session last week said that the federal government has already formed a committee to undertake the negotiation with the TPLF.
Both Debretsion and PM Abiy confirmed that formal negotiation has not yet started between the belligerents denying claims that direct peace talks have already begun in secret.
TPLF recently announced five non-negotiable preconditions such as ‘Western Tigray’ and other territories, a referendum, preservation of its army, accountability to alleged crimes, and compensation to negotiate with the federal government.
On June 16, 2022, Kindeya Gebrehiwet, a senior TPLF official shared these five non-negotiable preconditions on his Twitter account.
The video clip appeared in this background with a misleading thumbnail reporting that TPLF refused to negotiate with the federal government.
It can be clearly indicated that there is no connection between the thumbnail and title of the clip and its actual content. The title and thumbnail say that TPLF announced it doesn’t want negotiation while the content states TPLF presented five preconditions for negotiation.
HaqCheck confirmed that TPLF has not refused negotiation with the federal government and only announced its preconditions for the negotiation.Therefore, HaqCheck rated the video clip MISLEADING as there is no coherence between the title of the YouTube video and its content.
