Author: Tentag

Western Lies and False Narratives About Ethiopia

Western Lies and False Narratives About Ethiopia

5TH FEB 2022 ~ GRAHAM PEEBLES
War is big, loud, significant and attracts an audience; media likes it. Foreign wars (commonly Middle Eastern or African) distract from domestic chaos and reinforce a long-held prejudice of savagery and race, and the opposite, equally false notion of western superiority.
In all conflicts mainstream media plays a crucial role, often inflammatory, feeding the discord through a particular narrative. Western media claims it is independent, but this is fallacious; corporate owned or State sponsored, it is conditioned by a particular world-view, ideologically/politically, nationalistically, historically.
After war erupted in Ethiopia in November 2020 western media have played a major role in spreading mis-/disinformation and, occasionally, outright lies. Together with foreign powers led by the United States, international human rights groups and elements within United Nations Agencies, they attacked and undermined the Ethiopian government.
Statements are issued and regurgitated in various outlets: BBC, CNN, France24, Al Jazeera, etc., seemingly without verification; the more often something is repeated, the louder the drumbeat of insistence on its truth (currently Ukraine where Putin has no intention of invading), no matter how incredible it may be. In November 2021 e.g., media carried the totally untrue story that TPLF forces were “200 km, or 400 km away from the capital Addis Ababa and could take the city in weeks”. Was this story spread in all innocence by the media; why would a responsible editor publish such information without checking it?
Such stories sensationalize events, build tension and attract public attention. In Ethiopia they falsely portrayed the terrorist Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) as an ascendant force, the Ethiopian government as cruel and desperate, their forces deflated and inadequate.
The war was triggered by the TPLF’s preemptive attack on Federal Army bases on 4 November 2020; uncounted soldiers were killed, arms stolen. This fact (and the terrorist nature of the TPLF), is routinely disregarded by international media, and western governments, despite various TPLF spokespeople admitting it.
Imagine the outrage if such an assault took place against a western military base: there would be widespread fury, a sharp retaliatory response – or a protracted “war on terror” – unanimous support from allies, and wall-to-wall anger across the media. But, instead of condemning the terrorists, the US attacked the Ethiopian government, legitimized the TPLF, demanded PM Abiy Ahmed enter into negotiations with it. Again, would any western government be expected to negotiate with a terrorist gang that had carried out an act of treason? The hypocrisy, condescension and, yes, racism of the “international community” (the US and her bedmates), former or decaying imperialists, knows no limits.
Manufacturing Consent
An influential voice in the build-up to the conflict and a regular voice of media dis-/misinformation once fighting started, was the International Crisis Group (ICG). In a report published May 2021, Disinformation in Tigray – Manufacturing Consent for a Secessionist War, New Africa Institute (NAI) detail that, ICG “played a critical role in driving the world to believe that TPLF had the upper hand in any ensuing conflict”.
A week before the TPLF attacked the Northern Command ICG published, Steering Ethiopia’s Tigray Crisis Away from Conflict, stating, Tigray’s “well-armed regional paramilitary force is led by former national army generals. It also boasts a large militia full of war veterans. TPLF leaders say that many officers in the units of the Northern Command…would not be likely to support any federal intervention, and some could even break and join Tigray’s forces.” Such material, it is believed, emboldened the TPLF to launch their deadly attack, plunging Ethiopia into chaos.
NAI detail the extraordinary level of falsehoods, distortions and errors perpetrated by media; the dis-/misinformation campaign, they make clear, was an attempt “to manufacture consent for an unpopular irredentist, ethnic secessionist war that could not be justified in the eyes of the international public through honest reporting.” For Ethiopians it has been devastating, but within the halls of western power – Washington, mainly, but also London and, though less so, Brussels, it appears it was welcomed. A chance to destabilize not just Ethiopia under PM Abiy Ahmed, seen as too independent and potentially influential, but the Horn of Africa more broadly. The US and co. supported the TPLF politically, diplomatically and, many believe, militarily from the outset; mainstream news outlets obediently followed suit.
Media may refute the assertion of a conscious campaign of support for the TPLF; however, given the breadth of material published that either attacks the government, misleads the public or supports the terrorists, it is hard to deny.
Initially, a common excuse for the appalling coverage was the “communications blackout”. The Washington Post went as far as to blame the government for the dis-/misinformation, saying, “by blocking communications and access to Tigray, the [Ethiopian] government helped create conditions where disinformation and misinformation can thrive.” They only “thrive” if journalists/editors don’t do their jobs and check their material.
The menu of mis-/disinformation varies from the seemingly innocuous, e.g. describing the forced retreat of the TPLF to Tigray in December 2021, as a “withdrawal” (similar to reporting of the 2021 Gaza assault by Israel, in which BBC said X number of Palestinians had died and Y number of Israelis had been killed), to false accusations of “massacres, mass rape and sexual violence, looting, extrajudicial killings, genocide, ethnic cleansing and war crimes.” Savage portrayals of Ethiopian and Eritrean forces – drawn into the conflict after the TPLF bombed the capital Asmara – that NAI make clear “draw on old colonial tropes of Africans.”
The oft-repeated media claims of rape and gang rape by Ethiopian Federal Forces and Eritrean soldiers feed into this perverse notion of primitive Africans. Sexual and gender based violence was highlighted in the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC), joint report, 3 November 2021. Premature and partial, it is full of generalized accusations of criminality.
Whilst admitting it is not an “exhaustive record of all relevant incidents”, its authors asserted that violations were committed by all parties to the conflict, including rape/gang rape. Assertions disputed by the Ethiopian government (which has said it will investigate) and refuted in Eritrea, where there is no culture of rape/gang rape, among society or the military. Within the TPLF however, rape/gang rape is part of its modus operandi.
TPLF military/para-military committed rape in the Ogaden region e.g., over a 25 year period of suppression of the ethnic Somali population. The same abuse took place against Oromo women for decades, and long before the conflict started in Tigray rape was a serious problem throughout the region; in 2019 a leading activist, Meaza Gidey tweeted: “rape culture is ubiquitous in Tigray oftentimes stigmatizing & shaming female rape survivors into marrying their rapist.”
While Tigray was in total chaos, on 11 February, 10 prisons in the region were emptied of all inmates. EHRC report that paperwork on the prisoners was destroyed, making, “Tracking major offenders nearly impossible and that it is one of the causes for the substantial increase of … major crimes.” The increase was so pronounced that the TPLF-mouthpiece Tigrai Media House (TMH) admitted that, “TPLF itself was responsible for the rise in crimes.” NAI report the TMH statement: “When news broke out that the Ethiopian army was making its way to Mekelle, the Tigray regional police forces and the prison forces disbanded abandoning their posts. As a result of this, the prison doors were left open and all the hardcore criminals escaped into the community.”
None of this information was reported by western media; misrepresentation through omissions, like this, has been widespread throughout.
Another example is the absence of coverage or condemnation of the Mai Kadra Massacre, one of many such TPLF atrocities. In November 2020 the village of Mai Kadra was the scene of a brutal attack by TPLF militia, the Samri and Tigrayan special police forces. The EHRC found that, “Samri, …local police and militia….killed hundreds of people beating them with batons/sticks, stabbing them with knives, machetes and hatchets and strangling them with ropes.” This atrocious, ethnically motivated attack, EHRC states, “May amount to crimes against humanity and war crimes.” The massacre was largely overlooked by mainstream media and ignored by foreign governments; after all, those slaughtered were savages – poor (black) Africans, murdered by other poor (black) Africans.
Mai Kadre is included in the OHCHR/EHRC report, though estimating the deaths at 200, in contradiction to the 600+ Amnesty International say were murdered. To “balance” this appalling atrocity the report refers to a highly disputed incident by the Ethiopian Defense Force (EDF) in Axum, where it is claimed more than 100 people were killed. Despite the fact that there is no evidence of such an attack and no bodies have ever been discovered the story was all over mainstream media.
Then there is the oft-repeated claim that the Abiy government blocked humanitarian aid to Tigray. In January 2021 The Economist announced that food was being used as a weapon by the government, and quoted that the US run Famine Early Warning Systems Network, saying that, “parts of central and eastern Tigray are probably one step from famine.” There was no famine (terrible hardship as in all war zones, yes), and according to Ethiopia’s National Disaster Risk Management Commission, by May 2021 all 4.5 million Tigrayans in need of food had received assistance, 70% of it subsidized by the government.
The whole area of UN humanitarian work was polluted by TPLF moles, including within the World Food Programme (WFP). In October 2021 whistleblowers from UN Ethiopia revealed that the “TPLF……. have networks within UN system.” In an attempt to purge the organisation of TPLF infiltrators on 27 September the Ethiopian government expelled seven UN officials for, “Dissemination of misinformation and politicization of humanitarian assistance;” the “diversion of humanitarian assistance to the TPLF; Transferring communication equipment to be used by the TPLF;” and, unbelievably, “reticence in demanding the return of more than 400 trucks commandeered by the TPLF for military mobilization and for the transportation of its forces since July 2021.” None of this was reported by international media or commented upon by the US administration, or any other western government.
The spirit of unity
The examples of betrayal and western media dis-/misinformation over the course of the conflict are endless. The sources of material and the way stories evolve and become disseminated is often convoluted, facts ignored, evidence found wanting, or manufactured entirely, as with the so-called “Axum massacre”, examined in detail by NAI. Various players, including Europe External Programme with Africa (EEPA), where it apparently originated, and discredited ex-BBC Africa journalist Martin Plaut, contributed to a concocted narrative, accepted by Amnesty International and forming the basis for a human rights report.
A positive consequence of the west’s betrayal has been the heartening community spirit engendered among Ethiopians. Divided for decades by manipulative TPLF ethno-policies, Ethiopians, at home and abroad, have united against this group of self-supporting interconnected adversaries: The terrorist TPLF, “The West”, specifically the United States and the international mainstream media.
And now, as the fighting subsides and the country collectively draws breath the work of reconciliation and healing must begin.
To this end, in the hope of facilitating “national reconciliation”, PM Abiy announced the extraordinary step, which angered many Ethiopians, of granting an amnesty for some of the country’s most high-profile political prisoners and parliament has established a “Commission for National Dialogue”, “to pave the way for national consensus and keep the integrity of the country.” Despite the TPLF and their partners in crime, the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), refusing so far to participate, this is encouraging.
Ethiopia has suffered terribly over the last year or so, and it will take time to recover. But, if the sense of national unity that has been created over the past year or so is maintained, healing will come more readily and this wonderful country will emerge stronger than ever.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/02/04/western-lies-and-false-narratives-about-ethiopia/
 

Why stop at Mekele’s gate?

Why stop at Mekele’s gate?

December 28, 2021

By Addissu Admas

This war has generated so much anger and rancor on both sides that most believed that only a final showdown in Mekele would have satisfied the involved parties. For the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) to rid itself once and for all of an armed party that was determined to remain contentious, rebellious and insurrectionist to the end. For the TPLF party bosses to prove to themselves and the world that they are able to destabilize at will the region and damage the reputation of the federal government and PM Abiy. What else? All TPLF’s rigmarole about restoring federalism, or creating a confederation of Ethiopian states, or its declared intention to stop the progressive centralization of the Ethiopian system of government, or worse yet, attempts of re-Amharanization of Ethiopia, etc… are ways of hiding its true intentions. Which are, as I have stated on many occasions, to evade prosecution for its vast corruption, politically motivated imprisonments and assassinations, and countless other crimes. It appears to have felt that it deserved freedom from prosecution because it had convinced the West that it had “brought”, so to speak, a modicum of economic progress to Ethiopia. But we Ethiopians continue to ask: to whose benefit and at what expense? I guess the reason may be good enough for the West since we are not starving. All the other things, such as freedom of speech, detention with due process, respect for one’s property and limb, freedom of movement, etc… are all luxuries reserved only to Westerners. 

The TPLF and its ardent supporters want the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) to march to Mekele to demonstrate to the World that it has still enough power to exact revenge for its disastrous five months campaign in Ethiopia. A campaign motivated, designed, and implemented not to restore the power the TPLF once held, but to humiliate, degrade, and insult the Ethiopian people; especially the Amhara and the Afar. What it has really displayed for the world and history to see is its unbound cruelty, utter inhumanity, meanness of spirit, and extreme coarseness. Instead of being a campaign of battles, it was more of an orgy of depredation, destruction and rape. Was it because TPLF’s army was undisciplined and unwieldy? I do not believe so! It was intended and executed according to the plans designed and conducted by the TPLF bosses sitting comfortably in Mekele! I am more than convinced that this crazed march to the South was neither guided by a confederalist ideology, nor for uniting Ethiopians against the supposed maladministration of the new government. It was inspired instead by a paroxysm of hate. Not for what the ENDF supposedly did during its eight month campaign in Tigray, but I suspect, for all the imagined and unreal humiliations that Amharas have inflicted on Tigreans during the imperial and Derg regimes. Let us set the records straight here once more: In Ethiopia, no one ethnicity has “colonized” the others. Colonizing not only implies occupying a territory to reside in it, but to exploit its resources for the benefit of one’s nation or ethnic group. In addition to this, countless attendant practices accompany colonialism: garrisoning, expropriation of land for the State, virtual enslavement of the local population, etc…I contend that there has never been colonialism in Ethiopia, except during the 5 years of Italian occupation. What has existed in Ethiopia is territorial expansion through wars between populations with comparable technologies, economy and political systems. The whole discussion of Amhara colonization obfuscates rather than clarify our present circumstances.

I venture to say also that Ethiopia has always been a multi-ethnic state; perhaps more today than in previous times. As such, it is inevitable that population size, organization (military and otherwise) may have allowed one group to dominate the others. This has always been the lot of contiguously living populations. It is also a fact that ethnicities living closely have often seen each other with some diffidence and prejudice even though they shared many cultural traits and belief systems. However, these should never constitute a basis for hostility, rejection and division. Ethiopia is, as the famous Ethiopia scholar Conti-Rossini memorably stated, a mosaic of peoples. Rather than this being cause for disunity and acrimony, it should be reason for celebration and pride. Indeed, we are “e pluribus unum”, out of many one.

Any group, party or movement that tries to overemphasize and exploit our differences and understandable diffidence towards each other’s ethnicity must be seen with suspicion, and even condemnation. This is what the TPLF has nurtured consistently for no other reason than to secure for itself and its people a lasting hegemony. 

PM Abiy and his government’s decision not to continue the war by marching into Mekele is one of the wisest decision in Ethiopia’s recent history. In addition to the reasons or justifications he himself has provided for it, I would like to add here what his decision will be preventing and what benefits it will garner. 

To begin with, I have been uneasy from the start by the Ethiopian government’s decision to enter Tigray to unseat the government of the TPLF in Tigray over a year ago, even though it had every legal justification to do so. While it managed, against the bitter hostility of the local population, to remain there in charge for eight long months, there was the awareness that the TPLF would have resurged since it had convinced the Tigrean people that only it stood for their wellbeing and good governance. Besides, fully aware that the day of reckoning would dawn sooner than later, it had put in place all its contingency plans. 

The TPLF had done an incredible job at convincing the Tigrean people that the government of Dr. Abiy was their most malevolent enemy and that all Ethiopians wanted to see them suffer. Thus, the ENDF was literally chasing a guerilla force fully protected, supplied, supported and encouraged by the people of Tigray. Had the ENDF decided to pursue the TPLF again in Tigray, it would have fallen into the same predicament. To those who counter by saying that the TPLF is much weakened and cannot pose a credible resistance, I say that the TPLF is not so foolish as to have squandered all its force on its failed southern campaign. It may be that it has been preparing all along to do more damage to the ENDF, whether it planned to win or not, once the ENDF entered Tigray’s borders.By denying it a final confrontation, the ENDF will preserve its newly acquired capabilities to seal off the TPLF in Tigray and deny it any possibility of a passage to the Sudan, or again to the South. Moreover, there is also the question of economics. Waging this war has been enormously burdensome on Ethiopia’s limited resources. Continuing this war out of desire to punish a deviant and malevolent group will only bankrupt the country. In effect, by not satisfying the bloodlust of the TPLF, the government of Ethiopia may be executing its best strategy.

Many have seen the PM’s decision to halt the war as a diplomatic act and an extending of an olive branch to his most rabid critics, namely the US. I say that the PM should not care one whit about them since they had decided beforehand that their winning horse has always been the TPLF. Any deviation or desire to dissimulate this on their part should be taken as a blatant hypocritical act. In their “grand global” scheme, we have never counted and we will never do. What the PM and his administration must pursue are the alliances that will never question or compromise the sovereignty of Ethiopia and her peoples. The war has indeed shown Ethiopia who her fair weather friends are. 

By sealing off Tigray for a while and limiting the war to eventually necessary small-scale interventions, the government of Ethiopia will be providing Tigreans with a rare occasion to re-assess their stance vis a vis Ethiopia. This silencing of the guns should become for them, as it has been for the overwhelming majority of Ethiopians, an occasion to realize that the TPLF has no place either in Ethiopia, or most pressingly, in Tigray. In resuming the cease-fire that it had unilaterally declared in evacuating Tigray, the Ethiopian government is not only acting in coherence to it, but would be putting the well-being of Tigreans over its constitutional right to bring to justice the TPLF. This, indeed, requires enormous restraint. The TPLF’s thuggish daring of the ENDF to enter Mekele should be looked at for what it is: an occasion to cry foul and attract the condemnation of the world on Ethiopia once more.

I believe that when the dust settles, all this mindless campaign of the TPLF will be seen for what it really has been. And the people of Tigray will ultimately come to realize that hitching their wagon to the TPLF may have been the worst blunder of their history, and hopefully will lead them to reconsider their relationship with the rest Ethiopia.

Alex de Waal: A Scholar or a Hired gun of the TPLF?

Alex de Waal: A Scholar or a Hired gun of the TPLF?

By Addissu Admas

I do not enjoy – nor indulge in – attacks against a person. However, when that person occupies a position of some responsibility and importance and continues to engage in a stream of unfounded and damaging accusations, I feel a duty to respond to him or her at least to set the records straight; and hopefully, disqualify him or her as reliable source of healthy opinions. Such is the case with Alex de Waal.

In an article he wrote recently on Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper closely associated with the New York Times, he, as is his wont, indulged in a series of unfounded and very partial accusations against the Ethiopian people and government. Apparently, Mr. De Waal has long ago decided, for reasons that still escape me that he will only listen to the TPLF, and its Tigrean sympathizers, which are of course, even now in the majority. Not once in this article, has he indicated that he is willing, even for an instant, to give the Ethiopian people and their government, a token benefit of the doubt. Like a good TPLF sympathizer or agent (I let the reader decide which) he decided that the guilty ones were all south of the Tigrean border. He deliberately chose to ignore all the destruction, looting, murder, rape, that has been committed by the invading Tigrean people’s army led and organized by the TPLF since July of this year. Even the UN and other human rights groups have clearly reported the rapes and murders committed by TPLF forces, despite the pressure of the US department of state. But de Waal decided to ignore all of them completely. 

I do not know where his blind devotion to such a heinous party comes from. It is certain that he enjoyed the friendship of its high-ranking officials while they reigned supreme over Ethiopia. The TPLF cadre, it must be acknowledged, did a fantastic job at cultivating the friendship of many so called “scholars” and diplomats. Most likely offering them special treatment, or bribes of sorts they could never expect from their own institutions and governments. Now, I guess, it is time to stand up to save an old friend.

If Alex de Waal had a modicum of integrity, he would have paused and listened to the immense suffering Ethiopians endured during the 27 years of TPLF rule. He was happy to receive all his information apparently from the TPLF, as he continues to do today. The mark of a good scholar is to listen to all parties, read the literature of both sides, and make one’s considered judgment. Mr. de Waal, had decided that the TPLF provided him with all he needs to know. This has tremendously shaken my trust in these so-called “prestigious institutions” of the West. Are they really engaged in finding out the truth, or are they simply engaged in trying to find rationalizations and justifications for their government ill-conceived policies? Any government that is willing to listen to Mr. de Waal will be making a disastrous mistake because it would be only getting a very lopsided and biased view. 

Mr. de Waal states that the Ethiopian people are characterizing Tigreans as cancerous. This is an outrageous lie. The government of Ethiopia stated that the TPLF, and not the people of Tigray, is cancerous. This is not to deny that thanks to the hateful campaign perpetrated by the TPLF, and its desire to alienate the Tigrean people from their fellow Ethiopians, that some unsavory and hateful words have been exchanged over social media. But this cannot be taken as the word of Ethiopians. To do so would be, to say the least, an unscholarly and malicious reporting. 

The Ethiopian militia are not on the frontline, neither literally nor figuratively, as Mr. de Waal writes. They are engaged in liberating their territories from the most destructive force that Ethiopia has known since the invasion of Muhammed Gragn (Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi) in the 16th century! Can Mr. de Waal tell us how many Amhara and Afar men have been killed in this senseless war? How many women have been raped? How many schools, hospitals, businesses being destroyed? No! He would not, because he does not care to know what happened outside Tigray. His bandying about the word “genocide” to indicate what happened in Tigray is not only sickeningly irresponsible, but should make him liable for a lawsuit! He should know, however his bias is incurable, that especially someone who holds a position such as his cannot make such an accusation so lightly. What would he then call what happened in May Kadra? If that was not an instance of genocidal action or ethnic cleansing, however you may want to label it, then what comparable act has been committed against Tigreans? Name one! 

It is obvious that De Waal wrote this piece to have Israel put pressure on the UAE to end its military cooperation with the Ethiopian government. However, it fails miserably to achieve its goal, since it is entirely biased and lopsided. If state department foreign policies are based on such kind of opinion pages, then we are in for a very troubling outcome. 

I take this opportunity to reiterate again the facts of this war, not to remind my fellow Ethiopians who are immersed in its intricacies, but to inform those foreigners who happened to read this piece and are not acquainted with the basic facts of this war. 

  1. This war was started by the TPLF when it stormed the weapon warehouses of the Northern Command, the largest of the Ethiopian National Defense Force(ENDF), with the apparent intention to arm itself and wage war against the ENDF. In the process, it killed uncounted military personnel of non-Tigrean origin. 
  2. The government of PM Abiy countered by moving into Tigray to restore order and the sovereignty of the government of Ethiopia. This move was backed by the current constitution of Ethiopia.
  3. While the Ethiopian government of Ethiopia maintained order for 8 months over Tigray, it was pressured by TPLF’s Western allies to abandon Tigray since it was under a constant accusation of all kinds of crimes. The official reason given by the government of Ethiopia was “ceasefire” which the TPLF simply ignored and continued to fight.
  4. The TPLF decided, for reasons that still needs to be investigated, and has most likely a foreign origin, decided to unseat a government that was installed legitimately through an election that has been praised, even by Western media, as the fairest in Ethiopian history.
  5. While the TPLF apparently succeed to reach deep into Ethiopia, within a couple of hundred kilometers from the capital, it quickly began to unravel, and is now in the throes of complete annihilation. 
  6. During this entire southern campaign of the TPLF, the Western media and governments decided not to report on the slaughter of Amhara and Afar people. But it instead continued to harp, as De Waal has done in his piece, on the tragedies that happened in Tigray, ignoring the much greater destruction, rape, and killings that has happened on a vast scale in Amhara and Afar.  
  7. The Western media and governments are continuing to work relentlessly, despite the apparent defeat of the TPLF, to destabilize and ultimately dismember Ethiopia. Ethiopians continue to be baffled and completely outraged by Western media and governments determination to see Ethiopia become a failed state. Many speculate that Egypt is behind this campaign to undermine the Ethiopian state because of the dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). Or, is it really that, as a poor nation, Ethiopia is an expandable pawn in the global war America is waging against its arch-rival China? It remains to be seen!

Mr. de Waal, as an “Africa scholar” is supposed to give us a serious analysis on these facts, not take sides blindly and become the megaphone for TPLF grievances, and worse, lies. It is a mark of good scholarship to put aside personal sympathies and biases to listen to voices that we have no empathy for to arrive at a balanced view. Alex de Waal has failed on all the characteristics of good scholarship. He, therefore, should never be consulted, and much less followed through, in his recommendations.

Massacres, rape, siege: Why Israel must stop its UAE ally aiding Ethiopia’s atrocities – Israel News – Haaretz.com