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“WE HAVE STABBED A FELLOW DEMOCRACY IN THE BACK” Rasmus Sonderriis

“WE HAVE STABBED A FELLOW DEMOCRACY IN THE BACK”

Rasmus Sonderriis

My speech about the war in northern Ethiopia delivered at a public meeting at IDA (Danish Society of Engineers), Copenhagen, March 22, 2022.

Following an introduction by moderator Adam Moe Fejerskov and 10-minute talks by EU representative Kristin Fedeler and Danish ambassador to Ethiopia Kira Smith Sindbjerg. Followed by journalist Knud Vilby and a Q&A session.

Thanks a lot for inviting me here tonight.

It’s encouraging that the EU diplomat and the Danish diplomat have spoken, diplomatically, about carrying on development cooperation with Ethiopia. By contrast, the EU and Denmark have zero moral credit left on the account to lecture Ethiopians on how to go about their horrible war. The Ethiopians have just been through a traumatic near-death experience, in which their new-born democracy and their fragile unitary state fought for survival against the dictatorial old guard. Ethiopians who share our ideals of human rights and ethnic coexistence were expecting our support. But what did we do, us good people in the rich and powerful part of the world? We stabbed them in the back! It seems like Kristin and Kira realize how deeply unpopular Denmark and the EU have become in Ethiopia.

Why exactly? Well, let’s turn back time to the near-death experience at the beginning of November. The media continue to refer to it as ‘the Tigray War’, although by now four months have passed without any fighting in Tigray. Instead hell has moved to the Afar and Amhara states, where about 15 million people live under TPLF occupation. All equipment in hospitals, clinics, labs, schools, universities, offices, factories, yes, even waterworks, is being plundered and, if it can’t be transported to Tigray, it’s destroyed. Rapes and executions are the order of the day.

We may say, as many people have said, that this is revenge for other atrocities in Tigray committed before that by soldiers from Ethiopia and Eritrea. But justice it is not. An attempt at justice is what’s going on in Ethiopian courtrooms, where Ethiopian soldiers, 60 so far, are being held to account by their own side for the first time in the country’s history. Of course, we should support that and, by the way, our press ought to cover it, which nobody has done yet.

Alright, now back to the near-death experience. This is when the TPLF leaders and supporters change their tune. They no longer go on about a ‘war on Tigray’, but about conquering strategic high ground deep into enemy territory, pointing their artillery at new enemy towns. And they talk especially about how they are marching towards the capital Addis Ababa.

The so-called Ethiopia experts in the media immediately sentence this march to be a walk in the park, following the recent playbook from Kabul. “The government is collapsing, it’s a question of weeks, if not days”, is the cliché used again and again. The Danish embassy chimes in with the choir of embassies calling for their nationals to be evacuated. On November 5th, CNN even reports that troops from Tigray stand on the outskirts of the city. Wow, that almost got me worried, but, phew, just CNN fake news.

On November 9th in Washington DC, a grand press conference is convened, featuring leaders from no less than nine rebel movements who are joining in the triumphal procession, ready to share power. Nobody in Ethiopia has ever heard about these nine rebel leaders, though they’re recognized as Uber drivers. Never mind, the world press, including newspapers here in Denmark, lap it up.

The fact that the United States lets these people declare publicly how they are going to shoot their way to regime change convinces the Ethiopians that the USA is participating in the coup attempt.

So Biden sends his diplomat Jeffrey Feltman to Addis Ababa to say four-five times in one press briefing that, no, no, no, no, the US is not taking sides, neither for the TPLF nor for the government. But at the same time, he acknowledges that Abiy Ahmed’s government has democratic legitimacy and that, if the TPLF were to enter the capital, it would be “a blood-bath situation”. Spine-chilling stuff, right? But that’s when it’s official. The USA does not side with a fellow democracy against those out to commit a bloodbath against it.

Those were the anxious times when I wrote the long-read report from Addis Ababa that earned me the invitation here tonight. I stuck my neck out by writing the opposite of everyone else, namely that the TPLF was still “unlikely” to reach the capital. Granted, I never saw it coming that I would one day support Ethiopia against my own country Denmark, indeed against the entire Western world, but this semi prediction that the war was about to turn, well, at least I can brag about that today.

What was it based on? That I saw firsthand how Ethiopians were setting aside their disagreements to unite against a common enemy.

The TPLF and its supporters are constantly fanning the flames of ethnic resentment. They generalize about the Amharas being the oppressors who need to have their power taken away by the Oromos. They omit to say that Abiy Ahmed is Oromo. And that his government is truly multi-ethnic, including a Tigrayan minister of defense.

And what happened when it came down to it in Ethiopia? Proud Oromos, such as the marathon runner Feyisa Lilesa, volunteered to the front to defend Amhara state. Amharas learned to greet in the Oromo language. There was urgent fraternization across ethnic and political divides, that is, the complete opposite of what the TPLF had pinned their hopes on.

Because, in the short run, the TPLF has the best generals and a vast stock of money and weapons. But in the long run, its economic base in Tigray is too small to win. Getachew Reda, who appears to be the TPLF’s second in command, made it clear in an interview on BBC Hardtalk that he would be perfectly comfortable with Ethiopia falling apart. In essence, the TPLF strategy is: “If they won’t let us rule the country, let there be no country to rule at all.”

So apart from the drones, it was the togetherness, the shared will to save the unity of Mother Ethiopia, that upset the TPLF’s calculations. And incidentally made a lot of ‘Ethiopia experts’ look very foolish.

It all bodes well for the future, although disagreements are bound to reappear as the external threat is diminished.

Anyway, throughout the period when Ethiopians were mobilizing for battle, it rang out like a mantra from Denmark, from the European Union, from Western-funded organizations and think tanks. “There is no military solution”. The truth is there is no solution without at least a military component. Unless the solution is to commit suicide that is. The West consistently pushed for passivity: “Don’t send your fighter jets, keep them grounded, don’t buy drones or weapons, don’t mobilize more soldiers, no stirring speeches, arghhh, it’s so bellicose, we don’t like that, blah blah blah.”

This goes to show the importance of the narratives that we all carry inside our heads in order to simplify complex political conflicts. In that, I must include myself, of course. To me the narrative was: “A nascent, fragile, imperfect democracy defends itself bravely against a totalitarian enemy marching on its capital to commit a bloodbath”. Just like in Ukraine today. But the narrative that won the day was about a stereotypical, brutal African tribal war. Prime Minister Abiy’s speeches were labelled as war-mongering, but some of us found them inspiring, much like Zelensky’s rhetoric today.

Curiously, everyone in the West realized the danger of an “Ethioslavia”, of Ethiopia breaking up, followed by decades of civil war over the new borders, and 115 million refugees. But then, in the next breath, the reasoning would be, for instance in editorials in The Economist weekly and here in Denmark in Politiken Daily, that the West therefore had to push Abiy even harder to declare a ceasefire, that is, impose more sanctions on Ethiopia.

This is the equivalent of saying: “The patient is ill, but she is refusing our medicine, she says it’s going to kill her. So now we must beat her up, that’ll teach her to take the medicine that we tell her to take. Because we know what ails her much better than she does.”

Well, how we got that wrong! The patient survived, but only by ignoring our unfriendly advice. We owe the Ethiopians an apology, and that’s putting it mildly. Instead of analyzing the political context, instead of focusing on who is legitimate and who is not, we have been signaling our pacifist virtues, we have been arrogant and prejudiced.

What went wrong? Why did the narrative turn out so different from Ukraine? That’s a big question. Knud Vilby will talk about it after me, and we might discuss the various reasons here tonight, but the most important factor was probably the readiness to believe the TPLF’s s war propaganda about Abiy Ahmed supposedly being on an insane quest to starve and murder every single Tigrayan.

Yes, there are indeed genocidal potentials in Ethiopian politics today, and not just in Tigray. This is precisely why we need to strengthen the only realistic chance of democratic coexistence, which is the federal government! It has been militarily weak, so weak that it has, unfortunately, been forced to obtain help from the Eritrean dictatorship and from ethnic militias. Nevertheless, it’s not like there is a more moderate alternative to the current government.

And according to the UN “joint report” released on November 3rd, there is no evidence that Ethiopia has used starvation as a weapon, or that it has any kind of genocidal agenda.

I do not wish to play down the suffering in Tigray, but who is to blame? The TPLF has militarized society through and through. All resources from little Tigray are diverted to this big war, including over 1000 relief-aid trucks that have entered Tigray without coming back. The TPLF constantly attacks the same roads used by the aid convoys. Debretsion Gebremichael, TPLFs top leaders, has called it a “people’s war”, that is, what Goebbels called a “total war”. No wonder there is hardship in Tigray.

Helen Clark, who is a former Prime Minister of New Zealand and head of UNICEF, that is, she counts as one of the world’s great and good, wrote in the Guardian, in a piece full of misinformation about the war, that “to prevent genocide, we must sound the alarm before we arrive at certainty”.

But no, wild accusations without evidence don’t prevent anything, on the contrary, they pour more fuel on the fire. Helen Clark surely sees herself as an angel of peace, but she’s singing along to a militaristic refrain that tells ordinary Tigrayans they have the choice between killing and getting killed.

Yes, there has been a brutalization in Ethiopia, on both sides. Sadly, this is something we see in most wars, including in Ukraine. It’s all very well that we keep our heads cool and concern ourselves with the humanitarian aspect, including the civil rights of the vast number of Tigrayans who live outside of Tigray. But if we want Ethiopians to listen, we need to talk in a spirit of solidarity with their security challenges. Imagine, for instance, if we had given them the drones, instead of forcing them to buy from Turkey, then perhaps we could’ve asked for some favors in return.

My final point is remarkably simple: What is it that keeps the peace in our own highly successful countries? What is it? Is it power-sharing deals between the strongest warlords? Of course not, we have our democracy to distribute power. So, what is it? Is it pacifist sermons? No! So, what is it? This is no small matter. We’ve been told by the two diplomats here tonight that our development cooperation must not support a war economy. But how about supporting security? There is no development without security, without peace. And what keeps the peace in our own countries is the state’s monopoly on violence under democratic rule of law! This bears repeating. The state’s monopoly on violence under democratic rule of law! Good for us. Good for Ethiopia.

Thank you.

Rasmus Sonderriis

ይድረሰ ለተከበሩ የኢትዮጵያ ጠቅላይ ሚኒስትር ዶ/ር አብይ ኣህመድ

ሚያዝያ 6 2014. April 14 2022

ይድረስ ለጠቅላይ ሚንስትር አብይ አህምድ ዶ/ር

ለክቡርነትዎ በዚህ አጭር ደብዳቤዬ ደጋፊዎ እንደመሆኔ መጠን አንድንድ በጣም የሚያሳስቡኝ ጉዳዮችን ለማንሳት እሞክራለሁ። ሀሳቦቼን ከመግለጼ በፊት እርሶም ሆነ ሌሎች ይኼንን ጽሑፍ የሚያነቡ ሰዎች እንዲያውቁልኝ የምፈልገው እንደግለሰብ እርሶዎ ወደሥልጣን ከመጡ ጊዜ ጀምሮ በኢትዮጵያ ውስጥ የተካሄዱትን ለውጦች በማድነቅ፡ አመራሮም በአሁኑ ጊዜ ለኢትዮጵያ አስፈላጊ እንደሆነም የምረዳ ግለሰብ ነኝ ። በየጊዜው በተለያዩ ጉዳዮች ላይ የሚሰጡት አስተያየቶች/ መመሪያዎች አመርቂና ደስ የሚሉ ራዕይ ያላቸው አገር ገንቢ መሆናቸውንም እገነዘባለሁ።

ስልጣን ላይ እንደመጡ .ማለትም ጠቅላይ ሚኒስተር ከሆኑበት ጊዜ አንስቶ የገጠመዎት ችግሮች እርስዎ ለኢትዮጵያ ሕዝብ ከገለጹት በላይ የኢትዮጵያ ሁኔታ አስአቸጋሪ እንደነበረና እንደሆነም እረዳለሁ። በፅናቶም አደንቆታለሁ።። የተካሄዱትን መዋቅራዊ ለውጦችን፤እንደመከላከያ፣ የደህንነት መዋቅር፣ የፍርድ ቤቶችና የማረሚያ ቤቶች ፣ የምርጫ ቦርድና የምርጫ ሕግ፣ የሚዲያ ተቋማትና የሚዲያ አካባቢ የተደረጉ ለውጦች አመርቂ ናቸው፡እላልለሁ። አንዳንዶቹም ውጤት እያሳዩ ነው። በኔ ግምት እነዚህ መዋቅራዊ ለውጦች ቋሚ ሆነው የሚቀጥሉ ናቸው ብዬ ተስፋ አዴርጋለሁ።

እርስዎ ይኼንን ውጤታማ ለውጥ ሲያካሂዱ/ሲመሩ ገና ከጅምሩ በአንፃሩ ለውጡ እዳይሳካ የተሰሰለፉ ኀይሎች እንደነበሩና አሁንም እንዳሉ እረዳለሁ። እነዚህ ኃይሎች በተለያየ ስም እራሳቸውን ቢጠሩም የእርስዎን መንግስት ገና ከጅምሩ ‘አሀዳዊ’ ነው ብለው በመፈረጅ አሁን ላለንበት ቀውስና ችግር አንዲሁም ለገባንበት/ላለንበት የጦርነት ሁኔታ አድርሰውናል።

አሁን ወደ ተነሳሁበት ቁም ነገሮች ልመለስ። እንደሚከተለዉ አቀርበዋለሁ።

በየቦታው ክልሎች ውሰጥ በሚደርሱት መፈናቀሎች ግድያዎች አስተያየት ሳይሰጡ በዝምታ ማለፍዎ፤
ክልሎችን ማስፋፋትዎ፡
ክቡርነትዎ ወደ ሥልጣን እንደመጡ የኢትዮጵያ ሕዝብ በሙሉ ከዳር እስከዳር እግዚአብሔር ለእስራኤሎች ሙሴን እንደላከው ሁሉ የኢትዮጵያ ሕዝብ አምላክ እንደላኮት አድርጎ ነበር የተቀበለዎት…. ወጣቱ፣ ሽማግሌው ፣ ሴት ወንዱም ፡የኢትዮጵያ እናቶችም በዕንባ አምላክን በማመስገን እርስዎን ተቀበሉ፤ ፀለዩሎት። እርሶም አፀፋውን መለሱ። “ስንወለድ ኢትዮጵያዊያን ስንሞት ኢትዮጵያ” በማለቶዎም ጭምር። እንደቀድሞ የኢትዮጵያ መሪዎች “አገሪቷን” ከማለት ፈንታ ኢትዮጵያ እያሉ በስም መጥራት ስለጀመሩ።
በዚህ መሀል ቀስ በቀስ ገና ከጅምሩ በኦሮሚያ ክልል በምዕራብ ወለጋ ባንኮች ሲዘረፉ፣ ቀበሌዎች ሲያዙ፣ ሰዎች በዘራቸው ምክንያት ሲፈናቀሉ ሲገደሉ፡ ይኼ ሁኔታ የቀን ተቀን ዜና መሆን ጀመረ። የመፈናቀል የሞት ጥቃቶች ወደ ጉጂም ተዛመቱ። መንግሥትም ይኼንን የሚያደርገው የኦሮሞ ነፃ አውጪ ግንባር ነው ሲል ነበር።
የዛሬ ሦስት ዓመት ወይም ከዚያ በፊት ይኼ ሁኔታ በአባ ገዳዎችና በክልሉ መንግሥት እየተፈታ ነው፤ ሊፈታነው ወዘተ… ቢባልም የሰዎች በዘራቸው መፈናቀልና መሞት ቀጠለ። የነዚህ ጽንፈኛ ኃሎች መሪ አዲስ አበባ ውስጥ ቁጭ ብለው፡ የልብ ልብ ተሰምቶቿው “ማን ማንን ትጥቅ ያስፈታል” ብለው መፎከር ጀመሩ። ነፃ አውጪ ድርጅት ስሙን ቀይሮ ሸኔ ነኝ ሲል እኝሁ መሪ አላውቃቸውም አሉ። ነገሩ ዓናችሁን ጨፍኑ ላሞኛሁ ሆኖ ተገኘ ። አሁን በሁሉ ኦሮሚያ ተስፋፈተዋል። የኦሮሚያ መንግሥትም ሆነ የፈደራሉ መንግሥት መፍትሔ ማግኘት አልቻሉም።
ዓላማዬ በኢትዮጵያኖች ላይ የሚደርሰውን ሰቆቃ ለማተት ሳይሆን ይኼንን ሁኔታ በሚመለከት እርሰዎም ሆነ የክልሉ መንግሥት ዝምታ መምረጣችሁ ነው።
እነዚህ በዘር ተለይተው የሚፈናቀሉትን ሆነ የሚሞቱትን እርሶና የክልሉ ኣስትዳዳሪ የሚመሩት የሕዝብ አካል ናቸው። እኔ ደጋፊዎ እንደመሆኔ መጠን ሰዎች ለምን እነዚህ ሀላፊዎች ዝም ይላሉ ብለው ሲጠይቁኝ መልስ አጣለሁ። ምስጢሩ ምንድነው? የርስዎ መናገር ለተፈናቃዮችም ለሟቾችም ቤተሰብ ማጽናኛ ይሆናል የሚል እሳቤ ስላለኝ ነው።
እርስዎ ለሰዎች የርሂራሄ ገፅታ ያሎት መሆኖዎን በብዙ ድርጊትዎ አሳይተዋል። ጨካኝ ሰው አይመስሉኝም።
እንደ ደጋፊዎ የእርስዎ በዚህ ጉዳይ ላይ አለመናገርዎ ከባድ ዋጋ እያስከፈሎት ነው የሚል ግምት አለኝ። አንድ ነገር ያድርጉ።
እርስዎ ወደ ሥልጣን እንደመጡ በአዋሳ ንግግር ሲያደርጉ በንግግሮዎ መሀል ክልል የአስተዳደር ወሰን ነው በማለት ወደፊት እንደሚቀየር አቅጣጫ ያሳዩ መስሎኝ ነበር። ሆኖም ክልሎች በእርስዎ የሥስት ዓመት ዘመን በሁለት ጨምረዋል። ክልሎችን መቀነስ ሕገ መንግሰት ማሻሻል ስለሚጠይቅ መቀየር ወይም መቀነስ ይከብዳል። ማስፋፋት ለምን አስፈለገ? የሚምስለኝ በአገራችን ላይ ብዙ የስደት የሞት የጦርነት ቀጠና ያደረገን የክልል ጉዳይ ነው። መስፋፋት ያለበት አይመስለኝም።

የዳስፖራ ደጋፊዎ

What a difference a war makes!

People leaving the conflict zone in the Ukraine conflict. ( Image screenshot from AP video via ABC news)

By Addissu Admas

It must occur to anyone endowed with a minimum sense of fair play how Western media has treated so differently the war in Ethiopia and the one now going on in Ukraine. I do not want to begin by accusing Western media for such glaring difference to its deep-seated bias, prejudice or even racism, even though these have certainly played a role in it. I want to give the benefit of the doubt to Western media by considering also other factors that we must consider if we want that our judgment does not become slanted and narrow.

If we are to believe the media, the whole world has now condemned Putin and his invasion of Ukraine. We are now fed on a daily basis and round the clock scraps of video images depicting shelling; millions of Ukrainian mothers and their children being loaded onto trains to flee the country to neighboring countries; young men brazenly defying the mighty Russian army, and dead bodies strewn on the road, and the young Ukrainian president in military sweater continuing to rally his nation and asking the West to come to his aid, etc… I do not doubt that what I see, hear or read in the media is the truth. Moreover, I whole-heartedly feel that Ukrainians should not have to suffer and be stripped of their independence for any reason or by anyone: as a people, they are entitled to all the respect and dignity that every nation is entitled and deserves. In brief, this war is wrong-headed and I would have wished sincerely that President Putin had chosen a different course of action. I arrived at this conclusion because I heard the voices of Ukrainians and not only that of the Western Media. Indeed, what the Western Media has done in my opinion is to amplify their voices. This is the very opposite of what happened and continues to happen in the case of Western media’s coverage of Ethiopia and other African countries.

From the outset, Western media did not want to hear what the people of Ethiopia felt, wanted and said; it merely imposed its own narrative on them as to sway the opinion of its own citizens and maybe support the governments of the West. It chose not to remember under what regime Ethiopians had suffered for 27 long years. It omitted consistently who indeed was responsible for starting the war in the first place. It denied the right of a duly elected government to exercise its very important duty of fighting insurrectionists. It sided unabashedly with a truculent and predatory armed party, because either it was the creature of mighty America and/or it pursued one time her proxy wars in the Horn. It did not matter that the vast majority of Ethiopians wanted to rid themselves for the last time a hate mongering party that has deprived them of liberty, unity and peace; what mattered most was what the American and European countries saw as their advantage. It is for this reason that Ethiopians everywhere rose with the cry of “NO MORE”.

Can you imagine if the Western media had the decency of listening to what the very large majority of the Ethiopian people had to say? If It summoned the courage of interviewing on a daily basis the PM on what transpired and how he planned to bring to an end the war. What the reasons for the conflict were in the first place. How he intended to preserve the unity of the country. What help he required to achieve his goal, etc…etc… No, they chose to listen only to what they have anointed to be the victim, the TPLF and nothing more. They ignored the fact that the Ethiopian people, including the Tigrean people, have been the true victims, not only of TPLF’s 27 yearlong regime, but also of its ill-conceived, ill-designed and ill-conducted war to recapture its lost power. The West is horrified that Ukrainian civilians have been killed in the dozens or maybe in the hundreds since the start of the Russian invasion. How many poor country folk in Amhara, Afar, and Tigray have been killed by the senseless war that began at the instigation of the TPLF? Most likely by the tens of thousands. Our lives do not matter enough for Western media to find out the truth.

The big excuse of Western media is that the Ethiopian government did not want to give free access to Western reporters. I cannot sympathize with this pretext. Can you lie about a person if you do not like the way that person treats you? Can you expect to be welcomed with open arms if you come with your preconceived judgment and narrative? If you are unable to report truthfully, if you do not have the facts at hand, I say, quoting the famous British Austrian philosopher Wittgenstein, “whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent”. This should be also the motto of every western news medium.

Western Media has been more than eager to hear from the Ukrainians themselves, to render them masters of their own narrative. Have you seen any Western media allowing Ethiopians to speak their truth? It did not matter because we were silenced and buried by their own contrived speculations, which had no basis in reality. Or, more precisely, they chose to give voice to the grievances of a party and its supporters that have been victimizing the whole of Ethiopia for nearly three decades. Where in lies their sense of fair play?

I am not naïve as to compare the situation in Ukraine with the one in Ethiopia. In Ukraine, the danger of confrontation between the global powers is in full view, in Ethiopia only a specific strategic point and perhaps a very limited regional one is at stake. It would be unconscionable and unreasonable to compare them let alone equate them. However, fairness in reporting has nothing to do with the magnitude of the powers or dangers involved. What I say is give us what is owed us: The Truth! Apply the same objectivity you are willing to apply to Western nations to us. Give us back our voices and do not silence us with your own narratives. See the Ethiopian conflict for what it is as you are clearly doing with the Ukrainian occupation.

Our narrative is simple, if Western media is willing to listen. I am not alone to adhere to it; the majority of Ethiopians have never wavered from it. Most agree that the American war of independence was fought for liberty, and so is the Ukrainian to preserve the independence of Ukrainians. The American civil war was fought to preserve the Union against the secessionist south. And so is the Ethiopian war being fought to preserve Ethiopia’s unity against the many divisive forces inside and outside the country. So long as the Ethiopians want to preserve their unity, there is no reason for the West to dictate the terms that are more convenient to it. As it respects Ukraine, so it should respect Ethiopia and the choices of its duly elected officials.

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?

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.