I Was a War Reporter in Ethiopia. Then I Became The Enemy | ኢትዮጵያ ውስጥ የጦር ዘጋቢ ነበርኩ። ከዚያም ጠላት ሆንኩኝ!

💭 የኢኮኖሚስት ዘጋቢው ቶም ጋርድነር በእርሱ ላይ ጥላሸት ያለው የኢንተርኔት ዘመቻ ከተካሄደበት በኋላ ተባረረ

💭 “እ.ኤ.አ. በ2016 ዓ.ም በኢትዮጵያ የኢኖሚስት መጽሔት ዘጋቢ ሆንኩ፣ ሀገሪቱ በሰላማዊና በመን-ተሻጋሪ በሆነ ለውጥ ውስጥ ያለች ትመስላለች። ጥልቅ ለሆነው የሀገሪቷ ታሪክ ፍቅር ያዘኝ፣ ለ 3,000 ዓመታቱ ብሔራዊ ትርክቷ፣ ለውበቱ እና ለዋና ከተማዋ ጉልበት።”

“ከጦርነቱ በስተጀርባ ያለውን ተንኮል ማጤን ቀጠልኩ። ኢትዮጵያ ውስጥ በአንድ የምዕራባውያን ምሁር የተደረገ ጥናት፣ ረሃብን በትግራይ ላይ የጦር መሣሪያ አድርጎ መጠቀምን ጨምሮ መንግሥት የጦር ወንጀልን ለመደበቅ የሚችለው እንዴት እንደሆነ ለማወቅ ፈልጌ ነበር።”

“ዛሬ ኢትዮጵያ ራሷን የምትበታትን/የምታፈራረስ ትመስላለች፣ ትዊት በትዊት፣ የፌስቡክ ጽሑፍ በፌስቡክ ጽሑፍ።”

💭 The Economist’s correspondent was expelled after a shadowy online campaign against him

💭 “I became a correspondent for The Economist in Ethiopia in 2016, the country seemed to be in the midst of a peaceful, epochal transformation. I was beguiled by its deep sense of history – the national myth stretches back 3,000 years – by its beauty and by the energy of its capital.”

“I continued to look into the machinations behind the war. I was interested in how research conducted in Ethiopia by a Western scholar seemed to be enabling the government to whitewash war crimes, which included the use of hunger as a weapon against Tigray.”

“Today, Ethiopia seemed to be tearing itself apart, tweet by tweet, Facebook post by Facebook post.”

👉 By Tom Gardner, The Economist

Last July I travelled to Amhara hoping to interview soldiers wounded in Ethiopia’s civil war with Tigrayan rebels. I was accompanied by a young Ethiopian journalist, who was also translating for me. A group of federal police officers stopped us outside a hospital and threw us in the back of an open-top jeep. While the vehicle wound its way towards a police station, four or five officers stood over us as we knelt or sat on our haunches. Bystanders jeered from both sides of the street. The man driving the car behind us stared at me, then made a gesture of slitting his throat. When the police started beating us, my Ethiopian colleague got the worst of it: his mouth filled with blood from the blows. I was hit in the head at least twice with a rifle butt. I made a pleading motion for the officers to stop; they laughed. That was a turning point for me. In the grips of civil war, an already brutal authoritarian regime was taking a darker turn. Anyone could become the enemy. Including me.

I did not expect to become a war correspondent. Like many people, my early associations with Ethiopia were news stories about famine. I got a more nuanced view when I studied African politics as a Masters student. In the few years before I became a correspondent for The Economist in Ethiopia in 2016, the country seemed to be in the midst of a peaceful, epochal transformation. I was beguiled by its deep sense of history – the national myth stretches back 3,000 years – by its beauty and by the energy of its capital. The state remained rigid and authoritarian; protests against it were gathering momentum. But, from afar, Ethiopia still seemed to be a land full of ambition and possibility.

In an already brutal authoritarian regime, anyone could become the enemy. Including me

At first I wrote about urbanisation and infrastructure – railways, new housing projects, industrial parks and mega-dams that had been supercharged by Chinese investment and a Chinese model of state-led growth. Many welcomed the ascension of Abiy Ahmed as prime minister in 2018 and the advent of “Abiymania”. Pop songs with titles like “He Awakens Us” lauded his rise; people wore t-shirts bearing his image; a book comparing Abiy to Moses became a bestseller. Abiy offered a glimmer of hope for an opening of political and press freedom, too; he was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 2019 for negotiating a peace deal with neighbouring Eritrea. Stepping aboard the first commercial flight between the two countries in 20 years, watching tearful families reunite, I felt like a witness to history.

Yet there were darker cross-currents. The brief unity brought by Abiy belied a more contested, painful reality. Decades of dictatorship and the long-simmering border conflict with Eritrea had obscured fractious rivalries within Ethiopia, particularly between the country’s three most powerful ethnic groups, the Oromo people, the Amharas and the Tigrayans, the smallest of the three, who comprised just 6% of the population but until recently held outsized power. Those fissures started to widen.

The Eritrean regime and Abiy shared a common adversary in the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which started as a band of guerrillas in 1975, toppled Ethiopia’s military dictatorship in 1991, then dominated the regime that ran the country for more than a quarter-century. Abiy ousted the TPLF amid public protests against the party’s imperious reign, and repeatedly blamed it for Ethiopia’s woes. But after Abiy made peace with Eritrea, TPLF leaders feared that Eritrea’s and Ethiopia’s armies would combine forces to crush Tigray, the TPLF’s homeland in the north.

When I visited Tigray in late October 2020, mobile communications were shut down for four hours amid rising tensions, a precursor of a much longer blackout to come for the region. Days later war broke out, after Tigrayan forces attacked a federal army barracks. War fever quickly took hold in Addis Ababa, with blood drives and rallies in support of government troops. Tigrayan militiamen committed a massacre of Amharas in a border town just inside Tigray. (Tigrayan civilians were killed or chased from their homes in tit-for-tat attacks.) Videos emerged of piles of corpses; bodies were carried through the streets as their relatives wailed. Abiy’s regime seized on these images, pointing to them as a retrospective justification for the conflict. The propaganda battle was on.

Suddenly I was covering a war. To some partisans in Abiy’s government, I was fulfilling a secret purpose: on social media, members of the Ethiopian diaspora labelled me an agent of the cia (later I would also be called an agent of mi6). Along with other journalists, I was accused of siding with the TPLF. At first, I laughed off such conspiratorial accusations. At the time there was little sign that the government would take such talk seriously. Independent Ethiopian journalists, however, were already under pressure. Always constrained in their reporting, after the war began some were detained for daring to contradict the official government line. A number were physically assaulted.

I was labelled an agent of the CIA, then of MI6

Soon the regime escalated its attacks against me and other foreign journalists, human-rights workers and employees of the United Nations and other international institutions. In December 2020, a local magazine ran a cover story which accused me, along with a preposterously long list of foreign and local journalists, of being part of a grand British conspiracy to overthrow Abiy’s government.

That an established journalist could spread such lies, and in a publication that many thought was respectable, marked a disturbing shift. Government officials seemed to approve of the story. One even recommended it to another member of the foreign press corps.

Pro-government activists and trolls were making similar attacks against me and others online. On Facebook a post began circulating: a collection of mug shots of foreign and Ethiopian journalists and academics – my photo among them – presented as though we were criminals and supported the TPLF. The post popped up whenever a story appeared in the Western press that cast Abiy’s regime in a negative light. That happened often, as government troops blockaded the region; human-rights groups accused the forces of ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity, including mass murder, forced hunger and rape. I reported on these atrocities, as did other journalists, and tweeted about them. A Facebook post appeared with images of 12 foreign correspondents, including me: “Please follow these people on Twitter and expose their lies”, the post said, calling us “TPLF sympathisers”.

Twitter and Facebook have served different functions during the war. Twitter has been a forum for international, English-language discourse, where members of the diaspora and people inside Ethiopia waged a propaganda war that was, at least in part, intended for a foreign audience. On Facebook, Ethiopians increasingly spread hate speech and disinformation in local languages that could sometimes incite real-world violence.

Abiy himself poured fuel on the fire of the propaganda war. In April 2021 he urged Ethiopians not to “bow” to Western media “campaigns”. In August, he called for a mass social-media campaign to counter “lies” in the Western media. That same month, state media accused me, along with journalists from the bbc, cnn and New York Times, of working for the TPLF. The state was now openly encouraging hostility against Western media as well as the human-rights groups and international institutions that were monitoring the regime’s war crimes.

Tigrayans and other Ethiopians suffered the most. By August 2021 foreign media and Amnesty International had documented the systematic rape and sexual enslavement of Tigrayan women by Eritrean and Ethiopian soldiers. (Tigrayan forces were also found to have committed mass rapes against women in the Amhara and Afar regions.) On social media, government officials and their supporters engaged in a cruel campaign to cast doubt on Tigrayan accusers. They argued that victims’ testimonials were false or exaggerated, that rape was endemic in Tigray and that many such assaults had actually been committed by Tigrayan criminals who had been released from prison. They also smeared Tigrayan refugees in Sudan as perpetrators of a massacre, to cast suspicion on Tigrayans’ own claims of war crimes. Regime apologists downplayed horrific acts and denounced as lies even some documented incidents, such as a video of security forces burning a man alive. Ethiopia seemed to be tearing itself apart, tweet by tweet, Facebook post by Facebook post.

Ethiopia seemed to be tearing itself apart, tweet by tweet

Attacks were gathering against foreign interests of any kind. A campaign under the hashtag #NoMore – that is, “no more” Western intervention, colonialism and lies – started trending on Twitter and Facebook in late 2021. The social-media posts showing my face seemed increasingly ubiquitous. Previously I had felt safe in Addis Ababa. Now I started to worry about being recognised in public and subjected to abuse, or that I might return home one day to discover my landlord had changed the locks.

Some of this was paranoia. During this time thousands of Ethiopians, usually ethnic Tigrayans, were rounded up and thrown into internment camps. Even when I was roughed up in Amhara, my Ethiopian colleague suffered the brunt of the abuse. Foreigners were sheltered by comparison. But I felt a creeping sense of the nastiness online bleeding into my real life. In mid-2021 billboards had been put up in parts of Addis Ababa calling for “white demons” to leave the country. They were the handiwork of a fire-and-brimstone preacher advertising his YouTube channel. It seemed telling, though, that the government let them stay up.

I was ever more conscious of my status as an outsider – distrusted, unwelcome. I was on a trip with friends in the eastern town of Harar when, one night, the owner of a bar told me that because I was British I must be a journalist – and because I was a British journalist, I must be in the pay of the TPLF. Rattled, I slipped out into the night. When the regime declared a state of emergency late last year, police began conducting house raids and arrests throughout the capital. I slept uneasily for weeks, expecting a loud knock at the door.

In March this year the government agreed a truce with the TPLF. The situation was calmer and relations between Abiy’s regime and the West were improving. I continued to look into the machinations behind the war. I was interested in how research conducted in Ethiopia by a Western scholar seemed to be enabling the government to whitewash war crimes, which included the use of hunger as a weapon against Tigray. A polite email I sent on May 1st to a Western think-tank sparked yet another online campaign, this time against me personally, lasting two weeks. My email to the think-tank was made public on Twitter, where pro-government figures (yet again) spread wild accusations that I was operating on behalf of the TPLF. One thing had changed: there were also calls for my journalist accreditation to be revoked.

Some social-media posts came from the Ethiopian diaspora, others from Western apologists for Abiy. State media republished claims of my “despicable behaviour”, along with the suggestion that I be “given the boot home and fired”. On May 13th, the government’s media authority summoned me to its office and handed me a letter: my press accreditation had been revoked. The next day an immigration official called to tell me I had 48 hours to leave the country. Just like that, my life in Ethiopia was over.

In the short time since I left in May, many more Ethiopian journalists and activists have been detained. One of those arrested was the author of the magazine story that attacked me and other journalists early in the war. Even he had not kept faithfully enough to the government line. (His family says he was beaten in custody.) He joins scores of other writers, commentators and photographers who have been jailed since 2020. Last year two journalists were murdered. Others have been hounded out of the country. Several other foreign journalists have been banished or barred from reporting. Ethiopia’s own human-rights commissioner has called the situation a “new low” for the country.

I started to worry about being recognised in public or that I might return home one day to discover my landlord had changed the locks

Friends in Addis Ababa sent me a video posted just days after I was expelled. An Ethiopian commentator, Seyoum Teshome, was celebrating my departure on a YouTube talk show. A fiery, Tucker Carlson-like figure, he wrote the word “journalists” in sneering inverted commas in tweets. Now he was making explicit his charge that I and others worked for the TPLF. “Tom Gardner has been expelled, hasn’t he? Why?” he said, speaking Amharic. “I’ve proved 30 or 40 times that he is a criminal. Before he was expelled, I came here and told you, ‘Look at him’, didn’t I?” He said he “proved 1,000 times” that I was part of the TPLF.

This televised tirade, since viewed on YouTube more than 100,000 times, was the coda to the long digital campaign against me. Modern digital warfare, designed to sow confusion, is now being waged everywhere from Ukraine and Syria to China and beyond. The experience was a painful reminder to me that China was a model not just for Ethiopia’s state-directed economic development. The government had also taken more disturbing lessons from China and other authoritarian states. It was learning how to become a modern, digital autocracy.

Source

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French Tennis Star Gael Monfils Blames Booster Shot For His Health Problem Resulting in Withdrawal from Tournament

On Tuesday, French Number One tennis star player announced his withdrawal from next week’s tournament after suffering a potential adverse reaction following his Covid-19 booster shot.

Gael Monfils, 35, announced his withdrawal from next week’s Davis Cup on his social media account due to health problems.

“Hello everyone, I wanted to give you some news following my recent withdrawals from tournaments. I suffered a minor health glitch (probably following my third dose of vaccine),” Monfils revealed on his Twitter account.

“On the advice of my doctor, I have decided to take some time to rest. Unfortunately, I will not be able to play the Davis Cup next week,” he added.

“I hope to be able to return to the United States,” Monfils concluded.

The 2022 Davis Cup World Group I Playoffs will be held on a home-and-away basis on March 4-5, 2022.

It can be recalled that another tennis player, Jeremy Chardy, developed a ‘series of problems’ after getting vaccinated. The 35-year-old player said he regretted taking the Covid-19 vaccine.

Monfils’ decision to take his third shot might be a result of the government’s tyrannical regulations to deactivate the vaccine passports of residents who have not taken the booster shot.

TGP previously reported that the French Government began deactivating the vaccine passports of nearly four million double-vaxxed citizens because they still have not taken the booster. Individuals who have had their passes taken away will effectively be relegated to unvaxxed status and no longer be able to engage in most aspects of society.

Although some are willing to take the booster, most were caught completely off-guard when they checked their app and found their privileges had been revoked.

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Romania’s Most Famous Football Team, Steaua Bucharest, Announce a Ban on VACCINATED Players

If it’s Good Enough for Owners to Ban Non-Vaccinated Players it Should Be Good for This…

💭 የሮማኒያ በጣም ዝነኛ የእግር ኳስ ቡድን ስቴዋ ቡካሬስት የኮቪድ ክትባትን የተከተቡ ተጫዋቾች ላይ እገዳ መጣሉን አስታወቀ። የቡድኑ ባለቤት አቶ ጂጂ ቤካሊ ባካሄዱት ጥናት መሠረት የእግርኳስ ተጫዋቾቻቸው ከተከተቡ በኋላ ‘ጥንካሬ ያጣሉ’ አንዳንዶቹም በሆስፒታል ውስጥ እንደሚሞቱ ተናግረዋል።

Romania’s most famous football team, Steaua Bucharest, announce a ban on VACCINATED players, because their madcap owner says that athletes ‘lose strength’ – and claims those that are jabbed die in hospitals.

• Mr Gigi Becali believes players vaccinated against coronavirus are ‘powerless’
• He claims players at Steaua Bucharest and rival clubs are struggling after taking the vaccine
• The Romanian businessman singled out 36-year-old winger Ciprian Deac as an example of vaccine allegedly affecting older players
• Becali also recently said Steaua Bucharest striker Claudiu Keseru can no longer play at a high level
• His latest statement has drawn a furious reaction from the country’s government
• Romania’s vaccination rate of 86.52 doses per 100 population means they have the second lowest in Europe

The owner of Romanian side Steaua Bucharest has sensationally announced the club will ban all players vaccinated against Covid-19 from playing for them.

Mr Gigi Becali – a Romanian businessman and politician – said he is not allowing vaccinated players to play anymore because they are ‘powerless’.

Becali went on to claim that people who are vaccinated against the virus die in hospitals, as opposed to those who have refused the jabs.

He also claimed players at Romanian rivals CFR Cluj and Rapid Bucuresti were struggling as a result of taking the vaccine, singling out 36-year-old winger Ciprian Deac.

‘You’re going to laugh, but I might be right. Those vaccinated lose their strength. That’s something scientific,’ he said according to Romanian journalist Emanuel Rosu.

‘Haven’t you seen it at CFR? With Rapid, the players seemed to be fainting. They slept on the ground. All vaccinated people lose their strength!

‘I also see mine, the vaccinated ones. It doesn’t affect some, but it does affect those who are older. Haven’t you seen [Ciprian] Deac? There is no more storm.’

The same journalist also said Becali suggests he only allowed players who faked getting vaccinated to play, though this information remains unconfirmed.

Becali also recently said Steaua Bucharest striker Claudiu Keseru- who returned to the club in August after six years at Bulgarian outfit Ludogorets – can no longer play at a high level because he was vaccinated.

‘I gave him the money, I had a contract with him, he was a football player, I was the owner,’ Becali said via sport.ro about Keseru’s return.

‘I said, ”You can’t go to this level anymore. You can play in Romania, but not at FCSB (Steaua Bucharest) and CFR!”.

‘He said he would show me, but he has nothing to show me. It can’t be at this level anymore. It’s possible because of the vaccine. I say what I think. I don’t want to offend him.’

But his latest statement has drawn a furious reaction from the country’s government.

In a statement, RO Vaccinare, the official Facebook page of the government’s national information platform on vaccination said: ‘Vaccinated footballers do NOT lose their strength after being vaccinated against COVID-19!

‘From a medical and scientific point of view, there are no studies that would support a singularity like the one recently promoted on Facebook accounts in Romania.

‘Vaccination against COVID-19 does not affect the performance of football players. In contrast, there are enough studies showing that going through SARS CoV-2 infection leaves long-term sequelae (Long COVID), and these can influence athletes’ performance.

‘The bottom line is simple: to stay healthy, to enjoy football, to look at those who trust science and medicine. Please inform yourself ONLY from credible, official sources!’

Journalist Grigore Cartianu meanwhile added via sport.ro: ‘From my point of view, if I were to make a top 10 of the stupid and vile statements of the century – I’m not saying that man is like that, but the statements… the statement is stupid, incorrect, miserable and discriminatory.’

Romania are one of eight countries with a vaccination rate below 60 percent according to The Local, with the other consisting of Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland and Russia.

However, their current rate of 86.52 doses per 100 population means they have the second lowest in Europe, ahead of only Bulgaria, according to Statista.

Earlier this month, the coordinator of the Romanian national vaccination campaign, Valeriu Gheorghita, confirmed nearly one million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, had expired and would therefore be destroyed.

‘We have received a total of 4,478,000 doses, and 852,356 doses have been administered. Some 3.3, entered the resale or donation mechanism, including the 917,800 that have expired,’ Gheorghita explained.

Source: DailyMail

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በመላው ዓለም ብዙ ሰዎች ራሳቸውን እንዲህ እየሳቱ በመውደቅ ላይ ናቸው

😔 ምስኪን! በቪዲዮው የሚታዩንን ዓይኖቿን ልብ ብለን እንመልከት፡ ዋይ! ዋይ! ዋይ!

ክላራ ፋይፈር (Clara Pfeffer) የተሰኘችው የጀርመን ዜና ቴሌቪዥን ጣቢያ፤ ኤን.ቴ.ቫው (ntv)ጋዜጠኛ የቀኑን አስደንጋጭ ወቅት አምጥታለች። የፖለቲካ ዘጋቢዋ ማክሰኞ ማለዳ በዜና ጣቢያ ntv የ”ቅድመ ጅምር ዝግጅት” ላይ እራሷን ስታ ወድቃለች። በቀጥታ ስርጭት ከአንድ ፖለቲከኛ ጋር ቃለ ቃለ መጠይቅ እያደረገች ሳለ፣ ድንገት አድክሟት የጥያቄ ዓረፍተነገሯን እንኳን መጨረስ አቃታት።

ወደ ሆስፒታል ተወስዳ ክትትል እየተደረገላትና እየተሻላትም እንደሆነ የስራ ባልደረባዋ በትዊተሩ አስታውቋል።

እንግዲህ ይህ ሁሉ ነገር የኮቪድ ክትባቱ ያመጣው ጣጣ መሆኑ ነው፤ የሚገርመው ደግሞ ጋዜጠኛዋ ለክትባቱ ቅስቀሳ በምታደርግበት ወቅት ይህ አሳዛኝ ሁኔታ መከሰቱ ነው።

“የጉንፋን ክትባት እንኳን በጭራሽ አልከተብም” ስትል የነበረችዋ የአሜሪካ ቴሌቪዥን ጣቢያዎች ፎክስ (Fox)እና ቢ.ኢ.ቲ (BET) ጋዜጠኛ/ትርኢት አቅራቢ የሆነችው ዌንዲ ዊሊያምስ/ Wendy Williamsባለፈው መስከረም የኮቪድ ክትባቱን ሙሉውን (ሦስት ጊዜ) ከወሰደች በኋላ እራሷን ስታና በከፊል ሽባ ሆና ለተሽከርካሪ ወንበር በቅታለች። ወደዚህ ገብተው ያንብቡ። አሁን ሥራዋንም አጥታለች፣ ገንዘቧንና ንብረቷንም በነፃነት እንዳትጠቀም ባንኮች እያገዷት ነው።

አሳዛኝ ክስተት ነው፤ በመላው ዓለም ስፖርተኞች ሜዳ ላይ እራሳቸውን እየሳቱ ሲወድቁ ይታያሉ። ከታወቁት ስፖርተኞች እንኳን ካለፈው ዓመት ጀምሮ አራት መቶ አራት የኮቪድ ክትባትን የወሰዱ ስፖርተኞች ሕይወታቸውን አጥተዋል። ወደዚህ ገብተው ያንብቡ።

💭 NTV – Clara Pfeffer im Live Interview -15.02.22– Schocksekunde— -bricht einfach zusammen

Am frühen Dienstagmorgen musste ein Krankenwagen zum Nachrichtensender ntv gerufen werden. Die Reporterin und Moderatorin Clara Pfeffer war während eines Live-Gesprächs plötzlich umgekippt.

Clara Pfeffer sorgt für den Schockmoment des Tages: Die Politik-Reporterin ist am Dienstagmorgen beim „Frühstart“-Talk des Nachrichtensenders ntv zusammengebrochen. Während sie gerade in einer Live-Schalte den stellvertretenden Unionsfraktionsvorsitzenden Sepp Müller (33) interviewte, stockte sie plötzlich und konnte ihren Satz nicht mehr zu Ende formulieren.

ntv-Reporterin Clara Pfeffer wurde von Talk-Gast Müller aufgefangen

Dann verlor Pfeffer ihr Gleichgewicht und versuchte sich am Tisch festzuhalten. Interviewgast Müller eilte sofort herbei und fing die Journalistin auf und fragte, ob „alles okay“ sei. Die Regie reagierte prompt und schaltete zu Pfeffers Moderationskollegen Daniel Schüler (31) am Nachrichtenpult, während man im Hintergrund noch den Satz hörte, dass man lieber „abbrechen“ sollte.

Schüler gab dann in den 8-Uhr-Nachrichten Entwarnung und versicherte, dass es Pfeffer „schon wieder besser“ gehe. Später meldete sich ntv-Chefredakteurin Sonja Schwetje bei Twitter zu Wort. „Nach einem Schwächeanfall on air geht es unserer Reporterin wieder besser. Sie wird medizinisch versorgt.“

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Norwegian Professor Received Death Threats From Ethiopians in Exile

የአረመኔው አቢይ አህመድ የሽብር ጁንታ በአዲስ አበባ፡፡ ኖርዌይ የኖቤል የሰላም ሽልማትን ለአብይ አህመድ ሰጠች – አሁን ደግሞ አንዱን ዜጋዋን ለመግደል እየዛተባት ነው – በተመሳሳይ መልኩ ከድህነት ያወጡትን ፣ መግበው ያሳደጉትንና አስተምረው ልክ ከሦስት ዓመታት በፊት ለስልጣን ያበቁትን የትግራይ ተወላጆችን በመጨፍጨፍ ላይ ይገኛል፡፡ “ሲኦል በምስጋና–ቢሶች የተሞላች ናት።” ፥ የስፔን ምሳሌ

Evil Abiy Ahmed’s Terrorist Junta in Addis. Norway gave the Nobel Peace Prize to Abiy Ahmed – now he is threatening to kill one of its citizen – the same way he is massacring Tigrayans who brought him out of poverty, fed and educate him, they even brought him to the current power exactly three years ago. “Hell is full of the ungrateful.” ― Spanish Proverb

One of the world’s leading experts on Ethiopia, professor Kjetil Tronvoll, is being harassed by Ethiopian authorities, and has received death threats from Ethiopians in exile.

Tronvoll is professor of peace and conflict studies at Bjørknes University College in Oslo and has done research on Ethiopia and Eritrea since the beginning of the 1990s.

He also has a background as a professor of human rights from the University of Oslo and has as a researcher been connected to the London School of Economics in the UK, Columbia University in the US, and Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia.

The ethnic and political divides are strong in Ethiopia and this isn’t the first time Tronvoll’s received harassment and threats.

However, when the Ethiopian prime minister Abiy Ahmed – who in 2019 was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize – launched an offensive military operation against The Tigray People’s Liberation Front in November 2020, the agitation and threats against Tronvoll reached another level.

Organized Campaign to Discredit

The Norwegian professor’s analysis of the offensive was not well received in Addis Ababa. Authorities there started what Tronvoll calls a well-organized campaign to discredit him.

The leader of the Ethiopian intelligence service INSA, Shumete Gizaw, among other things accused Tronvoll of being paid by the The Tigray People’s Liberation Front to spread disinformation about the war in The Tigray Region.

The accusations are firmly rejected by Tronvoll.

Still, they were distributed by the Ethiopian national news agency ENA, and quickly reached Ethiopians in exile, also in Norway. This unleashed a storm of threats, including death threats.

Asked Norwegian Foreign Services to Help

Toward the end of December, Tronvoll contacted the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and asked them for help.

“There’s an active coordinated campaign of hatred against me, from Ethiopian activists who are spreading false information and unfounded accusations, and which seemingly is coordinated with Ethiopian authorities,” he said.

Tronvoll asked that his case be brought up with Ethiopian authorities, and demanded that the accusation from the head of INSA was retracted.

The Norwegian MFA confirmed that they were taking the case seriously, and promised mid-January that the Norwegian embassy in Addis Ababa would address the issue “on a general basis” with Ethiopian authorities.

Hit back at Critics

The harassment against Tronvoll however didn’t cease.

“I can inform you that the formal “campaign” against me in governmental media, where unfounded accusations are being promoted, continues,” he wrote in a new letter to the Norwegian MFA.

Recent statements from prime minister Abiy Ahmed do not suggest that the Ethiopian regime will stop at their attempts to discredit researchers like Tronvoll. At the beginning of this month, the Ethiopian prime minister tweeted to Ethiopians abroad to “hit back” at those who criticize the development in the country.

Had to Cancel Event

There is little doubt that this message was well received. Few days laster Tornvoll was supposed to appear in a debate together with experts from Egypt and Somalia, organised by the Norwegian Council for Africa. The topic of the debate was the conflicts that have arisen between Ethiopia and neighbouring countries as a consequence of The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile River in Ethiopia.

News about the debate resulted in renewed death threats against Tronvoll, allegedly from Ethiopian nationalists and Amhara-activists. The Norwegian Council for Africa found it safest to cancel the event.

“We had to prioritize the safety of the participants and their experience of the situation”, says leader of the Council Aurora Nereid to the newspaper Bistandsaktuelt (link in Norwegian).

Norwegian Partner Country

“To receive threats when you analyze war and human rights abuses is an experience I have lived with for years. But that activists who are encouraged by the Government in one of Norway’s so-called partner countries manage to limit freedom of speech here in Norway, is remarkable,” Tronvoll says.

“I hope the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Justice and Public Security will handle this issue with the level of seriousness that it demands”, he adds.

Ethiopia is one of ten countries that are deemed so-called partner countries in Norwegian development policy. They are selected as partners for long-term development cooperation with Norway, and have for the past 20 years received around 6,3 billion NOK, so close to 744 million USD, of Norwegian development funds. This is according to figures from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (link in Norwegian).

According to the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (link in Norwegian), Ethiopia received around 500 million NOK last year, and 700 million NOK the year before that.

A Case of Politics or Police?

The Norwegian News Agency NTB have requested to see the communication between the Norwegian embassy in Addis Ababa and Ethiopian authorities concerning the harassment and threats that Tronvoll has been subjected to. They have yet to receive an answer.

State Secretary Jens Frølich Holte writes in a general answer to Tronvoll that he should consider reporting the threats he has received to the police.

“Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ine Eriksen Søreide, has expressed concern about hate speech and has raised the issue of respect for human rights during talks with Ethiopian authorities. We will continue to do this. Serious threats that are presented through social media is something the police should look at. Such issues should be reported to the police,” Frølich Holte says.

Tronvoll is not too happy about this response. He points to the fact that such a police case most likely ends up being suspended.

“This is why I’ve sent a note of concern to The Norwegian Police Security Service in November last year, asking them to do a risk assessment of my situation. They however declined this, as they claimed it was not within their mandate,” says Tronvoll.

The Ethiopian embassy in Sweden, which is also accredited in Norway, denies any knowledge of death threats against Tronvoll.

Source

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Ethiopia: Journalist Attacked and Threatened With Death

Evil Abiy Ahmed’s Terrorist Junta in Addis

Ethiopian freelance journalist Lucy Kassa was attacked at her home in Addis Ababa on 8 February by three unidentified armed men in plain clothes who threatened to kill her for her reporting. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemns the attack and demands the government take urgent steps to ensure her safety.

IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger, said: “The attack on Lucy Kassa is a cowardly and deliberate attack on freedom of expression. The only intention of the attackers is to silence Lucy, so that she will not report on the horrendous atrocities that are being committed in Tigray by both government forces and the TPLF. Journalists must be allowed to do their jobs without any form of intimidation and harassment”.

I Reported On Ethiopia’s Secretive War. Then Came a Knock at My Door

Around 10:30 Monday morning, there was a knock at my door. When I answered, I saw three men I did not recognize. They barged in, knocking me to the floor.

They did not introduce themselves; they didn’t produce any kind of ID or search warrant. They began to ransack my house.

For nearly two years I have been reporting on Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, where government forces last November launched an operation to oust the regional ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF.

As an ethnic Tigrayan, I have roots in the region. But as a freelance journalist based in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, my motivation is to uncover the truth of a war that has gone mostly unreported because the Ethiopian government has severed communication lines and blocked media and humanitarian access to much of Tigray since the start of its offensive in November.

I had just filed a story to the Los Angeles Times about a Tigrayan woman who was gang-raped by soldiers from Eritrea, who are fighting alongside Ethiopian forces, and held captive for 15 days with almost nothing to eat. The story wasn’t published until today, but it quickly became clear that the men in my house knew about it.

They were wearing civilian clothes but carried guns. They asked me if I had relationships with the TPLF. I told them I had nothing to do with them and don’t support any political group.

In the shadow of the war, Addis Ababa is a tense place for ethnic Tigrayans these days. In Tigray itself, at least six journalists were arrested in the first week of the fighting, according to Reporters Without Borders.

Last month, unidentified gunmen shot and killed a reporter from a state-run TV station in Mekele, the regional capital. The reporter, Dawit Kebede Araya, had previously been detained by police and questioned about his coverage of the war.

The men in my home threatened to kill me if I kept digging into stories about the situation in Tigray. They also harassed me about my past coverage.

They took my laptop and a flash drive that contained pictures I had obtained from a source in the Tigrayan town of Adigrat, which showed evidence of Eritrean soldiers in several villages. Ethiopia and Eritrea officially deny that the troops are inside the country, but my reporting and many other accounts indicate otherwise. The photos I received showed uniformed Eritrean soldiers in their makeshift camps in Tigray, including some in houses they’d seized.

A few days earlier, a therapist who has been treating the rape survivor I wrote about told me that the woman had also received a threatening phone call, warning her not to identify Eritreans as her assailants. The therapist told me to take as much care as possible with the woman’s safety, and pleaded with me to reveal little of her identity in the article.

Before the men left, they warned that things would be harder for me the next time. On Thursday the Ethiopian government issued a statement saying I was not a “legally registered” journalist, an attempt to discredit my work.

I no longer feel safe here. I have only my Ethiopian passport, and leaving the country is difficult anyway because of the COVID-19 pandemic. I worry the men might return, searching for more evidence of a war Ethiopia has tried to keep quiet.

Source

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