“The detailed press statements, reports and explanations by Ethiopian parties, including the government and reformist Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, are routinely neglected or doubted. In contrast, the statements and international messages by TPLF remnants and advocates, marked by a high degree of unreliability, exaggeration and very often lacking truth content, are used uncritically.” Jon Abinnk
The October 4, 2021, inaugural ceremony of the new administration was so impressive. Surely, this splendid event has heralded the beginning of a new chapter in Ethiopian politics. Hence, it has grabbed the attention of many observers who have been following the ever moving political development of Ethiopia. However much the arch enemies of Ethiopia have tried to subdue and subvert the reform process that had begun three years ago, they have utterly and repeatedly failed.
As the pressure from the western countries is mounting, Ethiopia continues to steadfastly stand in defense of its sovereignty. The general situation reminds me of the famous strap-line of an oil company that runs: “When the going gets tough, the toughest keeps going.”
The rocky road that Ethiopia has thus far traversed would seem to be more arduous in the coming months or years. But our experience in the past would clearly indicate us, when going gets tough, Ethiopia would appears to become tougher and tougher in defense of its sovereignty.
History is my witness; Ethiopia has always come out victorious in any struggle made to safeguard its territorial integrity and independence. That is why Ethiopia has managed to be the only country in the globe whose aspiration for independent statehood has never been frustrated. I repeat, Ethiopia is the only country in the entire world that has enjoyed an uninterrupted status of an independent statehood. For the last three thousand years, it has stand well every assault made to encroach its sovereignty. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmad is an embodied manifestation of this persistent, time tasted and unflinching spirit of the Ethiopian people and he is fighting tooth and nail to defend this precious treasure of his people. To put it in simple terms, our eternal slogan is “freedom or death.” This is our article of faith.
However, the pressure to break our independent spirit still continued unabated. It is rather gaining momentum and the west is flexing their muscles and pressurizing us as they are marshaling all the resources at their disposal, including agencies of the UN. Had it not been to high morale displayed by some members of the council, it would have reduced itself to a touch button that simply works at the will of the US diplomats. It would have been depressing to see the Security Council, an esteemed international organ, playing a role of a clown at the diplomatic court of the US.
We have seen some western media gurus and spin doctors engaged in the business of mutilating naked truth. They are wasting their energy in constructing a complex set of lies that would simply crumble in a jiffy.
The famous scholar Jon Abinnk has tried to uncover the truth buried under the avalanche of the misinformation and disinformation campaign of the western politicians, media gurus and spin doctors that they had launched right after the ignoble November 4 assault of the TPLF against the northern command of the Ethiopian Defense Force.
In his recent academic piece Jon Abinnk has the following to say:
“Ethiopia’s internal political affairs Global media discussion and policy responses to the armed conflict in Tigray Region, Ethiopia, that started on 4 November 2020 by the TPLF (Tigray People’s Liberation Front) party-led Tigray Regional government, are marked by bias, incompleteness, lack of context understanding, credulity and an anti-federal government attitude.
“The conflict, provoked by an unannounced and treacherous nightly attack by TPLF forces on federal army troops stationed in Tigray to protect the Region, was the result of misplaced power-mongering by the TPLF, and its building up of tension with the federal Ethiopian government. The 4 November attack led to a major federal army response. Five days after the attack by TPLF, on 9 November 2021, over 800 Amharic-speaking civilian inhabitants of the town of Mai-Kadra were killed by TPLF-affiliated forces and militias in a gruesome manner – a classic case of ‘ethnic cleansing’. Perpetrators mostly fled to Sudanese refugee camps. These two events – the 4 November attack and the ‘ethnic cleansing’ – were defining dramatic moments in the war.” While the conflict unfolded, leading to defeat of the TPLF forces on 28 November 2020 with the taking over of the regional capital Meqele and the flight of the TPLF leadership, many leading Western media and news websites focused on the aftermath and the effects of the fighting in Tigray Region and its population, easily shifting sympathy towards the perceived ‘underdog’ (TPLF). This was followed by hastily written statements by foreign policy makers in EU, USA and UN circles, leading to an emerging policy narrative whereby essential details of the context, the nature of the adversaries, the reasons of the conflict were sidelined.
“These Atlantic community spokespersons shifted to ‘blaming’ the federal Ethiopian government and ‘demanding’ all kinds of measures from it. Notable was the international community clamoring for ‘unlimited and full access’ for humanitarian aid to ‘prevent famine’, and demand a halt to all hostilities. But meanwhile it did not deliver much aid itself and did as if making it conditional on the federal government following their orders. Part of the international media, several academic associates and researchers who saw access to their research sites blocked, and diverse TPLF associates in various international organizations continued to fuel the flames of this approach, next to the ‘digital activism’ and the production of fake news reports by pro-TPLF persons in Ethiopia and especially in the Tigrayan ‘Diaspora’ in the West.
“All this led to serious misperceptions and unfair bias on the part of the Atlantic countries and the UN vis-à-vis Ethiopia, which endangered integrity, balance, and a proper perspective on causes and consequences, as well as to policies that seemed akin to ‘development aid blackmail’ and sanctimonious lecturing of a fragile, low-income African developing country.
“In the exercise, the detailed press statements, reports and explanations by Ethiopian parties, including the government and reformist Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, are routinely neglected or doubted. In contrast, the statements and international messages by TPLF remnants and advocates, marked by a high degree of unreliability, exaggeration and very often lacking truth content, are used uncritically. On the basis of a number of telling examples, this paper describes the above process, analyses the emerging Atlantic discourse and some of its mistakes and wrong assumptions. It thereby pleads for a more balanced, critical approach to the incomplete reporting and willful misinformation from questionable sources so as to have the media and Atlantic policy makers develop a more responsible approach.”
Certainly, all these unjustified demonization and condemnation of international agencies, right groups and the media that are working under the tutelage of the western capitalists and governments would definitely add up to the resurrection of the spirit of Pan-Africanism. It would burst the currently dormant spirit of Pan-Africanism into flames. Reading the text, the sub-text and context of the current international affair reaffirms this trend. In conclusion, I would like to extend my appreciation to those who stood in defense of the truth at this juncture in history which some academicians would like to refer it as a “post-truth era.”
(By: Teferi Mekonnen)