Ethiopia’s Tortured Path To Peace, Media Failure, & TPLF Refusal To Negotiate

Saturday, 10 September 2022, 1:04 am
Article: Alastair Thompson

For the past nearly 2 years I have been focussed very closely on the conflict in Northern Ethiopia. Its implications are huge – for the international order generally and the efforts to address compounding international crises, especially climate change.

From April to June 2022 – during a 4 month lull in the fighting I spent 8 weeks in Ethiopia doing research on the ground – visiting the front lines of the conflict in the Amhara and Afar regions – and talking with academics, policy makers, members of civil society, media and Govt. Ministers.

On August 24th war broke out again, after African Union led efforts to get the two parties to the conflict to engage in peace talks failed:

1. The Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) – a designated Terrorist Group for nearly 30 years the ruling party in Ethiopia – 1991-2018 – and which started the current war in Nov 2020 and
2. The Federal Democratic Govt. of Ethiopia (FDRE) – the first democratically elected Govt of Ethiopia, elected in June 2021 following a transition from 2018-2021 during which the TPLF was deposed by a popular uprising led by Ethiopian youth.

This report consists of two videos and text reports from Fana Television of an interview conducted with me via Zoom on 31st August – which focus on a) the lead up to the breakdown in peace talks and b) the role of Media and the part played by World Health Organisation Director General Dr Tedros Adhanon in the resumption of the war.

A closed United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Consultation meeting was due to be held to discuss the rapidly escalating crisis yesterday – but this has now been postponed till Monday – due to a third urgency UNSC meeting on the Ukraine War.

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FIRST REPORT

The first report was published by Fana Television on September 3rd and 4th 2022

Video:

Link >> https://youtu.be/0iw81bN4r6Y

Text Report:

Ethiopia Did Everything Possible To Ensure Peace Despite TPLF’s Continued Belligerence: Analyst

On Sep 4, 2022 - Original URL

Addis Ababa, September 04, 2022 (FBC) – In an exclusive interview with FBC, Alastair Thompson said that the government of Ethiopia did everything possible to ensure peace, calling the international community to recognize the country’s extraordinary patience and resolve for peace.

TPLF has undermined the peace process that was being undertaken under the aegis of the African Union (AU) through the mediation by Olusegun Obasanjo, and re-opened war on the nation, Alastair Thompson said.

“And that was sort of the first indication that the TPLF was unwilling to actually participate in the negotiations. And they spent several couple of months basically talking about their bunch of preconditions,” he noted.

“Arrival of international envoys in Addis Ababa and then Mekelle looked as though the peace talks were finally going to get off the ground.”

“There were quite big talks that took place between the envoys and the government in Addis Ababa, and the envoys and TPLF leadership in Mekelle where unfortunately, the envoys chose to take selfie with the TPLF leaders, and this caused a lot of concern that perhaps they weren’t taking things seriously.”

“After that visit, they issued a statement saying that they agreed that there should be a restoration of services. But the restoration of the services is not as easy as people think.”

The formation of the Main Peace Committee in Addis and the respective progress also showed how the Government of Ethiopia is committed to ensure peace, the Analyst stressed.

“So one of the things that most of the international communities appear to be unaware of is the fact that there has been a unilateral ceasefire one in June and then there was one in December, and then there was one in March.”

None of the unilateral ceasefires announced by the government were ever actually acknowledged by the TPLF. Only one of those ceasefires declared in March saw a reasonable period of observance, he said.

From April through to recent times, there has been a constant flow of aid into Tigray as a result of the fact that there finally was something which looked like a ceasefire, he recalled.

“It wasn’t an actual ceasefire because they had never actually acknowledged it. They hadn’t declared a ceasefire themselves. They just basically agreed, I think, not to do further invasions for a while, but it didn’t last very long. My understanding is that every episode of conflict in this war, starting in November 2020, was initiated by the TPLF. The TPLF attacked the garrisons inside Tigray and killed thousands of soldiers.”

“They then attempted to invade Gondar and failed, they were driven back into Tigray. They were then defeated in Tigray. And then, during the election period, in June, they started a new offensive, and they were defeated in that particular offensive and then in July, just a couple of weeks later, they invaded Amhara and Afar regions.”

And after they withdrew from the areas they invaded, the international community and observers had addressed both sides, calling both sides to sit down and hold peace talks. But that has never been reciprocated by the TPLF.

Continuing their refusal to the peace process, they have invaded Afar and Amhara regions and begun attacking innocent civilians. Keeping to their nature, currently they trying to peddle some nonsense rhetoric to play a victim, he underlined.

The international community needs to give due credit to the Ethiopian government for being extraordinarily patient for the sake of peace, he stressed.

It is quite clear for anyone that listens to or reads the statements of the TPLF that they publish lots of statements, and make briefings that are always belligerent; they’re always threatening the current war they launched. “Unquestionably they are the aggressors in this conflict.”

The damage caused by the TPLF in Amhara and Afar was enormous. In Kombolcha alone, they destroyed the entire industrial base there and vandalized infrastructures and social infrastructures, he said.

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SECOND REPORT:

The second report from the interview was published by Fana Television on September 7th 2022

Video:

Link >> https://youtu.be/v7-RsPZD_zM

Text Report:

Media Bias In Favor Of TPLF Making Things Complicated

On Sep 7, 2022 – Original URL

Addis Ababa, September 7, 2022 (FBC) – The lack of international attention on the details of the ongoing conflict in Ethiopia coupled with the media bias in international news in favor of TPLF is making things complicated, said the New Zealander journalist and political analyst Alastair Thompson, in an exclusive interview with FBC.

The continued disinformation and misinformation campaign by members, leaders and sympathizers of the rebel TPLF have deluded the international community to recognize the rebel TPLF group as an underdog in the situation, he said.

“For instance, at the outset of the war, #TigrayGenocide hashtag was initiated, which was well before there were soldiers anywhere near Tigray,” he elaborated.

“Subsequent to that we saw through 2021 a whole series of arranged propaganda, sort of incidents, most notably the bodies in the river near Sudan, and spectacularly that sort of reports by the CNN came out to spread.”

“The report revealed that the bodies had actually been chemically preserved, that they’d been tied with pieces of plastic. And there were also reports that people who were picking up the bodies were being phoned from Humera and told to inspect the bodies. I think this is probably one of the most important aspects of the propaganda campaign by the TPLF.”

“Even today there is nobody to confirm the alleged kindergarten bombing incident that was reported by TPLF side as it took place on the third day of the renewed war. No news media showed interest to verify it and make sure that the footage that was made viral by the TPLF Information Group is valid. I think that needs to be acknowledged,” Alastair Thompson added.

“The initial reports were that the attack was in a residential neighborhood that was adjacent to where Debretsion lived, and then subsequently, all of a whole lot of tweets were deleted, and another reports emerged to claim that it occurred near a hospital.”

Thompson underscored that the international media need to understand that the lying is second nature to the TPLF and that they have various agents like Kjetil Tronvol, Martin Plaut, Alex De Waal and Rashid Abdi who are telling on the TPLF side of the story favoring the group. He explained that the media bias in favor of the TPLF is worsening consequences of the conflict.

Many of the international media are also reporting in favor of the TPLF avoiding its serious crimes. For instance, the international community and the media never talked about the use of child soldiers by TPLF, and the child soldiers issues has always been top of mind, he paraphrased.

They are using the children as human shields, the child human shields.

“When the captured and escaped child soldiers were interviewed by Ann Fitz Gerald they said that they were often sent into battle with no uniforms and guns. They were told that the guns were confiscated from the enemy. But I think the guns were just taken from their fallen soldiers.”

“Now there are independent journalists covering the realities in Ethiopia. And I’m one of those. I am not trying to take pro-government perspective. I have just observed the conflict very closely for a long period of time. And it is relatively clear for me what was actually happening,” he said.

What will be most helpful would be if the government would produce good daily briefings to the media about what is happening, he underlined.

As it was doing earlier, the TPLF has continued spreading misinformation in the battlefield for the mere purpose of manipulation. The government needs to send reporters from the media to the frontline, and assign them, assign them to keep the world informed about what is really going on in the country, Alastair Thompson added.

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Alastair Thompson

Scoop Publisher

Alastair Thompson is the co-founder of Scoop. He is of Scottish and Irish extraction and from Wellington, New Zealand. Alastair has 24 years experience in the media, at the Dominion, National Business Review, North & South magazine, Straight Furrow newspaper and online since 1997. He is the winner of several journalism awards for business and investigative work.

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