When lives of innocent people are at stake you would expect governments to take the high road and resist the temptation to try to take advantage of the tragedy.  But, the minority regime ruling Ethiopia today never misses the opportunity to take the low road.  In fact, when it comes to Eritrea and the Eritrean people, no road is too low for the TPLF-run regime. Anything goes if it ensures the regime another day in the Menelik Palace.

When the recent “kidnapping” of Europeans and their Ethiopian drivers and guides hit the news, naturally people’s minds focused on the lives of the kidnapped.  But, the TPLF, using its low-level and regional operatives, went into the blame-game in full gear.  In fact, the first-day story of the incident led off with the TPLF’s charges that Eritrea was behind the kidnapping and the story came out without Eritrea’s response to this outright fabrication (More on this later).

What is more, the incident was not an isolated case; it is part of a sinister campaign of relentless flow of fabrications the Meles Zenawi regime has been waging against Eritrea. The recent campaign seems to have at least three distinct features: the frequency of these charges has increased; the charges are focusing solely on global terrorism, Meles Zenawi’s most marketable commodity these days; and the regime seems to be stooping hard to draw—militarily—big international players into the quagmire of Ethiopia’s internal and external conflicts.

Let us look at this pattern of groundless charges against Eritrea and the Eritrean people (Meles in 1998 called all Ethiopians of Eritrean origin and Eritreans then living in Ethiopia spies to pave the way for their mass expulsion and to steal their wealth!).

• First, there seems be a noticeable increase in the frequency of the Big Lies—the TPLF generates lies about Eritrea and Eritreans a dozen a minute.  So, here we are talking only about the Big ones, the ones that cross the bounds of shamelessness.
  • (Item): Three weeks ago, the regime accused Eritrea of waging “terror attacks” in Ethiopia and it added: “There is convincing information about Shaebia’s strategy, plan and network aimed at wreaking havoc in Ethiopia through the orchestrated terror attacks.”

  • (Item): Three weeks before that this was the story coming out of Addis Ababa: “Ethiopia says it foiled Eritrean attack on African Summit.” The regime said, “It has foiled a bomb attack….against an African leaders summit.” A statement from security and anti-terrorism department of Ethiopia’s federal police said, “The terrorist attacks had been planned to be carried out during the 8^th African Union Summit.” Adding, the statement said, “Police apprehended the alleged masterminds of the alleged attack ‘just ahead of the summit.”

  • (Item): Throughout the fall, the regime and its Western enablers, put out tons of fabrications charging that Eritrea had 2,000 soldiers in Somalia to support the Islamic Courts Union. The lies, orchestrated by players from Nairobi, Addis Ababa, Washington, and New York, tried to fortify their fraudulent claim with all sorts of details about the departure, travel, and the final destination of the  troops.  In fact, one had to be embedded with the troops to give those kind of details. However, the fact is that to this day, they could not find a single Eritrean soldier in Somalia.  The lesson is that no amount of fabricated “evidence” or “details” can stand in the face of the truth.

  • (Item): And now this—in which the TPLF tries to pin kidnapping charges on Eritrea.  Right from the start it was clear this was another outrageous fabrication.  Even the professional spin masters of the regime and its supporters could not get it straight. Every few minutes the facts surrounding the incident changed. The media had to know it was groundless; yet, they kept repeating the charges.

• Second, these lies seem to be centered on “global terrorism.” One thing you can say about Meles Zenawi is that he knows what sells, and where and when it sells.  He knows that the West is buying wholesale anything with a “terrorism” label on it. Meles and his ruling party—the most sinister regime the region has ever seen—have been flinging “terrorist” mud on Eritrea hoping some of it will stick.  The most despicable dictators across the globe know that the best way to get Western attention and assistance these days is to shout “terrorism” and call your enemy a “terrorist.”  Clueless Western policymakers do not seem to know what this is doing to the real war against global terrorism.

• Third, the overuse of the word “terrorism” in what the regime puts out or its officials utter has as its ultimate goal to draw big Western players, especially the United States, into the quagmire of Ethiopia's internal and external conflicts.  History tells us that this is not something we should  dismiss outright. Ethiopia’s foreign policy specialists are extremely adept at getting foreigners to fight their country’s wars. An American advisor to Emperor Haile Selasssie wrote that Ethiopian conflicts are "often resolved by foreign dei ex machina." The American advisor, John Spencer, who was the late emperor’s primary foreign advisor for decades, “traced this pattern of Ethiopian behavior from the 16th century when the Portuguese stopped the Gragn invasion in the East.” During this generation we saw how they got the Soviets and the Cubans to fight for them in the 1970s against Somalia and the Eritrean liberation forces. During its 1998-2000 invasion of Eritrea, the TPLF received a great deal of tactical support from its Western patrons. So, there is too much historical evidence to dismiss this as Tigrayan delusion.

  An important dimension to this web of lies is the role of the international media, especially those members of the press that are based in Addis Ababa, in perpetuating the fabrications and encouraging the lying liars to give one lie after another, the last more outrageous than the one before it. The journalistic cover the Addis Ababa based foreign press--some are represented by notorious TPLF operatives masquerading as journalists--used when the first-day kidnapping story broke was: “Calls to Eritrea's government spokesman rang unanswered Saturday.” But, this is irresponsible journalism, especially when the story is based on a shameless charge of kidnapping by a government against another government, a provocation that should be addressed by the United Nations Security Council.  There are two groups of reporters here: those—most of whom are Westerners--without real understanding of the complexities of the issues they are covering and susceptible to manipulation by TPLF operatives, their NGO supporters and foreign intelligence enablers; the second group is made of local stringers working for the wire services who sing for their dinners under little editorial supervision by the international news agencies for veracity, fairness, balance, and integrity of the story. We can understand the notorious Ethiopian News Agency making such wild accusations against Eritrea. But, we expect a higher standard and integrity in the stories that come out in the name of Reuters and the Associate Press (AP)—written by their local stringers who should be working under the supervision of professionals whose allegiance is to the truth and not to Meles Zenawi and his criminal ruling party. 

• Finally, the picture that emerges from this campaign of despicable lies is that of an immoral minority regime that has long gone beyond the bounds of decency, a regime that is almost totally consumed by and preoccupied with its own political survival, and that is at the service of anyone,  any group or any government that will help it stay in power. 

 

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