Debunking Ambassador Fitsum Arega’s Web of Lies
Mr. Ambassador, what is harming the “cause of truth and peace” in Ethiopia is not the NYT. It is the regime you’re representing.
On 10 February 2021, you published a column on Medium titled “My Message to the Media: Stop Reporting False Narratives Based on Unverified Information.” Your entire argument rested on a comment by Tibor Nagy, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs. The same day you published this column about false narratives, you tweeted a lie, denying the presence of Eritrean forces. You wrote, “the “Reuters’ ‘exclusive’ on Eritrean troops in Ethiopia is a figment of the imagination of reporters.” You expressed your sadness that Reuters had become “an echo chamber of mendacity.” The presence of Eritrean troops has since been established as truth, but you are yet to recant your lie. Why should the New York Times (NYT) consider you a credible source?
On 2 March 2021, you published another column on Medium titled “Let’s see the proof of ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ in Ethiopia, New York Times!” In this article, you shared your frustration that the NYT ignored the op-ed pieces you submitted as a response to its reporting on Tigray. You preached about the value of journalistic fairness and standards. Ironically, you represent a regime that has no regard for journalism and is targeting and detaining journalists as reported recently by your nemesis, the New York Times. You also lied about the ethnic cleansing that happened in Western Tigray.
On 11 May 2021, you published a third column on Medium titled “Presenting Only One Side of the Story on the Pages of the New York Times Harms the Cause of Truth and Peace in Ethiopia” after another round of unsuccessful attempts to publish on the NYT. True to form, you lied incessantly in this article.
Three times is too many, so let us set the record straight on your recent Medium column one by one.
1 You claimed that the war started because TPLF launched a surprise military attack. You wrote “top TPLF leader, Sekou Toure Getachew, said the aim of the attack was to conduct a “blitzkrieg” assault on Ethiopian federal forces and swiftly capture the major cities in the country.”
You lied. Sekou Toure was neither a top TPLF leader nor a TPLF member. In fact, he was your fellow EPRDF member, representing the Amhara National Democratic Movement. In the interview you referenced, he represented himself and spoke as an analyst. He also did not say that they had planned to capture major cities in the country. He said that pre-emptive strikes were carried out in self-defense, and enough evidence has since surfaced to back that claim. The war did not start because of the pre-emptive strike. The regime you are representing had been planning to attack Tigray for over a year and had already encircled Tigray by 4 November 2020. You do not seem interested in facts, but this article published on Tghat Media accurately captures the chronology of events leading up to the war (follow Tghat on Twitter!)
2 You quoted Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s statement from 4 November 2020 and Tibor Nagy’s statements from 15 November 2020 and 1 December 2020 to support your misinformation. Did you expect the New York Times and its readers to take your lie as truth just because members of the previous U.S. administration had corroborated it at some point? For what it is worth, Pompeo also called for a “complete end” to the fighting and a “constructive dialogue” on 30 November 2020. Why do you not quote that? Nagy’s statement that the TPLF had tried to internationalize the conflict in Tigray has also been rendered useless by the fact that Eritrea itself had already internationalized the war by then.
Finally, what makes Pompeo and Nagy more believable than Secretary Blinken, who condemned acts of ethnic cleansing in Tigray on 10 March 2021? Could you share with us, or the New York Times, how you decide which Secretary of State to believe?
3 You presented the African Union’s support to your regime as proof that your genocidal war on Tigray is justified, the same African Union that is dependent on its host country Ethiopia and is sometimes referred to as the “dictators’ club.” That should speak for itself.
4 You claimed that the TPLF is entirely responsible for the onset and consequences of the Tigray conflict. While it is a progress that you are now calling it conflict and not a “law enforcement operation,” have you no shame when you fail to attribute any of the consequences to Eritrean forces, Amhara militias, or the regime you represent, or are you still lying about the presence of Eritrean forces?
5 You claimed that Dr. Tedros is free to return to Ethiopia at any time and accused Nicholas Kristof of tabloid journalism for describing Dr. Tedros as a refugee. On 19 November 2020, the Army Chief of Staff of the regime you represent called Dr. Tedros a criminal and accused him of trying to procure arms for TPLF without offering any evidence. Can you make it make sense?
6 You claimed that Dr. Tedros, like many diaspora Ethiopians with family members in Tigray, can place a telephone call to his relatives and friends. Like many others, I have not been able to reach family in Tigray for over a month now. Internet service has also not been restored. How do you explain your regime’s track record of shutting down the internet to suppress dissent? Why does your regime continue to block internet in places such as Mekelle, Tigray where mobile network service has resumed?
7 By proposing that Dr. Tedros can use the hotline set up by the Tigray provisional administration to establish contact with anyone in the “unlikely event” he is unable to reach his relatives, you are insulting our intelligence. You must be referring to the hotline set up by International Red Cross, because the provisional administration has not even been able to fulfill its basic duties, such as delivering food aid successfully, let alone stand up a telephone operator service for the region.
8 You accused Kristof of not mentioning your regime’s non-existent reconstruction efforts in Tigray while lying by omission that your treasonous regime is engaged in a “campaign of destruction” together with Eritrean forces, as stated by U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock on 5 March 2021. This misrepresentation reminds me of your 20 March 2021 tweet, in which you intentionally misrepresented a Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) report to claim that TPLF destroyed health facilities in Tigray. The MSF report mentioned that Eritrean and Ethiopian troops were using health facilities as their military base. Why did you lie then and why do you lie now?
9 You claimed that the “region has been open to international journalists for several months.” While it is true that your regime permitted international journalists to travel to Tigray almost four months after the war broke out, the world also knows that your regime started arresting fixers for foreign journalists immediately after it issued a permit. Just yesterday, the NYT also published an article on your regime’s crackdown on journalists. How can you take credit for opening the region to international journalists while at the same time arresting journalists’ fixers and translators to control the flow of information?
10 You claimed that “international relief organizations like the World food Programme (WFP) and USAID have played a critical role” while demanding that the international community “needs to step up its assistance to help the people in need.” On 13 May 2021, CNN reported that Eritrean troops were coordinating with Ethiopian forces to cut off critical aid routes, indicating that your regime was using aid as a weapon of war, which constitutes a war crime. A statement by the UN from 12 May 2021 also corroborates CNN’s report. The statement reads, “blockades by military forces have, in recent days, severely impeded access in rural areas where humanitarian needs are most severe. Of the 3 million people targeted to receive emergency shelter and non-food items, only 347,000 people, that is about 12 percent, had been reached since 3 May.” How do you demand that the international community needs to step up its assistance when your regime is actively blocking aid?
Mr. Ambassador, I am going to leave you with a lesson I learned in my Column and Opinion Writing course in graduate school:
Try telling the truth the next time you submit a piece to the New York Times.
Disclaimer: I write solely to be a voice for Tigrayan voices silenced due to the internet blackout in Tigray and targeted ethnic profiling in the rest of Ethiopia. Opinions expressed are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my educational institutions or my employers.
