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Ethiopia:
Attacking Perceived Motives of the Messenger |
June 20, 2007
With the two day old lengthy investigative
reporting carried out by
New York
Times, NYT, reporters in Ogaden
and printed on Monday’s front pages of the
NYT paper, it appears the first salvoes of
what is sure to be a concerted Ethiopian
Smear campaign to discredit the messengers,
but not the message, of this important NYT
expose has already started.
An author
who presented himself as a knowledgeable
person as far as the affairs of Ogaden and
Ethiopia are concerned has fired the first
salvoes. However all this author could
master as bona fide accusation was to claim
‘revenge’ on the part of the NYT reporter
Mr. Jeffrey Gettleman.
In a similar line of thinking and one
lacking originality, the Ethiopian ministry
of foreign affairs claimed anger on the part
of Mr. Gettleman and his team in order to
trash the NYT expose. Putting forth as a
defense the 2005 fraudulent federal
election, an election certified fraudulent
by every international organization, as a
proof of Ethiopia’s pretentious democratic
credentials is a sure sign of how unprepared
the Ethiopian regime was for an Ogaden
expose of the NYT extent.
We understand that the Addis Autocracy will
do everything in its power to trash any
credible reporting from the Ogaden
frontlines as it wants to use the ‘terror’
card in order to label anyone against this
morally bankrupt regime intent to hide
brutalities its army carries out in Ogaden.
However we expected its counter claims
against the NYT expose to be based on facts
and not a fiction read by the hallucinating
cousin of the head of the Addis autocracy
Mr. Seyoum
Mesfin. To claim 23 secondary
schools in Ogaden is quite disingenuous on
the part of the regime when there is ONLY
one functioning secondary school in the
entire Ogaden region.
Even if we accept the number of secondary
school put forth haphazardly by the
Ethiopian regime, it means more than half
the forty-eight districts in Ogaden do not
have a secondary school. The fact that Mr.
Mesfin could use an outdated 2005 data in
his defense shows how even the Addis
autocracy does not know what its left hand
is doing in Ogaden. Since there is only ONE
functioning secondary school, where did Mr.
Mesfin get the thousand plus high school
graduates he said were attending the
university structure said to be in JigJiga?
We understand the Addis autocracy will do
its utmost to trump the ‘terror’ label to
defend Ethiopian army terror reign against
the Ogaden citizenry. Since the Addis regime
cannot muster a credible defense against the
NYT expose and the heroic actions of one in
a million journalist like Mr. Gettleman, it
is also understandable that they will attack
perceived motives of the NYT team. We dare
the Ethiopian regime to provide credible
evidence to counter the verifiable reports
presented by the NYT team in its
latest expose.
editorial@ogaden.com
Ogaden Online Editorial
June 20, 2007 |
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