Zelalem Tesema is an Ethiopian-born UK citizen residing in London. He is one of the co-founders of Defend Ethiopia. In his recent interview with The Ethiopian Herald, Zelalem said: “I am better known standing up in the crowd during the struggle for democracy, justice and freedom in Ethiopia.” Currently under Defend Ethiopia, he is leading the lobby and diplomacy team. Together with his colleagues, Zelalem is working to defend the image, integrity and sovereignty of Ethiopia from unwanted and undesired foreign interventions. Enjoy reading!
Tell me briefly about Defend Ethiopia, when was it established and what are the purposes?
Defend Ethiopia is a taskforce or a movement formed by Ethiopian and friends of Ethiopians and civic organizations in the UK and then rolled out across Europe to defend Ethiopia from unwelcome and the organized western media campaign and unwanted and unwarranted state interventions in the internal affairs of Ethiopia.
So, Defend Ethiopia is an independent umbrella organization. So, it was formed slightly by October last year when there was a wave of actions in a few cities in Europe and some pockets in Ethiopia basically which undermines the sovereignty and the continuity of the Ethiopian state. So, we decided that we need to be standing in defense of Ethiopia. We may have differences but Ethiopia transcends all of those differences. So that is how we set up Defend Ethiopia. So it has been more prominent since the Tigray conflict in November.
But before I go further, first and foremost, Defend Ethiopia sympathizes and stands with the people of the Tigray, who have been impacted by the humanitarian crisis, displacement of civilians and gender-based violence which ensued the law enforcement operation, and Defend Ethiopia also believes that defunct “terrorist” TPLF leaders are exclusively responsible for the situation in Tigray by attacking in horrific ways, the ultimate defenders of the Constitution and territorial integrity of the country, and the people of Tigray from foreign aggression. So, we do have a stand on that. And as much as we look at the origins of the conflict, but it’s not about whether we support or not support, what’s happening there. We need to defend Ethiopia and sovereignty of Ethiopia so along that line.
It’s very interesting that you’ve mentioned the fact that you’ve been standing firm for democracy and justice for the last 15 years. And …most western powers used to criticize the TPLF and EPRDF for the human rights’ handling, and for not ensuring justice in Ethiopia. This time, they’re sympathizing the group and it seems
they’re trying to resuscitate the group from its graveyard. What do you think is the reason behind?
Well, that’s really something that puzzles us as well. I mean, to be honest, in terms of criticizing, I am not sure we can strictly say that, that the West have been criticizing meaningfully and substantively, because during the past time, during the previous regime, there were human rights’ violations and injustice that were happening in Ethiopia, that you can see from space visible. But Western governments have been providing political, diplomatic and financial backing to that regime, although they have been paying a lip service as if it doesn’t concur or stand with the values of freedom, justice and democracy. So it was really a lip service.
And also, they are aware of the underlying ethnic tensions that have been being growing as a result of the policy of the previous regime. So I wouldn’t say that they have been substantively criticizing it. To me, it was a lip service. We know why we were opposing the previous regime. But now, Ethiopia has been in a democratic transition since 2018. But unfortunately, I mean, there are barrages of criticism, even passing laws and sanctions against Ethiopia so that, in my view, there are broader issues. In my view, the main one is about the geopolitics in that area.
Ethiopia is about to have a government that stands for its own interests, and for the interests of its own people, rather than serving the interest of the Western powers, that do not go very well with them. The previous administration had been a darling partner to them for a reason. The main reason is because it had been serving the interests of the West in the Horn of Africa.
Can you just mention some examples to your claim that the previous administration had been brought to its knees in serving their interests?
Yeah, for instance, there were occasions like the Ethiopian forces jumped into Somalia. I’m not saying that there wasn’t some extremist elements in Somalia, mainly Al Shabaab. But there had been situations where things were exaggerated beyond proportion to address the fears of the West rather than the concern of Ethiopia.
But there might be some people who may disagree with you regarding the Ethiopia’s role in Somalia, for instance. It was the Islamic Courts Union that was said to have declared war against Ethiopia.
No, absolutely right. Ethiopia needs to go and defend its territorial integrity and its interests. But I don’t recall the Islamic Courts at that time, as they were called, that they have invaded Ethiopia, and taken ways and territories within Ethiopia. But was that really in the interest of Ethiopia that was done and “how was it executed?”
Let me just have my last question on the Somali issues. Mr. Zelalem so, whose interest do you think was the previous regime serving? While it just “jumped” into Mogadishu?
To put it bluntly, the Americans were asking Meles Zenawi’s administration to settle a political score. Yeah, they went in. Yeah, they have made a blunder. And they were humiliated and left Somalia. So they thought that’s the best way to settle that score is basically to send some forces in the name of fighting terrorism so Ethiopians were happy to oblige, on the back of billions of dollars that were received, and then went in, but not even the Ethiopian soldiers, Ethiopian forces that have sacrificed themselves in Somalia have even been accounted. Nobody knows what the numbers were. And we also have good suspicion that most of that fund was pilfered by the previous administration’s leaders.
With defend Ethiopia task force, what are your activities, and what outcome are you expecting?
In Defend Ethiopia, our work mainly involves about combating the unwelcome negative campaign of the Western media that taints the image of Ethiopia and misinforms the public and policymakers. So, we contact lawmakers, we run Twitter campaigns, we organize rallies. And we have combatted effectively Ethiopia’s right to defend its sovereignty under international norms and challenges to waive biased media reporting on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). We’ve also challenged ill-judged and slightly biased views of the European governments and executive branches towards Ethiopia. That’s what we’ve been doing.
What is the opinion of the UK scholars, journalists and politicians about the current affairs in Ethiopia, particularly after the law enforcement operation Ethiopia’s Tigray region?
Well, that’s really a mixed bag. Well, Defend Ethiopia beliefs, UK scholars and politicians who have close connection with Ethiopia currently, or historically understand the challenges Ethiopia has been going through, and the influence of external powers, to amplify the internal differences within Ethiopia. However, a good proportion
of scholars and politicians who are well connected with the previous regime, and adversaries of Ethiopia, appear to have a rather inflated view of the reality, and also appear to be working in a way that endangers the historic relationship. So it’s a mixed bag. So Defend Ethiopia and Ethiopians at large have got a lot of work to do in the near future, or in the horizon to turn the tide of the undue negative attention focused on Ethiopia and help Ethiopia build strong and democratic transition based on mutual relationship with the West.
I’m raising this question, because their mainstream media, for instance, the BBC, with its various outlets, as well as their journalists, some also journalists are caught several times propagating disinformation. So how do you think you can defend this? I think it seems there is a lot of work to do for you there?
Well, unfortunately, this media, as you might think, or the public might think that they are independent, but they are not independent. In the sense that … especially regarding the situation in Ethiopia.
When you say they are not independent. Could you explain that, please?
They are not independent means if you join the dots, okay, it cannot be by coincidence media’s from New York, DC, London, or Brussels, broadsheets, and tabloids would be issuing a barrage of sorts of reports which are negative towards Ethiopia.
This has never happened. It is not by coincidence. So this is like a concerted and a well-funded and organized project. So we have seen it in the past. I don’t want to create any synonym at between Ethiopia, and other interventions that the West have done. But the whole model is, right, you use an organized media. First, you taint a country or a state, right, turn it into a pariah state and then after that, you use the political establishment as in the lawmakers in terms of creating doubts and create passing laws.
After that the executive would lay the groundwork for some kind of intervention or some kind of sanction against a country. This is the model that the West have been employing in the past. Well, I’m old enough to remember the dodgy dossier—yeah, the British government used to invade Iraq. It’s called the dodgy dossier. So we remember how the media had been propagating certain situations in Iraq. I’m not trying to belittle situations. So the authoritarian situations in Iraq at the time, or in Syria today, or it might be in Libya, but unfortunately, this is the modus operandi, a process they have been applying.
But the saddest thing is, Ethiopia has been a partner of the West, both in development and peace and security, mainly in the Horn of Africa. So you expect that they would be working with Ethiopia, because democratic project in Ethiopia is by no means a finished work. It may be that the glass might be half full. But it is something that ought to be supported.
So that is how the media operates. So what we do is that we still challenge what the media outlets issue online or on broadsheets, show how things have been blown out of proportion. In doing so, politicians would, rather than simply sticking to media reporting, soberly think the historical relationship of Ethiopia, with the West and the historical role of Ethiopia, in the region, and that we urge them to [refrain] from ill-advised steps and ill-advised laws that they will be passing against Ethiopia.
Most Western governments, activists and so on, raised the issue of human rights, particularly in relation to the situation in Tigray. Don’t you to think human rights is central to their pressure against Ethiopia, do you think there are other underlying factors?
Yeah, as I tried to mention earlier on, I mean, the situation in Tigray is something that they’re simply trying to hold on to, because they have some reason. I mean, initially, they tried even before start of the law enforcement operation. It was the GERD issue that they have basically thrown their weight behind. We remember the Trump administration; Trump himself saying, Why don’t Egypt think about bombing the dam. I mean, how outrageous a statement for the leader of the free world to say that, but it is not because we believe that the West is really interested in Tigray. Okay, if they were interested in Tigray, Tigray is open for humanitarian aid; Ethiopia has committed itself in terms of investigating any human rights abuses, the Ethiopian and UN Human Right Commissions are working on the ground as we speak.
But the West, like I said, it is about controlling Ethiopia to serve their interests, and their unfounded anxiety which is the alliance around the Red Sea, especially among Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Somalia, that would be a formidable power to negotiate with. Hence, what they do is that to threaten Ethiopia and basically make her kneel down to submission using, be it financial or political pressure.
Some even say, Ethiopian adversaries are still working in UK and EU so that they could join the camps of the US in sanctioning Ethiopia and Ethiopian officials. Do you have such information? If you do have information what are you doing just to counter this? Well, we are not under any illusion, I mean, the network of the previous administration, which was led by the TPLF, is still intact, especially in the West, and they’re using that; one example that we can mention here is the Director General of the WHO Dr. Tedros Adhanom. These days, we believe he spends more of his time doing lobbying and diplomacy work rather than the WHO duty, he is trying to get a concerted pressure against Ethiopia.
And I would not hesitate to say that Egypt and other countries leave no stone unturned in the West, in terms of putting pressure on Ethiopia. But Ethiopia is a very resilient country. We have seen it historically, how our forefathers and ancestors have resisted the pressure of the West, be it physically or otherwise. So there is no reason if Ethiopians were united in this day and age, both on the ground and digitally, that we won’t be able to fend off the western push against Ethiopia’s integrity and sovereignty.
You’ve raised a very important issue about perseverance of Ethiopians, the resilience, but one of the instruments, the West has been using to punish opponents is just cutting funds or loans, provided that any country fails to embrace their will. So what do you think could the Diaspora community contribute to overcome such arm twisting?
Sadly, I mean, the Westerners are determined, I believe probably things might get worse before they get better, especially in terms of financial pressure that Ethiopia may have to deal with. So, what the Diaspora can do on that is mainly on remittances, okay, so be it in terms of investment, or a personal or remittances. The diaspora community needs to think about hard as to how they’re going to be mitigating the impact of this sanctions and economic sanctions and support their country and their people until things get better.
There was a mass rally recently in Addis Ababa and most speakers underscored that, “We never succumb to foreign pressure” And even the deputy City Mayor of Addis Ababa Adanech Abebie also mentioned Adwa, and Karamara as instances to showcase Ethiopia’s resilience to foreign pressure. The question is, do you think the West really understands the Ethiopian mindset?
There is a saying that I mean, in the past, so Ethiopianness is like a nail, the more you hit it, the more it gets stronger. So, the West, yes, they might be capitalizing on especially the fractured ethnic divisions that has been set in Ethiopia, under the previous administration, and the legacy of it which is still running in Ethiopia. But history shows that regardless of our differences, Ethiopians when it comes to our country and our sovereignty, we use to put our differences to one side, and basically rally together to defend our country.
That’s what’s happened in the past. And hopefully, that would be repeated this time. So we may have misgivings about current administration in Ethiopia. But we cannot afford to see our ancient country with rich history and continuity, being pressured to be run like a banana republic. That’s the sentiment of Ethiopians. So the democratic transition is a new project. And it might be a bumpy ride, but we cannot be indifferent about the continuity of Ethiopia.
One interesting event witnessed on the event was some of the people participating on the rally in Addis were just caring banners of world leaders such as, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Vladimir Putin, and Chinese President Xi Jinping and so on. What message does this covey to the word?
We might have a quick reaction to the fact that if the West is not with us, the world is not monolithic as it used to be. So you could have, you could look for allies somewhere. I think that is the message that people are trying to portray. But in my view, at the moment, Ethiopia, we have not reached that stage. I mean, don’t get me wrong. Ethiopia works well with the Chinese, be it in terms of investment or in development, and bilateral relationship. And, and the same way with Russia as well.
Ethiopia has not abandoned the West, neither has the West abandoned Ethiopia. So, hopefully, I mean, this is like an aberration in the relationship between the west and Ethiopia and hopefully that would be resolved, and things would recalibrate themselves and we will come back, if not to the position that we want to be to some kind of meaningful and respectful position. But if Ethiopia is pushed too much to one direction, we have seen it happen before. Yeah, so the word is not a monolithic system. So it is not in the interest of the West, either to push Ethiopia, to that age.
Thank you very much, Mr. Zelalem. I am very much satisfied with our interview this afternoon.
Thank you!
BY WORKU BELACHEW
The Ethiopian Herald June 8/2021
