BY ADDISALEM MULAT
There is no denying the fact that Dr. Tedros Adhanom, the disgraced Director-General of the World Health Organization, has sustained scandalmongering against Ethiopia working in cooperation with the criminal enterprise that has been rocking the northern part of the country and backing the lives of innocent civilians into a corner.
It is public knowledge that since the start of the war, Tedros, one of the architects of the criminal organization has been many a time and oft getting involved in a smear campaign against the federal government by treating with contempt the positive moves unfolding in the entire territory geared toward ending hostilities.
Despondently, setting the UN’s obligations aside, the Director-General has continued acting in concert with the criminal faction to deteriorate the current situation of the country and win the hearts and minds of the wider international community.
It goes without saying although the federal government moved heaven and earth to make peace happen at the earliest possible juncture, the rebellious group ended up giving the cold shoulder to the proposed peace talks and opening a salvo. As opposed to pulling out all the stops to patch things up and deescalate tension in the northern part of the country, the discredited Director-General kept on fanning the flames and adding insult to injury.
In a similar vein, failing to give peace a chance, Tedros in the present circumstances has been echoing the terrorist TPLF group’s interest and mystifying the world community as whole with his usual fictitious stories that avoid considering the indisputable truth surfacing under Ethiopian skies. Above and beyond, by any means whatsoever, he makes no effort to acquaint the international community with strings of atrocities perpetrated in Amhara and Afar states.
Apart from spreading imaginary stories and blackening the positive images of the incumbent, the Director-General has been making the most of his position with the object of wreaking havoc, creating unrest, inflicting destruction, causing mayhem as well as chaos, and other criminal deeds.
The other thing is that regardless of the fact that the disgruntled group has been working around the clock intending to move the country into uncharted waters and up the ante, Tedros has continued directing propaganda against Ethiopia giving the cold shoulder to the gospel truth unfolding on a national scale.
It is interesting to note that at the time when the criminal enterprise played a part in summary killings, gang rape, ransacking, and other actions against the law, the condemned Tedros remained close-mouthed.
It is not an overstatement to say albeit the illegal enterprise has demolished hospitals and health centers in Amhara and Afar states, he was not able to denounce the nefarious deeds that broke everybody’s heart at the stroke of a pen. Even though the declaration of humanitarian truce by the federal government turned out to be the talk of the entire world, Tedros kept on closing his mind to the unvarnished truth.
As things stand at present despite the fact the incumbent has given the green light to unfettered access to humanitarian assistance, and the much-needed humanitarian assistance embarked on entering into Mekelle, Tewodros camouflaging in the UN banner has continued bewildering the wider international community with cooked-up stories.
Dejectedly, at the time when the terrorist TPLF group demolished hospitals, health centers, health posts, health facilities, and other social infrastructures in Amhara and Afar states, he kept on turning a deaf ear to the existing reality on the ground.
It is to be recalled that at the time when the terrorist TPLF group in the early morning of 4 November 2020 attacked the Northern Command of the Ethiopian National Defense Forces and caused human as well as material damage that turned the lives of non-combatants into a living hell, Tedros did not utter a single word of condemnation.
But when the government set in motion taking the law enforcement operations aimed at disarming the criminal enterprise, putting law and order into effect, and bringing criminals to justice, the discredited Director-General kept on getting itself involved in a smear campaign against the federal government.
Needless to say, subsequent to the criminal enterprise had been removed from power, it ended up getting itself involved in backing its stooges willing to play a part in violent acts to instigate clashes in the length and breadth of the country. To everyone’s dismay, the director could not utter a single word of condemnation.
The World Health Organization (WHO) chief’s abuse of power that is motivated by his loyalty to his ex-comrades has been concealing the suffering of the people of Tigray by the radical clique, a noted journalist said.
Speaking to international media, the journalist Hermela Aregawi stated that the WHO Director-General Tewodros Adhanom’s advocacy is a weapon to shelter the ethno-fascist group’s ruthless treatment of the Tigray people. “What we need is peace in the country and he is abusing his position to speak for the militias and the criminal gangs.”
Hermela further noted that Tedros has made attempts to cover the TPLF’s long-standing culture of creating crises for the people of Tigray which is manifested by triggering the renewed conflict and violating the truce. The WHO chief was also unresponsive when the group stole the aid that was meant to the needy people of Tigray and repurposed it for war.
The Permanent Mission of Ethiopia to the United Nations at Geneva and other International Organizations in Switzerland condemns the repeated falsehoods being spread by Dr Tedros Adhanom, the Director General of WHO against the Government of Ethiopia.
On the 3rd of November 2020, the outlawed TPLF viciously attacked the Northern Command of the Ethiopian National Defense Force. From that moment onwards, Dr Tewodros Adhanom, who was a senior leadership member of the TPLF, even now, acting as an active member of TPLF’s command and control structure, unleashed a propaganda campaign against the Government of Ethiopia.
Dr Tewodros Adhanom supports illegal activities committed by the TPLF. He never exposed TPLF’s destruction of schools, health centers, public institutions and infrastructures in the Amhara and Afar regions. He appears to support TPLF’s actions no matter what. He has never referred to a single health facility destroyed by the TPLF in the Afar and Amhara Regions of Ethiopia whereas other international organizations are assisting in rebuilding these institutions. The group he so strongly supports reignited the conflict to destroy these same institutions, the lives, and the livelihoods of people in the neighboring regions.
Under the guise of humanitarian and concocted family concerns, Dr Tewodros uses WHO’s platforms to attack the Government of Ethiopia with impunity. He has effectively tarnished WHO’s reputation, neutrality, integrity and credibility. These are grave misconducts for any staff of WHO to be this hostile against any Member State, let alone the Director General, who should have set the example.
The flagrant violations of the Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct of WHO and several provisions of the Standards of Conduct for the International Civil Service must be investigated and corrective measures should be taken by the Executive Board.
The Permanent Mission of Ethiopia has submitted a complaint to the Executive Board to initiate an independent investigation into the misconduct of the Director General where he is using his high office for personal objectives against the interests of Ethiopia. These grave misconducts against a Member State of the WHO must be stopped and corrective measures should be taken against Dr Tewodros Adhanom’s misconduct without delay.
For its part, the American Ethiopian Public Affairs Committee (AEPAC) stated that it is time for serious scrutiny on the WHO Director-General’s role in T-TPLF-provoked war in Ethiopia
The Committee Executive Chairperson Mesfin Tegenu said earlier this month , Tewodros Adhanom (PhD) quoted saying “maybe the reason is the color of the skin of the people” in suggesting the world has ignored the [unprovoked] war is baseless.
It is just the latest comment of his twoyear-long effort to bring international condemnation and sanctions on a democratic government and he purposefully and persistently distorted the realities of the conflict, he added.
“His comments also contradict the language being used by the UN agencies which have said the aid programme is meeting its targets with large amounts of aid reaching Tigray.”
Mesfin added that WFP Deputy Regional Director for East Africa , Adrian van der Knaap said famine had been averted in Tigray and highlighted the states in need of aid were now Afar and Amhara, communities that were destroyed by Tewodro’s TPLF colleagues.
The people who are being ignored are those communities living in Afar and Amhara that faced months of TPLF occupation and atrocities including killings, rape and mass looting, the chairperson noted.
“The latest OCHR estimate around 9 million people in those two states need urgent aid. OCHR describe the situation in Afar as dire with alarming levels of food insecurity and malnutrition.”
Recalling the background of the WHO chief, he said that Tedros himself is from Tigray, a member of T-TPLF and he served in the TPLF-led government as Minister of Health from 2005 – 2012 and later as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2012-2016.
Therefore, Tewodros himself faced many accusations of ethnic-based discrimination while in office, in 2010 Human Rights Watch published a report called Ethiopia Donor Aid Supports Repression, research pointed to the TPLF government routinely using access to aid “as a weapon to control people and crush dissent.”
Speaking about the Ethiopian government led efforts to get aid into Tigray, Mesfin pointed out the government declared a unilateral humanitarian truce in March 2022 despite the TPLF still attacking towns and villages in neighboring states.
Tewodros’s public comments and tweets since November 2020 show he has not once referenced the suffering in those areas. Could it be he is ignoring them due to their ethnic background?
He said that WHO head’s comments always suggest the people of Tigray are suffering solely due to the actions of the Ethiopian government, but it is not fact.
Recently, evidence provided by Reuters, the MacDonald Laurier Institute and others have shown the group becoming increasingly authoritarian against citizens living in Tigray accused of restricting aid including food, forced conscription and using child soldiers.
Raising the alarm for people in Tigray is so needed, the state will need significant support to rebuild over the coming years, but that is not what Tedros is doing. The trend of his public comments is consistent with the language used by the TPLF leadership in Ethiopia and the complete absence of empathy for the people of Afar and Amhara. This demonstrates he has one interest and that is to further the aims of the T-TPLF. It is time that someone holds the Director-General to account.
The Ethiopian Herald 4 September 2022
