Friday, August 05, 2011

Response from the Ethiopian Embassy

(July 05, 2011, London)-On Thursday a joint investigation by News night and the Bureau was broadcast on the BBC. The film exposed human rights abuses and the withholding of aid for political means within Ethiopia.

The Ethiopian Embassy in the UK has now issued a press statement refuting the allegations made. Although the Deputy Ethiopian Ambassador to the UK  Abdirashid Dulane was interviewed on the programme, the Embassy is demanding another opportunity to put forward its side of the argument.
Here is a copy of the statement:

PRESS STATEMENT ON NEWSNIGHT FILM ON ETHIOPIA
5th August 2011
Last night, 4th August, BBC Newsnight broadcast a 17-minute film making allegations of human rights abuses against the Ethiopian government. The timing of this report is guaranteed to inflict maximum damage on those who are suffering from the worst drought for sixty years in our region.

It was difficult to respond to allegations in the few minutes given to our Deputy Head of Mission, Ambassador Abdirashid Dulane, after the film was aired, when we had not been permitted to see the film in advance. We are issuing this statement to put the record straight.

The most serious allegations in the film, which the government utterly refutes, were voiced by the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) and the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF). Ethiopia’s parliament has designated the ONLF and OLF as terrorist groups. The two groups are affiliated to Al Shabab and Al Qaeda. None of this was mentioned in the film.

The ONLF admitted to killing 74 Ethiopian citizens and Chinese workers at the Abole oil installation in April 2007. Its UK spokesman openly boasted about this on Al Jazeera Television’s English and Arabic services the following day. Despite assurances from the Newsnight producer, these facts were not included in the Newsnight film.

The vast majority of the people of the region do not support the ONLF because it has a well-known policy of destroying development infrastructure and attacking communities that do not support it. The voices of this majority were not heard.

Newsnight repeatedly claimed that their film was made ‘clandestinely’ as the film-makers would ‘not have been allowed to film in Ethiopia’ if they had applied for visas. But dozens of film crews visit Ethiopia every month.

The BBC’s own correspondent Mike Wooldridge was in Ethiopia three weeks ago for a week
covering the drought in the Ogaden region itself and was issued a visa instantly. Newsnight were made aware of this but, again, chose not to tell its viewers. Read More from The Bureau of Investigative Journalism»

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