| The greater the power, the greater the persecution (By Kiflu Hussain) "Having overlooked the fact that Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks had received awards from Amnesty International in 2009.. More |
Journalist Ashine’s fate exposes Ethiopia as the
worst tyranny
22 September, 2011 | By Kiflu Hussain (Daily Monitor)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is no need to introduce to Ugandan men of letters who Mr
John Nagenda is. Yet, since this newspaper is also read by non-
Ugandans as well as visited online by foreigners connected globally,
a word or two about the gentleman is appropriate. Nagenda is
known more as a regular columnist in one of the Ugandan dailies,
Saturday Vision. It is through his column that I also got to know him
or rather about him.
Apparently, Mr Nagenda juggles as a regular columnist with his
other important job: he is a Senior Adviser on Media and Public
Relations to President Museveni. This venerable citizen of Uganda,
who has impressed me as a man steeped in English literature as well
as the history of Africa, later disappointed me with what appears to
be a blind endorsement of every measure taken by Mr Museveni.
That’s why I disagree with a description of his writing as “candid,
compassionate, critical”, etc by a BlogSpot Onemansweek.
Instead of criticising the heavy-handedness of the military and police
against demonstrators during the Walk to Work protests, Nagenda
described the people who were rightfully aggrieved as a “bunch of
lumpens.” He did not show outrage when another venerable citizen
of Uganda was mercilessly roughed up in front of glaring cameras!
Instead; he ridiculed the man on several occasions. Recently though,
Nagenda caught everybody by surprise. In an extensive interview he
gave to the Sunday Monitor, a newspaper he used to despise so
much, he described his boss, Mr Museveni, as “autocratic.” Well,
never too old to learn and never too late to turn.
independent media. He also secured a job as correspondent for the
Nation Media Group and his stories have appeared in NMG
publications such as Daily Nation of Kenya, The East African, Daily
Monitor and The Citizen of Tanzania, in addition to being the
chairman of the Ethiopian Environment Journalists Association.
Until recently-- except being Africans in the same business called
media-- there is not much in common between Ashine and
Nagenda. Yet, Wikileaks changed all that and prompted me to
compare the good fortune of one against the fate of another.
Wikileaks reported that both revealed information that could make
their respective rulers uncomfortable to American diplomats. While
Nagenda who allegedly said Ms Janet Museveni, the First Lady,
initiated the Anti-homosexuality Bill suffered no consequence even
after he stood by his word, Ashine, who revealed the Ethiopian
regime’s diabolical plan to incarcerate journalists of Addis Neger
with a bogus terrorist charge, was forced to flee from his country
after a gruelling interrogation to reveal his source.
When BBC Focus on Africa reported this, I texted a message by
comparing the two situations and how this shows that Ethiopia,
“even by African standards, is in the worst form of tyranny.” BBC
which exposes the excesses of the Ethiopian regime once in a blue
moon and from which it occasionally manifests a tendency to
backtrack like the story about diversion of aid money by Martin
Plaut, didn’t also handle this story objectively. BBC, which gave
ample coverage to Meles Zenawi’s recent dishonest talk in Nairobi
about “humanitarian corridor” to victims of famine in Somalia, didn’t
utter a word about two Swedish journalists who were accused of a
trumped-up charge of terrorism in Ethiopia on that very day!
Also, they made no mention of Ethiopian critics and dissidents who
have been incarcerated in a new wave of a crackdown on the same
bogus charges of terrorism among whom are journalists and a
prominent actor. Instead, BBC made it sound like Ashine, like
“many other Ethiopians, used the interrogation as an excuse to flee.”
Of course, the power of effective lobbying always does wonders,
for if Ashine was an Eritrean, his departure might have been
portrayed as an exodus. Also, my SMS which drew comparison
between Nagenda and Ashine might have been spared suppression.
---------------------------------------------------------------
worst tyranny
22 September, 2011 | By Kiflu Hussain (Daily Monitor)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is no need to introduce to Ugandan men of letters who Mr
John Nagenda is. Yet, since this newspaper is also read by non-
Ugandans as well as visited online by foreigners connected globally,
a word or two about the gentleman is appropriate. Nagenda is
known more as a regular columnist in one of the Ugandan dailies,
Saturday Vision. It is through his column that I also got to know him
or rather about him.
Apparently, Mr Nagenda juggles as a regular columnist with his
other important job: he is a Senior Adviser on Media and Public
Relations to President Museveni. This venerable citizen of Uganda,
who has impressed me as a man steeped in English literature as well
as the history of Africa, later disappointed me with what appears to
be a blind endorsement of every measure taken by Mr Museveni.
That’s why I disagree with a description of his writing as “candid,
compassionate, critical”, etc by a BlogSpot Onemansweek.
Instead of criticising the heavy-handedness of the military and police
against demonstrators during the Walk to Work protests, Nagenda
described the people who were rightfully aggrieved as a “bunch of
lumpens.” He did not show outrage when another venerable citizen
of Uganda was mercilessly roughed up in front of glaring cameras!
Instead; he ridiculed the man on several occasions. Recently though,
Nagenda caught everybody by surprise. In an extensive interview he
gave to the Sunday Monitor, a newspaper he used to despise so
much, he described his boss, Mr Museveni, as “autocratic.” Well,
never too old to learn and never too late to turn.
- Now, let us go to the other
gentleman; Mr Argaw Ashine.
Ashine is my fellow countryman,
an Ethiopian who used to work in
the state-owned media as a
journalist. He somehow managed
to extricate himself from the
independent media. He also secured a job as correspondent for the
Nation Media Group and his stories have appeared in NMG
publications such as Daily Nation of Kenya, The East African, Daily
Monitor and The Citizen of Tanzania, in addition to being the
chairman of the Ethiopian Environment Journalists Association.
Until recently-- except being Africans in the same business called
media-- there is not much in common between Ashine and
Nagenda. Yet, Wikileaks changed all that and prompted me to
compare the good fortune of one against the fate of another.
Wikileaks reported that both revealed information that could make
their respective rulers uncomfortable to American diplomats. While
Nagenda who allegedly said Ms Janet Museveni, the First Lady,
initiated the Anti-homosexuality Bill suffered no consequence even
after he stood by his word, Ashine, who revealed the Ethiopian
regime’s diabolical plan to incarcerate journalists of Addis Neger
with a bogus terrorist charge, was forced to flee from his country
after a gruelling interrogation to reveal his source.
When BBC Focus on Africa reported this, I texted a message by
comparing the two situations and how this shows that Ethiopia,
“even by African standards, is in the worst form of tyranny.” BBC
which exposes the excesses of the Ethiopian regime once in a blue
moon and from which it occasionally manifests a tendency to
backtrack like the story about diversion of aid money by Martin
Plaut, didn’t also handle this story objectively. BBC, which gave
ample coverage to Meles Zenawi’s recent dishonest talk in Nairobi
about “humanitarian corridor” to victims of famine in Somalia, didn’t
utter a word about two Swedish journalists who were accused of a
trumped-up charge of terrorism in Ethiopia on that very day!
Also, they made no mention of Ethiopian critics and dissidents who
have been incarcerated in a new wave of a crackdown on the same
bogus charges of terrorism among whom are journalists and a
prominent actor. Instead, BBC made it sound like Ashine, like
“many other Ethiopians, used the interrogation as an excuse to flee.”
Of course, the power of effective lobbying always does wonders,
for if Ashine was an Eritrean, his departure might have been
portrayed as an exodus. Also, my SMS which drew comparison
between Nagenda and Ashine might have been spared suppression.
---------------------------------------------------------------
- Kiflu Hussain is an attorney and
Ethiopian human rights defender
based in Uganda, he can be
reached through:
kiflukam@yahoo.com
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