Conflict of interest? Who is behind the recent lies and disinformation concocted by Michelle Bachelet of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights against the Ethiopian gov’t?
Michelle Bachelet is the former president of Chile (2006-2010). Tedros Adhanom is a high-level member of the terrorist group known as the Tigrean Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF).
Today, Michelle Bachelet is the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Today, Tedros Adhanom is the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO).
Both Adhanom and Bachelet have their official headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
On May 20, 2018, Adhanom appointed Bachelet as the “new Chair of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health of the World Health Organization (WHO)”.
On December 22, 2020, Bachelet came out swinging with an official statement damning the Ethiopian Government.
I thought Bachelet was a spokesperson for the TPLF when I read her statement. Could Bachelet have replaced TPLF junta spokesman Getachew “Comical” Reda, Ethiopia’s equivalent of Saddam Hussien’s “Comical Ali” who made up stories about Iraqi victories against the Americans.
Bachelet in a statement said:
“Seven weeks after the conflict began in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, the continuing lack of overall humanitarian access, coupled with an ongoing communications blackout in many areas, raises increasing concerns about the situation of civilians, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet warned on Tuesday…
We have received allegations concerning violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law, including artillery strikes on populated areas, the deliberate targeting of civilians, extrajudicial killings and widespread looting, said the High Commissioner…
Based on multiple accounts, the Amhara “Fano” militia has reportedly committed human rights abuses, including killing civilians and carrying out looting. The UN Human Rights Office has also received information, which it has not been able to verify, concerning the presence of Eritrean troops in Tigray, their involvement in the hostilities and related serious violations of international law…
To avoid continued conflict and loss of life, Ethiopia should address its longstanding ethnic divides through accountability, inclusive dialogue, reconciliation and respect for human rights.”
Within minutes, Adhanom tweeted Bachelet’s most inflammatory and damning allegation (not fact):
“We have received allegations concerning violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law, including artillery strikes on populated areas, the deliberate targeting of civilians, extrajudicial killings and widespread looting” says United Nations Human Rights High Commissioner, Michelle Bachelet.
This underscores the need for independent human rights monitors to be given access to Tigray to adequately assess the human suffering resulting from the conflict, verify allegations and to help ensure accountability for violations.”
It does not require a great genius to figure out the game Adhanom and Bachelet are playing from their posh offices in Geneva.
It is a game called, “Let’s use our high offices to bring down Ethiopia, to demonize Ethiopia, to portray the Ethiopian government as a barbaric and savage force that attacks poor civilians in artillery barrages.”
It is manifest to me that Adhanom and Bachelet concocted this statement.
After all, Adhanom gave Bachelet the prestigious chairmanship of the maternal health partnership, once held by none other than Nelson Mandela’s widow Graça Machel.
It is clear the Bachelet’s statement was concocted and designed as an indictment of the Ethiopian Government.
Seven weeks after the conflict began in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, the continuing lack of overall humanitarian access… raises increasing concerns about the situation of civilians… (In other words, the Ethiopian government which solely controls humanitarian access has intentionally blocked humanitarian aid endangering the well-being of civilians).
We have received allegations concerning violations of international humanitarian law including artillery strikes on populated areas, the deliberate targeting of civilians, extrajudicial killings, and widespread looting. (In other words, Ethiopian troops using their arsenal of artillery batteries are attacking Tigrayan civilian targets indiscriminately massacring them and looting their property.)
Based on multiple accounts, the Amhara “Fano” militia has reportedly committed human rights abuses, including killing civilians and carrying out looting. (In other words, Amharas (using Fano as code name) are massacring Tigrayans and looting their property.)
To avoid continued conflict and loss of life, Ethiopia should address its longstanding ethnic divides through accountability, inclusive dialogue, reconciliation, and respect for human rights. (In other words, the Ethiopian government is hiding its own human rights crimes and should ultimately negotiate with the TPLF and reconcile with them.)
I don’t know exactly what kind of relationship Adhanom and Bachelet have. Their photographs taken in public show a degree of intimacy that exceeds the boundaries of expected decorum between high level international civil servants.
I don’t know if Bachelet is returning the favor to Adhanom who appointed her as Chair of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health of the World Health Organization which in 2020 mobilized “financial and policy commitments amounting to $20.6 billion.”
What Adhanom and Bachelet do privately is none of my business. But it is my business when they use their official positions to promote their private partisan political agenda to harm Ethiopia.
It is my business when Adhanom and Bachelet conspire to propagate lies, damned lies, and disinformation on Ethiopia.
Adhanom is a dyed-in-the-wool TPLF cadre even as he pretends to be a WHO director. In my book, once a terrorist always a terrorist. It does not matter if a terrorist wears designer suits and pretends to be a leader of an international organization.
Adhanom will stop at nothing to materially, financially support the dead TPLF, lobby governments, and international organizations to revive the TPLF, and spread lies and disinformation on Ethiopia.
Adhanom was recently caught secretly mobilizing military and diplomatic support for the TPLF. I have presented those details in my recent commentary.
I have offered my solution to the Adhanom problem in my November 18, 2020 commentary.
Suffice it to say that the only solution to the ongoing Adhanom criminal conspiracy is for
1) the Ethiopian Government to issue a warrant for his arrest for violations of so many sections of the Ethiopian Criminal Law (Articles 17, 18, 238-242, etc.) and
2) lodge a complaint with the WHO Board and appropriate UN authorities and demand a full investigation into his covert political activities on behalf of the TPLF.
The bottom line is Adhanom is incorrigible. He thinks he can outsmart everybody and no one will be able to figure out his behind-the-scenes conspiracies, shenanigans, lobbying, gunrunning, and the rest.
Like the rest of his TPLF buddies, Adhanom can run for now but eventually, he will be caught and brought to justice.
Adhanom! You can run but you will never be able to hide under Mama Bachelet’s skirt.
By Professor Alemayehu G. Mariam teaches political science at California State University, San Bernardino.