Thread by @althecat

#NoMore Breaking News Thread

A new video of an EU Parliament Dec 6th. briefing attended by 600+ delegation providing context to the @UN_HRC 17th Dec meeting, and in which TPLF involvement & lobbying is strongly indicated has been released.
Research / Video Thread follows….

This morning video of an important EU Parliament briefing held on December 6th was released by one of it’s two hosts, French MEP (Greens) Michele Rivasi (@MicheleRivasi) on her personal @youtube channel.

This is the invite, the speaking list is worth a close look.

@MicheleRivasi @YouTube Four of these speakers were added at last minute (details follow in this thread).
3 of whom were strongly pro-TPLF:
Meaza G. Gebremedhin (@meazaG_);
Ghent Uni. Prof. Jan Nyssen;
And Leiden Uni. Prof. Mirjam Van Reisen (@mvreisen).

The day after the briefing, Dec 7th, Prof. Mirjam posted this tweet, which completely misrepresents the content of the briefing.
No conclusions were made.
It was a briefing not a meeting, and contained mostly sober sensible speakers providing facts.

https://twitter.com/mvreisen/status/1468007044619943936?s=20

Not only is @Mirjam’s assertion there was some kind of consensus found incorrect, but at the end of the briefing @EUSR_Weber Special Rep. for the Horn of Africa said, “what is clear is that there is a real divide…and not even any overlap” between the positions of briefers.

The video was today, and has had minimal views. It is unclear why it was released now.

An earlier video briefing to EU MEPs on June 15 2021 was made public, and quickly resulted in controversy and anger.
News Story >> addisstandard.com/news-ethiopian…

This thread contains:
1. Background information related to the Video Briefing which 600+ EU Parliament & related intl. affairs people attended.
2. Opening notes setting context.
3. A set of direct video links to the eight, 10 minute long, presentations.
4. Concluding remarks.

NOTE 1: Controversy/intrigue during meeting setup 1/2

Four speakers were added to the lineup following lobbying from TPLF associated individuals as mentioned above. In addition to these three. @AddisStandard's founder Tsedale Lemma was also added.

NOTE 1: HRC community confusion during meeting setup 2/2

- Daniel Bekelle Chief Commissioner of @EthioHRC pulled out, but sent a replacement, EHRC Director, Albab Tesfaye Ayalew.
- UN High Comm. for HR Michelle Bachelet is listed as speaker “(TBC)” but didn't attend.

11 days after the EU Parliament Briefing an urgent @UN_HRC meeting - called for by EU members - was held in Geneva. It can be watched here >>

The second part of the meeting (voting on a resolution) can be viewed here >> media.un.org/en/asset/k14/k…

On cue, the day before the meeting @HRW & @Amnesty released matching news releases purporting to be an investigation report, and a Washington Post Report suddenly appeared on the scene.

HRW: hrw.org/news/2021/12/1…
Amnesty: amnesty.org.au/ethiopia-new-w…
Wapo: washingtonpost.com/world/2021/12/…

See additional detailed notes here about the background/setup of the EU Parliament Meeting.

Was the EU Parlt. briefing part of a broader effort to deliver a very TPLF friendly @UN_HRC resolution, which not one African nation voted for.

A week after the meeting the EC held a FM meeting, after which @JosepBorrellF issued a flurry of tweets and complained that his biggest regret for 2021 was that he hadn't been able to impose sanctions on Ethiopia.

The same day, the 13th of December the EU sent a letter to @UN_HRC seeking an urgent meeting. This was released the following day with a long list of supporting countries signing on, but notably with not one African nation doing so.

NOTE 2: The hosts of the meeting were Michèle Rivasi (@MicheleRivasi), a French Green MEP & Jean Christoph Oetjen (@jcoetjen) a German Free Democratic Party MEP.
See @Wikipedia Bios Here:
Rivasi >> en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mich%C3%A…
Oetjen >> en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan-Chris…

@MicheleRivasi @jcoetjen @Wikipedia NOTE 3: On 23rd of September 2021 @MicheleRivasi held a meeting with EU Ambassador Ambassador Hirut Zemene (@EthiopiaEU) who tweeted about it here.

https://twitter.com/EthiopiaEU/status/1441481715197775872?s=20

NOTE 4: @MicheleRivasi was one of a group of proposers of a resolution on the 4th October 2021 europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document…. It ends with the text quoted in the image:

Final text adopted 7th October is here. >> europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document…. This text is not in it sadly.

.. and that concludes the introduction....

VIDEO SECTION BEGINS....

The next part of this thread contains direct links to 11 videos each with a brief description.
Most videos are 10 minutes long and the links should take you each speakers presentation.

At the end of each video @MicheleRivasi makes brief comments and introduces the next speaker. These remarks are in French however and for those who cannot speak French, unfortunately the automatic CC translation of these isn’t great.

At the end of @MicheleRivasi amd @jcoetjen make some brief comments.

@MicheleRivasi @jcoetjen All briefing videos are very interesting and digestible in length, if not necessarily in terms of their content.

Note that 600+ very influential people in European politics and intl relations attended this event. It was hosted on Zoom. Not streamed.

@MicheleRivasi @jcoetjen VIDEO LINK 1/11: Fairly brief Introduction and welcome from French Greens MEP @MicheleRivasi.
MEP Rivasi sets the context for the meeting. She makes it very clear that the objective of the meeting is to help inform a path to peace.

@MicheleRivasi @jcoetjen LINK 2/11: Introduction from co-host German MEP (@jcoetjen). Jean Christophe Oetjen refers to a “strong” EU Parliament resolution [europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document…] adopted 7/10/21, which calls for 30 Million EUR in funding for Amhara and Afar.

DIRECT LINK >>

In his remarks MEP @jcoetjen also calls for the speakers to restrain from hate speech, and comments that there was never an intention to make the briefing only tell one side of the story – pointing to the internal controversy over the invite list.

@jcoetjen VIDEO 3/11: 1st Speaker Abera Yemane - Chair DILDIY Ethiopian Association Belgium (@DiasporaBelgium). Abera Yemane was involved in Socialist politics in Ethiopia in 1993 and arrested for participating in a peace and national reconciliation conference.

@jcoetjen @DiasporaBelgium VIDEO 4/11: 2nd Speaker Mirjam Van Reisen Prof. Intl Rel. Tilburg/Leiden Universities (@mvreisen).

Prof Van Reisen is the first of the three TPLF speakers who were added to the speaking line up following lobbying efforts by the TPLF diaspora.

@jcoetjen @DiasporaBelgium @mvreisen And Prof Van Reisen is also the speaker who [as reported earlier in this thread] misrepresented the briefing's outcome, claiming that a consensus had been reached about Ethiopia in the call.

https://twitter.com/althecat/status/1479596925745868802?s=20

@jcoetjen @DiasporaBelgium @mvreisen Prof. #TPLFFanReisen clearly sees
@lsaiasAfwerki as the devil incarnate. She spoke in her about Eritrea for the most part and made truly absurd assertions which can only be explained by over exposure to bodgy intel from @EritreaHub crew, former EUSR @AlexRondos and Alex de Waal.

@jcoetjen @DiasporaBelgium @mvreisen @lsaiasAfwerki @alexrondos 5/11: 3rd Speaker Prof. Ann Fitzgerald Director Balsillie School of Intl Affairs.

@jcoetjen @DiasporaBelgium @mvreisen @lsaiasAfwerki @alexrondos Professor Fitzgerald @afitz3105 briefing on events in the lead up to war breaking out, the day of the attack itself and her research into the number of casualties in the ENDF soldiers killed during the treasonous Nov 3-4 attack.
4500 confirmed and a further 3500 unaccounted for.

@jcoetjen @DiasporaBelgium @mvreisen @lsaiasAfwerki @alexrondos @afitz3105 VIDEO LINK 6/11: 4th Speaker Prof. Jan Nyssen Dept. Geography, Ghent University is the second of the speakers added following TPLF lobbying.

@jcoetjen @DiasporaBelgium @mvreisen @lsaiasAfwerki @alexrondos @afitz3105 Prof. Nyssen is the lead researcher behind Ghent University's "Tigray: Atlas of the humanitarian situation" researchgate.net/publication/34…

@jcoetjen @DiasporaBelgium @mvreisen @lsaiasAfwerki @alexrondos @afitz3105 Prof. Nyssen clearly believes his data - though many are critical of how it is obtained, i.e. by phone calls with a network in Tigray. He produces a lot of publications, conference papers and other outputs from it.

@jcoetjen @DiasporaBelgium @mvreisen @lsaiasAfwerki @alexrondos @afitz3105 Back in June his data was used to inform diplomatic deliberations during @JoeBiden's visit to Europe, including a US-EU live streamed round-table which featured @USAmbUN @AmbRice46 and @PowerUSAid discussing the humanitarian situation in Tigray.

The day before this meeting then @UNReliefChief Sir Mark Lowcock and various agencies released research saying 350,000 people were in famine conditions in Tigray. Lowcock said two million more people “were just a step away from those extreme conditions” aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/10…

In the same report @USAmbUN @LindaT_G is quoted suggesting there is a "man made" famine. The research report behind this is here >> ipcinfo.org/fileadmin/user…

2nd image shows "Limitations of the analysis" qualification statement on the report.

At the end of his presentation Prof. Nyssen says reviewers of a new unpublished paper on the conflict have suggested he add historical comparison information, specifically that he should compare events in Ethiopia to Adolf Hitler's "Hunger" approach on the Eastern Front in WWII.

VIDEO LINK 7/11: 5th Speaker Meaza G. Gebremedhin, Researcher and Activist [Timestamp >> (@meazaG_)

Video Link Here >> – includes a powerpoint.

Here are the first four slides that @meazaG_ used in her presentation. The first one was up for a very long time. Meaza Gidey is a TPLF information war activist - and presumably also believes what she is saying. But an understanding of the info operations is needed for context.

As part of her evidence she cited the Pekka Haavisto (Finnish Foreign Minister's) previous remarks to EU Parliamentarians referred to earlier in this thread.

https://twitter.com/althecat/status/1479598162666999811?s=20

TPLF Activist Meaza Gidey's testimony to EU Parlt needs a detailed rebuttal and perhaps now that can happen. Unfortunately her critique of the joint OHCHR @EthioHRC report & calls for the creation of an independent panel have been implemented already by @UN_HRC.

VIDEO LINK 8/11: 6th Speaker Albab Tesfaye Ayalew – Director OCC, Ethiopia Human Rights Commission – (@EthioHRC)

@EthioHRC Albab Tesfaye Ayalew's profesional presentation of facts, methods and findings by both the joint UN-Ethiopia report and her own team - placed in this briefing directly after TPLF Activist Meaza Gidey's colourful assertions and speculations makes for a spectacular contrast.

@EthioHRC It also makes it all the more unfathomable that the EU, UNHCHR Bachelet and @UN_HRC decided to proceed with the TPLF's recommendations to create an independent panel rather than proceed - as the GoE requested - with ongoing joint investigations between OHCHR and @EthioHRC.

VIDEO LINK 9/11: 7th Speaker Jon Abbink, Prof. Governance & Politics in Africa, Leiden University (@JonAbbink).

Professor Abbink addresses Western media coverage in a comprehensive fashion, concluding - after listing numerous examples of failures in coverage - that media shortcomings in the Tigray conflict are serious and that their outputs ought not be used in EU policy making.

Prof. Abbink also addresses policy makers and media directly, suggesting that they need to be even handed and apply similar pressure on the TPLF to that which they have applied to the GoE, as the TPLF is now "they who seem to be [prolonging] this conflict.

VIDEO LINK 10/11: 8th Speaker Tsedale Lemma, Founder, Publisher and Editor Addis Standard (@AddisStandard)

@addisstandard As an indepedent publisher myself I have sympathy for Tsedale's critique of the Govt of Ethiopia's approach to media in this war, especially in the knowledge that she has faced far more extreme conditions on the ground in Ethiopia in the past three months than I have ever faced.

@addisstandard At the same time I am also aware of the extreme pressures that the Govt of Ethiopia must be facing, and of the military need to maintain confidence of the people, and military secrecy which can be undermined by completely unfettered media during conflicts.

At the same time the role of social media, and well resourced information warfare in this conflict is in my view unprecedented. The former makes it very hard to actually manage narratives as the Govt. has no ability to exert pressure on @Twitter for example.

With regard to the latter - i.e. information warfare - the dangers that the Govt. has faced in the information arena - while not as lethal as the OLA and TPLF's columns in Amhara, Afar, Oromia and Benishangul-Gumuz - are at least equally important to the survival of the Govt.

VIDEO LINK 10/11: 9th Speaker Annette Weber – EU Special Representative for the Horn of Africa (@EUSR_Weber)

@EUSR_Weber On Dec 6 @EUSR_Weber was in the hot seat. The original draft program had High Rep. @JosepBorrellF playing this role summing up the meeting. While I have been very critical of the EU and Weber in the past, she comes across here as very thoughtful & considered. Which is preferable.

@EUSR_Weber @JosepBorrellF . @EUSR_Weber makes two interesting points out of the gate. disintegration. One of which I mentioned earlier in relation to the 2nd speaker, @mvreisen's misrepresentation of the outcome of the briefing meeting. And the other about disintegration.

https://twitter.com/althecat/status/1479596925745868802?s=20

While in policy terms @EUSR_Weber's comments are not that different from those expressed by outgoing U.S. Envoy Jeffrey Feltman, ie, no military solution, accountability, need to end war. Weber delivers this message in a much more palatable manner. Well worth listening to.

And that concludes the list of speakers, leaving only final remarks from the event's two European Parliament MEP hosts. @MicheleRivasi and @jcoetjen.

This is the final video link >>

@MicheleRivasi @jcoetjen Also well worth listening to, and watching which is necessary for non-French speakers.

@MicheleRivasi's final remarks, and the closing video frames of this video are maybe unintentional but definitely apposite.

@MicheleRivasi @jcoetjen CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS.

1. @MicheleRivasi also mentions the need for an independent UN inquiry at the close, which may indicate the @UN_HRC resolution was already a fait accompli at that point in time.

2. It seems a shame that @mbachelet didn't present in the meeting.

@MicheleRivasi @jcoetjen @UN_HRC @mbachelet 3. European state craft is rather unique.

@MicheleRivasi @jcoetjen @UN_HRC @mbachelet 4. I am very pleased that we have this video to clear up the question of what really happened on December 17th.

5. If you are able to do so please download this video so we can ensure it is not lost into history's black hole.

@MicheleRivasi @jcoetjen @UN_HRC @mbachelet /ENDS

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