Notices by Zecharias Zelalem (zekuzelalem@dair-community.social), page 9

Analysis of various landmarks in the 90 second video, including greenery, a gas station, roads and residential structures resulted in our placing the exact location of the executions right here:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/9o61TsptgNeexdMF6

So this is what we learned from a source: the Ethiopian army used our data to locate the incident (which suggests as is widely reported, that atrocities committed during August 2023 had been so many, that they weren't immediately aware of where such killings may have taken place).

Instead of taking action against the perpetrators, the army investigation set out to determine how the press could obtain the footage when a region wide internet blackout was supposed to prevent such leaks.

They analyzed the footage and visited the location, and determined that because of the perched aerial video angle, whoever filmed it must have been doing so from a high window at one of the nearby buildings, which happen to be residential apartments where students and staff from the nearby Debre Markos University reside.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/cXKdSMYgJrBXykGq6

My sources tells me the army raided one of the buildings and went door to door detaining around twenty random residents, confiscating computers and phones in an attempt to find the footage or evidence of communication with me or other journalists. The detainees were beaten and interrogated for days and had their devices thoroughly searched before the army conceded that none of them was the source of the footage. They were gradually released, between a month and two months later.

The actual person who captured the footage is safely out of the country. For no crime of their own, the detainees were put through an extremely traumatic experience.

It clearly indicates that there is no interest in accountability of any kind, and that the government's main concern is sealing off the phone and internet connections to disrupt the potential flow of incriminating evidence of army atrocities.

The investigation, republished in the Mail & Guardian.

https://mg.co.za/africa/2023-09-18-ethiopian-forces-implicated-in-amhara-war-crimes/

Well, since Nelson Mandela is trending these days...from the archives: Mandela's Ethiopian passport. In 1962, Mandela toured Africa in search of support for the anti apartheid armed wing of the African National Congress.

In Ethiopia, he completed 2 months of a course in guerrilla fighting & military leadership.

Granted Ethiopian citizenship under his bogus identity as "David Motsamayi," Mandela masqueraded as a journalist. His fake profession is indicated on his passport in Amharic (ጋዜጠኛ).

Here's Mandela in Ethiopia (right) in 1962. Standing with him is Ethiopian army General Tadesse Birru, a veteran of the Ethiopian resistance wars during the Italian colonial army's 1935 invasion and subsequent occupation of Ethiopia ordered by fascist leader Benito Mussolini.

General Tadesse Birru oversaw the entirety Mandela's military training.

General Tadesse Birru assigned four paratroopers to serve as bodyguards during Mandela's stay in Ethiopia. One of them was this man, Captain Guta Dinka, 90 years young today. Captain Guta foiled a plot to assassinate Mandela in Ethiopia. He had been approached by a turncoat, who introduced him to agents of South Africa's apartheid government in Ethiopia, who offered him 2,000£ (worth about 53k£ today) and a comfortable life in the UK if he murdered Mandela & provided photo evidence of the act.

Mandela left Ethiopia safely, but had only returned to South Africa incognito for a few months, when he was detained. He would stay behind bars for 27 years.

US diplomat and CIA spy Donald Rickard revealed just prior to his death in 2016, that the CIA had tracked Mandela's movements and passed them on to the Apartheid regime which arrested him. He said they did so because they feared he would facilitate the spread of communist ideology across Africa.

And that is that.

Instead, Captain Guta reported the plot to his superiors who arrested all involved. The agents, who Captain Guta described as "a white man and an African," were deported to Kenya, their local accomplice was detained.

Captain Guta first revealed details of the plot to a host of international media outlets, first in 2013 and has hosted journalists numerous times ever since.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220717-former-ethiopian-military-officer-reveals-plot-to-kill-mandela-during-military-training/amp/

THREAD: Whitewashing the Bayraktar TB2's bloodshed.

I'm addressing this topic, as it's relevant again and it got erased with my previous instance:

When the discussion of affirmative action in journalism is brought up, some believe that the sole objective of it is ensuring employment and growth opportunities for journalists of all backgrounds.

They couldn't be more wrong. By diversifying a newsroom, you ensure greater care for ethics & sensitivities of a broader and all encompassing audience.

This shocking 3 minute Al Jazeera video report features xenophobic rallies, calling for mass deportation of "dirty" Rohingya refugees from Indonesia. The YouTube comment section is also very revelatory. It's not a good look. Pro Palestinian solidarity is pointless, if it is held alongside hate rallies that fuel the spread of hate speech and misinformation targeting survivors of genocide.

Protect the "Palestinians" you have at home first.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws5gHm8lTvM

I don't know who needs to hear this (nobody in the fediverse thank God), but speaking up for Palestinians doesn't excuse deplorable conduct. Atrocity deniers, xenophobes and other terrible people, a Palestinian flag won't cover up your shame.

Indonesia has seen numerous mass rallies condemning Israel and calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. But the spike in pro Gaza sentiments in Indonesia, have coincided with rampant and violent anti Rohingya xenophobia in the country.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/27/indonesian-students-evict-rohingya-from-shelter-demanding-deportation

In the latest shocking example of blatant disregard for humanity by western powers, an investigation by Al Jazeera and partners revealed that Frontex, the EU's official border patrol agency, has secretly been handing coordinates of #Europe bound crowded #migrant boats, to a Wagner linked Libyan militia vessel, known for horrendous abuses of migrants.

The militias then arrive at the location to kidnap & return migrants to #Libya.

It's the EU's plan to keep migrants out.

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/longform/2023/12/11/with-europes-help-a-libyan-brigade-accused-of-killings-returns-refugees

Today is November 4th. On this day three years ago, war was declared in Ethiopia's Tigray region. It ended up being among the bloodiest civil wars of our era, and killed hundreds of thousands by the time it ended on Nov 3rd 2022. We are still investigating atrocities and alleged atrocities until this day.

The conflict completely changed me as a person forever, in so many ways.

News report from that day:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ethiopia-conflict-idUSKBN27K0ZS

I do not hail from Tigray, or any of the other warzones. My friends and colleagues who do, were suddenly cut off from family, as phone and internet lines were severed and would largely remain that way until the end of the war. I'm privileged not to have endured the traumatic experiences of some of my friends.

Nevertheless, I remain stunned until this day, at the sobering reality of just how seemingly sane, sensible, normal people you've known all your life, could just completely transform.

Nationalism and misinformation were weaponized. Consent for the most heinous atrocities was granted.

People I grew up with, friends, family, educated professionals, suddenly abandoned life long ideals & ethics, to blindly cheer on the Ethiopian government's military effort. Even as reports of massacres, atrocities, sexual violence & famine made the rounds.

We journalists were ostracized, declared the enemy. Life long relationships were ended, & we were declared persona non grata everywhere.

Not just journalists, anyone who questioned the necessity of war, anyone who called for a ceasefire, anyone who expressed worry about systemic profiling & war abuses, was slammed as a traitor, by people who we had previously looked up to as exemplary.

EVERYONE changed. I still haven't recovered from seeing an old sociology teacher become a pro war radical nationalist partisan. Everyone, from lawyers, prominent business leaders, feminist movement leaders, religious fathers, got on the bandwagon.

You learn in school about how the intelligentsia and elite classes would be harnessed by the likes of Mussolini and Hitler to provide intellectual backing that would sway the masses into blind support. But I won't forget witnessing this phenomenon engulf Ethiopia. It completely shattered everything I believed in.

Religious fathers who normally preach forgiveness calling on the army to "crush" the rebels.

Legal experts lecturing us on how an army massacre was somehow legal.

Mastodon penetration in Africa remains poor, and I'm not aware if that will ever change. There are numerous factors including language, culture, poor internet quality in certain countries and the general difficulty everyone has when adapting to Mastodon. The need for safe, clean platforms not at the mercy of legal requests from authoritarian regimes or data parsing by Saudi Royal shareholders...is a pressing one and will continue to be a pressing one. I'd like to see an African uptick here.