“Cirque d’Andargachew” presented by the Ringling T-TPLF Brothers
Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet) is often credited with the observation that one should “judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.”
Voltaire also wisely observed, “All murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.” How true! The late Meles Zenawi and the Thugtatorship of the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (T-TPLF) have murdered thousands of people in Ethiopia and gotten away to the merry trumpets of their Western bankrollers.
Last week, the T-TPLF released a 10-minute and 31-second amateurishly stitched video of “answers” given by Andargachew Tsigie to unstated questions put to him by a faceless interrogator(s), and expressly invited viewers to render a “judgment of conscience”.
In July 2014, the T-TPLF successfully plotted with the Yemeni regime to arrange the extraordinary rendition (kidnapping) of Andargachew Tsigie, who is the General Secretary of the Ethiopian opposition group known as Ginbot 7 Movement for Justice, Freedom and Democracy. In 2009 and 2012, the T-TPLF tried Andargachew in absentia on trumped up terrorism charges in kangaroo (monkey) court proceedings and sentenced him to death.
I condemned Andargachew’s outrageous and illegal abduction in Yemen in my commentary entitled, “Ethiopia: The Crime of Extraordinary Rendition”.
Andargachew is a British national of Ethiopian origin. It is a shame he is a British national in name only. The British Government has done absolutely nothing to secure his release or to ensure that he is not subjected to abuse and mistreatment at the infamous Meles Zenawi Prison. For over six months, the British Government has been twiddling thumbs as Andargachew is trotted out for exhibition in the Ringling T-TPLF Brothers media circus freak show.
The British Government has completely failed in its obligations to protect Andargachew under the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. The British Government speaks with forked tongue on the issue of protection of its nationals who need assistance abroad. British officials say “provision of assistance by consular officials or diplomatic authorities to nationals in difficulty overseas” is their bedrock policy. They also say consular assistance is not a legal right to which UK nationals are entitled: “The UK Government is under no general obligation under domestic or international law to provide consular assistance (or exercise diplomatic protection).” They further claim consular intervention to protect their nationals abroad facing or likely to face torture is an integral to the British Government’s anti-torture strategy. The English aristocrat, writer, poet and soldier Sir Walter Raleigh aptly remarked, “O, what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive!”
The British Foreign Office knows Andargachew has been sentenced to death twice in the T-TPLF’s kangaroo (monkey) courts and highly likely to face torture. All it has done so far is express regrets and issue fuzzy and equivocal statements about making “consistent requests for information from the Yemeni authorities”, complain about the “the lack of any notification of his detention in contravention of the Vienna convention” and express “our concerns about the death penalty that Mr. Tsige could face in Ethiopia.” According to one report, “Mr. Simmonds (Africa Minister) expressed deep concern that the Ethiopian authorities had not allowed consular access.”
“Whoopty freaking doo!”, as Yankees like to say. Big deal! Nice display of Crocodile tears by the British Foreign Office. I (don’t) wonder if there is a double standard in the protection of British citizens facing torture based on whether they are first class or second-class citizens. Let me cut to the chase.What has the British Government done to secure the rights or release of one of its second class citizens abused by thugs in Ethiopia? Bloody ‘ell, nothing!
Anyway, back to the T-TPLF and its media Cirque d’Andargachew.
To read the rest of the commentary, CLICK HERE
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http://open.salon.com/blog/almariam/2015/01/09/andargachew_tsgie_before_the_t-tplf_inquisition