Editor’s note – Readers are cautioned that the government has not made any official statement as to the expulsion, and should note the following report is pending further confirmation.
Bloomberg correspondent Jason McLure was given the ultimatum after he was found at the office of Arena Tigrai opposition party in Mekelle, capital of the northernmost region.
No official statement has so far been given for the expulsion but Gebru Asrat, chairman of Arena Tigrai, said the journalist arrived in Mekelle on January 6 and was taken away by security workers same day.
Gebru said, “The reporter was here to verify charges that seven individuals, some of whom are Arena founding members, had travelled to Addis Ababa to report human rights violations with international organizations. They were thrown back into jail upon their return to Tigrai.”
The Arena members were released after five of detention, and Jason was to inquire and write a story about the injustices when he was whisked away by securitymen, according to Gebru.
The Bloomberg reporter was also in the city to investigate public complaints over government abuses of SafetyNet Programs in which those who don’t support the ruling party are barred from cash- and other beneficial programs run by the World Bank and other donor groups.
Meles Zenawi denies such stories, or at best usually blames the “ignorant low-level officials.” Although the crimes are his own orders, when asked by the media, Meles would pop out his eyes, and dryly say, “Bring me the culrpit, and I will fire him.”
Gebru Asrat describes the behavior as a deeply-entrenched practice that is ‘systemic’ to TPLF.
Asked at a news conference in Addis, Bereket Simon, a second-in-command government spokesperson, said he had no idea if any reporter was detained nor told to leave the country. Detained for three days, Jason McLure was in Addis on Thursday, and if the order of expulsion is carried out, he should have already left Ethiopia.
Officials reportedly told Gebru the journalist was served with the expulsion notice because he failed to notify the immigration office that he was travelling to Tigrai region.
Gebru dismissed the reason as a lame excuse since ‘Jason was already a known Bloomberg correpondent in Ethiopia,’ and he had no need to carry a special permit to travel within the country.
Tigrai is the seat of TPLF, Meles Zenawi’s Stalinist party which has kept the region off-limits to foreign correspondents for fear that they would expose the degree of repression there. Human rights violations are rampant but few dare to report.
