Graham Peebles
ESAT News (February 17, 2017)
The peaceful protests that began in November 2015 have now changed into “fully-fledged armed uprising in Ethiopia,” says the head of a UK charity that works on social change and human rights.
“Angered and exasperated by the government’s intransigence and duplicity, small guerrilla groups made up of local armed people have formed in Amhara and elsewhere, and are conducting hit and run attacks on security forces,” writes Graham Peebles, director of the Create Trust, in an article published in Dissent Voice, a radical newsletter that focuses on the struggle for peace and social justice.
“What began as a regional protest movement in November 2015, is in danger of becoming a fully-fledged armed uprising in Ethiopia,” he begins in hi article titled “Ethiopia: Peaceful Protest to Armed Uprising.”
Peebles quoting media and other sources including ESAT documents the armed attacks against the regime by armed groups in various parts of the country and warns “this unprecedented uprising may be held at bay for a time, restrained by force and unjust legislation, but people rightly sense this is the moment for change; they will no longer cower and be silenced for too much has been sacrificed by too many.”
He further writes that there is no independent media in the country and the few available outside the country, including ESAT, have been declared terrorists by the regime.
“There is no independent media – it is all state owned or controlled, as is access to the Internet; journalists who express any criticism of the ruling regime are routinely arrested, and the only truly autonomous media group, ESAT is now classed as a terrorist organization.”
Peebles writes extensively on Ethiopia and injustices across the globe. His recent video documentary titled “Ogaden: Ethiopia’s hidden shame,” exposed the atrocities committed by the regime in the Ogaden region, particularly the sexual assault and abuse against women in ogaden committed by forces of the brutal regime.