The government-owned Ethiopian asked me to respond to a series of questions on 17 September 2022. The paper ran my interview on 24 September under the title "Conflict in Ethiopia's North: Amb David H. Shinn Speaks."
Unfortunately, this version of the interview dropped, apparently in an innocent error, the first two questions and answers. They were not especially controversial, but the remainder of the interview is not clear as a result of these omissions.
There were a couple of other changes that need highlighting. First, the addition of "terrorist" in brackets before TPLF is not my language. It was added by the Ethiopian. I do not agree that the TPLF is a terrorist organization. Second, the editors decided to drop several words, as noted with a bracket, in another response. Consequently, I am repeating below that part of my original response to the Ethiopian that is missing from the published interview:
Q: The US is on record that it puts the TPLF as the aggressor back in 2020. Why is the US soft on the aggressor and engaging in "both sideism"?
A: First, thank you for asking me to address these important issues. Second, let me make clear that I speak only for myself; my responses do not necessarily represent the views of the US government.
The US did acknowledge that the conflict began with the attack by Tigrayan Defense Forces on Ethiopia's Northern Command in Mekele on 3 November 2020. Since then, however, there have been numerous terrible abuses by all sides involved in this civil war. Since 2020, the US has been critical of whatever side it believed was responsible for the abuse or atrocity. For the most part, it has tried not to take sides, but to weigh each situation on its own merit. It may not always have come up with the most appropriate response, but the goal was to evaluate the evidence and then respond, not to take sides.
Q: The government's truce after getting the upper hand in the war and even ultimatums during the war seem to have been widely known. But the group is accused of taking advantage of these to invade neighboring regions, Amhara and Afar. Still the US administration is not seen and heard condemning the acts. What's your take on this?
A: The United States clearly condemned the advance of Tigray forces into Amhara and Afar Regions in 2021. The US State Department issued a press statement on 30 October 2021 that expressed grave concern about the expansion of combat in northern Ethiopia. It reiterated the US "call for the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) to withdraw from the Amhara and Afar regions, including halting its advances in and around the cities of Dessie and Kombolcha." In remarks on 1 November 2021, then Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa, Jeffrey Feltman, said: "We watched the fighting around Dessie and Kombolcha in horror, as thousands more civilians were forced to flee their homes. Some critics of U.S. policy claim the United States has an inherent bias toward the TPLF. This could not be farther from the truth. We have consistently condemned the TPLF's expansion of the war outside Tigray and continue to call on the TPLF to withdraw from Afar and Amhara."
It is not clear to me, and perhaps not to the U.S. government, who started the resumption of conflict in late August 2022 in the Kobo area of Amhara Region and along the Tigray-Eritrea border. Until the facts are well established, it would be inappropriate to condemn one side or the other.
The Ethiopian subsequently posted a corrected version of the interview.
