Public Diplomacy: An error by design or just an error

The mishap of a “seasoned” Ambassador in his own words that serves as a spokesperson for the foreign ministry of Ethiopia must be looked into very closely during a time of sensitive political times in the Horn of Africa region. Why? Because of the lifelong diplomat’s previous appointments in different capacities under different regimes in Ethiopia.

As Eritreans, we are aware that diplomacy must be used to manage the goals of foreign policy focusing on communication. The way in which the ambassador Dina Mufti expressed his thoughts during the press conference of March 30th, 2021 lacks integrity. It is unacceptable and as a person who claims to be a long term diplomat working for the TPLF Junta for the past 2 decades, it is important that he is questioned and must be told in the strongest terms possible that he is RESPONSIBLE for what he says and him alone.

For Example we must remind him of the time when he once attempted to parrot the propaganda of the TPLF Junta by accusing Eritrea of something that was BASELESS even more very damaging to our people. The evil deeds that the TPLF Junta are known to be masters at, like creating incidents and blaming others, that they are known to be professionals at and use the media to bolster the accusations. They started doing it in the open during the Ethio-Eritrea war in the late 1990’s. So much so that they were refuted on many occasions despite the media being on their side.

In January 2011 the Junta accused Eritrea of a plot to disrupt the African Union summit in Addis Ababa. A complete LIE! Guess who was the spokesperson of the Junta. If you said Dina Mufti you got it right. This is what he had to say:

“Dina accused Eritrea of attempting to carry out attacks inside Ethiopia during an African Union summit in February and said Addis Ababa was asking the international community to pressure Asmara into “refraining” from such moves.”

The TPLF junta’s mouth piece at Reuters Aaron Measho (wonder where he is these days) wrote this article like he did many other articles that attempted to legitimize the TPLF Junta.

See Link to article:

https://www.reuters.com/article/idINIndia-55715520110319

The majority of the peace loving Eritreans around the world stood up to a person who should have never uttered the words he used to demonize the sentiments of the gallant Eritrean people. He found out fast that you don’t mess around with Eritrean nationalism in the past 2 days. Our people vented and they let him know that “Anything he says about Eritrea, can and will be held against him”……

In today’s fast moving new trends the institution of diplomacy is no longer like the good old days. In addition a new tool in the form of big tech changes the dynamics completely. On many occasions interdependence and dependence in the meddling of an independent country’s internal affairs by outsiders may be accepted to the conflict manufacturers who may not be aware that Eritrea has been through every trick in the book to bring it to its knees.

The TPLF Junta mafia created a benefits related diplomacy with millions around the world through a network of corrupt diplomats, using stolen and looted funds to advance their agenda. Though parts of the foreign policy agenda have been outsourced to other actors their range of diplomacy did not shrink but rather expanded during their time in power for over 2 decades. Now it is time to reverse that expansionist agenda and instead of working for the greater good the likes of Dina Mufti as if they did not do enough damage are playing with fire.