A dark picture emerges: atrocities in Ethiopia

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Hello and welcome to the Intelligence on Economist Radio. I'm your host Jason Palmer. Every weekday we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping. On China's social media apps. A new genre of post is climbing the criticism of capitalism. Many of the young and overworked have a disdain for the country's big businesses and its filthy rich. That all sounds a bit Marxist. And French authorities made the call to keep their ski resorts open, but the ski lifts shut. Our correspondent goes along to see how an industry that should be in peak season is faring. And it's not an uplifting tale. First up though, Rumors and scattered reports of atrocities in Ethiopia's northern region of Tigray have been swirling for months amid a media blackout. But the picture is now starting to become clearer and evidence for war crimes and crimes against humanity are stacking up. On Sunday, America's Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned the killings, sexual assaults and forced removals said to have taken place in Tigray and called for troops to be withdrawn. The conflict began late last year when the region's ruling party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front, or tplf, was booted out of the federal government where it had dominated for decades.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has announced a final military operation against the defiant Tigray province in coming days.

In a statement, Mr. Abe said there was a carefully devised strategy to defeat the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front in the regional capital, Makale, without harming civilians.

Late in November, Mr. Abe declared victory over the TPLF, but armed resistance has continued. Yesterday, his government rejected America's demands, describing Mr. Blinken's comments as regrettable. Thousands are known to have died in the conflict, and more than 2 million people have been displaced. The growing civil war has drawn in fighters from neighboring regions and troops from Eritrea, which borders Tigray to the north.

Amnesty International has just released a report detailing its investigation into this incident that took place in late November in Aksum, which is one of Ethiopia's oldest and most famous holy cities.

Tom Gardner is our Addis Ababa correspondent.

Eritrean soldiers killed hundreds of civilians over two days in what Amnesty says was retaliation for an attack by local youth on their military camp. Now, Amnesty says the soldiers roamed around the streets of the city, picking out unarmed young men and killing them on the spot. They then proceeded to plunder the city essentially of everything of value. Survivors said that all they could see on the streets were bodies and people crying. This systematic slaughter of civilians in Axum may amount to crimes against humanity, according to Amnesty.

And you say the main players in this incident are allegedly Eritrean soldiers? Right.

Just to remind people, this conflict has drawn in a few other parties. In addition to the Ethiopian Federal army and Tigrayan forces loyal to the tplf, you also have militia security forces from neighbouring regional state of Amhara, which has a rivalry with the TPLF and disputed territories along their shared border. And then, and this is the really controversial element, you have troops from Eritrea which since the beginning of the conflict has been fighting alongside the Ethiopian army against the tplf, which it has a long rivalry with, as well as to whether all these parties are committing atrocities. I think based on everything we know so far, yes. But I think Eritrean soldiers are the most widely and extensively implicated.

And there are allegations of other atrocities beyond what's happened in Axum.

Ever since the war began in late November, we've been hearing accounts trickling out which beginner's rumor. A clearer picture has slowly started to emerge. We've seen several videos that appear to show Ethiopian soldiers standing among the bodies of civilians they've murdered. There was an investigation by Human Rights Watch that found the Ethiopian army had shelled towns, including the capital of Tigre, Mekele, killing at least 80 civilians, including women and children. And winding back to the beginning of the war. The very first atrocity we heard about was this massacre in the town of Maikadra, which is in western Tigray, near the border with the neighboring regional state Amhara. According to a report that Amnesty published at the time, most of the victims were Amharas murdered by militia, the ousted rulers of Tigray, the tplf. That was then confirmed by the state appointed Human Rights Commission here. However, Tigrayans who fled across the border to Sudan tell of attacks on civilians by Amhara military and by government soldiers in the same area.

For its part, what is the Ethiopian government saying about all these reports?

So that is an important question. On February 26, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, which is a state appointed body, released a statement saying that it had also conducted an investigation and that its key findings broadly corroborated those of Amnesty. Now, that's quite a significant step forward by the commission, which prior to two, three years ago would never have come out with a statement like that. The question, though, moving forward is whether the government decides to accept its findings and act on them. We have heard a lot from the Prime Minister's office, the Attorney General's office and other government agencies about accountability, but so far, very little indication that the government is willing to hold anyone but members of the TPLF accountable for crimes committed during this conflict. What makes it even more complicated, of course, is the fact that the prime culprits in this case were Eritrean troops. And that's going to be very politically difficult for the government. Addis Ababa, which has been relying on these troops from Eritrea, relying on its relationship with the Eritrean government to conduct its military operations in Tigray.

And the last time that we spoke about this conflict just over a month ago, the other big issue that seemed to be building at the time was a growing risk of famine in Tigray. Is that still a concern?

The risk of famine definitely still persists. There's been a bit of improvement in terms of access for aid workers. The government is certainly keen to stress how much it is delivering aid. However, it is, according to the un, still restricting the movement of aid workers. And there is still very limited access to large parts, if not the majority of Tigray. Part of the problem may well be that officials don't want aid workers running around the region freely and exposing further atrocities. But if soldiers or officials can be proven to have deliberately stopped food from reaching the hungry, then that too may be a war crime.

And with these allegations of war crimes, of crimes against humanity being bandied around on the part of several of the parties here and a growing humanitarian crisis, what happens next? How will this play out, do you think?

Well, as you said, several parties, if not all parties, accusing the other of committing war crimes and human rights violations. And that underscores one of the central problems, which is that neither side is anywhere close to backing down or stepping to the table for talks or negotiations. Broadly, tigray itself, it isn't stabilising, you have pockets of stability. But the UN is reporting more armed incidents throughout the region in recent weeks. I think maybe we might see some more pressure from the international community in the next few weeks on specific things like humanitarian access, but I don't imagine that will be a game changer anytime soon. I also don't think we're going to see independent, perhaps a UN investigation into war crimes anytime soon. The federal government in Ethiopia bristles at any infringement on its sovereignty. As a result, I think civilians will continue to suffer. They'll bear the brunt of the war, and I don't think we'll see much by way of justice or accountability, at least in the short term.

Tom, thank you very much for joining us.

Thank you, Jason.

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The most popular clips on China's short video apps tend to feature, as in the rest of the world, silly gags or cute animals or both. Recently, however, a different genre has climbed the criticism of capitalism. One such video opens with grand statements by tech tycoons such as Jack Ma. About how money doesn't matter and their desires to make the world a better place. Then it cuts to uproarious laughter.

Anti capitalist rhetoric is gaining popularity online in China, especially among its young, overworked population.

Simon Rabinovitch is our Asia Economics editor and is based in Shanghai.

For the government, though, that actually has its uses.

What do you mean by anti capitalist rhetoric? What are some examples of this?

The biggest lightning rod is Jack Ma. You know, until recently he was China's richest man. He's the founder of the e commerce giant Alibaba. For years he was lionized and admired. In the past year, the tone has really changed. When videos of him are published online, they're flooded with comments such as, workers of the world unite. Jack Ma, workers are coming for you. He's far from alone though, you know. A series of big tech firms in China have come in for quite severe criticism. Another recent one, Pinduoduo, a discount shopping app. In early January, one of its employees, a woman in her 20s, collapsed while walking home after a long overtime shift, later died. That was then held up in popular debate as the epitome of overwork facing young Chinese. One video came out titled Capitalist Pinduoduo. And talked about how the labor law in China is treated like toilet paper. It's not respected. It goes beyond the companies though, extends to some of the elite. Annabelle Yao, who's the daughter of the founder of Huawei, the big telecoms company, released a mini documentary in January to announce the start of her hoped for career as an entertainer that was greeted with immense scorn online. The most popular comment when she released it on Weibo, a microblog in China, was that for capitalists, controlling our material life is not enough. They also want to control our cultural life.

So what do you think it is that's driving this spike in anti capitalist sentiment?

Well, I think there's two big things. Number one is a structural factor, which is just the soaring level of inequality which has come over the past few decades of incredibly rapid development. Coupled with that is a sense of unfairness, bitterness about how unreasonable work demands are. Tech companies, their employees often talk about what they call the 996 culture, the idea that they're expected to be in the office from 9am to 9pm Six days a week. And then of course, with the proliferation of social media, people can see the iniquities, you know, in their face on a daily basis when the rich and famous are posting images of their glorious life. The second factor, which I think is more distinctive to China is to state the obvious, that the party in charge is the Communist Party. It talks about China being a socialist market economy. Capitalists in the school system are portrayed as bad. Now, objectively speaking, you might say that large segments of the Chinese economy are capitalist. But the way it's talked about in textbooks and the way it's understood by a lot of people is that that economy is the market economy. Capitalism is something different. That's the rich getting richer, that's monopolists getting ever more powerful. So there's a long anti capitalist tradition in China.

Well, exactly. I mean, how much does the mood of today have in common with the anti capitalism of the past?

There definitely are some links. So, you know, in searching for critiques of capitalism, many reach for China's own great anti capitalist Mao. In one recent video, you have young guy hat on backwards praising Mao for saying that capitalism would let global firms make China a semi colony. But it's important to note what this wave of online Marxism is not. You know, there's been a strong leftist voice in Chinese politics for years. Sort of a mixture of crotchety academics and young firebrands. These are people who are much more steeped in theory. They publish journal articles, they organize conferences. The online Marxists are much less intense, if you will. Many of their appeals seem much more like kitschy nostalgia or like a funny meme. For example, recently the socialist anthem the Internationale has been receiving lots and lots of clicks online. So I'd say we're not talking about the second coming of the Red Guards. But you know, there is a broad subsection of the population who thinks the economy is rigged against them and they resent the business elite.

But amid all this discontent, you said that it has some uses for the Communist party.

Yeah, I mean, so it's clear that it doesn't want it to get too far. So some leftist websites have been shut down. The hint of any kind of union movement not affiliated with the party is snuffed out immediately. That does beg the question, why doesn't the party stop this online rhetoric altogether? And I think the reason is that it's been quite useful for it. So recently it's been taking on some of the big tech companies like Mr. Maz Alibaba, and it uses this public outpouring of anger and frustration as sort of a little bit of extra wind in the sails of its campaign. So you have regulators rounding on the big tech firms, launching new antitrust regulations, halting the IPO of Jack Ma's big fintech company, Ant. Regulators have extra incentive to go after them and even extra leverage in dealing with them when they can point at the public and say, look at how.

Upset People are, but it's a fine line to walk. Right. The government wants these national champions to exist and at the same time seems to be okay with some people railing against them.

Yeah, fully agreed. I mean, you might look at it as a resetting of the balance. So on the one hand, the party obviously wants growth. This is the biggest source of its legitimacy. It needs the tech firms to be innovative. You know, on the other hand, China is still officially a communist country. It views destalinization as the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union. So the rhetoric now is part of a broader effort to keep China very much tethered to its Maoist heritage, but not to bring it back to full on Maoism. I think what this means is that for the coming months we'll probably see a lot more of these kinds of short videos popping up online. Lots more criticism directed at the big tech firms, them being reined in to a certain extent. But at some point the party will have decided that it's gone far enough. It's not gonna take down Jack Ma, it's not gonna take down Alibaba, Tencent and the others, but they will be put in their place.

Thanks very much for your time, Simon.

Thank you, Jason.

For plenty more social, financial and even philosophical analysis from our international network of correspondence. Take out a subscription to the Economist. Get a great introductory deal@Equality.com IntelligenceOffer the link is in the show notes. The French government agonized over what to do about the ski season in light of the pandemic. In the end, it settled on a compromise. It let the mountain resorts open, but it kept the ski lifts closed. Gone are the mechanical clatter of chairlifts and the bass beat of high altitude apres ski bars. Instead, a different atmosphere fills the mountain air.

Well, French ski resorts at the moment are alive to very different sorts of sounds. You have children tobogganing down the hills. You have huskies pulling sleds.

Sophie Petter is the Economist's Paris bureau chief.

The scene is very idyllic, I have to say. It's quiet and a very different sort of atmosphere in the Alps. But it is at the same time a problem for the local economy.

How so? How badly are local economies being hit here?

Well, some small firms and shops derive actually 2/5 of their yearly income during the month of February, which is when the French have their half term holidays. So although not opening lifts was justifiable on health grounds, it's put a lot of local people either out of work or on furlough. And we're talking about people who man the lifts, who maintain the lifts and the equipment as well, of course, as all the staff of all the bars and the restaurants and the hotels in the Alps.

And have local businesses been able to adapt in some way? As you say, people are looking for other ways to conquer the mountain.

The village that I visited in the Alps called St. Martin de Belleville, they have opened a couple of runs specifically for people who are able to go up on their own stamina and energy to get up there and ski down them. But in reality, people who are on skis really have become the minority. So you see many more families enjoying. They put snowshoes, these things that the French called racquette, on their boots. You see husky sledding that was fully booked out. If you go right up to an altitude of about 2,000 meters at the top of the valley, there is even ice diving being offered where you go in a dry suit under a frozen lake. So you do see a lot of different activities and these have been very popular. In fact, I visited a ski shop and Martine J in Saint Martin, who runs the ski shop, she told me that absolutely everything that we had, she said, has been pre booked and rented out. But all the same, if you talk to the tourist office in St. Martin de Belleville, they've said that the resort is only 30% full and that's really less than half of what the normal rate would be. And this affects France's 325 resorts, not just in the Alps, but in the Pyrenees, and resorts in other mountain ranges as well. But this does raise really long term questions about the future and how long they can survive like this.

And what's the government doing to keep these businesses afloat?

Well, the government has unveiled a 4 billion euro mountain plan to try and help keep businesses and people going during the pandemic. And while the lifts are shut, revenues are expected by some forecasts to be only about half of the usual 10 billion euros that they raise in a normal year. And if you talk to mayors, you'll find that they're very worried because they tend to get income from the lift passes, from car parking, and that fills an important part of their budget. So Joel Rotaillot is the director of the national association of Mayors of Mountain Resorts. And he told me that the mountain is an ecosystem. It's easy to close the lifts and just press a button. But it does have a knock on effect, not only in the resorts, but down to the valleys that concern hundreds and thousands of people. So I think it's fair to say that a lot of local people in the mountains are. Are angry right now at the government.

And so how do you see this playing out? How will this anger manifest itself?

Well, it could affect the upcoming regional elections which are happening here in France in June. It certainly, I don't think, will help Emmanuel Macron's party in these elections. People understand the lifts being closed, but they're also angry about the situation. And I think there's now a resignation in the Alps that it's unlikely that the lifts will be open anytime soon. You know, in many ways, the building of the ski lifts transformed poor mountain valleys into what became playgrounds for Europe's rich and also places of huge inequality. And in a way, there's a paradox because the locals now find themselves missing all those cash happy tourists, even if they're finding the mountains gloriously peaceful in many ways without them.

Thanks very much for joining us, Sophie.

Thank you, Jason.

That's all for this episode of the Intelligence. If you like us, leave us a rating and a review and see you back here tomorrow.

Sam.