Swedish journalists explain arrest, imprisonment in Ethiopia
* by <
http://www.poynter.org/author/rkohls/> Ryan Kohls
Updated Oct. 14, 2012 11:38 am
For 438 days, two Swedish freelance journalists were locked up in Ethiopian
prisons for illegally entering the country and committing acts of terrorism.
Prior to their arrest, journalists had been working in the northern part of
the country, but the south is where Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson were
headed when they were caught. No journalists have ventured into southern
Ogaden due to extreme danger and political instability.
Schibbye and Persson were arrested while traveling with outlawed guerilla
group the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF).
The Ethiopian courts provided video footage of the two journalists
collaborating with the ONLF. On Dec. 27, 2011 they were sentenced to 11
years in jail.
After a bizarre and convoluted set of events, which included the death of
<
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/opinion/sunday/kristof-whats-he-got-to-hi
de.html> Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, the two were freed and sent
back to Sweden.
They arrived home Sept. 14, 2012. I interviewed them together via Skype on
Monday, Sept. 24.
Q: Poynter: What drew you to Ethiopia in the first place?
Schibbye: We tried to be proactive and see what impact oil exploration would
have on the area. There were a lot of things written about the Ogaden but no
one had actually set foot in the oil fields. We said, "Let's try and use our
feet more than Google to cover this story."
Persson: Other journalists have been there,
<
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/18/world/africa/18ethiopia.html?pagewanted=a
ll> including from The New York Times, but they'd never gone south in to the
actual oil fields.
Q: How did you arrange to illegally cross the border?
Schibbye: We contacted the ONLF and asked them if they could be our guide
and get us in to the oil fields where this Swedish company [Africa Oil] is
active. They said yes, and so we chose to be embedded with them.
Q: What is the timeline from when you entered Ethiopia and when you were
arrested?
Schibbye: We crossed on June 27th and immediately it goes wrong. We were
chased in the desert for 30 or 40 minutes by the Ethiopian army, but managed
to get away. On the evening of June 30th, I hear one gun shot. Seconds
later, the whole area exploded with Kalashnikov fire. I got hit in the
shoulder and Johan gets hit in the arm.
Q: There is a four-day gap between your arrest and your arrival in prison.
What happened during those days?
Schibbye: We were arrested on June 30th and held in the desert up to July
4th. For four days, the longest and worst of my life, they brought in
military journalists to make a mockumentary about what happened. They gave
us new clothes and they told us to co-operate or we would be shot. They
drove us around to different locations; it was like a Steven Spielberg film.
Persson: Martin was mock executed and I thought he was dead.
Schibbye: The film's director was the vice-president of the Ogaden. He was
in contact with the president of the Ogaden all the time. At one moment I
get to speak to [the president] on the phone and he tells us, "We are not
happy with your performance. So tomorrow we'll have to do it again and you
have to confess you are terrorists."
Q: During the early days in prison, what was going through your heads?
Schibbye: We tried to think like journalists. During one of the
interrogations, I managed to steal two pieces of paper and hide them in my
shoe. So, after the interrogations I could write, word-by-word, what was
said. It kept you going.
Q: What was the hardest thing about confinement?
Persson: If you speak about politics, you're reported immediately to the
secret police.
Schibbye: You get points. If I see someone smoking and report them to the
police I get 10 points. It's a system that promotes snitching. The view I
had of prison was it's us against them. It's nothing like that. It's
everybody against everybody.
Q: What is the connection between Meles Zenawi's death and your release?
Schibbye: He promised the Swedish foreign minister [Carl Bildt] in May that
we would be pardoned in September. We were worried after Zenawi's death that
he may not have informed other people about this decision. That's why the
Swedish foreign minister flew down to Zenawi's funeral. .
Also, they had gained what they had tried to achieve: to scare journalists.
If they had kept us any longer the diplomatic price might have been too
high.
Q: You went on Ethiopian television (ETV) and apologized for your actions.
Was that also theatre?
Schibbye: Yeah. It was the best lie of my life. It was part of the deal. All
political prisoners show themselves on TV, say, "Hello, I'm a big idiot,"
and then are released.
Persson: They wouldn't give us the release papers before the interview. One
minute after, the papers came. We went straight to the embassy and then to
the airport.
Q: Did this experience change your perceptions of journalism?
Schibbye: I dragged my wife through hell for 14 months, but as a journalist
I now have tools I didn't have before. I now understand people I have
interviewed because I have experienced similar situations. I now know what
it's like to live in a country and be afraid to think and write; you start
to cripple intellectually.
Persson: I don't need permission from governments around the world to
interview people. I interview who I want, when I want. I don't care if this
person is on a terrorist list or not. It's important that you can hear all
sides in the conflict. If you only report one side you don't get the proper
picture.
Q: You can stay and live your lives in one of the world's safest, richest
countries. Why are you willing to sacrifice your lives to tell these
stories?
Persson: There are many black spots in the world with no coverage. That's
our job to report that. The problem is that Ethiopia may have won this. Now,
people are not willing to go into the Ogaden because they fear getting shot
in the head or going to jail for 20 years.
Schibbye: We have chosen to be freelancers to choose the stories we want to
cover. . It has to be freelancers to do this kind of work. It takes time. We
worked on this since 2009 and we are still not finished.
<
http://www.poynter.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/prison.jpg>
http://www.poynter.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/prison.jpg
Johan Persson (left) and Martin Schibbye (right)
Received on Sun Oct 14 2012 - 22:22:50 EDT
