DATE=5/2/02

TYPE=English Programs Feature

NUMBER=7-36254

TITLE=Amharic Service's War Correspondent

BYLINE=Oksana Dragan

TELEPHONE=619-2204

DATELINE=Washington

EDITOR=Nancy Smart

CONTENT=

.

INTRO Continuing our series of profiles of Voice of America broadcasters to mark VOA's 60th anniversary year, today on New American Voices Oksana Dragan introduces you to Mimi Sebhatu, the Amharic Service's premiere war correspondent.

TAPE Her colleagues call her Mimi, but her real name is IGIGAYEHOU [ee-gee-GA-you], which, she says, means "I saw the best" in Amharic. She is a petite woman, with enormous eyes, a wide smile, and black curls highlighted blonde. As a VOA reporter, Mimi Sebhatu has found herself on many front lines, most recently when covering the border dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

TAPE CUT 1 MIMI

"I was in the eye of the storm, repeated times. I was there for the final offensive. I covered the whole war, the border war, literally. It was dangerous, it was scary. You know, it's an experience that any journalist would die for, but as a human being it's an experience that leaves its mark on you. I still see some of the images, they're still imprinted in my mind."

TEXT Reporting on the war between her native Ethiopia and its neighbor, Mimi Sebhatu says the greatest challenge for her was to keep her emotions at bay.

TAPE CUT 2 MIMI

"Because I'm a human being, I'm watching people from my native country dying or killing, I mean, it's a war. I have to present my story as objectively, as balanced as possible. The ethics of journalism demands of you to be out of your emotions while doing this kind of story, to be able to separate your feelings and your impressions from what is happening."

TEXT Mimi Sebhatu did not start out to be a journalist. She grew up in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, one of the eight children of a successful landscape architect.

TAPE CUT 3 MIMI

"We had a very privileged childhood, because my dad used to be one of the most prominent businessmen of his time. So we went to some of the best schools in Addis. I grew up learning American nursery rhymes, because our teachers were Americans."

TEXT The Sebhatu family's lifestyle changed dramatically with the socialist revolution that brought Colonel Mengistu Mariam to power in 1974.

TAPE CUT 4 MIMI

"We had a big horticultural nursery, and we had houses in the city as well, but during the revolution everything was taken, you know, it was nationalized, and it was not a pleasant experience. But my dad was not like landed aristocracy or something, he worked for everything, and he tried to instill in us the value of education. He never spoiled us, we had to earn everything. He said, the only thing I'm giving you is the best education, and that's it."

TEXT At Addis Ababa University, Mimi Sebhatu studied theatre arts, and after graduation wanted to work as a filmmaker.

TAPE CUT 5 MIMI

"I used to work for the media while I was in college, I used to freelance for the Ethiopian television. But my main focus was film. So after graduation I joined the Ethiopian Film Corporation, which was then, of course, government owned, there was no independent filmmaking. But somehow, you know… I did make a couple of documentaries. ///OPT.///One was on the gold mines in the southern part of Ethiopia, and one was a story on the first workers' movement in Ethiopia, a sort of historical documentary."///END OPT.///

TEXT Mimi Sebhatu came to the United States to visit film institutions, as part of a program sponsored by the American Embassy in Addis Ababa. ///BEGIN OPT./// Her first impression of America was that it was very big.

YAPE CUT 6 MIMI

"I've seen Europe, I've visited a lot of European countries, even former socialist countries, I was in the former GDR, I was in Czechoslovakia, I was in Bulgaria, I had visited western countries like England, Italy, Greece. So for me, what really struck me in America, it was HUGE."

TEXT Another thing that struck Mimi was how welcoming the people were.

TAPE CUT 7 MIMI

"The first thing you're at home, you feel at home in the United States. That's one of the best parts of America. Everybody from all over the world comes here, and they feel at home. In certain other countries, be it ignorance of other cultures, or whatever, you feel like you're visiting, like you're a visitor. But once you step into the United States, it's like magic, and you feel like you belong." ///END OPT.///

TEXT While in New York, Mimi was invited by New York University's Tisch School of the Arts to stay on for a year as a visiting scholar. That year 1991 - the military dictatorship in Ethiopia was overthrown, and the political uncertainty back home made Mimi decide to remain in the United States. When her year at New York University ended, she applied for a job with the Voice of America in Washington.

///OPT.///

TAPE CUT 8 MIMI

"Many of the employees of the Amharic Service I used to know while they were in Ethiopia, and they told me that they were hiring, so I came and I said, well, you want somebody, here I am, and, you know, I took the exam…" ///END OPT.///

TEXT That was ten years ago. Since then, building on her experience in media and film in Ethiopia, Mimi Sebhatu has been a broadcaster, editor and producer in VOA's Amharic Service. But the highlights of her work are, for her, reporting assignments in Africa. Just three months ago she was the first VOA reporter to be in the capital of Somalia in close to 10 years.

TAPE CUT 9 MIMI

"Oh my God, that was another experience. Just unbelievable. Mogadishu is like a country divided between warlords that control certain areas. It didn't have any form of normalcy for 10 years. Children didn't go to school, young boys all have guns, and it's an amazing experience, like an out-of-body experience, really. So when you're in the middle of it you think 'What am I doing here!' But of course, there's always a human story. There are people, and there are stories of these people, so I managed to do that."

TEXT Mimi Sebhatu says that her hobby is people, and in the future she wants to continue to be a sort of a bridge between her native Ethiopia and her adopted country, the United States. With New American Voices, I'm Oksana Dragan.

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