Statement on “H.R. 6600 — 117th Congress: Ethiopia Stabilization, Peace, and Democracy Act” and “S. 3199 — 117th Congress: Ethiopia Peace and Stabilization Act of 2022”
NaMA Calls on all Ethiopians, the Ethiopian Diaspora and Friends of Ethiopia to stand in unison against H.R. 6600 and S. 3199 Bills and Work together for the Rejection of the Bills
The National Movement of Amhara (NaMA) has been actively following up the initiation and developments of the two Bills at the US House and Senate, namely; “H.R. 6600 — 117th Congress: Ethiopia Stabilization, Peace, and Democracy Act” and “S. 3 199 — 117th Congress: Ethiopia Peace and Stabilization Act of 2022” in the House and Senate of the United States of America, respectively. NaMA has been carefully and attentively studying the motives and contents of the Bills; and, their possible consequences if passed into law.
NaMA values and cherishes the century old historic friendship and diplomacy our country has had with the United States of America. Our party is committed to play its part to strengthen and promote our country’s bilateral relationship with the United States of America, as well as to enhance the people to people relationship which our sisterly countries have enjoyed for long. NaMA understands and shares the concern the Sponsors and Co-sponsors of the Bills have had regarding the current state of affairs of our country Ethiopia, and extends its gratitude for their commitment to support the stability, peace and democracy of our country. It is also NaMA’s firm stand that authorities in the Federal and Regional Governments, insurgent groups as well as any other actors involved in human rights violations must be held accountable.
However, NaMA, having carefully looked into the contents of both Bills, found H.R. 6600 and S. 3199 perplexing and sarcastically antagonizing the name they bear. The Bills, if passed into law, would unleash turmoil, anarchy and ultimately autocracy rather than promoting stability, peace and democracy in Ethiopia. Moreover, the Bills would cause an economic stagnation and recession for which only the ordinary people of Ethiopia would bear its costs. NaMA believes any good intention to broker peace and reconciliation in Ethiopia must also ensure that it doesn’t pave the road to hell, and must differentiate between the People of Ethiopia, the State and the People in Power. The proposed Bills failed to demarcate a boundary between the ordinary Ethiopian people, the Ethiopian State and the People in Power in the incumbent government.
Compromising the proud history of Ethiopia and undermining the independence of one of the longest surviving independent states on earth, the proposed Bills have clearly designed a plan to micromanage the internal affairs of a sovereign state and put Ethiopia effectively under trusteeship of a few Aid Agencies such as USAID of the United States of America. The Bills proposed would seriously hamper the historic relationship both countries have sustained for long, undermines the democratization process, and exacerbates the current security quagmire our country is in. NaMA believes the proposed Bills are being prescribed for a wrong diagnosis of a political malaise Ethiopia is currently experiencing. There are innumerable number of legitimate and valid reasons to oppose the passing into law of the Bills, a few of them are the following.
1. An Equal Footing of the Ethiopian State with the Terrorist TPLF
NaMA is concerned about the equal footing of the Ethiopian state with TPLF, a terrorist organization listed in the Global Terrorism Database as far back as 1976 and designated as such by a parliamentary resolution adopted on 01 May 2021 by the Federal Government of Ethiopia. The current security quagmire we have found ourselves is a consequence of decades old policies introduced and implemented by the very party which also unprovokedly attacked the Northern Command of the Ethiopian National Defense Forces and waged a premeditated war on the people and government of Ethiopia, in the mid night of November 3, 2020. Both Bills overlooked the raison d’être of the conflict, absolved decades old atrocious crimes expansionist and terrorist TPLF have had committed on the people of Ethiopia in general, and on the Amhara people in particular and failed to appreciate the existential threat TPLF posed on the Ethiopian body politic.
TPLF is a terrorist organization of which leaders publicly and unashamedly sworn a solemn oath to dismantle the Ethiopian state going down to the hell. A peaceful, democratic and unified Ethiopia which the Bills envisioned is unattainable goal without characterizing, designating and treating TPLF the way it is i.e., none other than a terrorist organization. The sponsors of the Bills and its co-sponsors shouldn’t make TPLF synonymous with the people of Tigray. The narrative spearheaded by TPLF and echoed by its supporters doesn’t fit well with the voices of ordinary Tigrayans living in Tigray as exposed by the recently published empirical research, by Professor Ann Fitz-Gerald, titled as “The Frontline Voices: Tigrayans Speak on the Realities of Life under an Insurgency Regime”. The first empirical research in its kind concerning the conflict in the Northern Ethiopia disproved and ridiculed the narration, which portrayed TPLF as a legitimate representative of the people of Tigray.
The findings of the empirical research established the grassroots Tigrayans’ opinion on the ongoing conflict in Northern Ethiopia is that there could be no peace in Tigray as long as the TPLF existed. Hence, the predicaments the people of Tigray currently find itself is chiefly caused by TPLF itself which took a hostage and demand a ransom, in the name of humanitarian aid, on the very people it claims it represents to fulfill its narrow interests. NaMA believes the better way to help the people of Tigray is to neutralize the hostage takers. Consequently, NaMA calls the Sponsors and Co-sponsors of the Bills to diagnose the current political malaise properly, drop the Bills, and play their part constructively.
2. It is the Ordinary Ethiopian People on the receiving end of the sanctions, Not the People in Power
NaMA believes the proposed economic sanctions embedded in the Bills dearly cost neither the People in Power nor the insurgent TPLF, and will only levy a hefty price on the ordinary people of Ethiopia. The proposed Bills require withholding bilateral economic cooperation the United States of America has with Ethiopia and curtail the provision of loans and the multilateral economic cooperation in which the United States of America has a stake. In a scenario where development partners of Ethiopia such as World Bank Group (WBG), International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the African Development Bank (AfDB) withhold financing facilities, it would be too difficult to finance essential agricultural inputs such as seeds and fertilizers let alone financing basic infrastructure development projects that fulfill the development aspirations of the Ethiopian people.
The proposed economic sanctions listed in the Bills would spiral inflation and result in scarcity of basic commodities on top of taking hostage the development aspirations of the Ethiopian people. The result would be inflating the number of people who need aid, more starvation and exacerbate the current humanitarian crises which the Bills ironically promised to prevent. As often times witnessed in different instances around the world, governments, people in power and political entities are least affected subjects of enforced sanctions and it is the ordinary people who found themselves on the receiving end of such measures. Hence, NaMA calls on the Sponsors and Co-sponsors of the Bills to reconsider the consequences of their proposals and withdraw the Bills under deliberation.
3. Window Dressing Accountability for the Gross Human Rights Violations
To the dismay of some groups/ activists who naively supported the initiative believing the Bills would address all atrocious crimes being committed in all corners of the country, Section 10(a) of S. 3199 made it clear that atrocious crimes being committed in other parts of the country except in Tigray are not the business of the Bill and the Bill only authorizes the President of the United States of America to provide technical and diplomatic support including support for activities related to evidence preservation and information sharing to promote accountability for gross human rights violations that took place in the 6 months preceding the outbreak of the civil conflict and have taken place in the course of the civil conflict. Same is the texts of H.R. 6600 and the intentions of its Sponsors, except adding a phrase “other conflicts in Ethiopia” as a tool of appeasement for groups who expressed support to the bills, with not even a single mention of TPLF’s official allies, OLF-Shene and Gumuz militias, in the entire texts of the Bills.
NaMA believes the gross human rights violations committed in all corners of our country are not isolated incidents, but are highly interwoven with terrorist TPLF and are extensions of atrocious crimes committed under TPLF’s brutal reign which engineered state sponsored genocide against the Amhara People as recently revealed in Wolkait by the researchers of University of Gondar. NaMA opposes the selective and piecemeal approach taken by the Sponsors of the Bills. It’s NaMA’s firm stand that atrocity determination and any intervention to ensure accountability for gross human rights violations should cover not just the Northern part of the country and violations that have taken place in the course of the conflict as provided in the Bills but also the active-recurrent-decades-old systemic gross human rights violations which are undergoing against the people of Amhara and the time-frame since TPLF was in charge of the central government of Ethiopia, if the interventions are meant to support a genuine peace and reconciliation effort.
Moreover, our Party believes the proposed interventions to tackle gross Human Rights violations failed to recognize the sovereignty of Ethiopia and would undermine building domestic institutional capacities, which the Bills promised to support. Even though NaMA recognizes the recurrent gross human rights violations that are going on in all corners of the country, is always vocal against the ongoing atrocious crimes and is also committed to play its part to hold accountable all perpetrators of human rights violations, We, at the National Movement of Amhara, believe that Ethiopia is not a failed state despite facing multiple challenges and our proud history necessitates the preservation of our country’s independence.
Most importantly, our Party believes that the underlying causes for the ongoing recurrent gross human rights violations are structural and systemic embedded in the constitutional order and the archaic administrative arrangements masterminded and put in place by TPLF. Hence, the solution is from within and no alien intervention will redeem systemic failures we have faced. Any effort to tackle gross Human Rights violations and bring about peace and reconciliation in our country by international actors shouldn’t replace the sovereign powers of the Ethiopian state and its institutions.
Therefore, NaMA opposes window dressing accountability for gross human rights violations, reject the piecemeal and selective approach spearheaded by the Sponsors of the Bills, and disapprove the determination and designation of atrocities, genocide and war crimes by foreign institutions as proposed by the Bills. We, at NaMA, urge the Sponsors and Co-sponsors of the Bills to abort the proposed Bills, support the ongoing joint investigation by the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). NaMA demands the joint investigation to expand its scope in timeline as well as geographic reach and add to its mandate to investigate the brutal reign of TPLF in the center, the interwoven relationship of atrocious crimes being committed in all parts of the country, and investigate the active-recurrent-decades-old Crimes against Humanity, Ethnic Cleansing and the Crime of Genocide committed on the people of Amhara.
4. Disarming the Ethiopian State and Incapacitating the Ethiopian Diaspora
Section 8(a) of S. 3199 requires the United States Government to immediately suspend all security assistance being provided to the Government of Ethiopia. Section 11 of S. 3199 and Section 9 of H.R. 6600 also require scrutinizing the sale or transfer of arms or weapons our country may acquire or procure from its peer sovereign states, including the procurement of strategic weapons such as drones and aircrafts. It’s crystal clear that such clauses don’t affect insurgent groups such as TPLF, since their supply of arms and weapons are usually carried out through underground deals but effectively limit the Ethiopian state capability to access arms and weapons. As any other sovereign state, Ethiopia has friends and foes near and afar. Disarming the Ethiopian state under the guise of peace and reconciliation will only make the country vulnerable to its sworn enemies and risk its survival.
Section 11 of S. 3199 also requires scrutinizing the full extent involvement of the Ethiopian Diaspora in the military activities of their country either through on the ground fighting or support operations, financial or logistical support from abroad effectively putting on hold the vibrant Ethiopian Diaspora out of service in times of need by their country. We all know what the No More Movement has accomplished in defense of our country when the entire establishment of the Mainstream Media (MSM) has thrown its weight behind the disinformation and misinformation campaign spearheaded by the Global Network of TPLF and risked the disintegration of our country. With the passing of the Bills into law, the Ethiopian Diaspora will be incapacitated, the diaspora Movements will be limited and Ethiopian Diaspora could never be able to extend their helping hands when their country badly needs their support.
The proposed security sanctions embedded in the Bills will disproportionately affect the defense capability of the Ethiopian state, rips off the sovereign power of the state to have monopoly of violence, disarms the defenders of the nation, intimidates the Ethiopian Diaspora and favors the terrorist TPLF and its allies. This is why the entire Global Network home and abroad run by TPLF have tirelessly and desperately worked, financed and campaigned to support the Sponsors of the Bills and to pass the Bills into law as a desperate substitute to achieve a political goal, which TPLF failed to materialize through violence and war. Hence, NaMA opposes the Bills, calls on the Sponsors and Cosponsors of the Bills not to fall on the tricks of a Global Network run by TPLF and its paid lobbyists, and work for a strong and unified Ethiopia.
Hence, the National Movement of Amhara (NaMA):
• Calls on the Sponsors and Co-sponsors of the Bills, particularly on Senator Robert “Bob” Menendez and Congressman Tom Malinowski, in the Senate and House of the United States of America to reconsider their position and withdraw their sponsorship of the Bills they initiated;
• Calls on the House and Senate of the United States of America congress to reject “H.R. 6600 — 117th Congress: Ethiopia Stabilization, Peace, and Democracy Act” and “S. 3199 — 117th Congress: Ethiopia Peace and Stabilization Act of 2022”, respectively and kill the Bills at their respective floors;
• Calls on all Ethiopians home and abroad, the Ethiopian Diaspora and friends of Ethiopia in the United States Government as well as around the world to stand in unison against Bills, H.R. 6600 and S. 3199, and work for their elimination;
• Calls on the Federal Government of Ethiopia to exert its maximum effort to fight and kill the Bills;
• Calls on the Sponsors and Co-sponsors of the Bills to support the ongoing joint investigation by the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR);
• Calls on the joint investigation of the EHRC and the United Nations OHCHR to expand its scope in timeline as well as geographic reach; and, add to its mandate to investigate the brutal reign of TPLF in the center, the interwoven relationship of atrocious crimes being committed in all parts of the country, and investigate the active-recurrent-decades-old Crimes against Humanity, Ethnic Cleansing and the Crime of Genocide committed on the people of Amhara.
National Movement of Amhara (NaMA)
Addis Ababa, Shewa, Ethiopia
4 May 2022
No comments:
Post a Comment