Page 38 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 14

Leadership

• Cutting off funds for security
and economic growth.
• Pressuring multi-lateral institu-
tions to cease funding programs
in Ethiopia.
• Altering U.S.-Ethiopia defense
accords, which have been essen-
tial in the war against terrorism Addis Ababa February 5/2021 (ENA) Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed held phone conversation
and providing security for East with United States Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken on Thursday.
Africa.

punishing the government of Prime ence another “man-made famine,”
Both the U.S. Senate and House of Minister Abiy. If these officials, reminiscent of 1985, if actions are
Representatives support Secretary actually had any knowledge of the not taken immediately. The potential
Blinken’s sanctions against Ethiopia. dynamic of ethno-nationalism in for a new famine became the mantra
Sanctions are a very poor and crude Ethiopia, they might come to realize of the senators at the hearing.
tool for conducting foreign policy, that their actions could encourage
and I have opposed their implemen- more ethnic regions to attempt sep- Allegations of hunger, and atrocities
tation except in the most unique aration from the nation of Ethiopia. committed during the conflict must
cases. However, it is unheard of to be fully investigated. However, to
apply sanctions against a long-stand- Senate Recklessness Led by compare the current situation in
ing ally, and it is utterly counterpro- Bob Menendez Tigray to the famine of 1983-1985
ductive. The government of Prime A new level of belligerence towards that caused over one million deaths
Minister Abiy should be supported Ethiopia was on display at the May in Ethiopia, is contemptible. That
in defeating the insurrectionists, the 26th, Senate Foreign Relations famine was exacerbated by the de-
Tigray People’s Liberation Front Committee hearing on the conflict structive policies of Mengistu Halle
(TPLF). This is contrary to calls in Tigray. It is interesting to note Mariam, leader of the fascist-Marx-
from the U.S and United Kingdom that all but one of the speeches ist Derg. Likely unbeknownst to
for a cease fire and reconciliation and accusations against Ethiopia the uninformed senators, Mengis-
between the Ethiopian National were uttered by liberal Democrats. tu, from 1976-1978 launched the
defense Forces (ENDF) and the Ranking Member, Frank Risch, “Red Terror,” murdering over half
TPLF.
was the only Republican to join the a million Ethiopians, in a geno-
anti-Ethiopian crusade. cide against his own people. To
TPLF, not the Tigrayan community, Chairmen Bob Menendez refer- equate the famine of 1983-1985
is intent on tearing apart Ethiopia, enced Secretary Blinken’s allega- and Mengistu’s policies to Ethiopia
and weakening the government of tions of ethnic cleansing and other today and Prime Minister Abiy, is
Prime Minister Abiy. Ethiopia’s alleged crimes by the Ethiopian beyond reprehensible.
future existence as a sovereign na- government. He demanded that
tion-state depends on quelling this Ambassador Godec, Acting Assis- Senator Menendez opened the
insurrection.
tant Secretary of State for African hearing by claiming that the conflict
Affairs, who was testifying, pro- in Tigray echoes what happened in
Pause for a moment, think, then ask vide the proof that Ethiopia has Darfur, Sudan. I travelled to Sudan
yourself; how did President Lincoln “committed war crimes and crimes many times from 1996 to 2012,
personally conduct the war against against humanity” in Tigray. Appall- including two tours of Darfur.
the southern rebels? He summar- ingly, the other Democrats on the Between that and my own extensive
ily shunned all calls for peace and committee followed Menendez in research, I am very familiar with
reconciliation, until the anti-Union, lock-step, demanding “action now” Sudan and its history. I can assert
insurrectionist movement was de- against Ethiopia. unequivocally that there is no resem-
feated. blance between Darfur, Sudan, and
The Biden administration and the Sarah Charles, testifying from Tigray, Ethiopia.
U.S. Congress are contributing to USAID Humanitarian Assistance,
the potential dismemberment of further inflamed the hearings by Tragically, the behavior by the U.S.
the most vital nation in East Africa projecting that Ethiopia will experi- Congress, is shameful and reflects
by sanctioning, threatening, and an acute superficiality in understand-

38 | we tell the true afrikan story