ADDIS ABABA – Renowned international legal and diplomacy experts said that they were puzzled by the announcement of U.S. Department of the Treasury on 28 February 2020 with regard to consultations that had been taking among Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt, where in U.S. and World Bank had at observer status.
Professor Alemayehu G. Mariam who teaches political science at California State University, San Bernardino questioned the role played by the so-called “observers”.
“When did the Treasury Department and the World Bank replace the State Department as the foreign policy and diplomatic organ of the United States Government,” he enquired in his blog-Almariam Comments – posted on March 1.
As to him, who teaches in areas of American constitutional law and judicial process among others, those “discussions”, “negotiations” and “agreements” between the U.S and “officers of foreign powers” and “negotiations with public ministers or other foreigners, or to such other matters respecting foreign affairs,” are within the statutory jurisdiction of the State Department, not the Treasury Department.
From this, Alemayehu who has also published two volumes on American constitutional law, including American Constitutional Law: Structures and Process (1994) and American Constitutional Law: Civil Liberties and Civil Rights (1998) refuted the whole thing as invalid.
“As a practicing constitutional lawyer in the United States, it is my opinion that any “agreement” drafted by Secretary Steven Mnuchin and the World Bank Group’s David Malpass is unconstitutional and in violation of federal law and therefore NULL AND VOID,” he wrote.
Recalling how Ethiopia was not consulted or involved in the deal Egypt and Sudan made in 1959 to share the waters of the Nile, he made a comparison with what Egypt is now trying to do as seeking to constrain Ethiopia’s use and development of the Nile River and preserve its old privilege and schemes.
He said that he believes Ethiopia was given false and deceptive representations when it agreed to participate under the auspices of the United States as “observer”.
“The Ethiopians were baited to the Washington discussions by the innocent-sounding U.S. “observer” role and once they showed up the switch was made and the fix was in. IN the blink of an eye, the U.S. transformed itself into a “facilitator”, arm twister and choke holder. The World Bank watched as the as Ethiopia was rotisseried on the coals,” he said.
He referred for this, the February 28, 2020 announcement of the Treasury Department that announced: “the Treasury Department imperiously commanded Ethiopia that final testing and filling should not take place without an agreement.”
In a similar fashion, the renowned diplomat, Ambassador David Shin has expressed his doubts.
“The fact that the U.S. Treasury Department is in charge of this effort is surprising. In any other administration, the State Department, which actually has expertise on this issue, would broker the agreement. So I wonder. What is the United States up to?” he wrote on his official blog Saturday, February 29, 2020.
He even went to criticize some of the wordings in the statement by the Treasury Secretary.
It “is strange in that it appreciates the readiness of Egypt to sign the U.S.-brokered agreement, which is not part of the public record, but warns Ethiopia that “final testing and filling should not take place without an agreement,” Shinn wrote.
While neither Ethiopia nor Sudan has signalled that they are prepared to accept the agreement, he added that the “United States seems to be putting its thumb on the scale in favour of Egypt.”
The Ethiopian Herald March 4/2020
BY STAFF REPORTER
