BY SOLOMON DIBABA
Although Ethiopia was one of the founding members of the League of Nations and in spite of the fact that the country had officially appealed to the global organization, it was denied justice by the major world powers of those days as they failed to condemn and come to the assistance of Ethiopia in the advent of Fascist aggression on the country in line with the provisions of the principle of collective security to which the leading global powers and Ethiopia were signatories.
Regrettably enough, the principle of collective security did not apply for Ethiopia but served as a smokescreen for the colonial ambitions of Italian Fascist forces. Today, the UNSC chose to take the initiative of attempts to investigate into the objective reality in Ethiopia under a deeper influence from global misinformation consortiums under the service of TPLF.
The irony is, all the propaganda war on Ethiopia which seem to be endorsed by the UNSC is done under the guise of violation of human rights and ethnic cleansing as regrettably argued by the US State Department.
On the other hand, UNSC deserves appreciation for merely focusing on the situation in Tigray but this was so in a wrong direction and blurred view that prompted this reputed UN executive body to plunged itself into a blame game on Ethiopia. Ethiopia has been twice elected into the Non-Permanent Membership of the UNSC and lacks no knowledge of the operations of the UNSC and other organs of the UN and therefore expects more rational and objective understanding of the situation in Tigray.
Ethiopia deserves better understanding by the UNSC as almost all its members are partners to Ethiopia’s development programs including the ongoing comprehensive reforms that are already showing promising results in promotion of democracy, economic readjustment, commitment to human rights, good governance and the rule of law.
Ethiopia is a sovereign country with a responsible government and highly qualified leadership that won the Nobel Peace Prize. That is why this nation is committed to international peace and security by ascertaining peace in Africa. Ethiopia fought against terrorist forces who attempted to intrude into the territory of the country in the form of Islamic Courts, Al-Shabab and other subsidiary forms of global terrorism. When Ethiopia pushed off the terrorist forces in Somalia, some of the leading UNSC member states blamed Ethiopia for crossing over to Somalia to ensure the safety of its territorial integrity.
Recent history of the Horn, however proved the reverse, Ethiopia has proved to be the bulwark of peace in the Horn by its own resource and military and also under the auspices of AMISOM not to mention Abiye and Darfur.
The UNSC has a wider chance to play a positive role by supporting Ethiopia’s relief and rehabilitation programs in Tigray whose major infrastructures are destroyed by TPLF. The UNSC never cared to condemn TPLF for what it has done to Ethiopia’s development program in the region but instead became a victim of TPLF’s misinformation campaign in organized video show doctoring and fake pictures and images.
The current situation in entire Ethiopia and Tigray can never be compared to the situation in Yemen, Syria and Afghanistan as some media outlets and misinformation moguls to depict. The UNSC is quite aware of the Fact that Ethiopia is engaged in peace keeping in its own sovereign territory as the laws of the country, UN and AU charters visibly permit.
While thanking UN agencies like UNHCR, WFP and other agencies for the support they are providing to Ethiopia’s relief and rehabilitation efforts in Tigray, Ethiopia is still relaying on its own resources to tackle the current food and health service shortages in Tigray. It is presumed that the UNSC will not expect a heavenly miracle to rehabilitate the region from the barbaric destructions that TPLF has waged on citizens in Tigray.
Ethiopia has all the instruments required to deeply investigate into suspected human rights violations or what The State Department termed as ethnic cleansing, if at all there was any. Already the government is working with Ethiopian Human Rights Commission and pertinent federal law enforcement bodies to ensure that justice is duly restored by bringing the perpetrators before the courts of law.
Again, Ethiopia requests full cooperation from the UN and international partners it fully trusted over the last several decades. UNSC needs to act as a force of balance between rhetoric and reality and between what is real and counterfeit.
Here, it is very useful to have a glimpse of the tireless attempts made by the government of Ethiopia to resolve the difference with TPLF right from the beginning. By contravening with the federal law of the country, TPLF conducted an illegal regional election that was made nil and void by the House of Federation. Contrary to the law of the country, TPLF declared a statement of non-recognition of the federal government to which it was a part. In gross violation of the laws of the country and the UN Convention of Human Rights, the regional government of Tigray ordered the attack on the Ethiopian armed forces Northern command in a gesture of declaration of war on Ethiopian peoples and government. It would be very difficult to assume that UNSC members’ states are not aware of the entire scenario of TPLF’s terroristic actions.
The UNSC needs to remain mindful of the fact that TPLF’s war on Ethiopia was foiled by the Ethiopian armed forces not only to ensure peace and the rule of law in Ethiopia but also to prevent a total regional disruption of peace and the rule of law in the Horn of Africa. Had it not been for the assurance of law and order taken by the government, it would be useful to predict what could have happened in Ethiopia and the Horn. TPLF was out to disrupt regional peace at the expense of trying to restore its hegemony in the Ethiopian political system.
Therefore, it is incumbent upon the UNSC to assess its positions instead of hastily going into squarely accusing Ethiopia.
The Ethiopian Herald March 16/2021
