On planet Earth, above all things, territorial integrity and sovereignty become the top agenda and the highest priority of any country wherever it is located. Wealth or lack of it does not matter at all when it comes to this crucial issue. A country is still a country and jealously claimed by the citizens however it is economically unfortunate. True citizens do not trade the freedom of their land for anything in the world. They do not, at all cost, and allow any force to encroach upon their territorial integrity and sovereignty. To the citizens, issues with respect to their national security and pride, anything that goes beyond what is right, is utterly unacceptable and they fiercely fight it off.
This is exactly what is happening to Ethiopia. The so called super powers blatantly allege her for the very simple reason of claiming her right of protecting her citizens. They noisily and roughly gang up on her in the face the loud outcry of the stark truth on the ground. As a sovereign country, she has legal right to maintain law and order within her own territory without trespassing that of the other’s.
As spectators, they sit back and indifferently watch when thousands are slaughtered, millions displaced, properties looted and infrastructure destroyed, yet blaming the Ethiopian government for being the cause for the national disaster. They are unfairly concerned for something that is none of their business just in support of the perpetrators.
The United Nations principle is to uphold peace, dignity, and equality in any situation including war. Yet, some of the agencies are found acting in violation of the principle by supporting the rebel group in Tigray in various ways.
One of the purposes of the United Nations, as stated in its Charter, is “to achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character.” The UN first did this in the aftermath of the Second World War on the devastated continent of Europe, which it helped to rebuild.
The Organization is now relied upon by the international community to coordinate humanitarian relief of emergencies due to natural and man-made disasters in areas beyond the relief capacity of national authorities alone. Yet, this noble claim is very lacking concerning the problem prevailing in northern Ethiopia. The federal government of Ethiopia at sundry time appealed to the United Nations to address the problem fairly by condemning the atrocities the junta group is causing to the people in Tigray, Amhara and Afar regions. Instead of coordinating humanitarian relief of emergencies, taking side, it condemns the government which is nothing but adding fuel to the fire and worsening the situation.
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) of the UN Secretariat is responsible for escalating the war and misguiding international community by disseminating disinformation. It does this through its agencies active in the war zone. It is aware of the fact that the junta uses the assistance as bate to force the innocent Tigrians to send their children to battle front to fight the Ethiopian troops. A coordinated, system-wide approach was employed together with some prominent international media such a CNN, BBC, Aljazeera and the like.
OCHA has turned its back on its own principle of providing essential humanitarian relief assistance quickly and efficiently to those in need. Unfortunately OCHA, whether deliberately or the otherwise, has not been able to apply it in Tigray. It looks as if the principle was designed for selected countries of the world. In fact, there was time when OCHA was fully involved in addressing the problem of the 1985 draught in Ethiopia. Could it be a change of leadership in the Office or especial interest that it is pursuing in this special incidence? God knows what has happened. After all one little good deed is much better than many great intentions. It is easier said than done; yet not at this level.
OCHA’s mandate stems from General Assembly resolution 46/182 of December 1991, which states: “The leadership role of the Secretary-General is critical and must be strengthened to ensure better preparation for, as well as rapid and coherent response to, natural disasters and other emergencies.”
OCHA Ethiopia, pushing aside the truth, capitalizes on the acute food insecurity which it thinks is affecting millions and thereby insinuating international community to act against the Federal Government of Ethiopia.
At this intensive time of crisis, OCHA Ethiopia is not stepping up its coordination role as expected. It is strengthening its field presence in the name of humanitarian support.
OCHA has deliberately strengthened its disinformation management system making it more complicated for the international community to get a truth of what is really going in Tigray and its neighboring regions. It has failed to enable an evidence-based and timely multi-sector response and monitoring despite the continued appeal of the Federal Government of Ethiopia. There is very little evidence that it is working to develop a system for the analysis of the severity of needs in the region.
OCHA has not supported the required collective advocacy to enable timely fund-raising for the Ethiopia and to ensure a principled and right-based approach especially in IDP response. Seventy per cent of the food delivery was made by the Federal Government of Ethiopia.
Ethiopia is not in to the degree OCHA is trying to portray in the war zone the situation the UN could have cooperated to regulating. The political tension that OCHA keeps blowing it out of proportion is being eased after the democratic government election. The intriguing situation at point is that OCHA instead of making its own onsite evaluation of the war often relies on the one-sided and the biased information of the unreliable news agencies active in the region.
Had OCHA deployed staff and humanitarian assistance from Addis Ababa as it claims, it should been well aware of the whereabouts of the over four hundred vehicles that were supposed to deliver the assistance.
OCHA Ethiopia does not see the reality on the ground. The monitoring of humanitarian access constraints is not caused by Ethiopian military as OCHA tries to persuade the international community to take action against Ethiopia.
As a result, the case was taken to the United Nations Security Council focusing on the issue of the seven United Nations officials who were found illegally involved in the crisis to escalate the situation and were sent out of the country. Yet, the allegation was severely opposed to by peace loving countries. Furthermore, the European Union strongly condemned the expulsion the officials out of Ethiopia without taking into consideration the justification of the Ethiopia government. They argue that it is imperative that human rights and humanitarian aid organizations are allowed to do their work without obstruction.
The very implication of the accusation of the West and the European Union regarding the expulsion is that Ethiopia should tolerate no matter what happens to Ethiopia’s national security. It should be understood that Ethiopia has the right to expel or not any agency in her territory without being instructed by an external power. This is internal affairs. No one has a mandate to tell the government what and what not do. That is what sovereignty is all about. International law affirms and should fully support it if peace has to be maintained between countries on the globe.
Still, Ethiopia is justifiably in a position to have a control over anything that happens in her territory. Without agreement, even it is for the benefit of the country, the can reject any proposal if is a situation with string attached. Any country knows what is good for its people. The sovereignty of its country is the top priority for any government.
Based on this fact, Ethiopia has fully geared to portraying her position to the international community relentlessly.
BY JOSEPH SOBOKA
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD OCTOBER 13/2021
