After President Biden’s executive order, the U.S. government is considering to impose sanctions against Ethiopia in which many see it as an unwise and unfair decision that would further impact the Ethiopian people. And, the European Union is following the wrong footstep of the U.S. Lately; the bloc passed a resolution threatening to impose sanctions on Ethiopia. The coordinated campaign to put pressure against the Ethiopian government is however emboldening the terrorist TPLF group to continue its atrocities with no ill consequences.
The threats of sanction from the U.S. and the EU came at a time when the TPLF is doubling down its offensive against innocent civilians in Amhara and Afar states. And, the only option the Ethiopia government left with is to defend innocent civilians and save properties. This step should not be taken as hostility rather a fight against terrorism.
It is worth noting that the Ethiopian government has announced a unilateral ceasefire aimed at ending hostilities and restoring peace in the region and also to allow desperately needed aid to be delivered to the people of Tigray. However, TPLF terrorist clique had continued waging war and invaded the neighboring regions of Afar and Amhara and the international community remains silent while the group is massacring, killing, and displacing innocent citizens.
While this has been a hard fact, the EU lately approved a resolution that is biased and on false premises. The EU parliament has adopted a resolution on Ethiopia demanding the immediate cessation of hostilities and calling for a wider range of sanctions including the army’s embargo the resolution also calls on the U.N. Security Council to consider deploying U.N. peacekeepers to the region.
In a statement issued on Monday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the Government of Ethiopia is deeply dismayed by the reticence of the international community to condemn the perpetuated atrocities of the TPLF. Adding salt to our injury is the seemingly pro-TPLF resolution of the European Parliament and the utterly biased statement issued following the US and its partners’ high-level ministerial meeting over the situation in Northern Ethiopia.
The US and its partners put the lifting of restrictions on humanitarian access to civilians in Tigray as their top priority condemning the Government of Ethiopia for obstruction of aid. They have demanded the Government of Ethiopia to immediately re-establish communications, banking, and other vital services within Tigray and fully restore transport corridors and air linkages to Tigray. Putting all the blame on a single party in the conflict, while whitewashing the wrongs of the other, is not only biased but also unacceptable by any standard, the statement added.
Commenting on the resolution, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Demeke Mekonnen said that the recent EU Resolution on Ethiopia is biased and unacceptable. The recent EU resolution is biased and lacks reality on the ground, Demeke told Minister of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia Anže Logar in a telephone conversation.
The TPLF continued attacking civilians in different areas across the neighboring regions and he explained in detail the attacks carried out by the TPLF in the Amhara and Afar Regions and how it destroyed the livelihood of civilians in the two regions. On the other hand, the TPLF is diverting the more than 420 trucks that entered Tigray to deliver humanitarian aid for military purposes.
He told the minister that the recent resolution by the EU Parliament was unacceptable since it is unjustified and biased that overlooked facts on the ground. He reiterated that the TPLF should stop its fighting and attacks on civilians.
Also reacting to EU resolution, Independent Journalist Anna Garrison said that the U.S. is now using hybrid warfare things like censure sanctions is the worst covert operations and special operatives I don’t think there will be any more big troop commitments like there were in Afghanistan I think that’ll likely be the last of that type of war. So sanctions are some of the most punishing forms of war and you know they cause food shortages medicine shortages. Countries can’t get parts for their infrastructure this is a problem in Venezuela which has the largest oil reserves in the world.
She said that it is like an infringement of Ethiopia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. But, I don’t think it will happen under U.N command because Russia and China consistently resist the efforts to censure sanctions and intervene in Ethiopia. Unilateral sanctions are illegal so is unilateral military intervention but as we know the United States doesn’t have a lot of respect for international law
But I don’t think that there’s any danger of a U.N. peacekeeping mission being imposed on Ethiopia because Russia and China won’t go along with it and yes it would be a big violation of sovereignty. Last week, Ethiopians in Europe wrote a letter of objection against the resolution. Similarly, diasporas in Holland have expressed their dismay on the lack of understanding and fairness of the European Union (EU) about the current situation in Ethiopia urged the EU to reconsider its resolution on Ethiopia.
“We have been following the EU MEPs debate on “the humanitarian situation in Tigray” (2021/2902 (RSP) that passed on 7 October 2021 and are dismayed by the lack of understanding and fairness that the discussion has shown on the situation in Ethiopia,” Dutch citizens of Ethiopian origin said in a letter they sent to EU Foreign Affairs Council (FAC).
“The EU has been generous in supporting the Ethiopian people. Sanctions will undo all the progress achieved, according to the letter. The northern part of Ethiopia has already suffered a major setback due to the unnecessary destructions of hundreds of schools, clinics, and other infrastructures, it added.
“We believe that the call for sanctions is based on the lack of proper understanding of the events and conflict that are taking place in Ethiopia. It is based on assumption that there is a blockade of humanitarian aid to Tigray by the Ethiopian government. That is however far from the truth”.
As persons of Ethiopian origin, the letter said: “We follow the development in Ethiopia very closely. We know that EU humanitarian flight carrying food and medicine to Tigray State has been as recently as 7th October 2021”.
The letter further added, “some of us have some family members in the conflict area and we know very well that the humanitarian situation in Tigray and the northern part of Amhara and Afar states is very serious”. If the government which has broad support among the people is further isolated by the EU and USA, the conflict will drag on and the humanitarian situation will be aggravated, it was indicated.
Citing that repeated sanctions will be unproductive, it said “We as citizens or permanent residents of EU strongly believe that the EU is capable of and should play a pioneering role in helping resolve the conflict in Ethiopia”. “We strongly urge the EU Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) not to agree to the declaration of sanctions.”
BY HAILE DEMEKE
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD OCTOBER 19/2021
