Last Thursday, on July 6, 2023, at the 28th Regular Session of the House of Peoples` Representatives, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed presented the 2015 Ethiopian fiscal year performance report to parliamentarians and addressed concerns raised by MPs. The issue of ensuring peace and security throughout the country has been one of the queries raised by MPs; and the Premier has given elaboration.
As to him, Ethiopia is committed to sustain peace and security across the country and it is the paramount priority agenda of the Ethiopian government. Thus, it has paid a lot of sacrifice in order to ensure peace across the country; he added, referring to the efforts that have been exerted to bring lasting peace thereby to realize development aspirations and accelerate the nation’s prosperity. “Peace is not a thing that is gained freely. It demands tolerance, patience, commitment and sacrifice. It needs a positive attitude and commitment. Peace is the end of our success”, the Premier underscored.
Ethiopia`s peace and stability are still in the hands of its people. If there is anyone who needs to maintain peace instead of war, who values forgiveness at the expense of revenge, and reconciliation in place of conflict, then it is said that the path to success has begun. To this effect, there must be a group and a government that prioritizes peace more than war, who seeks reconciliation rather than conflict.
One, who fails to sow seeds of mutual trust and forgiveness, will not reap the fruit of peace. Peace requires cooperation, collaboration and mutual respect. In the past several years, we have had enough wars, but now Ethiopia needs to have a period of relief,” the PM underlined.
As it was indicated by Prime Minister Abiy, peace is the beginning and the end of our essence and it is an element that we are striving to embrace it at all cost. Therefore, he noted that everybody should be tolerant and work towards embracing forgiveness and mutual respect so as to achieve a goal of bringing lasting peace and stability by doing so, it is possible to attain sustainable development.
He also stressed the significance of maintaining the balance between human rights and the rule of law. National unity and group identity should be the core values of the nation to achieve peace and security. Condemning the activities of warmongers who aspire to gain from the blood of innocent Ethiopians while hiding themselves behind the curtain, the Prime Minister said that Ethiopia needs a brief of moments to breathe the air of peace
As to the Premier, building individual narration by blurring the real image of the whole nation is one problem that creates hatred and causes conflict. Peace requires mutual respect and willingness to put oneself in the shoes of the other. Contempt, suspicion and insults by any means will not benefit Ethiopians and Ethiopia. The foundation for all our success must be relied on the pursuit of peace, the Premier reiterated.
Indeed, all wars all over the world were not started within a single day or accidentally and they did not come to an end on overnight. Every war has its own cost; it claims the lives of hundreds and thousands of lives. Ethiopia is a living witness in this regard. Due to the conflict outbreak in the northern part of the country, several infrastructures were damaged or destroyed and people have lost their priceless lives. Because of the conflict millions have been displaced from their living areas.
And normalizing situations after the end of war is not an easy task. After the end of a war, the process of reconciliation needs sufficient time. It demands efforts to bring trust among people build infrastructures that were lost during the war and to rehabilitate displaced people. For instance, the American Civil war that took place in 1865, after the war was concluded, it took them almost 12 years to develop trust.
The same is true for Spain where it took it not less than 38 years. The case of Nigeria, Angola, Ethiopia and other African countries is not different. Building trust among people needs time, positivity and commitment. The people of Tigray are part and parcel of Ethiopia. They should get what others get. To this end, after the agreement was signed, activities were carried out aggressively and unwaveringly to fulfill the promises made during the peace deal.
Internally Displaced Peoples (IDPs) should be rehabilitated and returning IDPs is one area the government is working on it. It is also the responsibility of all. So far, 3.5 million IDPs have been rehabilitated and in the month of October merely, 370 thousand tons of food was distributed for people residing around Afar and Tigray states. Equally important, 20 billion Birr was allocated for the rehabilitation war-affected areas, he said.
The Premier also reflected the efforts undertaken to improve the health sector, access clean potable water and for the construction of roads. “In the health sector, we are allocating an increasing amount of budget every year, and we are working to ensure the quality and accessibility of health services. For instance, we have allocated a capital of three billion Birr for the health sector, and 2.2 billion birr has been budgeted for the provision of clean potable water. What is more, 2 billion birr is allotted for roads,” he remarked.
As the PM has stated time and time again, Ethiopian unity and economic growth are totally dependent on the peace that its people have reaped the benefits of. The nation made all of the sacrifices in order to achieve sustainable peace and hand over a brighter future to the new generation. The hostilities among groups at the expense of Ethiopia`s peace has cost the nation a lot.
Ethiopia’s commitment to peace has been demonstrated several times. The peace agreement, an agreement signed between the government and TPLF in Pretoria, South Africa under the African Union’s (AU) mediation to sustain a lasting peace through a permanent cessation of hostilities, is a good example to this. What is more, the Ethiopian government’s patience to deal with those warring factions to settle differences around the table is another implication of how it dearly looks for peace at the expense of bullets.
BY LEULSEGED WORKU
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SATURDAY 8 JULY 2023
