Why Oppose HR 6600 and S 3199

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Why Oppose Western Powers in General and America in Particular

The HR 6600 and S 3199 are two bills under consideration in the United States’ House of Representatives and the Senate respectively. Both bills are designed and sponsored under the guise of promoting democracy, peace, and stability in Ethiopia.  The bills purport to end the civil war and associated genocide and violations of internationally recognized human rights in Ethiopia via diplomatic and legal means; promote an all-inclusive national dialogue among belligerent groups; and support efforts to hold uncooperative combatants accountable. The bills also intend to suspend security assistance to the government and condition loans and financial assistance by international organizations including the World Bank and IMF on the government’s will to cease offensive operations; improve the protection of human rights, and investigate allegations of war crimes. The bills identify deterring external material support for the purpose of perpetuating civil conflicts, combating hate speech, and engaging civil society in conflict resolutions as viable strategies.

So, one, especially who knows well that Ethiopia has in the last 30 years been besieged with ethnic conflicts driving internal displacements, killings, ethnic cleansing, and gross human rights violations might wonder what is there to oppose in the provisions of these bills.  In fact, such overly pretentious promises have managed to split the opposition to any form of intervention in Ethiopia with the majority still strongly expressing opposition against the bills.

The bills garnered support from a small group whose members are frustrated understandably due to the failure of the ethnic-based government to guarantee basic rights to work and live in peace and these violations of basic rights are severe especially in the Amhara ethnic group for two reasons. First, the group is wrongly accused of being oppressors during the feudal era by other groups, especially by TPLF, and second, it is spread nationally making it vulnerable to ethnic cleansing.  The group is responding by supporting the bills to the government’s moot response to the plight of the people in general and the Amhara group in particular.  They sincerely believe that some of the provisions in the bills might help hold government officials accountable who otherwise will continue to be indifferent to the suffering of the people. As such, the group only differs from those who continued to oppose the bills in strategy while continuing sharing the goals – bringing peace and order to all Ethiopians.

However, whether the provisions of the bills warrant support depends mainly on the intent, will, and ability of the United States to carry out the “promises” embedded in the bills.  We know from historical facts that the United States has unique opportunities for two distinct reasons to develop and spread democracy around the world. First, immigrants who converged in North America as colonizers from Europe chasing economic opportunities without their tribal baggage that besieges other countries created the United States.  Second, the founders benefited from the then-emerging thinking in political science, enlightenment, that awoken society from the age of darkness.  The founders’ declaration of the separation of religion from politics was the qualitative leap toward democracy. 

Practically, however, the United States has fallen short of its promise both in the domestic and international arena. There is little progress on the domestic front toward full-fledged democracy in more than 230 years and the process still lacks a systematic and informed approach to operationalizing democratic principles. On the contrary, there is serious concern about the status of democracy in the United States as sizeable “conservative” voting population hinges on conspiracy in lieu of principled politics, a situation that could turn out to be worse than the age of darkness.

The United States has no luck in the international arena either. No single country has progressed into a democracy due to its intervention. Most recently, we witnessed the United States replacing one strong man with another in Egypt; balkanizing countries in Libya and Somalia; plunging countries into perpetual conflict in Yemen, Syria, and now Ethiopia; draining vitality like in Iraq, and smothering countries like in Cuba and Eritrea.

The United States makes every intervention under the guise of human rights and democracy and yet, it does not wonder why each intervention is failing miserably and makes strategic adjustments for success. In fact, the United States customarily embarks on its next intervention project despite its dismal failure in all prior projects. This is not because the United States is unmindful of its purpose or lacks the expertise in gauging success. In fact, it does assess and determine success. The secret is human rights and democracy are remotely the object of American interventions, they are rather covering the most sinister purpose – expanding the sphere of influence (የተጽዕኖ ቀጠና) which is the continuation of the cold war. In this case, the United States is mostly successful.

Turning our attention to Ethiopia, we know that the United States played a pivotal role in TPLF’s ascension to power in 1991 and the TPLF paid its dues by assisting America for 27 years in its anti-terrorism effort while it balkanized the country along language lines. This balkanization of the society not only left several tribal groups stateless, but it also plunged Ethiopians into persistent conflicts leading to gross violations of human rights, internal displacements, killings, and ethnic cleansing that is wreaking havoc the country even today. The United States at the time did not show any concerns about human rights or democracy. In fact, Obama called the 2005 election democratic although the TPLF remained in power killing 193 civilians after it lost the election. The TPLF lost its reign in 2010  by a popular uprising.

The United States is still clinging to the TPLF hoping for the latter’s return to power. This has been clearly delineated in its reaction or absence thereof to the TPLF’s reckless war crimes it committed recently against the Afar and Amhara ethnic groups. The United States still does not show any concerns about what is happening elsewhere in Ethiopia other than in Tigray. This is not because it is concerned for the people of Tigray or even for the TPLF per se for that matter.  It is desperately working hard to make sense of the situation in Ethiopia to serve its own interest and the odds of success in that regard seem better betting with the known devil, TPLF, than the unknown.

The HR 6600 and S 3199 create the means by which the United States achieves such sinister goals. For example, only the United States determines at its own discretion which groups and what actions are deemed to perpetuate conflicts and could be subject to sanctions. The state department made it clear when the spoke person embraced unsubstantiated reports put out by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch last week.  With the passage of these bills, the United States will cripple Ethiopia by sanctioning groups that stand for their sovereignty, withholding the so-called security assistance, and preventing loans and investment opportunities. If enacted, the bills would be an unequivocal violation of Ethiopia’s sovereignty and they must be opposed with the utmost determination.

April 11, 2022

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