n style=”color: #ff6600;”>Africa-Press – Ethiopia. BY SOLOMON DIBABA
Contrary to the provisions of the United Nations (UN) and African Union (AU) Charters, over the last four month, Ethiopia is being subjected to unfounded allegations, media misinformation and tampering with the domestic affairs of the country by a consortium of UN systems, international media and human rights organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
Ethiopia’s long standing international partners are also deliberately campaigning to discredit the nation’s efforts in restoring the rule of law, peace and relief support in Tigray Region. While the culprit is as clear as daylight, TPLF’s massacre of Ethiopian soldiers of the Northern Command, the destruction they made on the infrastructural facilities in Tigray, the massacre they committed in Maikadra, Humera and Gullisso has never mentioned as violation of human rights by TPLF and its lackeys.
Why has the international community set a blind eye to the possible genocide in Metekel and Maikadra? What is the purpose of following a carrots and sticks policy by European Union (EU) to daunting Ethiopia from its development and rehabilitation programs that have been destroyed in Tigray by TPLF? Ethiopia should not have deserved such a mistreatment by international partners it trusted to be rational and understanding. On the other hand, politicizing on the plights of Tigrayans is irrational and inhuman.
In gross, non-recognition of article 2/1 of the UN charter and AU principles of the sovereign equality of all Member States and non-interference in the internal affairs of states, the above international organizations have joined TPLF in the propaganda war on Ethiopia. Although baseless campaigns on Ethiopia have lately become part of the conspiracy drive on the country, Ethiopian government and its peoples, Ethiopian citizens and citizens of Ethiopian origin in the diaspora are joining in hands to fight off this protracted conspiracy on the reformed development programs in the country. Ethiopia will indeed not succumb to these campaigns of triple jeopardy.
Although Ethiopia had expected better understanding and treatment from the State Department, the US has sponsored one of the most alarming diplomatic indirect supports for the TPLF’s outrageous propaganda through a recently aborted UNSC statement on Ethiopia.
It stands to reason and justice that Russia and China have recognized Ethiopia’s rights to manage its internal affairs in the most legitimate manner.
It should undoubtedly be clear that such attempts to isolate Ethiopia would only encourage the unity among more than 110 million Ethiopians and help only to encourage a scourge of political crisis in the Horn of Africa. The peaceful demonstration going on at the UN Headquarters by Ethiopians and citizens of Ethiopian origin and friends of this country is a vivid indicator for the unity among citizens in the diaspora.
If the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) is to discuss on the issues in Tigray which is part of the sovereign territory of Ethiopia, the Ethiopian government should be given the priority for in-depth explanations on the issue. Contrary to the views and consistent bandwagon by the international media and the global organizations to which Ethiopia was one of the founders, this country harbors no double standards on domestic and international peace keeping. Ethiopia’s effort to restore the rule of law in Tigray is an alienable part of its quest for regional and global peace. Ethiopia has been fighting lawlessness in Tigray in the context of contributing to the prevalence of law and order in the Horn of Africa.
Despite the joint efforts of some international organizations and global powers to deny Ethiopia’s efforts for the rule of law in its land, more than any other country in Africa, Ethiopia has been and will continue to be a citadel of peace and stability in Africa. This will never change as it is enshrined in Ethiopia’s policy of peace and friendship with the neighboring countries in particular.
However, it is also important to note that any provocation on Ethiopia will not be limited to this country and would only cause a spillover into the entire Horn of Africa. In this context, the irredentist stance of any country of the region is unacceptable and dangerous for peace in Africa.
Given the biases and irrational views of the international systems on Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan are busy trying to wane Ethiopia by lobbying at the corridors of global powers to prevent the second filling of the national flag project of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) which they have found it to swallow because they still are not ready to recognize Ethiopia’s right to use Abay (the Blue Nile) for generating power for more than 60 percent of its population who have no access to electricity.
These countries are also encouraging arms trafficking into Ethiopia as part of their efforts to destabilize the country.
While trying to roll back the construction and filling of GERD for the second time, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Sudanese officials are talking about a binding legal agreement regarding filling and operating the dam in their attempt to force Ethiopia to agree on terms and conditions that are totally not acceptable from the perspectives of international law and legal technical dimensions the dam beyond the Principle of Declaration agreement on GERD signed by the three countries in Khartoum on 23 March 2015.
The truth is both Egypt and Sudan are not ready to acknowledge Ethiopia’s rights to use the water of Abay for power generation and are still focusing on the implementation of colonial agreements on the waters of the Nile to which Ethiopia has never been a party.
Ethiopia again welcomes the continuity of the negotiations on GERD in good faith but upholds it sovereign rights to use her natural resources for the benefit of her citizens who paid for the dam and are eagerly expecting the completion of GERD in the shortest period of time.
Once more and as usual, Ethiopia shall shatter the international conspiracy against its people to emerge victorious for all to see.
