Drop the Destructive Bills!

wendimagegn — May 5, 2022

What could possibly be a historic international relations mishandle, some senators and members of the US congress have been doing everything to enact H.R.6600 and S.3199 draft bills that can wreak havoc and turning the lives of the general public into a living hell at the earliest possible time. Dejectedly, the bills gave the cold shoulder to the positive developments unfolding in Ethiopia.

In addition to holding back the growth, the bills would destructively and directly influence the lives of the Ethiopian people beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Ethiopians residing at home and overseas have been taking to the streets to protest against the counterproductive bills. There is no gainsaying the fact that if the draft bills are endorsed, the lives of the population as a whole will go from the frying pan into the fire and take a turn for the worse.

Washington has failed to give credit where credit’s due partaking in activities that can rupture the long standing relations of the two nations and put lives at risk and back the country into a corner.

Albeit the government of Ethiopia declared a humanitarian truth with a focus on getting to the bottom of the problem in an atmosphere of calm, some US officials failed to take government’s positive measure into account.

Amidst Washington’s damaging moves, the terrorist TPLF group has been putting the opportunity into effect with the purpose of escalating its atrocities in Amhara and Afar states. Unless the US fails to walk a fine line, the sought-after goal cannot be achieved. In spite of the fact that the incumbent moved heaven and earth to restore normalcy in the beleaguered areas, the terrorist TPLF group has been persistently ratcheting up tension by undertaking attacks.

Since the inception of the draft bills, Ethiopians have been condemning the resolution and appealing to the US to take the potential ramifications of the bills into consideration. Apart from posing a danger to the socio-economic welfare, the counterproductive bills would pour cold water on the time-honored relations of the two nations without doubt.

In the aftermath of the impending intimidations of the bills, Ethiopians have been coming to blows against the imbalanced war remunerated against their source of revenue. In lieu of narrowing the window of opportunity for putting on a normal footing the circumstances, some US officials are taking unauthorized and wicked measures that need a speedy evaluation.

Reasoning from this fact, people who closely follow the matter have been urging the US government to consider the cancelation of bills.

The draft bills HR 6600 and S3199 will not create peace and stability, but further exacerbate the problems that exist in the country, the American advocacy journalist Betty Sheba Tekeste argued in an interview with ENA.

Both HR 6600 and S3199 bills are very similar bills that threaten to impose serious sanctions on Ethiopia in various aspects, she added.

They also “promote instability and will further exacerbate issues and the problems that exist in the country.”

The American journalist, who traveled widely in the northern part of the country, noted that there are many internally displaced people and serious disruption of electricity.

A lot of destruction had been created in the northern part of the country and rehabilitation efforts are underway to meet the needs of the people that have suffered greatly.

Describing the immensity of the destruction, the journalist stated that she was sad to learn that a damage on one of the sub-stations resulted in power outage to nine major cities.

Sanctions do not promote peace and stability because poverty cannot promote peace and stability anywhere, the journalist argued.

“With the current climate of where the country is, it needs support. The country needs to recover and the world and international players need to recognize the efforts being made by the government as well as the people,” Betty elaborated.

According to her, it is not clear when these kinds of draconian bills are proposed at this level when we have seen a lot of the moves from the government to actually promote peace instead of sustaining war.

“There is no foreign policy that is going to make the situation in another country better and promote peace. It has to come from inside, not from an external push. External push is only going to create an external pressure.”

The American further pointed out that an external pressure always has its own motivation and the motivation has to have some sort of gain for the external force.

“We have to be mindful of why it’s happening; and that it is not appropriate because there is no way that America could create a peaceful situation for Ethiopia without Ethiopia’s willingness to do the same.”

Betty recalled that the diaspora community in the No More movement has galvanized and motivated around the globe to inform the international community about what has been happening in Ethiopia.

The American advocacy journalist finally called on the Ethiopian Diaspora to continue explaining the realities of Ethiopia to the world and strongly oppose the draft bills.

Meanwhile, a political analyst stated that H.R.6600 bill of some U.S. senators is nothing to do with humanity, democracy and rights, but U.S. would like to uses it as a systematic deterrent to control Ethiopia under the guise of humanitarian affair.

Speaking to local media, Lawyer John Philpol said that the sanction is an attempt to twist Ethiopia’s arms producing unfounded as well as emotional allegations devoid of fact.

He said that when terrorist TPLF forces perpetrate untold crimes, massive killings, genocide and other inhuman treatments, U.S. didn’t utter even a word about the issues except erroneously criticizing the federal government.

Author and entrepreneur, Tibebu Assefa on his part said that the bill is not absolutely connected with situation in Ethiopia; rather it is politically driven intention even against the US’ core foreign policy principles which rely on peace, development and mutual benefit.

As to him, the bill favors terrorist TPLF and endangers the Ethiopian government and its people especially sections 5 to 7 of the bill prevent the country from getting international loans, financial supports and security assistance.

He stressed that first and foremost it was illegally pushed by political will of the two members of the congress.

Denouncing the bill, he said that it does not promote peace rather it will destabilize the Horn of Africa as Ethiopia is a very strategic Horn nation. Hence, destabilizing Ethiopian economy has literally a serious repercussion on regional security.

Lately, Chairperson of Ethiopian American Council Deacon YosephTefari said literally the bill forces Ethiopia to surrender at the expense of its sovereignty allowing impartial investigators to come to Ethiopia and have an unfettered access to conduct their investigation.

He stressed that the bill is criticizing the government of Ethiopia irrationally and rejects the measures of the government to bring about sustainable peace and real growth.

He called on the Western powers to encourage national dialogue in Ethiopia and play a constructive role in pushing Ethiopia forward instead of throwing poisons stones to break its arms thereby getting country’s progress back.

Some US senators have been urging their country to reconsider its policy and diplomatic relations and play a positive role in Ethiopia.

U.S. senator from Virginia Mark Warner stated that U.S. should advance its diplomatic efforts with Ethiopia in a bid to press on humanitarian and economic initiatives.

In his twitter page, Senator Mark said that Ethiopian government effort to expand access to the Tigray state has shown a positive progress as humanitarian organizations are providing the needy with the required aid.

Similarly, the senator expressed his positive view on Ethiopia in the first week of April 2022, and urged the U.S. to firmly strengthen and improve its trade relation between Africa specifically with Ethiopia.

“We do that carefully since there are numerous Diaspora Ethiopians in Virginia and others. I hope we can improve the relation between the two countries and do all our best to get Ethiopia back to AGOA.”

He said he requested the senate about the return of Ethiopia to AGOA as the country has exhibited various improvement in several aspect. It is also stated that many have considered his appeal for Ethiopia to be back to AGOA as convincing.

As mentioned several times, the sanction is affecting many small businesses, low paid workers and the poor across the country. Moreover, other members of the senate also expressed ideas about impact of the termination of AGOA on the livelihood of many Ethiopians.

BY ADDISALEM MULAT

THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD THURSDAY 5 MAY 2022