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“As far as I am concerned, Ethiopia is no longer engaging in a pattern of gross violations of human rights”. With that curt message to Congress, President Biden in effect was telling the world that the Ethiopian government of our protégé, PM Abiy Ahmed will not be held accountable for war crimes and crimes against humanity, thus removing Ethiopia from a list of gross human rights violators, paving the way for Ethiopia to access funds from the two ‘international financial institutions-IMF and the World Bank- over which the US exercises outsize control. https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/06/29/ethiopia-tigray-war-human-rights-violations-designation-biden-us-government/
This statement comes on the heels of a report of investigation from an arm of his own administration (USAID) accusing Ethiopian government officials of forming a criminal enterprise engaged in systematic theft of food destined for Tigray. The report makes clear that that Ethiopian officials have been stealing donated food in order to feed soldiers and ex-combatants. It said officials have also sold flour on the open market to millers who re-exported it.
It must be recalled that the World Food Program and USAID had completely stopped food donations since March until full accounting of the theft is given. Several hundreds have been reported to have died from starvation since the interruption of food supplies to Tigray.
Hypocrisy and political expediency have reached new lows in the conduct of our foreign policy. It seems the days of Caudillos (“our S.O.Bs”) are back in vogue, if they had ever left- this time in Africa. These lackeys will be forgiven for all kinds of crimes against humanity including genocide as long as they serve the geopolitical and strategic interest of the United States.
This administration has sat idly by expressing ‘concerns’ ad nauseam as our man in Addis Ababa engaged in an ethnocidal war over a 2 year period, wiping out of existence 10% of the population of Tigray with the help of the despotic leader of neighboring Eritrea and troops from the adjoining Amhara state. The women of Tigray were particularly targeted for gruesome and depraved acts of gender based violence which was used as a weapon of war just as was the case with the withholding of food and medicine. Some 120,000 women survivors of these war crimes languish in shelters (converted schools, camps) suffering from gross physical and deep psychological trauma without the resources they need and deserve.
The PM and his trusted senior advisor, Pastor Daniel Kibret and others in his administration made no secret of their intention before and during the war on Tigray. Their own words alone should have been enough to make them indictable for crime of genocide. (Article III(c) of the 1951 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes of Genocide.) In the prelude to the war, the PM had called the Tigrayans- weeds or cancer that must be destroyed and Pastor Daniel, speaking at a public forum had added ‘their kind should not be allowed to exist and their history should be wiped out from memory.”
The Genocide Convention is clear and explicit regarding such incendiary words. “Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals.”
We have been selective in our designation of the crime and punishment for genocide. The litmus test is and has always been loyalty of our allies to US national and hegemonic interests. An example of such leaders was General Suharto of Indonesia, who in 1965, exterminated half a million to over a million (estimates vary) of his fellow countrymen and women suspected of being communists or communist sympathizers by launching “root and branch extermination” of the communist party of Indonesia, the largest outside of China and the Soviet Union at the time.-sound familiar?
General Suharto, our Caudillo of the East then, removed President Ahmed Sukarno, father of Indonesia’s independence, host of the Bandung conference and one of the founders of the non-aligned states. Suharto and his clique went on to establish a kleptocratic dictatorship in Indonesia for the next 32 years. History is repeating itself. A similar kleptocracy, this time accused by US government itself of literally stealing, is exonerated by the President’s message to Congress. “Our S.O.B” need not worry-Uncle Sam to the rescue.
In this dystopian world we live in, victims of crimes against humanity and genocide are punished and are made to pay with their lives by yet again withholding food by the international community while perpetrators of those crimes of theft are absolved of any accountability- “no longer engaging in a pattern of gross human right violation” is the euphemism used. Why, he is even awarded Nobel Peace Prize as if to give the green light to launch the deadliest war of the 21st Century on his own people.
Such cynical and dismissive view of human life, particularly those in Africa and other places with people of color should not be allowed to continue unchallenged. The human rights community needs to see the linkage of the killing of Black and Brown people on the streets of French and American cities and the carnage in Africa in places like Ethiopia, DRC, Sahel, in wars for resources inspired and supported by foreign interests and their domestic collaborators.
Black Lives Do Matter.
There is a need for a transnational worldwide alliance of peace and justice activists, human rights advocates and affirm the sanctity and equality of human life anywhere and everywhere.
A Luta Continua…
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