Amnesty International
October 11, 2019
Spokespersons available to take media interviews
Responding to the announcement that Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has been awarded the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, Amnesty International’s Secretary General Kumi Naidoo said:
“This award recognizes the critical work Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government has done to initiate human rights reforms in Ethiopia after decades of widespread repression.
“Since assuming office in April 2018, it has reformed the security forces, replaced the severely restricting charities and society law, and agreed a peace deal with neighbouring Eritrea to end two decades of hostile relations. He also helped broker an agreement between Sudan’s military leaders and the civilian opposition, bringing an end to months of protests.
“However, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s work is far from done. This award should push and motivate him to tackle the outstanding human rights challenges that threaten to reverse the gains made so far. He must urgently ensure that his government addresses the ongoing ethnic tensions that threaten instability and further human rights abuses. He should also ensure that his government revises the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation which continues to be used as a tool of repression, and holds suspected perpetrators of past human rights violations to account.
“Now more than ever Prime Minister Abiy must fully espouse the principles and values of the Nobel Peace Prize to leave a lasting human rights legacy for his country, the wider region, and the world.”
For more information or to arrange an interview please contact Catherine Mgendi on:
+254 737 197 614
email: catherine.mgendi@amnesty.org
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email: press@amnesty.org
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Congratulations PM..✋
A well deserved prize…
FAKE
HE DONOT DESERVE IT UNLESS WE SEE HIM AS A HERO FOR CREATING CHAOS AND DISPLACEMENT;
PEOPLE ARE PARAISED FOR KILLING People of OROMOS AND TIGRAY
why did they neglect to give it to Isayas afewerki , he is the one who get involved in this politics of narcissism, abiy did a lot to maintain his legacy and power .
It is not to bring people of two nations into peace and harmony but it is a matter of constructing is image in the world to be revered by all. He fights and stand for himself period.
Ethiopian government in early 1998 was best friends with the Eritrean government. Within a matter of few months Eritrean government became worst enemies with the Ethiopian government.
Unless the core reason of the Ethio-Eritrean war is adressed not one but ten peace prizes do not bring lasting peace between the two countries. Both sides need to figure out what was it that turned the best of friends into the worst of enemies that quick and do a conscious effort it doesn’t happen again.
Sugar-coating the real reason of why the Ethio-Eritrean war started by saying the reason was the two cousins family feud (Meles and Isayas) personal feud war or border war over Badme, is not the way peace is achieved.
The real truth of why the war startws need to be addressed.
Congratulations PM, Dr Abiy Ahmed. You deserve more! But I want to say something for those who oppose his mission blindly without any reason. A person who denies a real and completely visible trust is called Arrogant. So don’t be arrogant, believe the truth on the ground! How this could be fake, rather your way of thinking is fake!! God bless Ethiopia forever!!
It is unfortunate that the west keep patronizing African countries in different and subtile ways. This award is part of it. Because the Ethiopian people went to the streets not to have promises but delivered freedom, Justice and democracy which non of those I got. We only see that the same unelected rulers keep still stiffing people’s freedom and pushing them to displacement. In exchange we have an exiled ruthless ex-rulers not facing justice with the administration consent. We have a show off of past torture chambers and king’s palaces as museums while allowing under the cover ethnic cleansing by ethnic despots. Not one city or region residents in the world has ever been told that they do not belong where they are born and should be admistrated by imposed “interest” and that is what is happening in Addis and other urban cities besaged by ethnic zealots. What a charade of farce estimation has the West for Africa indeed. This is indeed award for EPDRF for destroying Ethiopia and bring her back to comma status. What a joke. And the award is given to PM that is not even have been selected legitimately. It probably will be a big lesson for other Afrecan despots, destroy your country and people and the just please to reconstruct it without even moving one finger, you will also get the shrewed peace Nobel prize as well. What a nonsense. That how much respect the West has for Africa. According to the West we Africans do not need justice freedom and democracy we just need vitamin supplements and blankets when we are dying if hunger. They also were idolizing the late Meles Zenawi as the vanguard for the developing world. What a shame things never change.
In my previous comment on a different article, I have reminded the young PM that the award honeymoon is already over. It is already time to go to work and advised him to avoid any ethnicity tinged rally to celebrate the award. It is no time to party because the Valkyrie has not come out singing yet. The award is the result of an opportunity presented to you after a heavy price paid in human lives and sufferings not by one ethnic group only but rather by many others. One human life is an Allah given life just too many. Avoid such festivities by all means necessary.
The other arguments discrediting the award are just not of any merit at all. They tell us that the peace treaty he signed with Eritrea did not alter the accord inside that country. We should never forget the fact that Eritrea has been a sovereign nation since 1993. Whatever is happening inside their country it will be up to our dear Eritrean citizens to sort it out by themselves. They are extremely industrious people and they knew what they were doing in 1993 and I strongly believe they still know what to do about their current internal affairs. To think otherwise about them is an insult to their intelligence. Their internal affairs were not part of the peace accord and cannot be used to invalidate the prestigious award.
In 1950 Dr. Ralph Bunche was the winner of the same price. He was given a mission by the UN to bring the warring sides of the Arab-Israeli War that erupted in 1948 to a negotiation table. He achieved success that included resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict in the then Palestine, not in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon or Trans Jordan. The internal affairs of the parties in the conflict were not on his to-do list. So he deserved the award. Farouq’s runaway corruption and mistreatment of his people were not Bunche’s business or part of his assignment. He was told to stop the war and he did just that when others failed. Also, Mandela had deservingly won the same award in 1993. Should he be asked to return the award just because of the savage bloody mayhem between the Zulus and ANC supporters in 1990 right after his release from jail, the audacious Guptas scandal since then and the xenophobia that swept his country for a good decade now? Come on!!! Sung San is a different story. She was awarded the prize in 1991’ more than 20 years before she was allowed to come even close to power. Of course she must be taken to task for what has been happening since the day she started cajoling with the juntas.
Ok PM Abiy! This is it! You have been in the office for about 16 months now. You have accumulated tremendous experience from what has happened since then.
1) Places of worship including harmless priests were burned down to the ground in droves since you came to power. Please note that such people were doing nothing but preaching the eternal words of The Almighty. The perpetrators must be hunted down, caught, tried and be given stiff sentences including the death penalty. Timothy McVeigh was shown the gurney here in the Good Ole USA, The Beacon of Hope and Democracy for humanity because he deserved it. These savages should be given the medicine they rightly deserve.
2) You must grab both Obbo Eskinder and Jawar by their ears and summon them to your office. They should be told to cut it. Otherwise, they can travel to Al’Qahirah and duke it out there in front el-Sisi. This is not the time to hold debutantes beauty contest. It is not funny!!!
3) I commend you for citing the relics in Addis/Finfine as the national museum. I know what my own bigots used to tell me what they would do to them after they ‘liberate’ my proud and harmony mongering people. They would have bulldozed each and every one of them to smithereens. When it comes to Menelik I am from the school of the late President Negasso bin Gidada. While I disdain what his policy had done to many of his citizens throughout the country but I as a black man am proud of how he beat the living daylight of a colonizer bully. My grandfather had fought the soldiers of his warlords Abu Shaitan by the foothills of Mount Asabot and the plains of Harbaa(Bordode). There is an age old Itu gerersaa to tell about it. When every chief in the region from Massawa, Djibouti, Berbera, Mogadishu all the way to Cape of Good Hope in the south to the Bay of Senegal in the west to Libya in the north accepted bread crumbs from colonizers put their John Hancock on the dotted lines, my niggaaz under his out of the world diplomacy and courageous leadership, Adwa became where a bully was humiliated and handedly beaten as if he robbed a bank in the frontiers!!! I admire your courage in doing that.
As always, this is my 2 red cents worth of an opinion and in no way meant to offend.