The American-Ethiopian Public Affairs Committee (AEPAC) has written to Secretary Blinken to call for immediate sanctions against the leadership of the TPLF
AEPAC
PRESS RELEASE
The calls follow an Amnesty International report published on November 9th 2021, highlighting the testimony of sixteen women from the town of Nifas Mewcha in Ethiopia’s Amhara region. The TPLF attacked the town in mid-August, as verified by Amnesty International. Survivors were raped at gunpoint, robbed, and subjected to physical and verbal assaults by TPLF fighters, who also destroyed and looted medical facilities in the town. Furthermore, Amnesty reported 14 of the 16 women interviewed said they were gang raped.
In the letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the Chairman of AEPAC Mesfin Tegenu writes: “This is the latest in a series of awful atrocities committed by the TPLF. They have expanded the war far beyond the regional borders of Tigray into the neighbouring provinces of Afar and Amhara.”
The letter also references USAID’s Mission Director for Ethiopia, Simon Jones, who previously confirmed TPLF forces had looted humanitarian aid. And an Ethiopian Human Rights Commission published report confirming the TPLF had killed more than 150 civilians in the Amhara region on suspicion of being informants or offering aid to government forces in early November.
Despite such reported atrocities the TPLF has faced no sanctions or other punitive actions by the US Government or other leading members of the international community.
However, the US and others have pursued aggressive measures against the governments of Ethiopia and Eritrea including visa restrictions and delisting Ethiopia from the Africa Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA) for their role in the conflict.
The Ethiopian-American community has consistently warned that the current US policy position is perceived as biased and overtly favouring the TPLF rebels, which has at times emboldened them to expand their aggression.
Mr Tegenu adds: “Many members of the TPLF leadership have significant foreign assets and capital. Sanctions against these individuals and the organization would not only damage their operational ability thus easing tensions in Ethiopia and forcing the TPLF to consider a ceasefire, but it would also demonstrate a balanced foreign policy from the United States that is reflective of the current context of the conflict that the people of Ethiopia are enduring.”
Copy of the letter is available HERE
About AEPAC
The mission of American Ethiopian Public Affairs Committee (AEPAC) is to strengthen and foster the US-Ethiopia relationship, enhance both countries security interests, as well as advance democracy, respect for human rights and free market entrepreneurship in Ethiopia.
AEPAC is a voluntary, non-profit, non-connected, public affairs organization that is not affiliated with any political party nor with any specific candidate for election.
AEPAC engages with and educate US government officials, law makers, non-government organizations and the general public at all levels about the bonds that unite the two countries, with a particular emphasis on how AEPAC serves America’s best interest by strengthening the over a century old bond with one of its oldest allies.
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This is an excellent idea but it will fall on deaf ears as long as Mrs. Jamaica and other diehard TPLF supporters are the most effective policy influencers of this administration. This rabid TPLF ‘bosom buddies’ are steadfast promoters of Debre and the gang as innocent victims and Abiy and his administration as an outfit of Anti-Semitics. Whenever Abiy promises victory they twist that into a call for genocide. It looks these haters of Ethiopia as a country have used the term ‘genocide’ at a record times more than any time in all previous administration.
When the US senate passed a bill titled S.RES 97, on May 19, 2021, the senators had documented evidences of atrocities committed by TPLF, but will fully chose to ignore them. when US House of Representatives passed H. RES 445, they were aware of the TP:LF’s instigation of the war by attacking the Ethiopian Defense Forces Northern command,
When the Ethiopian government declared a unilateral cease fire, the US government was fully aware that TPLF ignored the cease fire and invaded the Afar and Amhara regions of Ethiopia. Despite TPLF’s atrocities, Joe Biden, by executive order sanctioned Ethiopian government officials. Surrounded by a firewall of pro TPLF advisors in the White House and the State Department, the president and the US government chose to side with the designated terrorist TPLF and undermine the Ethiopian government.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed , having exhausted all the available means of communications, wrote an open letter for the whole world to see the position of the Ethiopian government about TPLF instigated war and the role of foreign governments.
The Ethiopian people sent millions of letters titled ” the white envelop to the White House”; Ethiopians in the diaspora went out on the streets of the capital cities around the world including in front of the White House in Washington D.C. All these efforts have been ignored by the US government and its allies and have chosen to continue supporting the terrorist TPLF. The Democrats have zeroed in to undermine the Ethiopian government and bolster TPLF by placing it as an equal to the government of Ethiopia.
Thus, the above article may not have a chance to break thru the firewall of pro TPLF advisers surrounding Joe Biden as the other efforts mentioned in this comment.
Such calls for sanctions should also be expanded to suspensions of individuals who use foundations that were created in good intentions for the good of citizens of the world. You can see heck of bigots using their positions of power they secured at such foundations to incite bloody conflict among Africans. You see bigots these days are not the classic hate mongers who used to be bold enough to harm those they see as inferior on their own. Not anymore! Their modus operandi has changed since the end of direct colonialism that started in 1960. They now do it through proxies. They now pass as ‘human rights’ advocates and ‘peace mongers’. As ‘human rights’ advocates they incite one group of black folks against another group of black folks. As ‘peace mongers’ they instigate and condone violence. They cry rivers fabricating ‘victims’ and use everything at their disposals to justify gross human rights violations committed by their designated victims. They get high, pop their bottles of champagne at the news of one black group killing another group of black folks. Bigots like these deranged individuals are having the time of their life with the bloodletting that has been going on in the old country since November 2020. They love to death to see ‘niggers’ butchering each other like there is no tomorrow. What makes me sad is such bigots have found success in securing high tier position in the democratic West. I am not saying Putin and Xi are free of all traces of bigotry. If you think so you don’t know diddly about those two. But these bigots in the West have now ushered a new scheme to make ends meet according to their evil objective. That is why I am worried about the future awaiting those black folks. I am worried witless for my children and grandchildren. The trend I see now is democracy is being chipped away in every corner of the globe. Independent journalism is in great danger and if the current trend continues it may go extinct sooner than we think. When I notice such bigots in positions of power I really get very worried.
Considering the staunch pro-TPLF policy of the present US administration, pleading with it will not bring about any favorable change. The unity in Ethiopia and in the Diaspora should be strengthened and give the TPLF the final blow. The suspected pro-TPLF officials in the Biden administration such Mrs. Susan Rice should be aware of the fact that the TPLF is an ethnic supremacist and fascist force whose political ideology is comparable to the race supremacists. Therefore, it is important to remind the pro-TPLF Afro-American officials and public that supporting and lobbying for the TPLF is a disgrace and is opposed to the liberal, equality and democratic values the US and the west stand for and promote.
The US intelligence service is believed to be among the finest in the world and it is reasonable to think that the US has detailed information about the amount of money the TPLF has looted and transferred abroad. However, it is doubtful to believe that the US will apply the same standard against the TPLF fascists and looters. For example the US enacted the Magnitsky act. A similar act can be considered but the Biden administration in which the vehement pro-TPLF officials have influential positions, may not go that far. The marriage of convenience between the TPLF and the Biden administration may not last long as the latter is losing the war it has incited. The defeat and vanquish of the TPLF will once again be recorded as the big mistake of the administration`s foreign policy.