To: President Joe Biden
Via National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan
From: Mesfin Mekonen and 10 Concerned Ethiopian-American Civic Organizations
Subject: Averting Civil War in Ethiopia
Date: October 30, 2024
Mr. President,
I am writing on behalf of the Ethiopian-American community to alert you to the imminent danger of civil war in Ethiopia. As a longtime representative of our community, I previously corresponded with your office when you chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and today we reach out once again, profoundly concerned about Ethiopia’s deteriorating human rights situation.
The Ethiopian government’s recent use of drones to target and kill Amhara civilians has escalated this crisis. We urgently request that your administration intervene to prevent these attacks on civilians. The United Nations Human Rights Office has highlighted the “devastating impact of drone strikes and other violence on the population in the Amhara region” conducted by the Ethiopian National Defense Forces.
While the conflict between the Ethiopian government and Tigray rebels has received some media coverage in the U.S., there has been little attention given to the widespread violence targeting the Amhara people. The Ethiopian government has intensified attacks against its own citizens, displacing Amhara communities, and waging campaigns against the Orthodox Church and the free press. Journalists are being jailed, and reports from the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission document these human rights abuses in the Amhara region.
The White House and the State Department must condemn these acts and take immediate steps to address the crisis. We request targeted sanctions against Ethiopian officials responsible for these abuses or who fail to protect the lives of innocent civilians.
We urge the United States and the international community to condemn these atrocities. Rising tensions between the central government and the Amhara people have escalated into armed conflict that threatens to engulf the region. The U.S. has a moral responsibility to avert a civil war that could destabilize Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa.
At a time when the world is focused on crises in the Middle East and Ukraine, we ask that Ethiopia not be forgotten. Ethiopia, with a population of over 120 million, is pivotal to regional stability. It faces multiple, severe challenges:
- An unresolved civil war
- Ethnic cleansing and violence
- Widespread hunger and malnutrition
- Systemic human rights abuses
- Rampant corruption
The U.S. must act swiftly to advocate for a legitimate transition of government and a path to a new constitution for Ethiopia. The current system of ethnic federalism, which began under the TPLF and persists under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, has fostered division and conflict. In the Wollega region, for example, the Oromo Liberation Army and local authorities have engaged in massacres and displacement of Amhara people, leaving over two million displaced.
On behalf of Ethiopian-American civic organizations, we ask the United States to intervene to prevent further escalation of violence, particularly the drone strikes killing civilians.
On October 23, Ethiopian-Americans convened in the Kennedy Caucus Room at the U.S. Senate Russell Building for the Ethiopia Constitutional Conference of the Diaspora and Congressional Briefing. This event, organized by ten Ethiopian-American civic organizations, reflects our community’s deep concern and commitment to peace and stability in Ethiopia:
- Ethiopiawinet
- Ethiopian American Civic Council (EACC)
- Ethiopian Survival Salvation Association (ESSA)
- Unity for Ethiopia
- Ethiopian Advocacy Network (EAN)
- Horn of Africa Peace Development Center (HAPDC)
- Ethiopian American Community (EAC)
- Ethiopian Dialogue Forum (EDF)
- Global Amhara Coalition (GAC)
- Global Alliance for the Rights of Ethiopians (GARE)
Thank you for your attention and action to prevent further violence and suffering in Ethiopia. We believe that the United States can make a meaningful difference in ensuring peace and stability in the Horn of Africa.
Sincerely,
Mesfin Mekonen
On behalf of Ethiopian-American Civic Organizations
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When we complain about and indict the current constitution of the old country, we are barking at the wrong tree. The constitution did not preach violence as the only way to find amicable solutions to bloody and destructive conflicts. The constitution does not say political power only comes out of the barrels of the gun. Violence has been induced into the psyche of the educated section of the population way before the current constitution. The constitution was not the one that created violence prone groups like MEISON, EPRP, EPLF, OLF, ONLF, TPLF, SNLF and many other groups that took to the bushes and made armed violence as the main modus operandi. All these groups were founded by communists.
The communists were the ones who schlepped into the constitution the phrase from the butchers Stalin and Lenin’s 1913-14 demonic sermons into Article 39 that goes like ‘Every Nation, Nationality and People in Ethiopia has an unconditional right to self- determination, including the right to secession’. But still that was not the instigating factor for former commies to go 100% bigots. First they hated middle and upper classes in the society and when that did not get them too far then they turn their unhinged hatred on others who are not from their ethnicity. That was what the original commies did before their time was over. They had successfully cloned their look-alikes from among the younger generation and now we have this: a vicious cycle of bloody and destructive violence. It was in Tigray before and now it is in Oromia and Amhara regions.
So stop wasting time on something not worth it. Instead I call upon on all well read individuals among us to go full steam in exposing the fallacies of Marxism/Leninism/Maoism that has brought such bloodshed, destruction and misery to those upright and noble people since 1974. Until this demonic philosophy is successfully excavated and discredited, the vicious cycle of violence will go on rendering that pride of the colored and humanity shattered beyond repair.
Okay, bigots! If you don’t like this, you see that lake nearby? Go there and jump in the deep end. Nobody will be looking for you. Good riddance!!!
If you read back what you wrote you would understand it is the Constitution which is the main problem of Ethiopia. The commies you mention are the ones who made created the current constitution. It was built based on hate on one of Ethiopian community by the others.
Some have been praying for the old country to shatter itself into irreparable pieces and that sounds soothing music to ears of some neighbors(except South Sudan, Djibouti and Kenya). With the widespread anarchy associated with violent breakup they would come in and pillage when every one of us are busy butchering each other like wild animals. That is called fishing in troubled waters. But that will remain just a dream, a fantasy that will never happen.