Ethiopia Urges for Adherence to the Principle of Non-Intervention in Internal Affairs

Addis Ababa November 25/2020 (ENA) Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has called up on the international community to keep adherent to the principle of Non- Intervention in internal affairs.

In his statement Abiy said, Ethiopia is a country with a long and proud history of statehood. It is one of the early members of the League of Nations and a founding member of the United Nations. It is also one of the architects of the Organization of African Unity.

Ethiopia’s commitment to multilateral cooperation and a world order based on the principles and norms of International law is firm, long-standing and unwavering, he said.

He further stated that Ethiopia has always been on the vanguard of a rules-based international system as demonstrated by, for example, its position as a major contributor of troops for various UN and AU peacekeeping missions in various parts of world.

The Prime Minister pointed out that a fundamental element of the International legal order is the principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of sovereign states, which is enshrined in Article 2 (7) of the Charter of the United Nations.

The International Court of Justice has also repeatedly affirmed this principle asserting that ‘the principle of non-intervention involves the right of every sovereign state to conduct its affairs without outside interference… international law requires political integrity….to be respected.’ This principle is also embedded in the legal and normative order of the African Union, he elaborated.

He noted that Ethiopia appreciates and values the interest of the international community to assist in the ongoing law enforcement operations..

However, he said “We would also like to underscore that this must be done in accordance with the international law. This, first and foremost, means the international community should stand by until the government of Ethiopia submits its request for assistance to the community of nation.”

When the Ethiopian people and government launched a comprehensive package of political and economic reforms in 2018, they were driven by a commitment to realize the twin objectives of peace and prosperity for themselves, he said.

“As the external dimension of our peace mission started bearing the desired fruits, our internal peace was threatened by hard-line members of the old order, and particularly of the TPLF who deployed everything within their hands to subvert the reform process and bring themselves back to power through the use of force, he added.

Abiy further pointed out that for almost three years now, in their efforts to frustrate the democratization process, the TPLF leadership orchestrated a spate of violent attacks by training, arming and financing criminal elements to target ethnic and religious minorities in different parts of the country.

In an act of treason, on November 4, 2020, the statement added the TPLF leadership launched a brazen attack, under cover of darkness, against the Northern Command of the Ethiopian National Defense Force. Using traitors recruited from within the army, not only did the TPLF leadership cause the massacre of unarmed soldiers in the dead of night.

They also attempted to take possession illegally of the entire military depot of the Northern Command in what they themselves admitted and called a “lightning preemptive attack “on the National Defense Force.

Such manifestly treasonous acts perpetrated by a political party constitute a brazen attempt to take power by unconstitutional means, he noted adding that “it is also a criminal offense per the law of our land.”

Adding fuel to fire in the TPLF’s criminality, 600 innocent civilians were brutally massacred in the town of Mai-kadra, he pointed out, and adding an initial Amnesty International report on the horrendous crime has further been validated by the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, which described the massacre by TPLF as amounting to crimes against humanity and war crimes.

The rule of law operations carried out by the Government of Ethiopia since the day our National Defense force were attacked therefore constitute acts intended to defend and preserve the sovereignty and integrity of the state of Ethiopia, to restore law and order throughout its territory, and to bring the perpetrators of the criminal act to justice.