Noise about Rights Violation in Ethiopia Cover-up for Imposing Hidden Agenda: Legal Scholar

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January 27/2022/ENA/ Silence of the international community on TPLF atrocities and the blockade of the humanitarian corridor to Tigray region clearly demonstrates that the talk about human rights violation in Ethiopia is a cover-up to impose hidden agendas, a legal scholar said.

In an exclusive interview with ENA, Addis Ababa University College of Law and Good Governance Studies Dean Getachew Assefa said even if the government has decided to halt  military activity, TPLF has opened fronts in areas where the aid route to Tigray region.  

“You don’t hear any condemnation from the international community about such blockages. Another important demonstration is that we have seen massive human rights violations in Afar and Amhara regions where the TPLF occupied” and the international community decided to ignore.

There are clear evidences of abuses of innocent civilians, including rape and destruction of properties like education institutions and facilities in Amhara and Afar regions.

He pointed out that such atrocities did not make headlines by the international media, diplomats and leaders of countries. “This clearly demonstrates that those who are making noise are not about human rights violations in Ethiopia.”   

There is a hidden agenda which essentially is about forcefully imposing their own views or their own preferences on the Ethiopian people and the government, the scholar noted.

According to the legal scholar, the international community is using humanitarian assistance, humanitarian intervention or humanitarian crisis to use as a pretext.

Therefore, “the government must essentially hold its ground and demonstrate that Ethiopia is on the right track, and has to continue to behave within the principles of international law protecting its citizens and also protecting its sovereignty and territorial integrity.”   

Getachew  further stressed that the government must be diplomatically aggressive. “We have to tell the facts to the international community; and we have to work with the friends of Ethiopia and work with nations and countries that are willing to listen to the truth.”

Working with the diaspora is also critical for economic reconstruction and building back the country alongside challenging the pressure from the international community, primarily from some Western countries.

The dean explained that Ethiopia has done nothing wrong and this is an existential threat to Ethiopia’s existence and sovereignty. Like any other country in the world, Ethiopia has the right to bring back a section of its society that does not respect the law to law and order.

Ethiopian News Agency
2023