HR 6600 Hinders Peace, Undermines Democracy in Ethiopia, Says Leiden University Professor

Addis Ababa  March 30/2022 /ENA/ The HR6600 bill will produce destabilization, hinder peace and undermine democracy in Ethiopia, senior researcher at the African Studies Centre and professor of Politics and Governance in Africa at Leiden University, Jon Abbink said in his article published at The American Conservative.

The initiative of HR6600 is surrealistically called the “Ethiopia Stabilization, Peace, and Democracy Act,” Abbink stated, however in practice, the bill will do more of the opposite: produce destabilization, hinder peace, and undermine the democracy in Ethiopia.

HR6600 is a foreign policy mistake which would appoint Washington imperialist judge on Ethiopian domestic affairs, he stated.

The bill is a program of unprecedented interference in the internal affairs of Ethiopia, based on a lot of ignorance and bias, the professor said, noting that  nowhere does the bill mention the TPLF and its war actions.

“This is surprising if not laughable; it almost looks like TPLF people were co-drafters of the legislation. The target of the sanctions and strictures in the bill are Ethiopian and Eritrean government and people,” he pointed out.

He further said that no one denies that the humanitarian problems in Tigray are serious and painful; however, in the course of 2021, notably after their [TPLF forces] rejection of a government ceasefire offer in June, the TPLF’s violence was dramatically expanded in the Amhara and Afar Regions in a spirit of revenge and destruction.

Abbink underlined that: "The onus of initiating, perpetrating, and sustaining the violence thus lies with the TPLF. And there has been no more ground fighting in the Tigray Region since June 2021: All of it occurs in the Afar and Amhara regions, still partly occupied as of March 2022."

Any serious analysis would reveal that responsibility for the huge damage, the large number of victims, and the abhorrent nature of the violence as a war policy was on the TPLF side, he said.

According to the professor, the problems were compounded by hundreds of thousands of civilians in the Amhara and Afar Regions made international displaced persons by the TPLF; they are still waiting in camps, with nothing but their bare clothes as possessions.

The HR6600 bill and its aggressive and arrogant tone would add extra damage to the situation, after the already absurd delisting of Ethiopia from the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act, which is only hurting ordinary and not members of the government.

Ethiopians right to economic development would in fact be denied; as it says Ethiopians would only benefit from support for projects on basic services, he said.

He indicated that apart from its intrinsic failings, HR6600, if made law, would impose a harsh regime on Ethiopia that will not be productive or bring the desired results; only more socio-economic hardship and misery will follow.

If the US Congress wants to see stabilization, peace, and democracy efforts in Ethiopia, it will do well to start developing a more balanced approach to the Ethiopian conundrum, he stated.

Abbink also noted that a better approach should be based on an analysis of what in fact happened: an armed insurgency by a rogue party that aimed to overthrow the federal government and went on to destabilize the country by war, mass killings, destruction, and economic sabotage.

He underscored that while the Ethiopian government can be urged to do more, it is time for the US to put heavy pressure on the TPLF and call on them to abandon armed insurgency and be accountable under the law.