Draft Bills HR 6600, S3199 Worsen Problems in Ethiopia, Says American Advocacy Journalist

April 13/2022 /ENA/ The draft bills HR 6600 and S3199 will not create peace and stability, but further exacerbate the problems that exist in the country, the American advocacy journalist Betty Sheba Tekeste said.

Both HR 6600 and S3199 bills are very similar bills that threaten to impose serious sanctions on Ethiopia in various aspects, she added.

They also “promote instability and will further exacerbate issues and the problems that exist in the country.”

The American journalist, who traveled widely in the northern part of the country, noted that there are many internally displaced people and serious disruption of electricity.

A lot of destruction had been created in the northern part of the country and rehabilitation efforts are underway to meet the needs of the people that have suffered greatly.

Describing the immensity of the destruction, the journalist stated that she was sad to learn that a damage on one of the sub-stations resulted in power outage to nine major cities.

Sanctions do not promote peace and stability because poverty cannot promote peace and stability anywhere, the journalist argued.

“With the current climate of where the country is, it needs support. The country needs to recover and the world and international players need to recognize the efforts being made by the government as well as the people,” Betty elaborated.

According to her, it is not clear when these kinds of draconian bills are proposed at this level when we have seen a lot of the moves from the government to actually promote peace instead of sustaining war.

“There is no foreign policy that is going to make the situation in another country better and promote peace. It has to come from inside, not from an external push. External push is only going to create an external pressure.”

The American further pointed out that an external pressure always has its own motivation and the motivation has to have some sort of gain for the external force.

“We have to be mindful of why it's happening; and that it is not appropriate because there is no way that America could create a peaceful situation for Ethiopia without Ethiopia's willingness to do the same.”

Betty recalled that the diaspora community in the No More movement has galvanized and motivated around the globe to inform the international community about what has been happening in Ethiopia.

The American advocacy journalist finally called on the Ethiopian Diaspora to continue explaining the realities of Ethiopia to the world and strongly oppose the draft bills.