Ethiopian American Civic Council: H.R. 6600 - Ethiopia Stabilization, Peace, and Democracy Act will not fulfill the stated purpose nor resolve the current crisis in Ethiopia

DENVER, Feb. 21, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Ethiopian American Civic Council (EACC) released the following statement from EACC Chairman and Co-Founder Deacon Yoseph Tafari.

"H.R. 6600 which passed in the Foreign Affairs committee without any deliberation, Hearing or Constituent inputs is a legislative measure that will harm the people of Ethiopia equally as the war itself has cost the nation thus far.   

"H.R. 6600 has all the hallmarks of providing last-minute support to Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF) by targeting Ethiopia as a nation committing "Genocide", a claim not supported by UN High Commission for Human Right Report of Nov. 13, 2021."  

"Concurrently on Feb. 16, 2022, Sarah Jackson, Deputy Regional Director for East Africa, at Amnesty International reported "Tigrayan forces have shown utter disregard for fundamental rules of international humanitarian law which all warring parties must follow. This includes repeated incidents of widespread rape, summary killings, and looting, including from hospitals." H.R. 6600 further sidesteps critical Human Right abuses perpetrated by TPLF as reported by UNHCR and Ethiopian Human Right Council."

Furthermore, H.R. 6600, a biased resolution clearly ignores the root cause of the conflict and the following steps the government has taken while TPLF failed to cease its offensive operations:  

• Halted Ethiopia's Defense Force from entering Tigray
• Provide Humanitarian aid into Tigray
• Allows full unfettered access except in Tigray controlled by TPLF
• Lifted wartime state of emergency three months early
• Release prisoners including individuals suspected in the insurgency
• Established reconciliation commission to begin a national dialogue

In Tigray, the Humanitarian aid is primarily caused by TPLF continued incursion in the neighboring Afar and Amhara region. This is confirmed by the United Nation where the fighting in Afar region is still the main reason for aid blockage. Combined with the Amnesty report, it is regrettable US congress has provided political cover for TPLF for never calling out its crime, instead of advanced H.R. 6600.

"H.R. 6600 contains extremely damaging provisions to the bilateral Security interests, investments in Ethiopia, especially for post-war reconstruction, diaspora's Civil Liberties, and Ethiopia's ability to work with international financial institutions including USAID. These draconian measures are specially to lend collateral benefit to TPLF at a great expense to the ordinary Ethiopian people in order to coerce the Ethiopian government into compulsory negotiation."

"On January 10, 2022, President Biden had reached out to the Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and promised to continue diplomatic efforts based on "Constructive Engagement" by underscoring the importance of the U.S.-Ethiopia relationship and the potential to strengthen cooperation on a range of issues. Concurrently, the direct testimony of Mary Catherine Phee, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs underscores the same policy approach during Congressional testimony when asked to support a similar provision contained in H.R. 4350, Article 6464, which was subsequently removed from the Senate D1605."

"The laws governing these measures are already in the books for the Department of State to utilize when appropriate. However, H.R. 6600 - Ethiopia Stabilization, Peace, and Democracy Act will not fulfill the stated purpose nor resolve the current crisis in Ethiopia. Therefore, EACC appeal to the American people to call their representative in Congress and demand not to support H.R. 6600"

--EACC Chairman and Co-Founder Deacon Yoseph R. Tafari

Ethiopian American Civic Council is one the largest Ethiopian American diaspora community in the United States with approximately 750,000 supporters in all 50 states. The EACC represents all of the nearly 90 Ethiopian ethnic groups, US-based, 501(c) 4, nonprofit organization.

SOURCE Ethiopian American Civic Council (EACC) www.eaccean.org

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SOURCE Ethiopian American Civic Council (EACC)