ADDIS ABABA- The National Council of Eritrean Americans (NCEA) has strongly deplored the House Foreign Affairs Committee bill introduced by Representatives Tom Malinowski and Young Kim concerning the war in Ethiopia.
As to the press release issued by the Council, the bill, instead of bringing peace and stability, will only encourage the terrorist TPLF that has been obstructing peace in the Horn of Africa for three decades to continue with its reckless and destructive adventures.
Besides, the bill rewards the TPLF, designated a terrorist group by the Ethiopian Parliament, for dragging the region into chaos, the press release stated.
When the TPLF attacked the Ethiopian Northern Command early in November 2020, Eritrea was on the receiving end of numerous missile attacks launched by the group in what was widely condemned, including the previous US administration as an act of aggression designed to internationalize the conflict.
Eritrea, according to Article 51 of the UN Charter, is within its rights to defend itself.
However, the Malinowski-Kim bill intends to deny the young African nation its fundamental right to self-defense. Hence, “we strongly condemn this unjust, malicious bill designed to harm Eritrea’s promising economy to the extent that it will compound the existing pull factors on migration, compromise Eritrea’s ability to address social and humanitarian needs of its population.
These punitive actions undermine all the efforts being made by all the peoples and nations of the Horn of Africa to ensure peace and stability in their region and beyond”, it said.
The National Council also express its profound disappointment with the House Foreign Affairs Committee for adopting a resolution pertinent to the Horn of Africa in general and the State of Eritrea in particular lacking in basic facts and on the basis of distorted ones. “As a legislative body, we expect the committee to scrutinize rather than accept blindly what the executive units have been reporting. Furthermore, we hope to see a hearing in which the views and testimonies of all stakeholders, including civic organizations such as ours, would and should be featured” it explained.
The Council calls all the members of the US House of Representatives concerned about peace and stability to reject this malicious, coercive bill pushed by the TPLF lobby and its enablers within the Biden Administration.
Instead of taking lobbyist-driven and misinformation-laden ones from Washington, it is imperative to opt for African problems for African solutions principle, it underlined.
BY EPHREM ANDARGACHEW
The 13 February 2022
