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Ethiopia: Washington Update
advertisement10/07/12
Ethiopia: Washington Update
Ethiopia: Washington Update
By Mesfin Mekonen
Last week we spoke with a senior official of the United States State Department regarding the current situation in Ethiopia. The official told me that the status is one of waiting to see what the change in head of government of Ethiopia will mean over the next year or so.
We think that Ethiopia needs continuing encouragement for democratization and respect for human rights. And he agreed.
Congress has postponed the scheduled hearing on Ethiopia because of events in Libya and Syria and other events that have piled up while national elections in the USA are proceding. Not much can happen until after the elections but we will keep you apprised of developments as they occur.
Ethiopia’s projects for development of its Blue Nile resources has been a topic in the international press as of late. Some rumors of a deal allowing Egypt to attack Ethiopia from Sudanese soil have been circulating.
Ethiopian waters of the Blue Nile have flowed for millennia north to the Mediterranean Sea nourishing Egyptian agriculture.
The rumors have been rebutted by the government of Egypt itself. In recent a news report from All Africa (allafrica.com) we have read:
Egypt's state minister for military production, Rida Hafiz, on Monday strongly denied the allegations the veracity of allegations that his country had reached an agreement with neighboring Sudan to use its territories as a launchpad for potential attacks on Ethiopian damming facilities over the dispute of Nile water-sharing. He said that they are "totally bare of truth". According to Egypt's state-run news agency MENA, Hafiz added that the report is "designed to disturb Egyptian-Ethiopian relations."
We will keep on monitoring this very important matter.
The United Nations speech by Haile Mariam Desalegn, the designated Prime Minister successor to Meles, was one in which he promised to continue the policies of the late Meles Zenawi’s regime. We will also keep monitoring the new prime minister’s activities – as long as he remains the prime minister.
Ethiopia’s opposition political parties are all talking with one another; and we are urging further democratization and respect for one another. We need to focus on cooperation and working together for the good of the nation. We support all those who are working for significant democratic change in Ethiopia. Pointing fingers at other members of the opposition is not helpful in reaching that goal.
Change will come from inside Ethiopia and not outside. Our task is to support those in Ethiopia who are struggling to achieve positive and peaceful change.
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* Prisons and jails consume a growing portion of the nearly $200 billion we spend annually on public safety
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