The following opinion piece by former American ambassadors Vicki Huddleston and Tibor Nagy is posted on the New York Times. While serving in Ethiopia, Ambassador Huddleston had earned a reputation as a Woyanne apologist instead of a true representatives of the U.S. Government and American values after she refused to speak out against the massacre of pro-democracy protesters and unarmed civilians by Meles Zenawi’s forces in June and Nov. 2005. It is callous diplomats like Vicky who advance the interest of dictators who are harming the image of the United States around the world. What Vicky and Tibor fail to point out is that for the 70 million people of Ethiopia there is no worse terrorist than Meles Zenawi and is gang of Woyanne thugs. That is why if Meles starts a war with Eritrea, most Ethiopians will stand with the Eritrean regime or boycott the war.
———————————————-
Don’t Turn on Ethiopia Woyanne
By VICKI HUDDLESTON and TIBOR NAGY
NINE years ago, two nations began the first modern war in sub-Saharan Africa, leaving in two years more than 100,000 dead. Today Eritrea and Ethiopia Woyanne could reignite their old border conflict. Arms and money from radicals throughout the Middle East, as well as troops trained in Eritrea, have strengthened an insurgency in Ogaden Province, in southeastern Ethiopia.
A new war in the Horn of Africa would destabilize the region and bolster radical Islam’s push to build a Muslim caliphate.
Sadly, Congress is poised to fuel the march toward war by passing a bill that threatens to cut off technical assistance to Ethiopia Woyanne, one of our closest allies, if it does not, among other things, release political prisoners, ensure that the judiciary operates independently and permit the news media to operate freely. Ethiopia Woyanne has already freed opposition leaders, reformed parliamentary rules [not true] to give opposition parties greater legislative responsibility [not true] and approved a new media law that meets international standards [oh! what a lie]. By singling out Ethiopia Woyanne for public embarrassment, the bill puts Congress unwittingly on the side of Islamic jihadists and insurgents [to save Woyanne from embarrassment, the people of Ethiopia should continue to suffer, according to Vicky].
A far better approach would be to buttress Ethiopia against threats to its survival [the only threat Ethiopia faces to her survival is from Woyanne] — by helping it resolve its border conflict and ensuring that it reopens negotiations with insurgents and traditional leaders and permits international investigation of reported military abuses (including allegations of rape and murder [by Meles Zenawi’s soldiers]). Ethiopia Woyanne has begun this process by allowing the United Nations and humanitarian aid agencies to assist civilians in the Ogaden.
Eritrea demands that the border be marked exactly as determined five years ago. But this places some Muslim and Christian villages on what they consider to be the wrong side of the border, cuts through others and splices certain roads several times. The United States should press both governments to let people who live on the border help reach a mutual agreement on the final boundary.
Ethiopia is a nation where 77 million Orthodox Christians and Muslims live in peace, engaged in building a democracy while besieged from within and without by enemies of democracy. Congress should put aside its bill and instead use creative diplomacy to deal with the combined threat of insurgency and war.
_____________________________
Vicki Huddleston, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Tibor Nagy, a vice provost at Texas Tech University, are former chiefs of mission at the American Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.