EDITOR’S NOTE: The U.S. ambassador tries to portray the Meles brutal dictatorship in Ethiopia as a role model even as the rubber-stamp parliament today passed a highly restrictive press law and just two weeks ago, human rights organizations provided evidences supported by satellite photos of incredible atrocities in the country. That’s why the U.S. State Department has no moral authority to talk about Zimbabwe and any other country. By continuing to defend the Meles dictatorship, the U.S. ambassador has turned himself into a collaborator in the crimes against humanity that are being committed by the regime against Ethiopians and people of the Horn of Africa. Hopefully, the new U.S. administration that is coming next year will clean up the mess in the State Department and dismiss its corrupt diplomats.
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US Envoy Describes Ethiopia’s Role as ‘Very Positive’
By Abdinasir Mohamed Guled
(Shabelle Media Network) — US ambassador to Ethiopia, Donald Yamamoto, says the United States recognizes Ethiopia’s Woyanne’s contribution in various peacekeeping operations in the region and other areas of conflict in Africa.
“Ethiopia Woyanne is right now, I think, the second largest troops contributing country in peacekeeping operations in Sub-Saharan Africa and probably has the most disciplined and qualified troops,” Yamamoto said.
[Yamamoto is a disgusting human being. He calls these murderers and rapists “disciplined and qualified troops.”]
Ethiopia Woyanne has been playing a very positive role in regional peace and security, Yamamoto said at a press briefing he gave on Tuesday [1 July] at the US embassy.
The US government is working closely with Ethiopia Woyanne and other countries with a view to helping enhance peace and security in the Horn of Africa, he said.
According to the ambassador, the US government looks at the peace and security situation in the region with due concern.
Yamamoto said the mandate of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in Somalia will expire and the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in Sudan will have to be fully implemented in 2009 and elections are to be held.
“The year 2009 is going to be a watershed, because we are going to have stability or instability or we are going to have directions towards regional security or not,” he said.
With regard to Somalia, the United States appreciates Ethiopia’s concerns. For Ethiopia, the issue in Somalia is particularly the security issue just as was the stability issue.
“If you don’t have stability in Somalia you never have stability in your borders.” He added.
[The stupid ambassador calls the destroying of a country and displacing most of its population “stability.”]
“On the other hand, it is also a regional issue, because we can see the influx of foreign fighters and other extremists coming to Somalia,” he said.
[There is no evidence of foreign fighters in Somalia, other than Woyannes.]
“And these are all concerns that affect not only Ethiopia but also Kenya, Tanzania, Djibouti and all the people who live in the region, he said.”So we need to work together with Ethiopia Woyanne and the neighbouring countries to carry out objectives on how to enhance security,” he said.
The shaky transitional government invited Ethiopian Woyanne forces into the country to help it battle Islamic insurgents. Somalia has been torn apart by years of violence between the militias of rival clan warlords.
The rights group said it had scores of reports of killings by Ethiopian troops. In one case, “a young child’s throat was slit by Ethiopian Woyanne soldiers in front of the child’s mother,” the report says.
Amnesty said about 6,000 civilians had been reported killed and more than 600,000 had been forced to flee their homes in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, last year.
“The people of Somalia are being killed, raped, and tortured. Looting is widespread and entire neighborhoods are being destroyed,” Michelle Kagari, the Amnesty deputy director for Africa, said in a statement from Nairobi that accompanied the report.
The report quotes testimony from 75 witnesses as well as scores of workers from nongovernmental organizations. People are identified only by first name to protect them from retaliation.
In one testimony, Haboon, 56, said her neighbor’s 17-year-old daughter had been raped by Ethiopian Woyanne troops. The girl’s brothers tried to defend their sister, but the soldiers beat them and gouged their eyes out with a bayonet, Haboon was quoted as telling Amnesty.
“The testimony we received strongly suggests that war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity have been committed by all parties to the conflict in Somalia and no one is being held accountable,” Kagari said.
Amnesty urged the United Nations, the African Union and other groups to halt the violence.