Jimma Times staff

While the U.S Senate Foreign Relations Committee is evaluating a bill to sanction the country, Ethiopia seems to be evaluating its relations with China, looking for stronger bilateral relations. 
 

Most recently, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi held critical meetings with Chinese delegations hoping to increase alliance with the economically and politically powerful country, which he labeled “Ethiopia’s real partner.”
  

Meanwhile, the HR 2003 bill sponsored by U.S. Congressman Donald Payne has recently been handed to the Senate for further contemplation and decisions. The bill needs to be signed by President Bush in order to become a law, but it has already angered the Ethiopian authorities. They claim the bill ignores progress towards democracy, harms regional security and gives a green light for the various insurgents to continue attacks – citing the presence of the ONLF rebels’ representative during the HR 2003 bill’s congressional hearing. However the ONLF and some opposition groups accuse the Ethiopian government for the problems in the remote Ogaden and the post election violence.  

 

The separatist Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) made international headlines after killing 74 Chinese and Ethiopians at an Oil facility more than five months ago. Ethiopia labeled them a “terrorist organization” and began a counter insurgency campaign. Since then, Ethiopia has been accused of army brutality trying to flush out the ONLF and it is blamed for a scorched-earth counter-insurgency policy. The Ethiopian government, however, denies these allegations and some officials claim the only evidence for these allegations have been from pro-ONLF persons escaping the battlefront as refugee witnesses to northern Somalia – a place where most international journalists collect and report accounts of army brutality. Meanwhile, the ONLF accuses the Ethiopian government for continued brutality against the Ogaden populace, which it says have been marginalized by the Addis Ababa government.

 

Both sides of the story have gained support as Human Rights Watch (HRW) detailed stories from the refugee witnesses in favor of the HR 2003 bill during a Congressional hearing; while the Assistant Secretary of African Affairs Jendayi Frazer said the HRW accusations are only “allegations” claiming that Ethiopia is facing “genuine security concerns.”

 

US Government critics often condemn the Bush administration saying that human rights has taken a backseat to the “War on Terror” campaign, which the Ethiopian government has been deeply involved with by intervening in Somalia in support of a weak transitional government, against Islamists the UN linked to Al-Qaeda. Some analysts have also repeated these accusations on the Bush adminstration. However some U.S. officials recently showed opposition to the HR 2003 bill, including U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe (R-Okla) who said Ethiopian government has made “unprecedented progress” towards democracy & human rights.

 

No matter which side of the debate gains the advantage to shape up the future of the HR 2003 bill, some political analysts say the Ethiopian government is broadening its options by allying itself with other countries like China even if it values its relationship with the U.S. the most.