open brief 1

VAN DE ETHIOPISCHE PREMIER ABIY AHMED

AAN DE PRESIDENT VAN DE VS JOE BIDEN

verschenen in Nation op 17 Sept. 2021

Dear Mr President,

As I write this open letter to you, it comes at a time when innocent civilians including women, children and other vulnerable groups in the Afar and Amhara regions have been violently displaced, their livelihoods disrupted, their family members killed, and their properties as well as service giving institutions destroyed intentionally by TPLF [Volksbevrijdingsfront van Tigray].

This letter comes at a time when our children in the Tigray region are being used as cannon fodder by remnants of an organization recently designated as 'terrorist' by our House of People's Representatives. Children of a post-war generation that have held high hopes in the possibility that their lives would be distinctly different from that of their parents, whose lives have been marred by the terror of war with the DERG regime and a cross border conflict with Eritrea in the late 1990s instigated by the TPLF.

As the rest of their peers in the country pursue their studies and lives, our children of Tigray have been held hostage by a terrorist organization that attacked the State on November 3, 2020 exposing them to various vulnerabilities.

While the use of children as soldiers and participation in active combat is a violation of international law, the terrorist organization TPLF has proceeded unabated in waging its aggression through the use of children and other civilians. The cries of women and children in the Amhara and Afar regions that are displaced and suffering at the hands of TPLF's enduring ruthlessness continues under the deafening silence of the international community.

Unfortunately, while the entire world has turned its eyes onto Ethiopia and the Government for all the wrong reasons, it has failed to openly and sternly reprimand the terrorist group in the same manner it has been chastising my Government.

The many efforts the Ethiopian Government has undertaken to stabilize the region and address humanitarian needs amidst a hostile environment created by the TPLF have been continuously misrepresented.

The mounting and undue pressure on a developing African country, with limitless potential for prosperity, has been building up over the past months.

This unwarranted pressure, characterized by double standards, has been rooted in an orchestrated distortion of events and facts on the ground as it pertains to Ethiopia's rule of law operations in the Tigray region.

As a long-time friend, strategic ally and partner in security, the United States' recent policy against my country comes not only as a surprise to our proud nation, but evidently surpasses humanitarian concerns.

[AllAfrica 17.09.21]