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| <title> - DEMOCRACY UNDER THREAT IN ETHIOPIA</title> | |
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| [House Hearing, 115 Congress] | |
| [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] | |
| DEMOCRACY UNDER THREAT IN ETHIOPIA | |
| ======================================================================= | |
| HEARING | |
| BEFORE THE | |
| SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH, | |
| GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND | |
| INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS | |
| OF THE | |
| COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS | |
| HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES | |
| ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS | |
| FIRST SESSION | |
| __________ | |
| MARCH 9, 2017 | |
| __________ | |
| Serial No. 115-9 | |
| __________ | |
| Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs | |
| [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT] | |
| Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/ | |
| or | |
| http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/ | |
| ______ | |
| U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE | |
| 24-585 PDF WASHINGTON : 2017 | |
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Publishing | |
| Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512-1800; | |
| DC area (202) 512-1800 Fax: (202) 512-2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, | |
| Washington, DC 20402-0001 | |
| COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS | |
| EDWARD R. ROYCE, California, Chairman | |
| CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York | |
| ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida BRAD SHERMAN, California | |
| DANA ROHRABACHER, California GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York | |
| STEVE CHABOT, Ohio ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey | |
| JOE WILSON, South Carolina GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia | |
| MICHAEL T. McCAUL, Texas THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida | |
| TED POE, Texas KAREN BASS, California | |
| DARRELL E. ISSA, California WILLIAM R. KEATING, Massachusetts | |
| TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania DAVID N. CICILLINE, Rhode Island | |
| JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina AMI BERA, California | |
| MO BROOKS, Alabama LOIS FRANKEL, Florida | |
| PAUL COOK, California TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii | |
| SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas | |
| RON DeSANTIS, Florida ROBIN L. KELLY, Illinois | |
| MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina BRENDAN F. BOYLE, Pennsylvania | |
| TED S. YOHO, Florida DINA TITUS, Nevada | |
| ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois NORMA J. TORRES, California | |
| LEE M. ZELDIN, New York BRADLEY SCOTT SCHNEIDER, Illinois | |
| DANIEL M. DONOVAN, Jr., New York THOMAS R. SUOZZI, New York | |
| F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, Jr., ADRIANO ESPAILLAT, New York | |
| Wisconsin TED LIEU, California | |
| ANN WAGNER, Missouri | |
| BRIAN J. MAST, Florida | |
| FRANCIS ROONEY, Florida | |
| BRIAN K. FITZPATRICK, Pennsylvania | |
| THOMAS A. GARRETT, Jr., Virginia | |
| Amy Porter, Chief of Staff Thomas Sheehy, Staff Director | |
| Jason Steinbaum, Democratic Staff Director | |
| ------ | |
| Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and | |
| International Organizations | |
| CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, Chairman | |
| MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina KAREN BASS, California | |
| DANIEL M. DONOVAN, Jr., New York AMI BERA, California | |
| F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, Jr., JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas | |
| Wisconsin THOMAS R. SUOZZI, New York | |
| THOMAS A. GARRETT, Jr., Virginia | |
| C O N T E N T S | |
| ---------- | |
| Page | |
| WITNESSES | |
| Terrence Lyons, Ph.D., associate professor, School for Conflict | |
| Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University............... 5 | |
| Mr. Felix Horne, senior researcher, Horn of Africa, Human Rights | |
| Watch.......................................................... 17 | |
| Ms. Seenaa Jimjimo, president, Coalition of Oromo Advocates for | |
| Human Rights and Democracy..................................... 38 | |
| Mr. Tewodrose Tirfe, co-founder, Amhara Association of America... 45 | |
| Mr. Yoseph Tafari, co-founder, Ethiopian Drought Relief Aid of | |
| Colorado....................................................... 54 | |
| Mr. Guya Abaguya Deki, representative, Torture Abolition and | |
| Survivors Support Coalition.................................... 64 | |
| LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING | |
| Terrence Lyons, Ph.D.: Prepared statement........................ 9 | |
| Mr. Felix Horne: Prepared statement.............................. 22 | |
| Ms. Seenaa Jimjimo: Prepared statement........................... 40 | |
| Mr. Tewodrose Tirfe: Prepared statement.......................... 48 | |
| Mr. Yoseph Tafari: Prepared statement............................ 57 | |
| Mr. Guya Abaguya Deki: Prepared statement........................ 66 | |
| APPENDIX | |
| Hearing notice................................................... 82 | |
| Hearing minutes.................................................. 83 | |
| Questions submitted for the record by the Honorable Christopher | |
| H. Smith, a Representative in Congress from the State of New | |
| Jersey, and chairman, Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, | |
| Global Human Rights, and International Organizations, and | |
| written responses from: | |
| Terrence Lyons, Ph.D........................................... 84 | |
| Mr. Felix Horne................................................ 86 | |
| Ms. Seenaa Jimjimo............................................. 88 | |
| Mr. Yoseph Tafari.............................................. 94 | |
| Material submitted for the record by the Honorable Christopher H. | |
| Smith: | |
| Statement of a coalition of groups............................. 98 | |
| Statement of the Embassy of Ethiopia on H. Res. 128............ 99 | |
| DEMOCRACY UNDER THREAT IN ETHIOPIA | |
| ---------- | |
| THURSDAY, MARCH 9, 2017 | |
| House of Representatives, | |
| Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, | |
| Global Human Rights, and International Organizations, | |
| Committee on Foreign Affairs, | |
| Washington, DC. | |
| The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:00 p.m., in | |
| room 2172 Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Christopher H. | |
| Smith (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. | |
| Mr. Smith. The hearing will come to order and good | |
| afternoon to everyone. As we begin today's hearing, we examine | |
| the troubling conditions for democracy and human rights in | |
| Ethiopia. Let us stipulate that this east African government is | |
| a prime U.S. ally on the continent. Ethiopia is a primary | |
| contributor to peacekeeping missions along the South Sudan | |
| border, in South Sudan with UNMISS, and AMISON in Somalia. | |
| Ethiopia joined the U.N. Security Council in January and is | |
| one of the three African members of the Council, along with | |
| Senegal and Egypt. | |
| During a series of private negotiations in the last months | |
| of the previous administration, Ethiopia officials acknowledged | |
| that the tense situation in their country is at least partly | |
| their government's fault. There have been discussions with | |
| opposition parties in consideration of changing the electoral | |
| system to use proportional representation, which could increase | |
| the chances of opposition parties winning parliamentary and | |
| local races. | |
| Late last year, the government released an estimated 10,000 | |
| prisoners despite maintaining a state of emergency. However, | |
| there are at least 10,000 more people held in jail who are | |
| considered political prisoners and the government continues to | |
| arrest and imprison critics of its actions. | |
| In January, two journalists from the faith-based station | |
| Radio Bilal, Khalid Mohamed and Darsema Sori, were sentenced to | |
| 5- and 4-year prison terms, respectively, for inciting what | |
| they said were extremist ideology and planning to overthrow the | |
| government through their coverage of Muslim protests about | |
| government interference in religious affairs. The journalists | |
| were arrested in February 2015 and convicted in December under | |
| the 2009 anti-terrorism law, alongside 18 other defendants. | |
| In late February, Ethiopian prosecutors charged Dr. Merara | |
| Gudina, chairman of the Oromo Federalist Congress, with | |
| rendering support to terrorism and attempting to disrupt | |
| constitutional order. Dr. Merara had been arrested upon his | |
| return to Ethiopia after testifying in November at a European | |
| Parliament hearing about the crisis in his country. He | |
| testified, alongside exiled opposition leader, Dr. Berhanu | |
| Nega; and Olympic medal winner, Feyisa Lilesa. Other senior OFC | |
| leaders including the deputy chairman, Gerba, have been | |
| imprisoned on terrorism charges, so called, for more than a | |
| year. Both are viewed by many as moderate voices among | |
| Ethiopia's opposition. | |
| According to the U.S. Department of State's newly released | |
| Country Reports on Human Rights Practices report on Ethiopia, | |
| security forces killed hundreds in what they say is the context | |
| of using excessive force against protesters in 2016. At year's | |
| end, there were more, according to the State Department, more | |
| than 10,000 persons still believed to be detained. Many have | |
| not been provided due process. The government has denied the | |
| U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights access to the Oromia | |
| and Amhara regions. | |
| The lack of due process in Ethiopian courts also affects | |
| foreigners. Israeli businessman Menasche Levy has been in jail | |
| for nearly 1\1/2\ years on financial crimes charges. The | |
| government officials accused of being involved with Levy in | |
| illegal activities have had their charges dropped and have been | |
| released from jail, yet Levy's next court proceeding won't be | |
| for several more months. We cannot determine his guilt or | |
| innocence on the charges, but it is clear that he has been | |
| denied a trial in a reasonable time frame and has been beaten | |
| in jail by other prisoners and denied proper medical care. | |
| These circumstances unfortunately apply all too often to people | |
| who come in contact with the Ethiopian court system. | |
| My staff and I have discussed with the Government of | |
| Ethiopia the possibility of working cooperatively to find ways | |
| to end the repression without creating a chaotic transition. | |
| Unfortunately, there is significant variance in how that | |
| government sees its actions and how the rest of the world looks | |
| as well. That is why I and my distinguished ranking member, Ms. | |
| Bass, and some other of our colleagues have introduced House | |
| Resolution 128 to present the true picture, as true as can be | |
| painted, as to what is going on in Ethiopia today. This panel | |
| and this hearing is designed to elicit additional insights so | |
| that we can absolutely get it right and then hold that | |
| government to account. | |
| In the first panel, we have witnesses who will provide an | |
| overview of the current state of democracy and human rights in | |
| Ethiopia. They will present the facts. | |
| Our second panel consists of four Ethiopians representing | |
| various ethnic groups and organizations created to help the | |
| Ethiopian people. | |
| We have no opposition parties appearing today despite the | |
| tendency of the government and its supporters to see anyone, | |
| anyone who disagrees with them and their actions as supporting | |
| terrorists seeking to overthrow the government. Presumably, | |
| this subcommittee falls into that realm as well. | |
| It is my belief that until the Government of Ethiopia can | |
| squarely face the consequences of its actions, there will not | |
| be the genuine reform that it has promised. For example, | |
| government officials say we have mistakenly said that the | |
| ruling coalition holds 100 percent of the legislative seats. We | |
| have said the coalition holds all of the seats, whether in the | |
| name of the coalition itself or as affiliate parties. If the | |
| government cannot be honest with us or itself in such an | |
| obvious manner, it is unlikely that the conditions for reform | |
| can exist. | |
| The government does appear to realize its precarious | |
| position. We have discussed the frustration it creates by not | |
| fully allowing its citizens to exercise their rights of speech, | |
| assembly, and association. | |
| In a hearing that we had in June 2013, Mr. Nega said the | |
| government had created a situation in which there is no | |
| legitimate means to redress grievances. Although the government | |
| jailed him after he won the 2005 race to become mayor of Addis | |
| Ababa, he was not known to have begun his campaign of armed | |
| resistance until after that time. | |
| Let me yield to my colleague, and then I will get into some | |
| introductions and then we will continue there. I would like to | |
| yield to the distinguished gentlelady from California, Ms. | |
| Bass. | |
| Ms. Bass. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair, for holding | |
| these meetings and to our witnesses that will be coming on both | |
| panels. I want to thank you for being here. I look forward to | |
| hearing from each of the witnesses. And I also welcome the | |
| audience and understand their concern and desire to see the | |
| issue regarding the lack of democracy in Ethiopia thoroughly | |
| addressed. I know that there are a huge number of people | |
| outside that are not able to come in, and hopefully throughout | |
| the hearing maybe we can find room for them over time. | |
| Over the past decade, Ethiopia has made significant | |
| economic strides addressing poverty and expanding economic | |
| development. Ethiopia has appeared repeatedly on the list of | |
| the world's fastest growing economies with growth rates in | |
| excess of 8 percent per year. | |
| Ethiopia has also been a stalwart partner of the United | |
| States in many areas such as regional security, and | |
| increasingly, trade via AGOA and enjoying strong bilateral | |
| relations with the United States. | |
| I must also note that by way of hard work, astute | |
| scholarship and a strong support system, the Ethiopian-American | |
| community has become one of the most successful African | |
| diaspora communities in the United States. The Ethiopian | |
| diaspora has never turned its back on its country and has | |
| contributed millions of dollars in remittances to the country's | |
| economy. | |
| However, all of these achievements take place against a | |
| backdrop in Ethiopia which is described as a diminished | |
| political space and a steady assault on the human and civil | |
| rights of citizens. The right of peaceful assembly and freedom | |
| of expression is increasingly challenged. There is reportedly | |
| no free media in Ethiopia and Internet service reportedly has | |
| only recently resumed following the government declared state | |
| of emergency in October of last year. | |
| According to the State Department's recently released 2016 | |
| Country Report Human Rights report, there were numerous reports | |
| of the government committing arbitrary and unlawful killings of | |
| security using excessive force against protesters. The protests | |
| were mainly in Oromia and Amhara regions. At year's end, more | |
| than 10,000 persons were believed to still be detained. | |
| While these two communities are clearly the focus, as was | |
| cited in House Resolution 128, supporting respect for human | |
| rights and encouraging inclusive governance in Ethiopia, | |
| several vulnerable communities in Ethiopia are subject to | |
| government interference such as the Muslim community and the | |
| indigenous Anuaks in the Gambela region. | |
| I am privileged to represent a part of my congressional | |
| district that includes a section of Los Angeles that is called | |
| Little Ethiopia. Some of my constituents expressed concern | |
| before this hearing that they felt that they wanted to be sure | |
| that the hearing didn't over emphasize ethnic divisions and | |
| contribute to the U.S. stereotype of Africa, that the problems | |
| are just a result of inter-ethnic fighting. So I want to make | |
| note of that. | |
| I also want to report on a description of what life is like | |
| in Ethiopia now as described by one of my constituents. She | |
| says that her mother says that the suspension of civil | |
| liberties is affecting every facet of daily life, that people | |
| cannot travel around the country to conduct business, visit | |
| friends, or care for relatives. She said that the Internet was | |
| down for some months, but she thinks it was between 2 to 4 | |
| months that there was no Internet service, but it has been back | |
| up for the last several weeks. | |
| Members of her family are farmers who were forced off their | |
| lands by the government. The family has fled into the forest | |
| and is now part of the resistance force. The family doesn't | |
| like being in this position and doesn't want to participate in | |
| the resistance, but basically now has no crops and essentially | |
| cannot support itself. Buses won't travel to her part of the | |
| country and with travel restricted, even if there is a crop, it | |
| is hard to get to market. She describe a state of emergency | |
| that appears to have no end in sight. | |
| I think it is important that I communicate concerns | |
| directly from my constituents and from the Ethiopian-American | |
| community and Little Ethiopia in Los Angeles. I will note and I | |
| am sure our chairman will, too, that we have a letter of | |
| explanation from the Embassy of Ethiopia that, needless to say, | |
| refutes most of these charges. I am just looking at the letter. | |
| I have not had an opportunity to read it. I will glance at it | |
| during the course of this hearing and might raise questions | |
| connected to their response. | |
| Mr. Smith. Thank you, Ranking Member Bass. I would like to | |
| now introduce our very distinguished first panel beginning with | |
| Dr. Terrence Lyons, who is an associate professor of conflict | |
| resolution at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution | |
| at George Mason University. Dr. Lyons was a fellow at the | |
| Brookings Institution, served as senior program advisor to the | |
| Carter Center's Project on Post-Conflict Elections in Ethiopia | |
| in 2005, and has worked as a consultant for the U.S. | |
| Government, the World Bank, and several non-governmental | |
| organizations on issues relating to democracy and conflict in | |
| Africa. He has written extensively on Ethiopia and taught at | |
| universities there. Welcome, Dr. Lyons. | |
| I would also like to welcome, Mr. Felix Horne, who is the | |
| senior Ethiopia and Eritrea researcher for Human Rights Watch. | |
| He has documented the human rights dimensions of Ethiopia's | |
| development programs, telecom surveillance, media freedoms, | |
| misuse of counterterrorism law, and other topical issues in the | |
| Horn of Africa, including the year-long crackdown against | |
| peaceful protesters in Ethiopia. Previously, Mr. Horne worked | |
| on a variety of indigenous rights and land issues, including | |
| several years of research into the impacts of agricultural | |
| investment in several African countries. | |
| Again, thank you for being here and I would like to note as | |
| well that we do have an overflow crowd of very interested | |
| Ethiopian-Americans and others who are concerned about human | |
| rights there. | |
| It is a privilege to welcome each and every one of you | |
| here. I think you bring additional impact to all that will be | |
| said here, that there was such heightened concern about what is | |
| occurring there. And parenthetically Greg Simpkins visited | |
| Ethiopia right after the 2005 elections when people were being | |
| killed in the streets, sadly, under President Meles. We met | |
| with President Meles, and sadly we are now talking about a | |
| very, very serious deterioration of human rights and I look | |
| forward to your testimony. | |
| Dr. Lyons, the floor is yours. | |
| STATEMENT OF TERRENCE LYONS, PH.D., ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, SCHOOL | |
| FOR CONFLICT ANALYSIS AND RESOLUTION, GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY | |
| Mr. Lyons. Thank you very much, Chairman Smith, and Ranking | |
| Member Bass. It is a great pleasure to be with you here today. | |
| You have very kindly given my introduction. I will maybe pause | |
| and reflect on one additional thing. The only other time I have | |
| ever testified before Congress was in 1992 after Ethiopia's | |
| local elections before the House subcommittee, so 25 years | |
| later I have the privilege again and that lets you know the | |
| years that I have tried to understand Ethiopia. | |
| I want to make clear that my thoughts today represent my | |
| best judgment as an independent scholar who regards himself as | |
| a friend to a diverse range of Ethiopians on all sides of the | |
| political spectrum, rather than as an advocate for any specific | |
| constituency or policy. So I am going to try to provide a | |
| context to the current crisis, why I think Ethiopia is at the | |
| crossroads, and some thoughts as to what U.S. policy might be. | |
| My first point, as you will see in my written statement, | |
| relates to the stakes in Ethiopia at this moment. But Chairman | |
| Smith, you covered much of that. Ethiopia is a country of | |
| enormous importance to the Ethiopians and to the other people | |
| in the Horn of Africa, to the United States, to policies on | |
| countering terrorism, peacekeeping, a country that has seen a | |
| remarkable process of development over the past decade or so. | |
| At the same time, a country with very serious human rights | |
| concerns that you outlined and my colleague will further | |
| elaborate. | |
| So let me go and give one very, very large overarching | |
| point about where I see Ethiopia and then some of the more-- | |
| break it down or unpack it. | |
| Ethiopia, since 1991, has had a balance between a politics | |
| that was about autonomy, was about regional states, was about | |
| ethnically defined political parties. That was one direction | |
| that the state was going on. At the same time, it was a state | |
| of an extraordinarily powerful, centralized regime, very much a | |
| top down development model of the developmental state and these | |
| two kind of opposing logics were in tension, but kept together | |
| by a very strong center, a very strong central committee. | |
| It is my concern today that that balance has now been | |
| upset. That balance is now no longer holding and that is why I | |
| think this is a real structural concern, larger than simply | |
| something that a change of the cabinet is going to address. | |
| Predictions that the regime is about to fall have been | |
| around since at least since 2005. Actually, people were saying | |
| that in 1992. I was among those. So I think it is worth pausing | |
| and thinking about that this is a regime that still retains | |
| considerable strengths. It is a party of some 8 million people. | |
| It is a party that controls mass organizations and large | |
| endowment efforts. It is a party that, as we pointed out a | |
| number of times, along with its affiliates won 100 percent of | |
| the seats in the most recent election. So it is something that | |
| is unlikely to disappear with the first movement against it. | |
| It is also strong relative to its competition at home, | |
| particularly in terms of organized political parties. The | |
| regime has very systematically closed down political space so | |
| that opposition parties, civil society organizations, and | |
| independent media are not able to operate. | |
| There have been prior demonstrations. I particularly want | |
| to note, as I do in my written statement, the early Ethiopian | |
| Muslim demonstrations that were really quite remarkable. But a | |
| new type of demonstration or a new phenomenon in Ethiopia | |
| happened in 2015, particularly in the Oromo region. In Oromia | |
| protests began in part because of concerns about Addis Ababa, a | |
| master plan expanding into Oromo areas, but a much more | |
| structural kind of struggle for control, for power, for the | |
| Oromos to be able to control their own land, to control their | |
| own destiny. | |
| The pattern of Ethiopia's response to demonstrations in the | |
| past has typically been to deny there is a problem, to blame | |
| the opposition, or the diaspora, or Eritrea for fomenting the | |
| dissent and arresting lots of people, particularly young men in | |
| kind of sweeps and sometimes using live fire to clear the | |
| streets when they have perceived it as being necessary. | |
| Those same things happened in 2015 in Oromia, but | |
| surprisingly or at least contrary to past patterns, the | |
| demonstrations weren't demobilized. They continued. And in | |
| fact, they spread. They became larger. It was a real momentum. | |
| And so the tactics of trying to repress opposition, to repress | |
| dissent, didn't seem to be working any more. | |
| You mentioned the crackdown, the arrest of Bekele Gerba and | |
| Merera Gudina, somebody I know from my days at Addis Ababa | |
| University. And so the use of--the government succeeded in | |
| suppressing the demonstrations, but not really resolving the | |
| underlying state, the underlying concerns, the underlying | |
| grievances. | |
| Similarly, in the Amhara region, demonstrators were not | |
| dissuaded by the power of the regime. | |
| The state of emergency that was put in place, it was really | |
| an incredibly expansive state of emergency, has at least for | |
| now succeeded in lowering the level of violence, lowering the | |
| temperature, if you will. And if that was being used a first | |
| step in a larger more structural process of political reform, | |
| there might be other ways of thinking about the state of | |
| emergency, but I don't think that is the case. | |
| Let me just say a few things about why I think Ethiopia is | |
| at the crossroads, and then a few comments about U.S. policy. | |
| As I alluded to earlier, I think Ethiopia is really at the | |
| crossroads because this original bargain of 1991, a | |
| constitution that was decentralized and set up these regional | |
| states, at the same time a very centralized, top down kind of | |
| regime. But that has been knocked off balance and it is not | |
| clear how it can be put back together again. | |
| Part of the evidence for this is that there were elements | |
| within the Oromo People's Democratic Organization, the Oromo | |
| wing of the ruling party, that were at least looking the other | |
| way as the demonstrations were going on. Similarly, in the | |
| Amhara region, the Amhara wing of the ruling party supported | |
| some of the Amhara nationalists' ideas that were being advanced | |
| by the demonstrators. So this suggests that the ruling party | |
| really is beginning to, the elements of it are really beginning | |
| to question the direction of the center with unclear, where | |
| that will go. We haven't really seen that in 25 years. | |
| The short term path forward I don't think is particularly | |
| hard to see. The Ethiopian Government, if it was serious about | |
| reform would have to end the state of emergency. Perhaps larger | |
| than that, reduce the role of the armed forces and politics. In | |
| general; release political prisoners. You mentioned some of | |
| them. But not simply reform the civil society proclamation, but | |
| I think it needs to be scrapped and start over again. It really | |
| has prevented the kind of advocacy networks, people working on | |
| human rights and democracy that Ethiopia so desperately needs. | |
| Respect the political space of opposition so that the | |
| alternatives are able to speak. And in general, a process of | |
| dialogue with a broad range of actors, rather than a kind of | |
| the EPRDF will sort it out within itself, the kind of instinct | |
| that they often have. | |
| On U.S. policy toward the region, the first thing that I | |
| would note is that I think actually the U.S. needs to be quite | |
| modest in its assessment of its influence in Ethiopia. Many of | |
| my friends in the diaspora who are with me always disagree with | |
| me on this, but I don't think that the dynamics that are taking | |
| place on the ground within the ruling party and within the | |
| leadership are not because of what the U.S. is doing or not | |
| doing. These domestic politics, these regional constraints, the | |
| U.S. assistance has become less relative to the investments of | |
| China, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and other actors. | |
| But I do think it is essential to speak clearly and plainly | |
| and publicly about Ethiopia's human rights record. The U.S. | |
| simply has to go on the record and explain why it is that we | |
| have grave concerns about the direction that the country is | |
| going and as a good partner, how we are looking for ways to | |
| engage the regime so that it can open up, so that it can have | |
| more political space and allow releasing the political | |
| prisoners and all those other things that I spoke about. | |
| It seems to me to be past time for the U.S. Government to | |
| shift its emphasis when thinking about Ethiopia from a kind of | |
| counterterrorism and regional security agenda. Those things are | |
| important. The Ethiopian military play very important | |
| peacekeeping roles, for example, in Sudan. But beyond that, | |
| there is a larger, longer term agenda that has to rest upon | |
| participation and rule of law. As a long-time partner of | |
| Ethiopia, I think the United States needs to shift its | |
| orientation in that way. | |
| Let me conclude there and I would just like to thank the | |
| subcommittee for this opportunity and look forward to any | |
| questions you may have. Thank you very much. | |
| [The prepared statement of Mr. Lyons follows:] | |
| [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT] | |
| ---------- | |
| Mr. Smith. Dr. Lyons, thank you so very much. Mr. Horne, I | |
| regret that there are two votes that have been called. We have | |
| got about 5 minutes to get there. We will suspend briefly and | |
| come right back and you will be next on deck. So I apologize to | |
| you and to all of our distinguished witnesses for the delay. We | |
| stand in recess. | |
| [Recess.] | |
| Mr. Smith. The hearing will resume, and I yield the floor | |
| to Mr. Horne. Thank you again for your patience. | |
| STATEMENT OF MR. FELIX HORNE, SENIOR RESEARCHER, HORN OF | |
| AFRICA, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | |
| Mr. Horne. Thank you. Chairman Smith, Ranking Member Bass, | |
| thank you for holding this important hearing on the current | |
| situation in Ethiopia and for inviting me to testify. I am | |
| pleased to be a part of it. | |
| Ethiopia is a country of dual realities. Visitors and | |
| diplomats alike are impressed with the double digit economic | |
| growth, the progress on development, and the apparent political | |
| stability. But in many ways, this is a smoke screen. Many | |
| Ethiopians live in fear. The current government, the only one | |
| since 1991, runs the country with an almost complete grip on | |
| power, controlling almost all aspects of political, public, and | |
| often private life. Pervasive telephone and online surveillance | |
| and an intricate network of informants allow the government to | |
| quickly curb any threats to its control. It silences critical | |
| voices through the use of arbitrary arrests and politically- | |
| motivated prosecutions. | |
| Ethiopia remains among Africa's leading jailers of | |
| journalists. If you are an independent journalist, you must | |
| choose between self-censorship, harassment or arrest, or living | |
| in exile. The government blocks Web sites. It blocks the | |
| Internet completely. It jams radio and television stations. In | |
| short, the state tightly controls the media landscape, making | |
| it extremely challenging for Ethiopians to access information | |
| that is independent of government perspectives. As a result, | |
| Voice of America, which broadcasts in three Ethiopian | |
| languages, has become an increasingly important source of | |
| information for many Ethiopians but the government has, at | |
| times, obstructed its broadcasts as well. | |
| The independent civil society groups, independent NGOs face | |
| overwhelming obstructions also. The 2009 Charities and | |
| Societies Proclamation has made obtaining foreign funding | |
| nearly impossible for groups working on human rights, good | |
| governance, and advocacy. As a result, many organizations have | |
| stopped working on human rights and good governance altogether | |
| to avoid problems. | |
| There have also been serious restrictions on opposition | |
| political parties. This led to the ruling coalition in the 2015 | |
| election winning 100 percent of the seats in the Federal and | |
| regional parliaments. This is despite evident anti-government | |
| sentiments in much of the country, as the protests would later | |
| illustrate. The arbitrary detention of members and supporters, | |
| politically motivated criminal charges, and restrictions on | |
| financing ensure that political parties are constrained and | |
| largely ineffective. | |
| The state also systematically ensures that many of the | |
| country's 100 million citizens, particularly those in rural | |
| areas, are dependent on the government for their livelihoods, | |
| food security, and economic future. The government controls the | |
| benefits of development including access to seeds, fertilizers, | |
| jobs, healthcare, and humanitarian assistance, even when it is | |
| funded by the United States or other donors. While U.S. funded | |
| development assistance contributes to much needed poverty | |
| reduction efforts, it also adds to the repressive capacity of | |
| the government by bolstering Ethiopians' reliance on the | |
| government for their livelihoods. | |
| Now there is no evidence that the ruling party rigs | |
| elections because they don't need to. The population's | |
| dependence on the ruling party and the limits on opposition | |
| parties leaves many citizens, particularly in rural areas, | |
| little choice but to support the ruling party come election | |
| time. As one farmer in the Amhara region told me in July 2014, | |
| ``We do not like the government, but we always vote for them. | |
| We have to because we get our seeds and fertilizer from them. | |
| During times of drought, we get food aid from them. If we don't | |
| vote for them, we can't eat.'' | |
| He went on to tell me about his neighbor who voted for the | |
| opposition in the 2010 election and shortly thereafter was | |
| denied food aid, was denied treatment at a government health | |
| clinic, and eventually was displaced from his land for an | |
| investment project run by a government cadre. | |
| The justice system provides no check on the government. | |
| Courts have shown little independence during politically | |
| charged trials. Many opposition politicians, journalists, and | |
| activists have been convicted under the repressive 2009 | |
| antiterrorism law and sentenced to lengthy prison terms. | |
| Acquittals are rare, credible evidence is often not presented, | |
| and trials are marred by numerous due process concerns. | |
| Mistreatment and torture are common in Ethiopia's many places | |
| of detention. | |
| So this begs the question: What avenues are left in | |
| Ethiopia to express dissent, to question government policies, | |
| or to voice concern over abusive practices, and how can the | |
| United States help strengthen human rights and democracy in | |
| Ethiopia? | |
| I speak to you to today 16 months after large-scale and | |
| unprecedented protests started in Ethiopia's largest region of | |
| Oromia in November 2015, spreading to the Amhara region in July | |
| 2016. Ethiopian military and police cracked down on these | |
| largely peaceful demonstrations, killing hundreds and detaining | |
| tens of thousands as we have discussed. The protests were a | |
| predictable response to the systematic and calculated | |
| suppression of fundamental rights and freedoms that I have | |
| described here today. | |
| On October 2, the protest movement took a devastating turn. | |
| In Bishoftu, in Ethiopia's Oromia region, security forces | |
| mishandled a large crowd at the Irreecha cultural festival | |
| causing a stampede that killed scores of people as they fled | |
| security forces. In the days that followed, angry mobs of youth | |
| destroyed government buildings and private property. Ethiopia | |
| was on the brink of chaos. One week after the Irreecha tragedy, | |
| the government announced a state of emergency, that was 5 | |
| months ago today, that remains in place. It prescribed sweeping | |
| restrictions on a broad range of actions and goes far beyond | |
| what is permissible under international human rights law. It | |
| signaled a continuation of the militarized response to the | |
| expression of grievances. While the state of emergency has | |
| halted both the destruction of properties and the protests | |
| themselves, underlying grievances clearly remain. No one should | |
| deny there are serious risks, that more unrest could occur. | |
| Since imposing the state of emergency, the Ethiopian | |
| Government has repeatedly committed publicly to undertake | |
| ``deep reform'' and engage in dialogue with opposition parties | |
| to address grievances. In short, the authorities are saying the | |
| right things. But the only changes the government has made so | |
| far are largely cosmetic and fall dramatically short of the | |
| protesters' calls for the protection of basic human rights. | |
| The continuation of the state of emergency, which further | |
| crushes the space for free expression and divergent views of | |
| governance, is not conducive for the open dialogue that is | |
| needed to address Ethiopia's ongoing crisis. The government | |
| announced that it arrested over 20,000 people since the state | |
| of emergency began, and although there has been little | |
| corroboration of these numbers, it could be higher. These mass | |
| arrests along with politically motivated trials of key | |
| opposition leaders, like Merera and Bekele, reinforces the | |
| message that the government is continuing along the path of | |
| suppressing dissent by force and not engaging in genuine and | |
| meaningful dialogue with opposition groups and citizens. | |
| The Ethiopian Government's responses to all of these abuses | |
| is consistent. The allegations are routinely denied without | |
| meaningful investigation, the government claiming they are | |
| politically motivated, while simultaneously restricting access | |
| for independent media and human rights investigators. | |
| While we are speaking today about the lack of | |
| accountability over the brutal crackdown in Oromia and Amhara | |
| over the last 16 months, Ethiopians in other regions have also | |
| been victims of serious abuses, without any meaningful | |
| investigations by the government. For example, Human Rights | |
| Watch documented possible crimes against humanity committed by | |
| the Ethiopian Army in 2003 and 2004 in the Gambela region. | |
| There was no credible investigation into the abuses. In | |
| Ethiopia's Somali regional state, the Ethiopian military | |
| committed war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity | |
| between mid-2007 and 2008 during their counterinsurgency | |
| campaign against the ONLF, the Ogaden National Liberation | |
| Front. Since that time, there have been serious abuses | |
| committed in the Somali region by the Liyu police. Again, no | |
| meaningful investigations have been undertaken into any of | |
| these alleged abuses in the Somali regional state. | |
| International scrutiny of Ethiopia's rights record has also | |
| been lacking despite its June election to the U.N. Security | |
| Council, and its membership on the U.N. Human Rights Council. | |
| Ethiopia has refused entry to all U.N. Special Rapporteurs | |
| since 2007, except for the Special Rapporteur on Eritrea. In | |
| total, there are 11 Special Rapporteurs that have outstanding | |
| requests for access to Ethiopia. | |
| Despite abundant evidence of serious and growing repression | |
| by the Ethiopian Government, the U.S. Government has been a | |
| muted critic. Quiet diplomacy has proven ineffectual. It has | |
| coincided with the dramatic downward spiral in human rights and | |
| a serious constriction of political space leading to the crisis | |
| Ethiopia is in today. It is time for a new U.S. approach to | |
| Ethiopia in which Congress plays a leadership role in seeking a | |
| more balanced policy and requiring more deliberate oversight as | |
| it has done in other countries in crisis, including the DRC and | |
| Egypt. | |
| As a starting point, Members of Congress should speak out | |
| strongly and publicly against abuses by the Ethiopian | |
| Government. House Resolution 128 and the resolutions introduced | |
| last year are steps in the right direction and contain many | |
| important elements. While non-binding, they are impactful | |
| because they let the Ethiopian Government know there are | |
| repercussions for brutality against their own citizens, | |
| brutality that undermines U.S. priorities in the Horn of | |
| Africa, including security, development, and economic growth. | |
| These partnerships are dependent on long-term stability in | |
| Ethiopia. Opposition to the ruling party's repressive rule, as | |
| witnessed in the last 16 months, is a glaring indication that | |
| Ethiopia's governance model marked by lack of respect for basic | |
| rights, is incapable of ensuring that stability. | |
| It is crucial that the U.S. makes it clear that if Ethiopia | |
| is going to remain a strong U.S. partner, it needs to open up | |
| legitimate political space and allow for critical voices to be | |
| heard. Members of Congress can and should call for the release | |
| of all political prisoners, including Bekele and Merera, | |
| because they should be part of any credible dialogue between | |
| the government and the opposition parties. | |
| Members of Congress should also call for the release of all | |
| journalists unjustly jailed and call for the repeal or | |
| substantial amendment of repressive laws used to stifle | |
| critical voices. Now any meetings with the Ethiopian Ambassador | |
| to the U.S. should include these points, as should any meetings | |
| with other Ethiopian officials, whether in DC or elsewhere. As | |
| the FY18 budget process gets underway, U.S. support to the | |
| Ethiopian Government should be conditioned on making progress | |
| in these and other areas of concern. | |
| Members of Congress should use available opportunities to | |
| tell Ethiopia to stop hiding its own human rights record from | |
| international scrutiny. As a member of both the Human Rights | |
| Council and the Security Council, Ethiopia should cooperate | |
| fully with U.N. special mechanisms, in particular the | |
| rapporteurs on peaceful assembly and torture. | |
| As expressed in House Resolution 128, Members of Congress | |
| should reiterate the call of the U.N. High Commissioner for | |
| Human Rights, the African Commission on Human and Peoples' | |
| Rights, and others, for an independent international | |
| investigation into the crackdown in Oromia and Amhara. Such | |
| action will send a powerful message to the Ethiopian Government | |
| that its security forces cannot shoot and kill peaceful | |
| protesters with impunity. It will also send an important | |
| message to the victims and families, including those here in | |
| this room, that their pleas for justice are being heard. | |
| International legitimacy is very important to the Ethiopian | |
| Government. It wants to be a key player on the international | |
| stage and condemnation of its human rights record contradicts | |
| that image. So consistent, sustained, and vocal pressure is | |
| critical. | |
| I will close by saying that I am aware of concerns | |
| expressed by some in the administration, and even here in | |
| Congress, that a more public stance on Ethiopia's domestic | |
| situation might undermine the bilateral partnership between | |
| Addis Ababa and Washington. But the United States has often | |
| underestimated its own leverage and been overly cautious as a | |
| result. Some of Ethiopia's international partners have made | |
| strong public statements in the last year and these statements | |
| have not undermined their strategic partnerships. Far from it. | |
| The U.S. may need Ethiopia, but Ethiopia needs the U.S., too. | |
| The U.S. should send a strong signal of support to the many | |
| Ethiopian citizens and Ethiopian-Americans who seek the | |
| protection of their rights, greater political space, and | |
| democracy but whose fight for dignity and freedom has been | |
| crushed time and again. Thank you. | |
| [The prepared statement of Mr. Horne follows:] | |
| [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT] | |
| ---------- | |
| Mr. Smith. Mr. Horne, thank you very much for your very | |
| incisive testimony. | |
| I will begin the questioning. You mentioned that U.S. | |
| policy has been muted. I can't tell you how welcoming that | |
| assessment is because it traverses both the Bush administration | |
| and the Obama administration since at least 2005 and before. I, | |
| my staff, and others in a bipartisan way have raised the issue | |
| that everything post-9/11 can't be antiterrorism and regional | |
| stability. Human rights ought to be at the core of what we say | |
| and how we condition our funding. So thank you for that | |
| refreshing and important admonishment to the new administration | |
| because the last couple have not gotten it right and that is | |
| unfortunate. I say that because we held hearings when we heard | |
| from the Ambassador and high officials in the Bush | |
| administration and I expressed not only my displeasure, but my | |
| deep concern over unwitting complicity. Looking the other way | |
| is complicity. And the same thing has happened, unfortunately, | |
| under the Obama administration. | |
| Now we have provided some $820 million between 2015 and | |
| 2017 for health, food, and development aid to Ethiopia. You | |
| have pointed out in the testimony that people have been denied | |
| access to medical care and food, humanitarian assistance if | |
| they were not part or supportive of the regime. | |
| Has there been a response from the U.S. Government when | |
| that has happened? Are they aware of it? Have we pushed back | |
| and said wait a minute, we are the prime providers of that aid. | |
| We want to make sure it gets to the poorest of the poor or | |
| those who are at risk without any kind of political pre- | |
| condition. | |
| Secondly, you talked about the VOA and I think your point, | |
| all of the points that have been made about the journalists and | |
| being one of the worst areas where journalists are censored and | |
| the idea of self-censorship is a terrible consequence because | |
| that which is never written because of fear means that | |
| obviously human rights abuses go unscrutinized. | |
| But you mentioned the VOA at times is inhibited. Is that | |
| through jamming? How do they do that? Has it happened recently? | |
| What has been the response of the U.S. Government when that has | |
| happened? Because obviously, we should speak out loudly and | |
| clearly. Perhaps Dr. Lyons, either of you might want to speak | |
| to this, but the idea of hiding in plain sight, potential | |
| crimes against humanity and other kinds of serious human rights | |
| abuses, this is what adds to the shock and horror of that is | |
| that in plain sight of the African Union which is based in | |
| Addis, as we all know. It seems to me that a showcase city | |
| ought to have a showcase government that respects the dignity | |
| of everybody's life and not just those that are supportive of | |
| the regime. So if you could. | |
| Mr. Horne. Yes, thank you for those important questions. On | |
| the misuse of development assistance, Human Rights Watch | |
| documented this in 2010 in a reported called ``Development | |
| Without Freedom'' and it was focused on how the government uses | |
| the benefits of development assistance to control the rural | |
| population. And the response from donors, not just in the | |
| United States, but all of Ethiopia's Western donors was very | |
| much one of yes, that might be happening, but it is not | |
| happening on a very wide scale and the benefits of development | |
| outweigh these potential problems. | |
| There was initially some discussion about them potentially | |
| investigating the extent of this problem, but we have not seen | |
| any evidence that it has been investigated. And it is a very | |
| tricky thing to investigate, of course, not easy. But I can say | |
| in that time, in the interviews that we do about other human | |
| rights abuses, it comes up so often that you do not get--things | |
| I mentioned, food, seeds, fertilizer, everything, unless you | |
| are a member of the ruling party. It used to be that as long as | |
| you weren't considered to be the opposition then you wouldn't | |
| have problems, but now it seems to be much further, and lots of | |
| individuals who seem to genuinely avoid being involved in | |
| politics, including refusing to join the ruling party, have | |
| reported not being allowed access to food aid, to the seeds, | |
| the fertilizers. | |
| In Ethiopia and in many parts of the country, poverty is | |
| still a big problem and so yes, they don't have anything to | |
| fall back on. So it means they are really dependent on | |
| government. So it is definitely something that needs to be | |
| investigated more, because it is a big problem. | |
| On the Voice of America question, I think there are a | |
| number of ways that Ethiopia uses to prevent international | |
| broadcasters and this applies to others as well, including some | |
| of the diaspora stations that broadcast into Ethiopia, but yes, | |
| jamming is a big problem; jamming of radio and also jamming of | |
| television stations for some of the diaspora stations. But | |
| also, denial of work permits, a lot of the international | |
| broadcasters report having great difficulty having people on | |
| the ground. We talked to many individuals who were sources of | |
| information, who were interviewed on VOA and other stations who | |
| were arrested as a result. So the government uses various | |
| techniques to ensure that VOA can't operate. | |
| I can't comment on whether VOA or the other stations self- | |
| censor, but this is part of the strategy. If you make it | |
| difficult to do your media, and jamming and other tactics | |
| increase after you have reported on something very sensitive or | |
| after individuals were on VOA that the government doesn't | |
| approve of, the national tendency would be a self-censor. I am | |
| not saying VOA is self-censoring. I can't speak to that, but | |
| that is the strategy that they use. | |
| Mr. Lyons. I will just state one or two brief comments on | |
| the African Union. It came up in perhaps a more dramatic | |
| context in the mid-1970s during the period of Red Terror in | |
| Ethiopia where the OAU again, different organization, different | |
| era, was there while horrific street violence was taking place. | |
| This was, of course, before this regime came to power. | |
| The African Union is a growing organization that is | |
| increasingly talking about things like governance, human | |
| rights, and democracy. I think it should be encouraged. I think | |
| the United States does have important bilateral relations and | |
| has an Ambassador to the AU and that is all to the good. But | |
| the Africa Union is also an organization of heads of state who | |
| typically do not want to look too closely at the governance of | |
| neighboring states and to the extent that they do, it is often | |
| through the kind of quiet diplomacy that we were referencing | |
| earlier with the United States. It rarely becomes public and | |
| that in and of itself is part of the problem. | |
| Mr. Smith. Before yielding to Ms. Bass, I just point out we | |
| have got a very sophisticated report from the Embassy which I | |
| suspect has been produced in whole or in part by their lobbying | |
| organization which was set up, funded, beginning on January 1 | |
| by SGR LLC. And if the filings we have seen are correct, we are | |
| talking about a $1.8 million year cost for the lobby. | |
| And you know, having been on this committee now 36 of my 37 | |
| years, I have to tell you that I remember which Nicolae | |
| Ceausescu, one of the most brutal dictatorships with a | |
| Securitate, the KGB equivalent, every year his lobby firm would | |
| come around with bullet points and made them look like they | |
| were Mother Theresa. It was just incredible. | |
| So I think we all need to look at that submission very | |
| carefully, but the lobby firms are very adroit at putting | |
| things together that obscure very often the heinous human | |
| rights abuses that we are trying to highlight. | |
| Ms. Bass. | |
| Ms. Bass. Wow. I actually wanted to refer to it on the next | |
| panel because I want to ask questions based on the memo. | |
| But I believe, Mr. Horne, you were saying that other | |
| countries, the U.S. is concerned because obviously Ethiopia is | |
| a strategic partner and you were referring to other Western | |
| countries that have not ruptured their partnership because they | |
| have been critical and perhaps Dr. Lyons would like to respond | |
| to this as well. So I wanted to hear from both of you about | |
| other countries in the international community that have | |
| significant partnerships with Ethiopia and how they are | |
| responding to the situation. | |
| Mr. Horne. I think maybe there are two examples that I | |
| would speak to. One is the European Parliament. In January of | |
| last year, they passed a very strong resolution that condemned | |
| Ethiopia for some of these human rights abuses. It was the | |
| strongest thing we have seen out of the European Parliament in | |
| many, many years on Ethiopia. And since that time, the | |
| relationship between Europe and Ethiopia has strengthened. | |
| There is lots of assistance on migration, on supporting | |
| refugees, on development which has continued to go into | |
| Ethiopia, so it doesn't seem to have had a particularly | |
| negative effect of those sort of strategic partnerships. | |
| The more recent example is Germany. Chancellor Merkel | |
| visited Ethiopia just after the state of emergency had been | |
| called and in a public setting made a very strong statement | |
| that talked about the importance of political space, to open up | |
| space for the opposition. That was a very strong thing to say | |
| in public, in Addis and they didn't chase Germany away. | |
| In fact, the opposition dialogue that is currently under | |
| way and Germany is playing a leading role in facilitating that. | |
| So yes, I think there are lots of examples to point to that | |
| shows that yes, they are not. As angry as they get and the | |
| response with these briefing papers about how we are all wrong | |
| about the human rights abuses, they do get angry, but at the | |
| same time they are very strategic and they realize that U.S. | |
| assistance or Germany assistance in that case is very important | |
| to their country. | |
| Ms. Bass. Dr. Lyons. | |
| Mr. Lyons. My point will be just on the more general | |
| question of who has leverage over who. Typically, Ethiopia says | |
| listen, we are not going to take your conditions. We don't | |
| accept your human rights, State Department's human rights | |
| report or whatever it is that they are unhappy about. And | |
| because there are things that the United States wants to work | |
| with Ethiopia on, let us talk about the peacekeepers in the | |
| Sudan. That position is never pushed. | |
| I think I agree that there is a lot more room to say we are | |
| not going to back down just because you are angry at us, but | |
| rather, as a partner who wants to remain engaged with you for | |
| the long term, as a long term friend, we have to say it again, | |
| and we have to say it even more clearly because we think it is | |
| so important to us. So I guess without--you had the specifics. | |
| I can think of the Europeans as well. Germany is another good | |
| case. So I would share those. | |
| Ms. Bass. Are there any African countries? | |
| Mr. Lyons. Do you have a quick---- | |
| Mr. Horne. I mean I wouldn't say--I can't think of any | |
| African countries offhand that have made strong statements on | |
| Ethiopia. I mean the Africa Commission on Human and Peoples' | |
| Rights called recently for an investigation. I mean that is | |
| probably the closest thing we have. | |
| Ms. Bass. So you said then that statements have been made. | |
| The question is what results were produced because of that? | |
| Mr. Lyons. I am going to use Mr. Horne's example. I do | |
| think that, while I have concerns about it being not a deep | |
| enough process of reform, the fact that the EPRDF is now | |
| engaging in discussions with a fraction of the opposition is a | |
| good thing. It is perhaps a small step in the right direction. | |
| It is not enough and so on. And I do think that while you never | |
| know what causes what, that it did follow some tough statements | |
| from European leaders and particularly in Germany. So at least | |
| it is consistent to say it was after Germany made a tough | |
| statement that EPRDF began to talk to elements of the | |
| opposition. The causation, of course, would be impossible to | |
| tease out. | |
| Mr. Horne. I would just say I think it is very difficult | |
| to, because there hasn't been that many strong public | |
| statements, it is very difficult to ascertain whether that is | |
| the correct strategy on Ethiopia. | |
| What is clear is that the quiet diplomacy hasn't worked. We | |
| have been talking about this for 10 years, since 2005. It | |
| clearly hasn't worked. So it is time to try something new. So I | |
| think this is something worth exploring. | |
| Ms. Bass. So I know that in many times in Los Angeles, my | |
| constituents would like for me to support the termination of | |
| all foreign aid, even humanitarian assistance. I have | |
| difficulty with that notion because I am concerned that, you | |
| know, their point of argument is that it never gets to the | |
| people that it is supposed to get to. And I guess what makes me | |
| fearful with that is that I don't want to play into forces here | |
| that are hostile to foreign aid and if it gets to some, then is | |
| that not better than others. | |
| And I think both of you made a statement that you thought | |
| foreign aid should be conditioned on making progress. One, do | |
| you think the foreign aid gets to the people, to some of the | |
| people who need it? And then two, if it is conditioned on | |
| making progress, number one, what would those conditions be and | |
| how would anybody verify? | |
| Mr. Lyons. I do not support ending all aid and particularly | |
| humanitarian aid because I do think it makes a tremendous | |
| difference on the ground. There were some 10 million people in | |
| Ethiopia following the El Nino drought of 2014 or 2015 who were | |
| able to survive, in part, because of the generosity of the | |
| United States and other donors. | |
| An important part of our aid package is for things like | |
| HIV/AIDS and PEPFAR money and education programs. You can go | |
| out to regional medical centers and see lots of things that | |
| USAID has done. You can see the work on regional universities | |
| and other things. | |
| We have a very, very small democracy and governance budget | |
| in Ethiopia. I think that there could be places where that | |
| could be used more creatively to try to get momentum behind | |
| some of these larger processes of all party dialogues and of a | |
| real discussion of how this country goes forward. Those | |
| discussions would not be possible unless there were things like | |
| release of political prisoners and the opening of political | |
| space. I think that that could be a place where there is | |
| leverage. | |
| The other place of leverage I think that is probably | |
| stronger and more available to use is diplomacy. Ethiopia wants | |
| to be a respected member of the world community. It matters | |
| greatly. They really, really wanted President Obama to visit. | |
| They thought that was an important way for them to be | |
| recognized as the most important state in Africa or something | |
| like that. And that then you don't necessarily get that | |
| recognition unless certain conditions are met. | |
| Ms. Bass. You know, there is the role that Ethiopia played | |
| in the negotiations with South Sudan. | |
| Mr. Lyons. Very important. | |
| Mr. Horne. Yes, I would certainly echo all of that. I think | |
| that Human Rights Watch does not call for aid to be cut off to | |
| Ethiopia. What we have called for is increased monitoring of | |
| the aid that is given, so the positive benefits of the aid can | |
| be experienced, but without some of the negatives. And right | |
| now what we see is that there is all of this money being put | |
| in, but there is not a lot of effort to really monitor the | |
| negative aspects like this increased repressive capacity that | |
| it gives the government. | |
| Ms. Bass. One other question I had as I know my colleagues | |
| want to ask questions, too, is that I have heard that the | |
| Ethiopian Government is feeling less pressure with the new | |
| administration in thinking that there is not going to be a | |
| concern considering that the positions that are being put out | |
| there are really more inward looking, concerned about what is | |
| happening here and not a concern so much on the international, | |
| especially with little to no mention of Africa at all. | |
| So I want to know what you believe in terms of the signal | |
| the new administration is sending to Ethiopia. | |
| Mr. Lyons. It is a very difficult to know where this | |
| administration is planning to head toward Africa, in part, | |
| because the personnel just aren't there yet and the kind of | |
| road map, the budgets and so on are unclear. The way I would-- | |
| signs that I would look for is that on the one hand if this | |
| administration has heightened concerns about terrorism and | |
| counterterrorism, that there is a way to think that Ethiopia | |
| then would be able to get more attention in Washington because | |
| it would be able to play that role or at least position itself | |
| to play that role. | |
| But on the other hand, if USAID gets cut in a dramatic way, | |
| that presumably would be something that falls on Ethiopia as | |
| well as other countries. And so I just find it very difficult | |
| to know which way things will go with regard to U.S. policy | |
| toward Ethiopia. | |
| Mr. Horne. Yes, agreed. I think there is still a lot of | |
| importance to U.S. relationships and partnerships with Ethiopia | |
| that have been there for a long time and will continue to be | |
| there on security, on peacekeeping, and potentially development | |
| assistance. | |
| Ms. Bass. Is there oil in Ethiopia? | |
| Mr. Horne. That is a good question. Yes, there is believed | |
| to be some oil and natural gas in the Somali region, | |
| definitely. But I think when we talk about the importance of | |
| benchmarks and human rights measures and conditioning some of | |
| this support, it is also because you all saw what happened last | |
| year, you can't have a partnership on security, on development, | |
| on delivering humanitarian aid when people are protesting when | |
| a country almost descends into chaos. So respect for human | |
| rights actually makes development and security assistance much | |
| more effective which I think is an important part of this. | |
| Mr. Smith. Before yielding to Mr. Garrett, without | |
| objection, a correspondence from a coalition of NGOs, diaspora | |
| groups that support this effort, they also call for the passage | |
| of House Resolution 128, without objection will be made a part | |
| of the record. | |
| Mr. Garrett. | |
| Mr. Garrett. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am just curious if | |
| either of these gentlemen could enlighten us as to what sort of | |
| accountability we think has happened as it relates to the | |
| crackdown on dissenters that we saw just last year in the | |
| region and then on top of that, and obviously, I have had your | |
| present testimony of the transparency as it relates to that | |
| accountability. | |
| Mr. Horne. Yes. I mean there were some calls from various | |
| countries for an international investigation. And Ethiopia's | |
| response to that always is we can investigate ourselves. We | |
| don't need the help of the international community. The fact of | |
| the matter is they haven't investigated. So the Human Rights | |
| Commission, which is the body that would be mandated in doing | |
| that investigation, they presented an oral report to Parliament | |
| in June of last year, the day that the Human Rights Watch came | |
| out with a big report into the protests in Oromia. And they | |
| largely exonerated the Federal security forces. No one knows | |
| who they talked to. No one knows how they arrived at a | |
| conclusion that was so radically different from what everyone | |
| else has found who has looked into the issue. And we have | |
| spoken to many diplomats, foreign diplomats in Addis, but also | |
| Ethiopian Government officials, and no one has seen a written | |
| version of that report. | |
| So in short, it doesn't seem that there was any meaningful | |
| investigation that was undertaken. There continues to be more | |
| promises with more investigations, but we haven't seen anything | |
| to date. | |
| Mr. Lyons. If I could add just a couple of sentences on to | |
| that because there is a media piece to this as well. The | |
| Ethiopian Government is often very unhappy when groups like | |
| Human Rights Watch and others come up with estimates on how | |
| many died or what the casualties were and so on and so forth. | |
| But there were very few other estimates, in fact, because the | |
| journalists cannot go out and ask questions and talk to people | |
| and go to the emergency rooms or whatever it is to get a handle | |
| on--we are here on the ground and we think that Human Rights | |
| Watch has overestimated it, but there is nobody on the ground | |
| collecting that with credibility. And so that is a further | |
| problem. | |
| The restrictions on the press mean that that type of | |
| restriction on accountability. | |
| Mr. Garrett. Mr. Chairman, I want to preface this by saying | |
| that we have had very few allies in some regards better than | |
| Ethiopia as it relates to combatting terrorism, the number of | |
| peacekeepers that the Ethiopians have contributed to global | |
| missions and I want to hat tip Ethiopia for that. | |
| Now as an editorial aside, I will tell you that one of my | |
| great complaints is that I think sometimes the United States | |
| participates in creating vacuums vis-a-vis regime change | |
| initiatives without contemplating who will fill said vacuum | |
| upon the creation of the vacuum. | |
| What is the state? What we have here in one person's | |
| estimation is a nation of Ethiopia that on the one hand does | |
| wonderful things to be integrated into the world community and | |
| on the other hand stymies any freedom of the press and we know | |
| is certainly very vigorous on cracking down on dissent. | |
| Is there even a viable opposition that would be an entity | |
| with whom we could do business in Ethiopia just by your | |
| estimate? Because again, the worst thing I think we can do, | |
| look at Libya pre- and post-Ghadafi. Look at Syria. Look at | |
| what happened in Egypt with Sisi sort of stepping in and | |
| creating stability where we don't know if we would have a | |
| Morsi, but I contemplate that it might be far worse. Is there a | |
| viable opposition at all? | |
| Mr. Lyons. The way I would frame that question is that | |
| there are a number of small parties and civil society | |
| organizations that, at great personal risk, have continued to | |
| operate within Ethiopia, but they have been marginalized by | |
| systematic actions by the regime. | |
| The way that I would put it about the vacuum, however, | |
| though is that if the EPRDF is a strong regime, which in some | |
| ways it is, 8 million members of the party, 100 percent seats | |
| in the Parliament, one of Africa's most effective militaries in | |
| peacekeeping and so on and so forth, double digit growth, it | |
| may also be a very brittle party that once challenged could | |
| very quickly, the veneer collapses and the underlying | |
| structures cannot stand. So that would be the concern I would | |
| have for a vacuum, that if the ruling party can't hold it | |
| together because it is under too much pressure, then what? And | |
| so it is not that we need to put pressure on---- | |
| Mr. Garrett. I know I am interrupting, but with all due | |
| respect, that is my question. Then what? If the ruling party | |
| fractures, and there is a vacuum, who rushes in to fill that | |
| vacuum? | |
| Mr. Lyons. Very hard to know. My best expectation or my--it | |
| is really a guess rather than even a very strong conclusion is | |
| that the organizations in Ethiopia that have the ability to | |
| mobilize are one, ethnically-based political parties that are | |
| part of the ruling coalition, so some of the power might | |
| gravitate back to the ethnic regions and it will be weaker | |
| centrally; and two, the Ethiopian military, which is very, very | |
| difficult to get a bead on. And typically, historically has | |
| kept out of politics, but in the state of emergency, it is much | |
| more directly in politics, the command centers that are part of | |
| the state of emergency are Ethiopian military command centers. | |
| And so those would be two possible dynamics. One more toward | |
| autonomy and two, a greater role for the military. | |
| Mr. Garrett. Mr. Horne? | |
| Mr. Horne. Yes, it is a difficult question for us to | |
| answer. I guess what I would just point to is that there has | |
| been a--in my statement I talk about this, that there are a lot | |
| of tactics they have used to decimate the opposition to ensure | |
| that the opposition is not effective. And quite often when it | |
| gets to be hundreds of protesters over the last year and when | |
| you ask them about how they see the opposition, they don't see | |
| the opposition as being terribly effective. They don't see the | |
| opposition being able to represent their views in any sort of | |
| form. | |
| Mr. Garrett. So Mr. Chairman, I would yield back in a | |
| moment. I want to be very though. My concern is that in pushing | |
| Ethiopia to be a better actor as it relates to openness, | |
| freedom of the press, etcetera, that we accidentally create a | |
| vacuum that creates chaos beyond that which we currently | |
| imagine. So everybody, I think, on both sides of the aisle, | |
| wants to see free and fair democratic societies across the | |
| globe, but sometimes if we push and something falls off that | |
| ledge, what steps to fill the vacuum is not any better than the | |
| one that precedes and oftentimes, unfortunately, is worse. | |
| Mr. Smith. Mr. Garrett, thank you very much. The gentleman | |
| from New York, Mr. Suozzi. | |
| Mr. Suozzi. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to echo some of | |
| the things that Mr. Garrett was just talking about. I am new to | |
| this party. I am a freshman member and this is a new area for | |
| me as well as a member of this committee. | |
| But my big concern in the world today is not so much this | |
| country versus that country or this ideology versus that | |
| ideology, but it was described in Tom Friedman's recent book of | |
| control versus chaos, places that are stable versus places that | |
| are unstable. | |
| And so many places in the world today that were once | |
| propped up by the Soviets or by the Americans during the Cold | |
| War that are average or sub-average governments or that are | |
| either incompetent or corrupt or just lack resources, are not | |
| able to survive in the current environment because it is easy | |
| to be, as he described, a breaker in the world as it is to be a | |
| maker. | |
| And a lot of places end up with, because of climate change | |
| and the droughts such as you are experiencing in Ethiopia with | |
| 80 percent of the people involved in agriculture and these | |
| terrible droughts and so many people are suffering and then | |
| they move into the cities and they are looking for a better | |
| life, but they can't find it there and there is civil unrest | |
| and it becomes political foment and we have gone from 35 | |
| million refugees in the world to 65 million refugees in the | |
| past 10 years. | |
| And so if there is a movement to make this change, but as a | |
| result there is terrible unrest and de-stability that takes | |
| place in the country as a result, you have got another hot spot | |
| and another source of refugees in the world that have really | |
| few places to go. | |
| So what should we be looking at to help Ethiopia to not | |
| only address some of the concerns that you were testifying | |
| about, but also just to be stable in this world where there is | |
| so much instability? | |
| Mr. Lyons. The answer, one is broadly and then a little | |
| more precisely. I think another way of thinking about the | |
| concern in Ethiopia is not kind of a binary, is not control | |
| versus chaos, but rather in a context of rapid change, | |
| including within Ethiopia beginnings of new forms of | |
| development, but in a time of rapid change and without deeply | |
| embedded institutions and rule of law, is that the path to | |
| chaos? In other words, what you need is to have a political | |
| opening to better manage the process of change so you don't get | |
| to chaos. | |
| I certainly agree and many Ethiopians have gone through | |
| periods of chaos and have seen neighbor states go through | |
| chaos. That is not the desired end point. The question is if | |
| the Ethiopian Government does not recognize the challenges that | |
| face it, is it more likely to lead to that chaos or can a | |
| process of opening the regime up better manage that threat? | |
| I do think there are ways to open it up in terms of | |
| releasing political prisoners, of allowing these opposition | |
| parties to operate, and other things that I listed in my | |
| testimony. That does not mean that the regime is going to | |
| collapse. This isn't regime change. This isn't going in and | |
| bombing Benghazi or sending troops into Iraq. This is getting | |
| them to provide space so that Ethiopians who care about | |
| democracy and human rights are able to speak about those | |
| things. And it would be a very, very precariously perched | |
| regime that thought that that was what was going to lead to | |
| chaos. | |
| The Zone 9 bloggers are an example of that. A young group | |
| of Ethiopians who blogged in a way that was critical of the | |
| regime and the regime was very, very unhappy about that and | |
| regarded them as criminal. If you are worried about a group of | |
| young people who are blogging, when you have just won 100 | |
| percent of the seats in Parliament, you have the strongest | |
| military in sub-Saharan Africa or one of the strongest | |
| militaries, there is a disconnect there. Why are you so worried | |
| about being criticized, if in fact, you are the control and not | |
| the chaos? | |
| Mr. Horne. Yes, I mean I think this isn't the first time | |
| there has been sort of this protest in Ethiopia. We said it is | |
| unprecedented, the scale of the protest was unprecedented and | |
| the scale of the brutality was unprecedented. But under this | |
| government there has been protests, movements in the past, and | |
| the government's response to that is to crush it through force. | |
| And it has worked. That approach has worked. It didn't work | |
| last year. And for so many people that I interviewed who were | |
| out there, when they faced bullets, when they saw their friends | |
| being shot and killed, when they faced tear gas, arrests, | |
| torture, and detention, it just emboldened them further. | |
| So if we care about Ethiopia's stability and we all do, | |
| everyone agrees, we want Ethiopia to be a stable, long-term | |
| partner, respect for human rights is core to that, is crucial | |
| to that. This is not about a vacuum of which party can take | |
| over post-EPRDF. That is not what we are talking about. We are | |
| just talking about basic respect for human rights which will | |
| keep Ethiopia stable and will ensure that it can be a valuable | |
| partner for the United States for many years. | |
| Mr. Suozzi. Thank you very much. | |
| Mr. Smith. Thank you, we will have some additional | |
| questions that all of us will submit for the record, but thank | |
| you for your tremendous input to this subcommittee and for your | |
| leadership for so many decades. | |
| Mr. Lyons. Thank you. | |
| Mr. Horne. Thank you. | |
| Mr. Smith. I now would like to welcome our second panel | |
| beginning with Ms. Seenaa Jimjimo who was born in South Oromo, | |
| in Ethiopia. From a very young age, she grieved over the | |
| injustice she saw growing up and studied political science in | |
| the hopes of becoming the solution. | |
| While in school, she served as president of the African | |
| Student Organization and assistant executive director for the | |
| Oromo Community Association of Chicago. Currently, she is | |
| president of the Coalition of Oromo Advocates for Human Rights | |
| and Democracy and is an environmental health inspector as well. | |
| We will then hear from Tewodrose Tirfe, who is one of the | |
| founding members of the Amhara Association of America, an | |
| organization dedicated to organizing Amhara people and a | |
| refugee who came to the United States in 1982. He has worked | |
| with international human rights organizations to bring | |
| attention to oppression of Amharans and worked to engage policy | |
| makers and raise awareness of humanitarian issues in Ethiopia | |
| that advocates for a policy that ensures that American | |
| interests and moves Ethiopia on the path of democracy. He also | |
| works as a senior network engineer. | |
| We will then hear from Mr. Guya Abaguya Deki who is a | |
| torture survivor from Ethiopia. He contracted polio when he was | |
| 3 years old and was raised in an orphanage. He was an | |
| outstanding student and became an activist for disability | |
| rights and the general manager of the Ethiopian National | |
| Association of the Physically Handicapped. Ethiopia's ruling | |
| party tried to force him to join the party and when he refused, | |
| they arrested him several times and dumped him in the jungle | |
| area with his wheelchair believing that hyenas would attack him | |
| and kill him. Miraculously, Mr. Deki survived, came to the | |
| United States in 2003, and was granted political asylum in | |
| 2014. | |
| We will then hear from Mr. Yoseph Tafari who was born and | |
| educated in Ethiopia where his social and political activism | |
| forced him to flee to Khartoum, Sudan in 1976. During his time | |
| in Sudan he successfully organized the Ethiopians who were | |
| exiled in that country to have the full protection of the | |
| UNHCR. Since coming to Colorado, he has worked as a project | |
| manager in constructing the largest Ethiopian Orthodox church | |
| ever built outside of Ethiopia and co-founded the Ethiopian | |
| Drought Relief Aid of Colorado, an advocacy group bringing | |
| awareness and much needed aid to the victims of the Ethiopian | |
| famine. He also owns a printing company. | |
| I would like to now yield to our distinguished first | |
| witness. I would point out to our witnesses, I have been called | |
| to a leadership meeting at 4:00. I have to be there for it and | |
| I apologize. I will read your testimonies very carefully. Ms. | |
| Bass and I both invited you to be here, so we both, all of us | |
| on the subcommittee want to hear you, so I apologize. When I do | |
| depart, it is not a lack of interest, I can assure you. | |
| Please proceed. | |
| STATEMENT OF MS. SEENAA JIMJIMO, PRESIDENT, COALITION OF OROMO | |
| ADVOCATES FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AND DEMOCRACY | |
| Ms. Jimjimo. Thank you, Chairman Smith, Ranking Member | |
| Bass, and members of the subcommittee for this opportunity. I | |
| must say my presence here is historic and I am beyond honored | |
| for the opportunity to speak before you here. | |
| Today, I acknowledge the suffering of many Ethiopians like | |
| the Amharas. I am here to speak about three generations of | |
| pain, agony, and political oppression against the Oromo people. | |
| My grandfather saw massacres, my father and uncles served in | |
| prison camps as do my younger brothers and sisters today. This | |
| is not just the story of my family, rather the story of Oromos | |
| who constitute over 40 percent of the Ethiopian population and | |
| occupy the most productive lands. Oromia is the backbone of the | |
| Ethiopian economy, with the key export items: Coffee, gold, | |
| other precious minerals. Yet, the Oromo are politically, | |
| socially, and economically marginalized people. | |
| I must also acknowledge that while hundreds are better | |
| qualified than I could be here today, I bring a unique voice. | |
| To begin with, I am a follower of Wakefanna, the much less | |
| known indigenous religion. I am also a woman, the primary | |
| victims of human rights violations you often never hear about. | |
| And I represent a generation that knows, understands, and lives | |
| in two different worlds, my birthplace and America, land of | |
| opportunity. | |
| To speak the truth, I highly doubt my own people, for whom | |
| I am fighting day and night, will value me equal to my brother | |
| who cares less about them. It is with this understanding that I | |
| not only value the American interest in the region, but believe | |
| it is necessary that the American mission succeed because it is | |
| the only voice for women like me. Therefore, I want to assure | |
| this House that American interest is my interest and the | |
| interest of so many Oromos. | |
| Twenty-six years ago, in June 1991, Assistant Secretary of | |
| State of Hermann Cohen testified in front of House Committee on | |
| Foreign Affairs. He said, ``No democracy, no support.'' For 26 | |
| years, Ethiopia has become an open prison for so many | |
| Ethiopians, particularly Oromos, who make the overwhelming | |
| majority of the prison population. Today, 26 years later, under | |
| the code name of ``state of emergency,'' a husband watched his | |
| wife and daughters get raped, sons taken away or killed. | |
| Even though I myself have lived under this terror and been | |
| watched and beaten by this government, what is new is the use | |
| of this new term ``state of emergency,'' which allowed it to | |
| shut off the small means of communication to the outside world. | |
| In Ethiopia, as others before me have said, all sorts of media | |
| is either banned or greatly curtailed. Social media is | |
| punishable by up to 5 years in jail, all rights organizations | |
| banned, requests by U.N. for independent investigations are | |
| denied, and U.S. concern is ignored. Moreover, although as | |
| early as January 2016, the Ethiopian Government admits to the | |
| use of excessive force, no single individuals have been brought | |
| to justice. Now 3 years later, nothing has changed except the | |
| implementation of the most brutal system of killing, silencing | |
| innocent people under the cover of martial law. For Oromos, the | |
| torture is unending, even as they flee Ethiopia. It follows | |
| them wherever they go in the region. As a proud partner to the | |
| U.S. War on Terror, the Ethiopian Government can go to Kenya, | |
| Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, and even as far as Saudi Arabia to bring | |
| back those who they consider threats to their power. | |
| While I understand the need for strong and dependable | |
| partners in a volatile region too close to extremism, reliance | |
| on a minority-dominated government hailing from a mere 6 | |
| percent of the population, cannot be sustainable and would | |
| rather endanger American interests. A country of 100 million | |
| people inhabited by 82 different ethnic groups cannot survive a | |
| fake democracy or federalism. | |
| Mr. Chairman, a blind support of this government can only | |
| extend what is inevitable. If what we seek is united democratic | |
| recognition where all people have equal opportunity as a human | |
| being, we must ask for greater accountability and push for real | |
| tangible actions. Certainly, the introduction of House | |
| Resolution 128 is a great start. While I thank the leadership | |
| being behind it and all those who co-sponsored it, I ask you | |
| and I beg you to reach out to your colleagues to co-sponsor to | |
| speak before it is too late. | |
| The window of opportunity closes with each passing day, | |
| with each passing day, lives are murdered at the hands of this | |
| government. We know that in no democratic country, let alone | |
| Ethiopia, can a ruling party win an election by 100 percent. We | |
| should not ignore the young people's aspiration for democracy | |
| and justice who make up 50 percent of the entire population. We | |
| must not leave Ethiopia's fate to the current government or | |
| leave it up to them to investigate into its own gross human | |
| rights violations documented by the United States Government. | |
| Ethiopia's ruling party does not represent the country's | |
| future, but the past. A regime that kills its own people cannot | |
| be a regional team player for peace or stability. | |
| For me, I speak about this knowing I am putting my family | |
| who still lives there and those who I mentor in great danger. I | |
| choose to speak because this is not history, but rather | |
| testimony on my own personal experience for which I am ready to | |
| accept all sacrifices. | |
| Thank you again for your commitment in promoting democracy, | |
| peace, justice, and your relentless efforts to speak on human | |
| rights violations in Ethiopia. Thank you. | |
| [The prepared statement of Ms. Jimjimo follows:] | |
| [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT] | |
| ---------- | |
| STATEMENT OF MR. TEWODROSE TIRFE, CO-FOUNDER, AMHARA | |
| ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA | |
| Mr. Tirfe. Good afternoon. Esteemed members of the | |
| Subcommittee on Africa, on behalf of the organization I | |
| represent, Amhara Association of America, Ethiopian-Americans | |
| across this country, and all Ethiopians who have suffered | |
| unconscionable brutality at the hands of the Tigray People's | |
| Liberation Front, the ruling party of Ethiopia, I want to thank | |
| you for holding this hearing and bringing awareness to a | |
| humanitarian crisis that has been unfolding before us for the | |
| past 26 years. | |
| The subject of today's hearing, Democracy Under Threat in | |
| Ethiopia, is an misnomer in many ways since democracy has never | |
| existed under this current Ethiopian Government. | |
| Since the establishment of the Tigray People's Liberation | |
| Front, in their 1976 manifesto, they labeled their struggle as | |
| ``anti-Amhara oppressors'' and in order to achieve their | |
| struggle they must destroy the old and the dominant Amhara | |
| culture which represents over 30 percent of the Ethiopian | |
| population and replace it by a new and revolutionary culture. | |
| It is only through this that they may be able to secede from | |
| Ethiopia and establish the Republic of Tigray. | |
| The TPLF-led government has forcefully annexed historical | |
| Amhara lands of Wolkite, Tegede, Humera, Tselemti, and Raya- | |
| Azebo to Tigray. Under the late Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, | |
| the TPLF transferred thousands of Tigray settlers to the | |
| annexed Amhara land in an attempt to change the demographic | |
| make-up of the region. | |
| As the ruling party of Ethiopia, TPLF has been and | |
| continues to commit ethnic cleansing on the Amhara people in | |
| Wolkite. Their native tongue, Amharic, is suppressed. | |
| Widespread discrimination, killing, arrest, torture, and | |
| confiscation of land have led to many of the ethnic Amhara | |
| people in this escaping to Gonder City, other regions of | |
| Ethiopia, and foreign countries for survival. | |
| In 2015, under the guidance of the Ethiopian Constitution's | |
| covenants, the Amhara people organized themselves and | |
| petitioned the Ethiopian Government to have the Wolkite region | |
| to rejoin to the Amhara State. The response by the TPLF regime | |
| was to kidnap the officers of the Wolkite Amhara Identity | |
| Committee in the middle of the night in 2016, and charge them | |
| with terrorism. | |
| These officers were named in a joint letter to the U.N. | |
| Human Rights Council by 15 human rights organizations including | |
| Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. | |
| They are: Colonel Demeke Zewudu, who is the face of the | |
| Amhara Resistance; Getachew Ademe, Atalay Zafe, Mebratu | |
| Getahun, Alena Shama, Addisu Serebe, and Nega Banteyehun. | |
| My family is from Wolkite. I, myself, was born in the | |
| Wolkite city of Humera. Some of the men arrested are either | |
| related to me or close to my family. The chairman, Getachew | |
| Ademe, was a student of my father. Nega Banteyehun is my | |
| cousin. Their crime is being Amhara and petitioning the | |
| government for the Wolkite region to be rejoined to the Amhara | |
| State. | |
| I have family members who have fled Ethiopia to neighboring | |
| countries because they are being hunted down, one escaping with | |
| bullet wounds. I have had to collect money to send to these | |
| young men who have fled to Sudan, Kenya, and Uganda. It has | |
| been both financially and emotionally challenging for us. | |
| But Wolkite and Raya-Azebo are not the only areas where | |
| ethnic cleansing and genocidal acts have been committed against | |
| Amharas. We can cite in the areas of Benishangul, West and East | |
| Arsi and Afar between 1990 and 1994, close to 41,800 Amharas | |
| were killed and 70,000 Amharas were displaced from their homes. | |
| In the areas of Wollega in the year 2000, 1,200 Amharas were | |
| killed and 14,000 displaced from their homes. During this | |
| atrocity, children were thrown into fire and a 4-year-old child | |
| was forced to drink the blood of her dead father. In Bench | |
| Maji, 2015, 600 Amharas were killed and 22,000 Amharas were | |
| displaced from their homes. In West Shewa, 500 Amharas were | |
| displaced in 2015. Since the Amhara protests began in 2016, | |
| over 227, and these are government-provided numbers, have been | |
| killed, but we believe the numbers are much higher. This is | |
| just a small sample of the many atrocities committed against | |
| Amharas. | |
| As stated in the 2007 Ethiopian Census that was released, | |
| the Amhara population was short by 2\1/2\ million. A debate was | |
| not even allowed in Parliament when this fact was presented. | |
| Some estimates have the number now closer to 5 million. We | |
| believe there has been a systematic effort by the government to | |
| depopulate the Amhara population. Thus, the recent protests by | |
| Amharas was not about democracy or economics, but was simply | |
| about their identity, their land, and the need to survive as a | |
| people. Hundreds have been killed while peacefully protesting, | |
| hundreds of homes burned by security forces in retaliation | |
| against Amharas, and thousands imprisoned. We can never know | |
| the exact number killed, wounded, tortured, and arrested unless | |
| an independent and transparent investigation is conducted by an | |
| international body. | |
| When all these horrendous acts of genocide and ethnic | |
| cleansing were occurring, the world including Ethiopian | |
| opposition groups were silent. It is because of this silence, | |
| the Amhara people had no other choice but to organize | |
| themselves so they may have a voice. It is because of this | |
| silence and the basic need for survival the Amhara farmers in | |
| Gonder and Gojam decided to wage an armed struggle. One of the | |
| leaders of these brave farmers, Gobe Malke, was lost to Amharas | |
| just 2 weeks ago. | |
| The Amharas are not the only victims of this brutal regime, | |
| of course. We have witnessed the atrocious violence committed | |
| against Oromos where thousands have been killed while | |
| peacefully protesting, the Konso people, Anuaks, Afars, | |
| Somalis, and I can go on. The TPLF regime reasons to represent | |
| 6 percent of the Tigray population while at the same time | |
| suppressing the majority Ethiopian population. | |
| In the past 26 years, Ethiopia has received over $30 | |
| billion from the United States and over $20 billion from our | |
| allies. This figure does not take into account the humanitarian | |
| aid Ethiopia receives from the U.S., Europe, and other donor | |
| countries. Still, Ethiopia ranks as one of the poorest and most | |
| corrupt countries in the world. Independent research has | |
| revealed a corrupt system whereby $2 billion to $3 billion | |
| annually is leaving the country. | |
| Ethiopia is again facing a massive famine, with an | |
| estimated 5.6 million Ethiopians requiring emergency food | |
| assistance by June 2017. The question Ethiopian-Americans are | |
| asking is where is all the U.S. aid going? Where is the | |
| accountability from the State Department and European partners? | |
| This is not representative of a democratic form of governance, | |
| and may even be failure by our own democratic government to | |
| account for taxpayer aid. Unaccountable support to the | |
| Ethiopian Government does not serve the national security | |
| interest of the United States. I am honored today to be | |
| accompanied to this hearing by one of my younger brothers, | |
| Yowseph Tirfe, who is a veteran of the U.S. Marines and who | |
| proudly served a tour in Iraq. He was inspired to give back | |
| because he valued and wanted to preserve the freedom that he | |
| and our parents were afforded as immigrants in this great | |
| country. My younger brother, Yowseph Tirfe, has served in the | |
| United States Army. Ethiopian-Americans are law-abiding and | |
| tax-paying citizens who are proud to be Americans and deeply | |
| cherish the security, opportunity, freedom, the value of human | |
| rights, and representative democracy we have in America. | |
| However, we are very disappointed with the U.S. foreign policy | |
| that has failed the Ethiopian people and have appeased a brutal | |
| regime. | |
| As an Ethiopian-American based organization, the Amhara | |
| Association of America has provided a 14 point recommendation | |
| that we believe will ensure our national security interests and | |
| will lead Ethiopia on a path to democracy. | |
| Thank you and I forward to any questions. | |
| [The prepared statement of Mr. Tirfe follows:] | |
| [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT] | |
| ---------- | |
| Mr. Smith. Thank you, sir. Mr. Tafari. | |
| STATEMENT OF MR. YOSEPH TAFARI, CO-FOUNDER, ETHIOPIAN DROUGHT | |
| RELIEF AID OF COLORADO | |
| Mr. Tafari. Chairman Smith, Ranking Member Bass, and | |
| distinguished members of the subcommittee, thank you for the | |
| opportunity to testify on the situation in Ethiopia. | |
| I would like to open my testimony first by thanking our | |
| representative of the 6th District of Colorado, the Honorable | |
| Mike Coffman, for his unyielding supportive voice for the | |
| Ethiopian people and our diverse community in the state. I | |
| also would like to recognize the passionate advocacy of my | |
| Ethiopian brothers and sisters from the Oromo community, | |
| especially Mr. Jamal Said, who is here today. | |
| Please allow me to introduce myself to make relevance of my | |
| presence before you. My name is Deacon Yoseph Tafari, co- | |
| founder of the Ethiopian Drought Relief of Colorado. I am an | |
| ordained deacon serving under the Archdiocese of the exiled | |
| Ethiopian Orthodox Holy Synod. I am an entrepreneurial | |
| businessman operating a commercial printing company in | |
| Colorado. | |
| I grew up in Ethiopia where in 1976 I was forced to flee | |
| Ethiopia and seek refuge in the neighboring Sudan. Fortunately, | |
| I was allowed to enter the United States as a refugee which | |
| paved the way to a life-changing journey. Since then, Ethiopia | |
| has not fared well in most measures, especially since the | |
| current TPLF, the Tigray People's Liberation Front, regime took | |
| the central political power in 1991. Ethiopia has gone from bad | |
| to worse. | |
| Please allow me to provide some of the major aspects of | |
| Ethiopia's profile. | |
| Religious freedom. One of Ethiopia's enduring virtues is | |
| its multi-century tradition of the coexistence of people with | |
| various Semitic faiths which exists to the present day of | |
| Ethiopia. By and large, the Ethiopian Christians, Muslims, and | |
| Jews together have long recognized the individual right to | |
| worship free from persecution as the only way for national | |
| cohesiveness. Throughout its history, evidence of common inter- | |
| religious marriages, co-observation of sacred holidays, social | |
| assimilation, mutual inter-dependence for trade, and even the | |
| gallant sacrifices shared to defend the freedom of the country | |
| is a rare find anywhere. | |
| Therefore, in the fight against extremism and global | |
| terrorism, one can never find a better natural ally than the | |
| people of Ethiopia who for centuries have possessed the wisdom | |
| and ingredients for peaceful coexistence amongst people of | |
| different religions. This collective asset will undoubtedly | |
| contribute far more lasting regional stability, provided it is | |
| represented by a democratic political structure. Instead, | |
| Ethiopia is ruled by a minority ethnic regime which has brought | |
| about highly destructive governance by perpetually | |
| marginalizing and terrorizing other ethnic and religious groups | |
| by pitting one against the other which may yield a damaging | |
| consequence to the nation's unique virtues and ultimately the | |
| fight against extremism and global terrorism itself. | |
| Ethnic identity. From the early days of its foundation, | |
| TPLF goals have been well documented. It is to break up | |
| Ethiopia's population by ethnic identity while simultaneously | |
| controlling all the nation's resource for the benefit of a | |
| single ethic minority group. All actions in every layer of | |
| civic duties, legislation, public policy, economic planning, as | |
| well as national security is shaped by this singular mission. | |
| Today, Ethiopia is strained to a breaking point due to | |
| excessive marginalization of the majority ethnic population. | |
| Desperate for their lives, hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians | |
| are fleeing the country making it one of the world's top | |
| refugee producing nations. | |
| Oromo and Amhara are the two biggest ethnic groups, | |
| together composing over 65 percent of the population. Since | |
| taking power, the regime embarked on a national campaign to | |
| incite conflict between these two significant ethnic groups to | |
| no avail. When the clear majority of Ethiopians finally said | |
| enough, massive protests were sparked across the country. In | |
| particular, a joint declaration of unity between the Oromo and | |
| the Amhara ethnic groups, has resulted in the regime declaring | |
| an emergency decree on the entire nation. Unlike its | |
| predecessor, the TPLF is a silent killer utilizing covert | |
| methods including assassins, sniper sharp shooters, poisoning, | |
| and numerous inhuman methods against its own people. The | |
| emergency decree is an added blanket tool in its lethal arsenal | |
| to efficiently execute its barbaric measures against all | |
| humanity in Ethiopia. | |
| Much ink has been spilled in documenting the crimes of the | |
| TPLF regime against the Ethiopian people. In short, Ethiopia is | |
| a country with no opposition, judicial system, civil society, | |
| independent media, or political space. Instead, the country has | |
| turned into closed killing chambers and the prisons and | |
| detention centers are packed with thousands of political | |
| prisoners while the world is looking the other way. | |
| Ethiopia's aspiration for genuine democracy and the reality | |
| of ethnic dictatorship, to point a few highlights in order to | |
| frame today's discussion. | |
| Religious freedom. All religious institutions are under the | |
| strict control of the regime making moral challenge virtually | |
| impossible to the ruling party's brutal measures. | |
| Political freedom. Systematic suppression of independent | |
| political parties especially after its resounding defeat by the | |
| opposition parties in the 2005 national election. Since then, | |
| the regime has devised the most perfect--I say that again--the | |
| most perfect rigging mechanism of the entire election process, | |
| resulting in ``perfect vote score'' of 100 percent electoral | |
| margin in the subsequent national elections of 2010 and 2015. | |
| Independent media. Ethiopia has virtually no independent | |
| media within its borders and international broadcasters' | |
| signals are regularly jammed. Today, Ethiopia is the second- | |
| highest number of jailed journalists in sub-Saharan Africa. | |
| Independent judicial branch. The legislative and judicial | |
| bodies in Ethiopia are totally controlled by the regime as a | |
| convenient ``legalizing platform,'' an effective tool for the | |
| executive branch to rule the country at will. | |
| The military. Ethiopia has no national army. I know this | |
| may come as a surprise to many, but the entire military | |
| apparatus is a direct extension of the ruling party, and over | |
| 95 percent of its generals are ethnic Tigray to ensure | |
| unwavering loyalty to the minority regime. | |
| Economy. Highly centralized where by the largest source of | |
| gainful employment source in the country is the government | |
| itself. In order to self-serve the ruling party, it is used as | |
| an exclusive weapon for nationwide mechanism to reward its | |
| supporters and punish its potential foes. Despite claims of | |
| growth and prosperity, Ethiopia still remains the eighth | |
| world's poorest nation where nearly 20 percent of the | |
| population is facing endless chronic famine. | |
| Mr. Donovan [presiding]. We are going to put your entire | |
| statement into the record. I just want to give the other | |
| witnesses a chance to speak and make sure all the members get | |
| to ask their questions. | |
| Mr. Tafari. Can I---- | |
| Mr. Donovan. Do you want to sum up? Yes, certainly, sir. | |
| Mr. Tafari. Okay. Ethiopia has been gripped by an | |
| apartheid-like system of governance affecting 100 million of | |
| its citizens. The regime has repeatedly showed the world that | |
| it operates much as an underground criminal enterprise than a | |
| ruling body with a mandate to govern an ancient country like | |
| Ethiopia. All its activity and sheer existence is for monetary | |
| gain from the nation which has made a few individuals of the | |
| inner circle fabulously wealthy. To those individuals, Ethiopia | |
| is for sale and the asset of the nation is to be monetized in | |
| every turn. By providing material assistance it receives under | |
| the pretext of ``ally against terror'' the regime should never | |
| be given the license to terrorize its own people. The United | |
| States needs to take into account that dictatorship based on | |
| the sole interest of a minority ethnic group can be the most | |
| ruthless force as the world is just witnessing the humanitarian | |
| crisis unfolding in present-day Syria. The primordial fear of | |
| retribution becomes a self-fulfilling cycle of suppression and | |
| human rights violations by this minority ethnic dictatorship. | |
| Last, we can find examples within the same continent of | |
| much better political solutions in which the United States | |
| played a major role in bringing to historical outcome. This | |
| fine example is none other than the end of apartheid system in | |
| South Africa. In both instances, the culprit for the suffering | |
| of the people of Ethiopia and South Africa is minority ruling | |
| dictatorship. Intrinsic to its core belief, such system can | |
| only function by forceful suppression of the will of the | |
| majority. As a result, both TPLF of Ethiopia and the apartheid | |
| system of South Africa are the perfect example of unsustainable | |
| political status quo. | |
| As in the case of South Africa, the gallant struggle of the | |
| majority combined with world economic embargo forced the | |
| dictatorship to come to the table for peaceful transition, | |
| thereby creating a more perfect union. In my opinion, that is | |
| the ``the fierce urgency of now'' for Ethiopia today. | |
| [The prepared statement of Mr. Tafari follows:] | |
| [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT] | |
| ---------- | |
| Mr. Donovan. Thank you very much. I have to go on. Mr. | |
| Deki. | |
| STATEMENT OF MR. GUYA ABAGUYA DEKI, REPRESENTATIVE, TORTURE | |
| ABOLITION AND SURVIVORS SUPPORT COALITION | |
| Mr. Deki. Thank you. My name is Abaguya Ayele Deki, I am a | |
| survivor of torture from Ethiopia. I would like to thank this | |
| subcommittee for inviting me to testify at this important | |
| hearing, and Congressman Chris Smith and Congressmember Karen | |
| Bass for introducing House Resolution 128 on Ethiopia. | |
| I am here today representing the Torture Abolition and | |
| Survivors Support Coalition, TASSC. TASSC is a small | |
| organization in Washington DC that services to more than 300 | |
| torture survivors a year, mostly from Africa. Two-thirds of | |
| TASSC survivors are from Ethiopia. They were brutally tortured | |
| and raped for criticizing the government, refusing to join the | |
| ruling party, exposing government corruption, or participating | |
| in a peaceful demonstration. | |
| This is my story. After I contracted polio at age three, my | |
| father decided I needed an education to survive. He sent me to | |
| an orphanage in Addis Ababa where I completed high school. I | |
| graduated at the top of my class and then became the first | |
| student in a wheelchair to enroll at Addis Ababa University. | |
| The students used to call me the ``wheelchair man.'' | |
| There was and still is lots of prejudice against disabled | |
| people in Ethiopia. But since I was very young, I decided to | |
| fight for my rights instead of feeling sorry for myself. I | |
| became an activist for disability rights and then general | |
| manager of the National Association of the Physically | |
| Handicapped, a job I held for 7 years. Because I was a leader | |
| of such a large independent organization, the ruling party, the | |
| Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, or EPRDF, | |
| wanted to control and manipulate me. It tried to force me to | |
| tell the media and the community what a great job the party was | |
| doing for disabled people. But this was not true. | |
| I remember one time before the 2005 election, government | |
| cadres took wheelchairs donated by the United States, Sweden, | |
| and The Netherlands had donated and put them on a truck. They | |
| drove the truck through the city telling people the wheelchairs | |
| were a ``gift'' from the ruling party and about how the party | |
| helped disabled people. But it was all a big lie. The | |
| government did nothing for us. It was America and the other | |
| foreign donors who helped us. | |
| The government became much more repressive, especially in | |
| Addis Ababa, after losing the 2005 election. Cadres started | |
| attacking anyone who criticized the government. In many | |
| neighborhoods, commandos called the Agazi invaded people's | |
| homes and dragged the men to hidden prisons. The Agazi | |
| threatened the women, saying their husbands and children would | |
| be killed if the women did not have sex with the Agazi. These | |
| Agazi are not part of the police or army, they are special | |
| forces trained to be killing machines. | |
| I was detained a total of nine times for refusing to | |
| participate in activities to promote the ruling party. In 2007, | |
| security forces abducted me in a van and took me to a jungle | |
| about 25 kilometers from Addis Ababa. They threw me and my | |
| wheelchair out of the van, breaking one of my fingers and badly | |
| bruising my shoulders. They thought I would be killed and eaten | |
| by hyenas, since they threw me in a place with lots of hyenas. | |
| I made a fire from dry grass using my lighter, local families | |
| from the Oromo ethnic group found and rescued me. | |
| In 2010, I was arrested again by security forces in a taxi. | |
| The driver punched me in my mouth with his pistol and I lost my | |
| two lower teeth. They kept me for 3 days in solitary | |
| confinement in a tiny dark cell. My hands were tied to a chair | |
| and my mouth was wrapped up with dirty wet socks and I had to | |
| crawl on the ground outside to get to the toilet outside my | |
| cell. Friends and board members of my association convinced | |
| them to finally release me. | |
| The government wanted me to go into exile instead of | |
| killing me because then I would have become a martyr for people | |
| with disabilities. | |
| In 2013, I did leave Ethiopia to save my life and then in | |
| 2014, I was granted asylum. I am now living in Joseph's House | |
| in Washington, DC, and hope to study computer science at the | |
| university. I would like to conclude my testimony with some | |
| recommendations. | |
| First, House Resolution 128 refers to the Global Magnitsky | |
| Human Rights Accountability Act which calls on the United | |
| States Government to punish individuals or entities responsible | |
| for killings, torture, and other gross violations of human | |
| rights. The Magnitsky Act should be applied to leaders of the | |
| Agazi killing machine and the security forces guilty of | |
| terrible human rights abuses. | |
| Second, House Resolution 128 also calls for better | |
| oversight and accountability of U.S. assistance to Ethiopia. | |
| People need this aid, especially to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS | |
| and other diseases, improve education, and combat food | |
| insecurity. But the government divers far too much of this aid | |
| for political purposes, to promote the ruling party and to pay | |
| off government supporters. There needs to be a stronger | |
| monitoring mechanism to ensure American funds are used wisely, | |
| not to strengthen Ethiopia's one party ethnic dictatorship. | |
| Also, in certain regions, women from the Amhara ethnic group | |
| are being possibly sterilized in government hospitals to reduce | |
| the Amhara population. USAID should investigate to see if any | |
| of these forced sterilizations are being carried out in | |
| hospitals supported by the U.S. assistance. | |
| Third, please, ask Mr. Girma Birru, Ethiopia's Ambassador | |
| to the United States, to tell his government to immediately | |
| stop harassing the families of tortured survivors and the other | |
| Ethiopians in the United States. Many TASSC survivors are upset | |
| because the government began harassing their families in | |
| Ethiopia after they fled the country. | |
| Thank you for listening to my testimony. I hope the | |
| Ethiopian Government will pay attention to this hearing and | |
| change its policies and that the U.S. Congress will be watching | |
| closely to see whether Ethiopia makes any specific and concrete | |
| changes after this hearing. Thank you. | |
| [The prepared statement of Mr. Deki follows:] | |
| [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT] | |
| ---------- | |
| Mr. Donovan. Thank you for sharing your experience with us, | |
| Mr. Deki. | |
| Each member of the subcommittee will be allowed 5 minutes | |
| to ask questions. I now recognize myself for 5 minutes. I would | |
| like to begin by congratulating and recognizing the great work | |
| of Chairman Chris Smith and my good friend, Karen Bass from | |
| California, on House Resolution 128. That is a starting point. | |
| What I would like to use my 5 minutes up with is to ask you | |
| each just to describe for 1 minute aside from the House | |
| Resolution, what do you think the United States can do to help | |
| Ethiopia and their efforts for a better democracy? | |
| Ms. Jimjimo. First, the U.S. has a lot of opportunity to | |
| negotiate and talk to the Ethiopian Government because they | |
| receive millions of aid from the U.S. and not only the aid that | |
| comes from here, but the influence of other governments whether | |
| the European Government or Asian, other governments. But they | |
| have a leverage to influence the whole entire world, how they | |
| operate with the Ethiopian Government. | |
| So what they need to do, I think, is the U.S. can, should | |
| pressure the Ethiopian Government to open up--first they should | |
| release all political prisoners without any precondition. Lift | |
| the state of emergency because what is happening under the | |
| state of emergency that people cannot record any video. People | |
| cannot be seen walking together. So they go house to house | |
| killing people and lift the state of emergency and allow | |
| journalists, not just even Ethiopian journalists, but | |
| international community, such as what the U.N. asked last year | |
| for independent investigation. For that to happen, they need to | |
| force and allow, actually, demand that they do a lot of those | |
| independent investigations to take place of all those killings. | |
| The killing is not being reported. | |
| And another thing is the U.S. does give a lot of money. | |
| That money should come with a lot of accountability. For | |
| example, the question that was asked earlier, U.S. gives | |
| millions of dollars and is that money going to certain people | |
| even if it is going to a small amount of people. The vast | |
| majority of that money is being used even if it goes to the | |
| people, it goes to the people through only government channel | |
| with you support me, you do this, or you vote for me or you do | |
| something for me, then you get this fertilizer, you get this | |
| kind of aid. So make sure those civic organizations actually do | |
| exist and the new proclamation system they have is like | |
| everything is through government. There is no NGO or | |
| independent organization that is operating independently | |
| outside of Ethiopia, even the international organizations. | |
| So the U.S. has huge leverage. They should use this | |
| leverage to open up the political space, request the release of | |
| political prisoners, lift the state of emergency and above all, | |
| I think it is time that Ethiopia should not continue to be | |
| ruled with the one party, even though they fake federalism, | |
| that does not actually exist. But that is what I think should | |
| happen. | |
| [Additional information follows:] | |
| Additional Written Response Received from Ms. Seenaa Jimjimo to | |
| Question Asked During the Hearing by the Honorable Daniel Donovan | |
| The Ethiopian regime is a one-party state that has been in power | |
| for the past 26 years. The Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic | |
| Front (EPRDF) controls 100% of the political space at all levels-- | |
| local, regional and state, plus the legislative, executive, judiciary | |
| and security apparatus of the country while the majority of the people | |
| of Ethiopia, particularly in Oromia and Amhara states, which add up to | |
| at least 60% the entire population, has rejected the regime. Hence, the | |
| State of Emergency to control a large swath of the country by direct | |
| military command posts. | |
| Lack of tolerance by the EPRDF for multiparty democracy is the | |
| leading obstacle to the opportunity for democratic tradition taking | |
| root in Ethiopia. EPRDF on its owe will never open up the political | |
| space in Ethiopia without either outside pressure or inside turmoil. We | |
| have seen this since the 2005 election, at which point the EPRDF | |
| experimented with democracy and seen the outcome, which was not | |
| favorable to EPRDF, and since closed the democratic avenues firmly, by | |
| passing laws that effectively bans civic societies and independent | |
| political parties. | |
| The current situation in Ethiopia is a clear recipe for a | |
| devastating instability in the Horn of Africa unless stopped--a region | |
| already troubled by civil wars, failed states, famine, extremism and | |
| other natural disasters. Therefore, in addition to already introduced | |
| H. Res. 128, the United States government should consider the following | |
| options in order to give democracy a chance in Ethiopia: | |
| A. Since, the second largest regional state--Amhara regional state | |
| has joined Oromia in resisting EPRDF rule, the United States policy | |
| towards Ethiopia has to show a paradigm shift i.e. recognize Oromia | |
| political actors as the future of Ethiopia in regards to betterment of | |
| the efforts of the people of Ethiopia for democracy. | |
| B. The United States should provide tangible efforts such as | |
| training, diplomatic, financial and other support to start dialog with | |
| opposition party that represent constituent not the one the government | |
| creates at free will when they deem necessary to confuse/manipulate the | |
| international community. | |
| C. Insist for immediate access to Ethiopia by the UN human rights | |
| rapporteur to conduct an independent investigation into the Ethiopian | |
| state brutality against peaceful demonstration in Oromia, Amhara, | |
| Gambela and other regional states. | |
| D. Demand the immediate release of tens of thousands of political | |
| prisons in Ethiopia, including prominent democratic leaders such as | |
| Mr.Bekle Gerba, Dr. Merera Gudina, federal judge Wabe Jarso, highly | |
| respected elder and lawyer Mr. Dekeba Wario and highly respected | |
| historian, thinker and cultural guru Dabasa Guyo, journalist, and all | |
| other political prisoners in the country. | |
| E. Accept the fact that EPRDF had 26 long years to improve | |
| democracy in Ethiopia and failed or has shown no interest in listening | |
| to the United States in this regards. So, the United States should | |
| consider a new policy vis-a-vis the democratic transition of power in | |
| Ethiopia. In this regards, it may pay off to sponsor a research project | |
| that can objectively study the possibilities for nurturing effective | |
| opposition or alternative political force/s that is/are able to replace | |
| the EPRDF and make recommendations to the United States government who | |
| should be supported. | |
| F. The United States remains among the largest donors to Ethiopia. | |
| The United State development assistance to Ethiopia focuses on reducing | |
| famine vulnerability, hunger, and poverty and emphasizes economic, | |
| governance, and social sector policy reforms. Moreover, as a strategic | |
| United States alliance in war against terrorism, Ethiopia also receives | |
| large sums of money and technical aid towards its military and | |
| intelligence capability. The EPRDF uses money from aid given to the | |
| Ethiopian regime for total domination and favoring its own supporters | |
| as a means to remain in power. Hence, the United States must give aid | |
| money and assistance directly to local and international non- | |
| governmental organizations to deliver to the people in need of | |
| assistance rather than funding a corrupt regime. | |
| Mr. Donovan. Thank you very much. Mr. Tirfe, I know you | |
| said you had 14 points. If you could just summarize what they | |
| are. You didn't think I was listening, did you? | |
| Mr. Tirfe. I guess you did listen. Thank you for that. And | |
| thank you for your question. I won't repeat what Seenaa said, | |
| so to echo what she said, the U.S. does have a lot of leverage. | |
| Ethiopian Government, the TPLF government mainly is heavily | |
| dependent on foreign aid. So that foreign aid can be used to | |
| open up some things within Ethiopia to allow the political | |
| space and other civic organizations to operate. So not just the | |
| foreign aid that comes from America, but also from our allies. | |
| But America can lead that effort. | |
| One of the things that is really concerning to us is to | |
| allow for an international, independent and transparent | |
| investigation into the cost of 2\1/2\ million to 5 million | |
| missing Amharas. As he has just stated, that there is a belief | |
| that there is a forced sterilization effort of Amhara women | |
| that has been taken place to depopulate the Amhara population. | |
| We cannot know that unless there is an independent | |
| investigation that happens there. And there is a belief that | |
| there is a silent genocide that is occurring now amongst the | |
| Amhara population. | |
| Also, we need a push to allow for international independent | |
| transparent investigation into all the deaths caused by the | |
| Ethiopian security forces and other human rights violations and | |
| hold those responsible accountable. | |
| Mr. Donovan. Thank you. I only have 30 seconds left. I need | |
| to let these two gentlemen speak. Thank you. | |
| Mr. Tirfe. Sure. | |
| Mr. Donovan. Thank you and we will review every one of | |
| those 14 points. I promise you. | |
| Mr. Tirfe. And I will follow up. | |
| Mr. Donovan. Thank you. Mr. Tafari. | |
| Mr. Tafari. How many seconds do I have? | |
| Mr. Donovan. Fourteen now, but go ahead. | |
| Mr. Tafari. Well, in that case, I will just state one. | |
| Immediate hold of direct foreign aid to the Ethiopian | |
| Government, especially direct budgetary assistance, and all | |
| humanitarian assistance should be applied to a direct | |
| humanitarian organization on the ground, preferably the United | |
| Nations' World Food Programme. | |
| Mr. Donovan. Thank you, sir. Mr. Deki, do you have any | |
| recommendations to the United States? | |
| Mr. Deki. I would say if United States doesn't give due | |
| recognition for this dictatorship as elected government so that | |
| they cannot use this political support or recognition to harm | |
| the people back home. So United States should scrutinize that. | |
| The minority represented party cannot be elected 100 percent. | |
| Therefore, the United States, the first and most important to | |
| just denying political recognition. Thank you. | |
| Mr. Donovan. Thank you, sir. And thank you again for | |
| sharing your story with us. And best of luck with your studies. | |
| The chair now recognizes my friend from California, the | |
| ranking member of the subcommittee, Karen Bass. | |
| Ms. Bass. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So I wanted to ask a few | |
| questions. I mentioned in the first panel that a reference was | |
| made to a letter from the Embassy of Ethiopia, but Chairman | |
| Smith says it is a from a consulting firm that was paid a hefty | |
| amount of money, $1.8 million, he presumes. But I want to raise | |
| several of the things that are mentioned in their letter. | |
| If I cut you off, it is only because I have limited time | |
| and so I want everybody to have an opportunity to respond. | |
| So one of the things it is said in this letter is that it | |
| is not that the EPRDF controls all of the seats in Parliament. | |
| They control 500 out of 546. And that there are 46 seats that | |
| are controlled by other parties. So I want to know is that | |
| true, yes or no? | |
| Ms. Jimjimo. The short is that is not true because even if | |
| those 46 persons, these people are 100 percent controlled by | |
| EPRDF in every aspect of the government. | |
| [Additional information follows:] | |
| Additional Written Response Received from Ms. Seenaa Jimjimo to | |
| Question Asked During the Hearing by the Honorable Karen Bass | |
| In order to answer this question one needs to understand what EPRDF | |
| is. The EPRDF is an alliance of four parties: the TPLF based in the | |
| Tigray Region; the OPDO, which is based in the Oromia Region; the ANDM | |
| based in the Amhara Region; and the SEPDF based in the Southern | |
| Nations. Nationalities, and People's Region. This alliance won 500 | |
| seats in the national parliament. | |
| The OPDO, ANDM, and SEPDF are surrogate organizations controlling | |
| their respective regions for the TPLF. Now, the TPLF has also created | |
| surrogate organizations (although not formally part of the EPRDF | |
| alliance) for the rest of the regions: SPDP in Somali Region; BGPDP in | |
| Benishangul Gumuz Region; ANDP in Afar Region, GPDM in Gambela Region; | |
| APDO in Argoba Region; and HNL in Hareri Region. These surrogate | |
| organisations created by TPLF won 47 seats. | |
| [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT] | |
| Map of Ethiopia's regional states | |
| Although the EPRDF alleges that it won 500 out of 547 seats, I | |
| reality the EPRDF controls 100% the seats through its surrogate | |
| parties. | |
| Time and again they have openly and proudly have bragged about | |
| winning 100% of the seats. In addition, United State national security | |
| advisory Susan Rice said they won by 100% at press statement on July | |
| 22, 2015. In fact, whether EPRDF controls 100% or 90% of the so-called | |
| parliamentary seats is academic as on the ground the EPRDF controls the | |
| entire economic, social and political lives of people in Ethiopia. | |
| Ms. Bass. Okay, the second question is that there has been | |
| a halt to the moving of people off the land, that that has been | |
| halted; that the plans to incorporate farm land around Addis | |
| Ababa were on hold. Is this still the case? Has there been any | |
| seizure of land taking place elsewhere in the country? Mr. | |
| Tirfe? | |
| Mr. Tirfe. I mean right now, Representative Bass, Ethiopia | |
| is under a state of emergency and so to know what is going on | |
| in terms of moving people outside of their land is very | |
| difficult. But one thing that we do know, the Amharas in the | |
| Wolkite region are being moved out of their land and in fact, | |
| because out of fear, their own, themselves, they are moving. | |
| They are leaving that area into safer regions and many are | |
| escaping to neighboring countries. | |
| [A written response follows:] | |
| Written Response Received from Ms. Seenaa Jimjimo to Question Asked | |
| During the Hearing by the Honorable Karen Bass | |
| No, the expansion of the capital and displacing Oromo farmers is | |
| not halted. It is true that the Ethiopian regime was forced to announce | |
| that it will abandon the plan for the expansion of the capital in | |
| January 2016, after two months of protests by the Oromo people who have | |
| complained about the handling of the expansion into their land. | |
| However, the regime has announced a renewal of the expansion known as | |
| the 'Master Plan' and the formation of a special committee that will | |
| have an oversight of the removal of 20,000 Oromo households (estimated | |
| 100,000 people) from areas surrounding the capital, according to a | |
| special broadcast on Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC) | |
| television, on 13 December 2016. After this was announced, the Oromo | |
| people would have been back on the streets demonstrating against the | |
| renewed expansion of the capital had it not been for the State of | |
| Emergency and the military command posts all over Oromia. | |
| The scale of the so called 'integrated zone' covered in the plan | |
| for the expansion of the capital ('Master Plan') needs to be | |
| understood. The plan for expansion in the plan includes a 1.1m hectare | |
| strip of land around the city, outside the current municipal | |
| boundaries. A glance at the map shows the expansion of Addis Ababa | |
| would have neatly bisect Oromia. | |
| [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT] | |
| It is my understanding that the regime is determined to implement | |
| the expansion of the capital into Oromo land for the purpose of ethnic | |
| cleansing rather than a natural development of the capital. In so many | |
| town planning experts' opinions the capital must grow upwards rather | |
| than into the villages and small towns in the vicinity with all its | |
| disastrous consequences for human life and the environment. | |
| Furthermore, it is important to remember the behavior of this | |
| government. Like other policies they announce time and again they will | |
| only change the name and tactic not actually address the root issue. In | |
| the case of 'Master Plan', not only did they made the same statement of | |
| halt in 2014 but also the party leaders like Abay Tsahaye have said it | |
| out in open on the national TV that the plan will be implement one way | |
| or the others. Therefore, they cannot be trusted or their word cannot | |
| be taken literally because of ... | |
| [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT] | |
| EBC TV programme 13 Dec 2016 (screenshot) | |
| Ms. Bass. Okay, the ruling party has said that they are | |
| embarking on a dialogue and a negotiation with 22 opposition | |
| parties. The dialogue and consultations will include a | |
| discussion on amending the election laws and encouraging the | |
| participation on different voices in Parliament. Mr. Tafari? | |
| Mr. Tafari. The history of TPLF, the EPRDF is woeful in | |
| terms of having to cooperate and work with any opposition | |
| group, with anyone. | |
| [A written response follows:] | |
| Written Response Received from Ms. Seenaa Jimjimo to Question Asked | |
| During the Hearing by the Honorable Karen Bass | |
| To begin with only three are truly opposition groups while 19 | |
| others are simply created by government. Second, as of now the single | |
| largest opposition party, Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC) have formal | |
| withdrawn. Third, if the opposition parties' leaders are in jail who | |
| are they negotiating with? In fact, on the latest interview by the | |
| largest option party, MEDREK leader Prof. Beyene Petros (an umbra | |
| organization that represent several different option, Oromo Federalist | |
| Congress, Sidama Liberation Front, Union of Tigreans for Democracy and | |
| Sovereignty and the Ethiopian Social Democracy--Southern Ethiopian | |
| people Democratic Union) said there is no point without of staying on | |
| table if our demand were not met. According to him the PM . . . seem to | |
| walk back on something he promised the party leader. To be frank to | |
| expect this negotiation will be fruitful is totally absurd because | |
| these so-called opposition parties know if they do not accept they will | |
| be arrested or worse killed or pushed to exile. | |
| Ms. Bass. Is there a dialogue that is taking place? | |
| Mr. Tafari. There is, but all we have to do is go back 40 | |
| years of their history to see how we see these type of | |
| dialogues would come to a real fruition. | |
| Ms. Bass. Okay. Measures were taken on the government | |
| officials who were engaged in corrupt practices and some were | |
| removed from office and the legal process is underway. Mr. | |
| Deki? | |
| Mr. Deki. This is a big lie. The TPLF is known by its big | |
| lie. | |
| Ms. Bass. Go ahead. | |
| Mr. Deki. I would like to remember the past history of TPLF | |
| which says we can negotiate just below the sun. Everything then | |
| after just starting the negotiation and the opposition parties | |
| came to the table, then the facilitator is changed from the | |
| Prime Minister and then it is forgotten. They are killing | |
| people like that. They are very much well versed in this | |
| manipulation. | |
| [A written response follows:] | |
| Written Response Received from Ms. Seenaa Jimjimo to Question Asked | |
| During the Hearing by the Honorable Karen Bass | |
| Nothing is far from this or the truth in this regard. This sort of | |
| shenanigan by the regime is not new. They regime has been engaged in | |
| 'removing corrupt officials' since the mid 1990 starting from the | |
| removal of the then prime minister Mr. Tamrat Layne (removed from | |
| office on charge of corruption in 1995). The fact is the real corrupt | |
| inner TPLF circle is never removed. The ruling elite uses corruption as | |
| a pretext to get rid of opponents and non-loyal officials. They had two | |
| decades to stump out corruption, but nothing seems working. If | |
| anything, corruption is getting worse by the day. For instance, | |
| according to Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index, | |
| Ethiopia ranks 103 out of 168 countries and territories included in | |
| 2015 index [https://www.transparency.org/cpi2015]. | |
| Moreover, in the case of recent 2016 Oromo Protests, there is no | |
| single individual brought to court or announced to public they were | |
| removed from office either for corruption or violating/ excessive use | |
| of force that killed hundreds by government admission. If the rotation | |
| or reshuffling of the Oromia president or few high officials is/can be | |
| considered the government is addressing corruption than these people | |
| are only placed in different position. How is rotating or reshuffling | |
| can be/should be considered as addressing corruption? If not government | |
| need to show or name a single individual who lost his/her job because | |
| of corruption or killing hundreds of unarmed protests. | |
| Ms. Bass. So going back to what I was referring to in the | |
| past about the elections in 2015, there were a number of | |
| televised debates during which all sorts of political issues | |
| were voiced and argued between the candidates. Back to Ms. | |
| Jimjimo. | |
| Mr. Tirfe. Can you repeat the question, Representative | |
| Bass? | |
| Ms. Bass. Sure. In the last election, there were numerous | |
| televised debates during which all sorts of political issues | |
| were voiced and argued between the candidates. This is in | |
| contrast to the notion that there has been diminished political | |
| space. | |
| [A written response follows:] | |
| Written Response Received from Ms. Seenaa Jimjimo to Question Asked | |
| During the Hearing by the Honorable Karen Bass | |
| First, even during televised debate the opposition parties were | |
| given only limited time whereas the EPRDF was given as much time as it | |
| liked. Second, right after televised debate where Mr. Bekele Gerba gave | |
| influential statement he was given ultimatum, warning and physical | |
| abuse by the EPRDF security agents for speaking what he believed and | |
| forthright. Hence, the debate was nothing more than a facfade that the | |
| EPRDF used for tricking donors and the international community. The | |
| people of Ethiopia are forced to vote for the EPRDF not because the | |
| EPRDF was better at debate but rather uses underhand techniques of | |
| controlling the population for people voting for the opposition parties | |
| are not entitled to employment, food aid, land or any rights that the | |
| people who grudgingly vote for EPRDF. | |
| Therefore, what is the purpose of televised debate when there is no | |
| fair or free election where international observers are not present? | |
| Moreover, could quasi debate whereby individuals know what they say | |
| on that stage will be used against them as 'plan to terrorize or | |
| overthrow government' be a real indicator for open and free debate let | |
| alone ground for fair election? How come those who spoke against the | |
| policy of the government are relinquishing in jail? How come opposition | |
| leader Mr. Gerba sits in jail with terrorism charge while his party is | |
| not labeled as such or sits in jail for over 14 months without | |
| government haven to provide his link or action to terrorism? To | |
| governments' admission over 28,000 people were arrested since the State | |
| of Emergency'' and what are the crimes of those individuals beside | |
| taken part in peaceful rally to express their grievance? In what | |
| nation, can a government impose such restriction in social media, | |
| arrested thousands of people without justification, implement state of | |
| martial law simply to control dissent and continue to intimidate | |
| citizen while receiving unconditional support to which millions end up | |
| in military training to kill, arrest and abuse citizen? When should the | |
| international community say enough that a country that received 30 | |
| billion in aid and stole 30 billion (Steinan) https://www.forbes.com/ | |
| sites/realspin/2017/03/03/ethiopias-cruel-con-game/#17e5352b29d0, | |
| refused UN request and ignore US continues concern statement? When or | |
| where is the red line for Ethiopian government? | |
| Mr. Tirfe. Representative Bass, the TPLF-led political | |
| party won 100 percent of all parliamentarian seats in 2015. | |
| Ms. Bass. They won 500 out of 546. | |
| Mr. Tirfe. One hundred percent and the regional seats, 100 | |
| percent also. So imagine the Democratic or Republican party | |
| winning all of Congress, as well as the governors and---- | |
| Ms. Bass. Depending on which party you are in. | |
| Mr. Tirfe. Right. I know many of us refer to 2015, but if | |
| we go back to the 2005 election, they won 99.99 percent of all | |
| the parliamentarian seats. | |
| Ms. Bass. I think the point of the letter was to show that | |
| some progress had been made and so that was the question. | |
| Mr. Tirfe. No, because we went from 2005 election where | |
| there was one opposing member in Parliament to in 2015, there | |
| is none. They won 100 percent. | |
| Ms. Bass. Thank you. | |
| Ms. Jimjimo. I would like to just answer that. The thing is | |
| they have arrested all liable, all actual opposition parties. | |
| They are in jail. So they create their own party and they bring | |
| 22 parties. There is no dominant or a voice that is talking to | |
| them. They created, they make up and then they call is a | |
| negotiation. I just wanted to add that. | |
| Ms. Bass. Thank you. I yield back my time. | |
| Mr. Donovan. The chair recognizes for 10 seconds because he | |
| has to leave for somewhere else. Actually, it is Mr. | |
| Rohrabacher's time, but the chair is going to recognize Mr. | |
| Suozzi for 10 seconds. | |
| Mr. Suozzi. I just want to thank all of you because I know | |
| how difficult it was for you to get here and prepare for this | |
| today. I apologize that I can't stay, but thank you very much. | |
| [Speaking foreign language.] Thank you very much. | |
| Mr. Donovan. We had to allow him to show you that he | |
| studied before the hearing. The chair now recognizes my friend | |
| from California, Mr. Rohrabacher. | |
| Mr. Rohrabacher. First and foremost, I would like to thank | |
| the witnesses for coming here and to putting yourselves in a | |
| public place on the record, when you were dealing with a brutal | |
| regime that you have no idea whether or not you will face | |
| retaliation. So thank you for having the courage and thank you | |
| for your patriotism to your country of Ethiopia. | |
| And frankly, I believe all those people who believe in | |
| honest government, all those people who believe in honest | |
| elections and representative government are all basically | |
| Americans at heart. So your fellow Americans who share those | |
| values wish you well. | |
| I want to thank Chris Smith as the chairman of this | |
| subcommittee. I believe the fact that he has put this hearing | |
| together, he has been unrelenting in his efforts to expand | |
| freedom and respect for the dignity of individuals around this | |
| world. And nowhere is that message of Chris Smith more | |
| important than in Ethiopia. | |
| And let me just say that I think it is disgraceful, | |
| especially after the election of 2005 where it was clearly a | |
| loss of ruling party and then we end up with understanding that | |
| a--I don't know what I want to describe it as--an offensive | |
| after the election with military equipment spreads out | |
| throughout the country of Ethiopia and the people of Ethiopia | |
| begin feeling oppression immediately after a supposed free | |
| election. And the worst part of that is that these people who | |
| were out there in their uniforms have American weapons that | |
| they were using to repress their own people. | |
| I believe there has to be some level that we Americans | |
| have, if indeed we do share, if we really are soul mates with | |
| people who love freedom around the world, at the very least, we | |
| should say that corrupt regimes that utilize weapon systems | |
| from the United States to repress their own people will be not | |
| be provided those weapons. So I would renew that today. It is | |
| time to eliminate Ethiopia from its ability to purchase and to | |
| obtain United States weapons. | |
| Okay, so what is the result of all of this? What is going | |
| on? The result of this is you have repression, political | |
| repression. How does it manifest itself? Twenty percent of the | |
| people of Ethiopia are hungry. They are starving. This is | |
| outrageous. This is a country that has every ability to feed | |
| itself if it had honest government and instead, you have a | |
| small clique running Ethiopia and we have heard the testimony | |
| today. A small clique that is corrupt and brutal and the | |
| product of that raping of that country, the product of that is | |
| not only repression, but misery and hunger for a larger | |
| percentage of its people. | |
| It is disgraceful and it is time for the United States--I | |
| understand during this whole war against radical Islam and we | |
| have been at war with radical Islam because they are at war | |
| with us, radical Islamist terrorists want to hurt the United | |
| States. We have used that as an excuse to form a relationship | |
| with a horrible regime. | |
| I have to ask you now if we didn't support this government | |
| in Ethiopia that says it is helping us with radical Islamic | |
| terrorists, wouldn't just regular people and a really honestly | |
| elected government be against radical Islamist terrorism? There | |
| you go. | |
| Now let me let you know how I understand, how I came to | |
| understand this issue. I am a surfer out in California. That is | |
| what I do. I am a surfer. I couldn't help but notice that there | |
| was a black surfer who was with me out in the water. So one of | |
| the few black surfers in California is Petros Berhane who comes | |
| from Ethiopia and became one of my best friends. And his family | |
| owned a major distillery in Addis Ababa and when the communists | |
| took over, they left, they fled and his family are now U.S. | |
| citizens, proud U.S. citizens. | |
| Anyway, he told me about the plight of his family. And | |
| after the communists left, they were supposed to get back the | |
| distillery. All of the property that was illegally confiscated | |
| was supposed to be given back by the current ruling clique. But | |
| instead the current ruling clique found out that his distillery | |
| had actually been making money and so they are not getting back | |
| their distillery. | |
| And the reason I am telling you this is because I have been | |
| a Member of Congress here for a number of years. I am a senior | |
| member, so I have been working for my--he is my surfing buddy, | |
| but he is also my constituent who I am watching out for his | |
| needs. And I was demanding that the Ethiopian Government, if | |
| they are not going to give back that distillery at least give | |
| him some compensation for taking the distillery. Well, the | |
| government there has been so arrogant they refused to even | |
| consider any type of compensation. | |
| I had the Overseas Private Investment Corporation do an | |
| analysis to make sure that that claim was a legitimate claim. | |
| And they came back and they said yes, we find the fact that the | |
| Berhane family honestly owns that and they should be given some | |
| compensation for it. Well, I said okay. There is going to be no | |
| loans guaranteed through the Overseas Private Investment | |
| Corporation to Ethiopia until they treat this American citizen | |
| right and do justice by him. All of these years now, it has | |
| been over 10 years, maybe 15 years. The Government of Ethiopia | |
| is so arrogant, or also may be making money from the distillery | |
| themselves, that they were willing to sacrifice the well-being | |
| of the people of Ethiopia in order not to pay any just | |
| compensation to a man whose distillery had been illegally | |
| confiscated. | |
| Now if you just take Petros out of the picture and you just | |
| say these people who are heading that government do not care | |
| anything enough about their people because all these | |
| investments which we would have been involved with helping | |
| bringing jobs and money and wealth to the people, they rejected | |
| that because they themselves were not going to necessarily | |
| benefit from it as compared to owning that distillery or | |
| whatever they are getting from that distillery. So if we have a | |
| government that cares that little about their own people, a | |
| government that basically represents a very small minority of | |
| people in Ethiopia and we are providing that small clique, that | |
| corrupt and brutal clique, it is time for the United States to | |
| step up and say we made a mistake by going down the road with | |
| that clique of people. We should be friends with the overall | |
| population of Ethiopia and not just that clique. That would | |
| serve America's interests as well as the people of Ethiopia. | |
| Mr. Donovan. I would like to ask our guests to respect to | |
| decorum of the chamber. Thank you, Member Rohrabacher. | |
| This concludes the testimony and the questions of the | |
| members of the hearing. I remind everyone that the record of | |
| the hearing will remain open for 10 days. Many of the members | |
| may have other questions they may want to submit during that | |
| 10-day period. We that all of you submit your answers to those | |
| questions in writing. I thank you all for appearing today. I | |
| thank you for your testimony. | |
| Again, Mr. Deki, I thank you for sharing your experiences | |
| with all of us. | |
| The Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human | |
| Rights, and International Organizations is now adjourned. | |
| [Whereupon, at 4:40 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.] | |
| A P P E N D I X | |
| ---------- | |
| Material Submitted for the Record | |
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| [all] | |
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