Addis Ababa, December 15, 2021 (Walta) –The Biden Administration’s recent sanctions on Ethiopia deviate from the United Nations Charter of the equality of sovereign states, experts in the area said, affirming that the world is against such unilateral coercive sanctions of the U.S.
Addressing a webinar meeting hosted by the Ethiopian American Civic Council (EACC) and Sanctions Kill, the international criminal law expert John Philpot stated that sanctions that the U.S. government has imposed against Ethiopia and other developing nations are in contrast to international laws. The expert further indicated that his organization, Sanctions Kill, sent a report to the Biden Administration objecting to the sanction on Ethiopia.
Noting different countries including Iran, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Syria, Lebanon, and North Korea are suffering greatly as a result of the U.S. sanctions, Philpot expressed the desire of his organization to make the same not happen in Ethiopia. Sanctions Kill’s report underlined that the U.S. sanctions are violating the United Nations’ Charter of the sovereign equality of all member states.
“Big countries and institutions including the U.S. or EU cannot interfere in the internal affairs of Ethiopia or try to impose a change in the government or a policy. That is illegal.” In December 2020, the UN General Assembly voted in Resolution 75/181 rejecting resolution of human rights and unilateral coercive measures by 70 percent against, in a clear manifestation of the world is against sanctions.
Last December, the UN General Assembly voted in Resolution 75/181 rejecting the resolution of human rights and unilateral coercive measures by 70 percent which showcased the world is against sanctions.
As to him, the U.S. wishes to dismantle independent-minded countries that defied its hegemonic tendencies and its officials are also indifferent about human rights violations. Accordingly, the Biden Administration was uninterested in taking punitive measures on the TPLF for crimes the latter committed against civilian populations of the Amhara and Afar states and for the looting of aid foods.
EACC Chairperson Deacon Yosef Teferi said for his part that successive U.S. governments employed the sanction card on developing countries particularly Africa. “Aid is being used and sanction is in the same way. I remember that Ambassador Samantha Power, USAID Administrator, said she will use all the power of USAID to combat and fight China.”
The chairperson further highlighted President Joe Biden’s failure to keep his words to impose sanctions on the rebellious TPLF for expanding the conflict to Amhara and Afar states and summarily executing civilian populations. “We would like to see the Global Magnitsky Act come into play,” Yosef called on the Biden Administration to sanction the terrorist TPLF leaders and to dig out treasures they looted from Ethiopia while they were in power for 27-years.
For an independent researcher Ann Garrison, the alleged ‘Tigray genocide’ is a false narrative that surfaced almost as soon as the TPLF forces attacked federal troops stationed in Tigray. “The word genocide is now so overused, that it lacks impact.”
According to EPA, Garrison stressed that the UN Security Council is supposed to pass a resolution that effectively stops genocide, but it is not going to do that.
The U.S. keeps talking about ‘Tigray genocide’ and designating what is going on in Ethiopia as genocide to trigger a military response per the international law, she elaborated.