ESAT News (October 12, 2016)
The editorial board of the Washington Post on Tuesday urged the United States and Europe to directly address the repression in Ethiopia by the TPLF regime.
“Ethiopia’s rulers have redoubled a repressive policy that is failing. Instead of looking for ways to alleviate the pent-up frustrations of the ethnic Oromo and Amhara populations that spilled out in demonstrations over the past 11 months, Ethiopia’s authorities on Sunday announced a six-month state of emergency, allowing the deployment of troops and bans on demonstrations,” the paper said in a scathing editorial.
The editorial, “Ethiopia meets protests with bullets”, said the crises in Ethiopia shouldn’t be pushed to the back burner.
“Ethiopia’s human rights abuses and political repression must be addressed frontally by the United States and Europe, no longer shunted to the back burner because of cooperation fighting terrorism.”
It said these superpowers need to stop the excuses of fighting terrorism and stop the brutal regime that is terrorising its own people.
Declaring the state of emergence, the regime in Ethiopia is applying a brutal method to suppress the growing uprising, the editorial noted.
According to the paper, the regime was bent on taking repressive measures “instead of looking for ways to alleviate the pent-up frustrations of the ethnic Oromo and Amhara populations that spilled out in demonstrations over the past 11 months.” But allowing the deployment of troops and bans on demonstrations, makes things worse, it cautioned.
“Already, rights have been severely restricted; the state of emergency will bottle up the pressures even more, increasing the likelihood they will explode anew.”
The paper described the Bishoftu massacre where hundreds of festival goers killed at a religious ceremony a week ago as “tragic and emblematic of the government’s wrongheaded use of force.”
The Washington Post editorial that recalled the blame game played by the regime accusing opposition groups and neighboring countries for the unrest in the country said “attempts to point to foes abroad masks the truth that unrest is being fueled by a deep sense of anger at home.”
“With the state of emergency, Ethiopia’s leaders are borrowing a brutal and counterproductive tactic from dictators the world over who have tried to put a cork in genuine popular dissent. It won’t work,” the editorial further noted.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-posts-view/