The Politicized “Human Rights Campaign” against Ethiopia! (1)
The Politicized “Human Rights Campaign” against Ethiopia! (1)
By\ Mekki Elmograbi
A proverb helped me to understand the controversial international intervention justified by human rights and against human rights in the same time; “wet blanket is not a blanket”! The meaning could be understandable in the context of the “clash of civilizations” between Western countries and Africa along with Third World: politicized human rights campaigns are not true human rights campaigns! The very purpose for such campaigns should be justice and human rights, if the result comes totally negative, that means there is a trick in the start.
Several reports published against Ethiopia by Western-based organizations under the umbrella of defending human rights, especially freedom of expression. Ethiopia is the country that has never been colonized by Westerns and it has a big role in the battle against neocolonialism. However, the space of criticizing Ethiopia in the reports comparatively with other countries gives me an indicator that there is a political agenda to brand Ethiopia with specific “legal labels” that put more burdens on the Western governments to practice political pressures against one of the best African Economic booming models.
The “ninety million – populated” country is giving now other African nations an example of success. The World Bank report says the economy has experienced strong and broad based growth over the past decade. “The expansion of the services and agricultural sectors account for most of this growth Economic growth brought with it positive trends in reducing poverty, in both urban and rural areas. While 38.7% of Ethiopians lived in extreme poverty in 2004-2005, five years later this was 29.6%”
The campaign in Western countries to promote for political pressures comes in the context of “ambitions and interests” more than “human rights issues”; we should all know that these two factors are sharing the decision making process there.
Yes, we should support human rights everywhere, but to defend human rights, that doesn’t mean to be blind and to deny that there is a political intervention in the decisions and directions of the civil society here or there. This “silent and sneaky” intervention could lead one day to complete destruction of a country or even a region. I do not want to list a lot of examples but when the crisis of oil-rich South Sudan started to come into sight, there were accusations against a number of American human rights groups that they are hiding the truth by giving less attention to the growing crisis in South Sudan because of their political alliance with Juba against Khartoum. One of the articles that documented this bias was “the Failed State Lobby”, written by Alan Boswel, published in “Foreign Policy” and several newspapers and websites.
At first, there was no indicator that the crisis of South Sudan was just like mentioned in the article “Failed State”! Unfortunately, later, the people of South Sudan paid the price of the political agenda that manipulated the movement of honest American activists who believed that they are defending human rights while they became just puppets in hands of lobbyists and politicians?!
To be continued
