The Encouraging Sign of US-Ethio Relation
Adal Isaw
November 10, 2009
The recent US-Ethio bilateral talk has transformed a seemingly lukewarm US-Ethio relation of the past few months into a serious and clearly outlined foreign policy reengagement. Mr. Obama’s seemingly lukewarm concern might have been the case of a cautious approach to study the pressing issues of the Horn, before engaging Ethiopia with reformulated foreign policy agenda of the US.
The Obama administration seems to have done a great deal of observation, inquiry and analysis before inviting Ethiopia to the State Department for a bilateral talk between Secretary of the State Hillary Clinton and Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin.
Several issues must have been raised and topping these issues for sure is the mutual national security concern of both countries with respect to the Horn in general and Somalia in particular. The clear and impending national security concerns of both countries emanate from emboldened Somali-born terror groups and their state and non-state affiliates around the world.
For US, strong collaborative effort with Ethiopia may mean quelling the reach of these emboldened terror groups at bay, which in turn may help US utilize its resources on other regions of concern efficiently. For Ethiopia, it may mean cutting of their affiliated terrorist groups and limiting their reach to abutting areas in Ethiopia. Nevertheless, the collaborative effort should not end at only doing these.
The dreadful existence of the Somali people under these terror groups should be inserted into an equation that might have been formulated by US-Ethio common national security concerns. Ameliorating the dreadful conditions of the Somali people should be the integral part—for which US should play almost an exclusive role. For convoluted political, historical and social reasons, the task of helping Somalia to rid itself from these terror groups is best suited to US measures, but not to Ethiopia’s. US have the resource, power and the will to effectively put a lead on this unfettered terror endeavor. What is missing so far is only the action.
Terror groups inside Somalia have networks of lifelines that protrude from outside in. The intelligence over these lifelines cannot be covert to CIA, and based on CIA intelligence, US should take resolute actions on those who funnel material support to sustain the lifespan of terror groups inside Somalia. Unless US takes action to thwart the easily smuggled material support from outside Somalia via the rogue one-man state of Eritrea and others, terror in Somali will perpetually breed terror and the dreadful lives of the Somali people may trickle down to the people of the countries with heightened national security concerns.
The US-Ethio collaborative effort should continue premised on the understanding of what each side is trying to achieve. Ethiopia is unambiguously aware of the security concerns of US, and US in turn has to be unambiguous in seeing the national security concerns of Ethiopia with clarity as well. It is possible that what Ethiopia wants to achieve from this collaborative effort may be meet with some politically motivated resistance, not by Obama administration, but by lobbyist and other groups with faulty concern and without knowledge about the pivotal strategic importance of the Horn to US interest.
The Obama administration should stand against any effort that calls for conditional and adulterated foreign policy engagement with Ethiopia. Because, in the final analysis, it’s not what lobbyists do for pay that dictates the nature of US-Ethio collaborative effort, but the settled international security structure that either binds or repels nations from working together on multiple common national security concerns. In this case, the force that binds US with Ethiopia for a collaborative effort in the Horn is greater than the force that repels these two nations apart for any other reason.
The Obama administration should also make sure to resolve the appearance of hypocrisy in treating individuals prone to violence for which Ethiopia is seeking extradition, deportation or some kind of legal remedy. In light of the bigger picture of a collaborative effort to fight terror groups in the Horn, the least US can do is deny individuals prone to violence and terror the permit to reside in America. The US State Department is in perfect position to seek and get a lawful action that prohibits such persons prone to violence from taking shelter in US. A group that shuttles between Washington DC and Asmara, Eritrea, with the mission to co-ordinate an all-out bloody endeavor in the Horn, should be seen as liability to all the efforts that America does to keep its interest in a region where relative stability is desperately needed.
As nations, the day-to-day duty of both US and Ethiopia is plain and simple; they protect and defend themselves from those who stand and collaborate to harm their very existence. Those who collaborate with terror groups in Somalia directly or indirectly should be banned from having to make America the adobe of their “by any means necessary” violent prone political life. Except for few individuals who transgressed the supreme law of Ethiopia, for other rank and file followers of Ginbot 7, ONLF, OLF and others, Ethiopia is now as open as never before for them to participate in the peaceful democratization of their country.
US should also give weight to the recent code of conduct agreement signed by AEUP, CUD, EDP and EPRDF, and acknowledge the fact that it is a binding document that no Ethiopian opposition group, democratic nation and institution should say no to. Nothing in the document gives any entity the excuse to choose violence to bring about a political change of its choice. US should thus stand firm against violent prone groups especially within its own jurisdiction. Because, nothing short of banning and hopefully deporting this groups will bring the fullest participation of Ethiopia in the fight to rid the Horn from terror groups that are posed to harm American and Ethiopian lives. The reason: Ethiopia shouldn’t be faced to fight terror groups in multiple fronts while US is in perfect position to stop some of these groups on their track. Considering all these aforementioned pressing issues of national security concerns, the recent US-Ethio bilateral talk is thus an encouraging sign that may revisit these issues of both countries for resolve.