On the launch of the Human Rights Report 2009 on 17th March 2010, Secretary of State David Miliband MP said the Foreign Office report ensured that “the most oppressive governments who refuse to be held to account by their own people, they are at least held to account by the international community.”
Reading the above opening statement you may be forgiven to think that the UK and its foreign office is serious about upholding values of free society, justice and democracy; and would at least be highlighting practices of oppressive regimes. The TPLF led “government” of Ethiopia, which has broken the trust of the British Government and its people on a few occasions and :
•acussed of committing gross violation of human rights including genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity used aid money to buy arms in the past and repress its citizens today
•accused of using distribution of emergency food aid is used votes and punish those who oppose the regime;
•uses forced membership to the ruling party as a condition for employment or education
•Arbitrarily arrests citizens including Birtukan the leader of the main opposition party
•uses torture and mistreatment of detainees, frequent and systematic abuse of leaders of opposition political party and intimidation of their supporters by police and regional militias
•Apply a stranglehold on press freedom and haunts the few members of the free press who have not managed to leave the country
•denying freedom of expression by closing all pro democracy websites and jamming foreign radio broadcasts including VOA and Dutch Welle
•accused of ceding land to neighboring countries for political favor
•actively evolved in the sale and trafficking of children in the name of adoption
•blacklisted for facilitating illegal international money transfer
has not been mentioned in the UK Human Rights Report 2009.
Is this the case of a government, which has lost its moral principles and willfully chosen to stand by repressive ruler instead of the values and principles millions of its citizens have died for ? Or as Sir Christopher Myers’s documentary on British Diplomacy past and present has illustrated, human rights abuses and the struggle for freedom of a black nation counts for little as long us a repressive ruler promotes short term British interest.
The Foreign Office, which picks up human right abuses through a pinhole camera and tell story to the entire world has lost its conscious and preferred to keep quite about gross and blatant abuses of citizens rights. To Ethiopians, the message is loud and clear that the British government is prepared to excuse their rulers of their violation of human rights and crimes against humanity. We call upon all Ethiopians living in Britain to respond to this slap on the face of the struggle for freedom and democracy by using their votes in the coming general election.
One of the few lasting legacies of the late Robin Cook as Secretary of State for Foreign and Common Wealth Office May 1998 – June 2001, years at the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office is its Annual Report on Human Rights, a yearly review of the world’s rights abuses and the British government’s considered view of them.
This year’s edition skims through human rights violation in selected countries and makes no mention of human rights issue let alone their gross violation in Ethiopia. Yes you heard it right; human rights issues in Ethiopia do not feature at all in the report.
On the launch of the Human Rights Report 2009 on 17th March 2010, Secretary of State David Miliband MP said the Foreign Office report ensured that “the most oppressive governments who refuse to be held to account by their own people, they are at least held to account by the international community.”
Reading the above opening statement you may be forgiven to think that the UK and its foreign office is serious about upholding values of free society, justice and democracy; and would at least be highlighting practices of oppressive regimes. The TPLF led “government” of Ethiopia, which has broken the trust of the British Government and its people on a few occasions and :
•acussed of committing gross violation of human rights including genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity
•used aid money to buy arms in the past and repress its citizens today
•accused of using distribution of emergency food aid is used votes and punish those who oppose the regime;
•uses forced membership to the ruling party as a condition for employment or education
•Arbitrarily arrests citizens including Birtukan the leader of the main opposition party
•uses torture and mistreatment of detainees, frequent and systematic abuse of leaders of opposition political party and intimidation of their supporters by police and regional militias
•Apply a stranglehold on press freedom and haunts the few members of the free press who have not managed to leave the country
•denying freedom of expression by closing all pro democracy websites and jamming foreign radio broadcasts including VOA and Dutch Welle
•accused of ceding land to neighboring countries for political favor
•actively evolved in the sale and trafficking of children in the name of adoption
•blacklisted for facilitating illegal international money transfer
has not been mentioned in the UK Human Rights Report 2009.
Is this the case of a government, which has lost its moral principles and willfully chosen to stand by repressive ruler instead of the values and principles millions of its citizens have died for ? Or as Sir Christopher Myers’s documentary on British Diplomacy past and present has illustrated, human rights abuses and the struggle for freedom of a black nation counts for little as long us a repressive ruler promotes short term British interest.
The Foreign Office, which picks up human right abuses through a pinhole camera and tell story to the entire world has lost its conscious and preferred to keep quite about gross and blatant abuses of citizens rights.
To Ethiopians, the message is loud and clear that the British government is prepared to excuse their rulers of their violation of human rights and crimes against humanity. We call upon all Ethiopians living in Britain to respond to this slap on the face of the struggle for freedom and democracy by using their votes in the coming general election.
No comments:
Post a Comment