Interfering into internal affairs of Ethiopia and her sovereignty is a gross violation of international law
Some western powers and the US in particular are violating a long standing international law and global legal instruments that prohibit intervention into the sovereignty and internal affairs of countries. The principle of non-intervention remains a well-established part of international law.
The prohibition of intervention “is a corollary of every state’s right to sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence,” (Oppenheim’s International Law, p 428).
The Friendly Relations Declaration [UNGA res. 2625(XXV) 1970] includes a whole section on ‘The principle concerning the duty not to intervene in matters within the domestic jurisdiction of any State, in accordance with the Charter.’ The UN General Assembly adopted a Declaration on the Inadmissibility of Intervention and Interference in the Domestic Affairs of States (UNGA resolution 2131 (XX) in 1965.
As the International Court of Justice said in its 1986 judgment in the Nicaragua case, “The principle of non-intervention involves the right of every sovereign State to conduct its affairs without outside interference; though examples of trespass against this principle are not infrequent, the Court considers that it is part and parcel of customary international law. [ …] international law requires political integrity [ … ] to be respected” (ICJ Reports 1986, p.106, para. 202).
“The principle forbids all States or groups of States to intervene directly or indirectly in the internal or external affairs of other States” and that “a prohibited intervention must accordingly be one bearing on matters in which each State is permitted, by the principle of State sovereignty, to decide freely. One of these is the choice of a political, economic, social and cultural system, and the formulation of foreign policy.
One may raise a question on why some of the so called developed countries of the west, the US included frequently intervene into the internal affairs of the less developed countries. Some of the reasons are basically hypocritical and emanate from the fact that these countries are concerned about the violation of human rights and democratic values in what they branded as third world countries.
Others unreasonably connect the legitimacy of their intervention into the internal affairs of developing countries as part of their mission to ascertain their national interests. For instance, the US and NATO used military interventions and diplomatic offensives to balkanize, weaken, destabilize and destroy legitimate governments in Libya and Iraq.
They intervened into Afghanistan after the tragic incident of 911 only to withdraw their forces out of the country with no meaningful success but loss of thousands of their military forces and local innocent citizens. In Syria and Yemen, they created a reign of terror which resulted in the displacement and flight of millions of refugees scattered across the Middle East and Europe.
The western powers speak of democracy and human rights but as long as their national interests are well served, they cooperate with totalitarian regimes and terrorist groups to destabilize countries that refuse to submit to their dictates. They are not interested in respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of less developed countries. Even then, a number of countries including Russia, China, Turkey, Iran and North Korea have managed to resist the military, economic and diplomatic pressures from the US and major Westerns.
The western powers use their position in major UN agencies and the UNSC to pass resolutions that favor their interests and the interests of their allies. Over the last 8 months, the US and EU drafted several resolutions to prevent Ethiopia from exercising its legitimate rights to build GERD but all were foiled through the veto power that Russia and China have employed to respect the capacity of the AU to coordinate the negotiations between Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt.
The US and western powers openly interfered into the internal affairs of Ethiopia when the government launched law enforcement measures to ascertain peace in Tigray regional state. With open diplomatic and political support to the terrorist TPLF, the western powers and the UN systems kept silent when gross violation of human rights and genocide were conducted in the Ethiopian Mai Kadra and Humera and when children and minors were recruited as child soldiers by this terrorist group.
To date, despite dry facts and open evidences, no country in the world has condemned these fascistic acts of the terrorist TPLF. Some western countries and the US gave a blind eye and deaf ear when Terrorist TPLF conducted almost all types of crimes against humanity in Tigray. When this terrorist group blocked the smooth transport of food aid to the needy citizens in Tigray before their eyes, they continued to accuse Ethiopia for using food as weapon against needy citizens in Tigray.
The US imposed the most illogical, lawless and counterproductive sanctions on the peoples and government of Ethiopia with total disregard to the 120 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
Having realized the treacherous intentions of some of western powers and the US to weaken Ethiopia through economic and diplomatic means, the people of Ethiopia immediately reacted to the situation by strongly standing in ever stronger unison to defend the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of their country by flocking in millions into military training camps across the country.
As the founding member of the UN and the most experienced country in global peace keeping and the fight against global terrorism, Ethiopia needs to be respected for her contributions to global peace. Ethiopian government cannot be ordered around to do this or that duty.
The government of Ethiopia has always been committed to address the huge shortage of food which resulted from the inhuman atrocities perpetrated by terrorist TPLF forces. In her visit to Mekele a couple of days back, Samantha Power, the USID Director has witnessed that the Ethiopian government has stored enough food in Mekele to be distributed to the needy in the region. However, western media outlets and terrorist TPLF paid lobbyists are still shedding alligator’s tears falsely accusing Ethiopia for all the crimes that are committed by the terrorist TPLF in Tigray.
TPLF terrorist group, its allies and the western powers have no legal mandate to choose the logistics and paths through which food is to be delivered to needy citizens in Tigray. The Ethiopian government is the only legal and competent power which can decide on the routes of transport of food to Tigray.
Ethiopia will not use the transport corridor through the wester Tigray bordering with Sudan which is already a belligerent country which has continued to occupy Ethiopian lands at the border. On the other hand, while the distance from Djibouti to Mekele is only 498 kms, transporting food from Port Sudan to Mekele covers a longer distance of 1306 kms.. All told, terrorist TPLF is not authorized to suggest or choose the route for food delivery to Tigray.
Furthermore, Ethiopia has time and again confirmed that there would be no dialogue with terrorist TPLF witch holds a strategic agenda of destroying the national entity of this glorious country.
Once more some of the western powers, particularly the US should realize that any level of interference into the internal affairs of Ethiopia is a violation of international law.
Source: Ethiopia News Agency