Press Statement

 The Government of Ethiopia categorically rejects the allegations of Amnesty International that Ethiopian troops in Somalia have killed people by slitting their throats “like goats”. This is an outright, and deliberate, lie, fed to Amnesty by groups affiliated to Al-Shabaab, groups that use the cover of human rights to promote their terrorist agenda.  We must deplore that one of the world’s most prominent human rights organizations should descend to the level of publicizing deliberately invented stories about the activities of Ethiopian troops. We deeply regret that Amnesty International has lent itself to an obviously transparent and disgraceful smear campaign against the armed forces of Ethiopia, using highly emotive, even racist, language, language that it would not and has not used outside of Africa.

Amnesty International’s latest report deliberately avoids any mention of terrorist groups. Indeed, it appears to have escaped Amnesty’s attention that Al-Shabaab has been declared a terrorist organization. Amnesty devotes most of the report to fabricated allegations against Ethiopia and its armed forces. It purposefully ignores the widespread violations of human rights committed by Al-Shabaab whose signature activities include a widespread campaign of murder and targeted assassination of political and religious leaders, a deliberate and admitted disregard for civilian life in its operations, the desecration of dead bodies and the cutting of throats of Muslim clerics who oppose it, as at the Al Hidaya mosque only two weeks ago.  In this situation Amnesty International deliberately ignores all mention of these atrocities. 

This report has been published at a time when Al-Shabaab is finally on the run in Mogadishu and elsewhere in Somalia. Yet it is at this juncture that Amnesty appears to be engaged in efforts to assist in the recruitment of Al-Shabaab terrorists by deliberately inciting hatred and animosity based on lies and fabricated stories from Al-Shabaab affiliated sources.

All serious observers of Somalia accept that there is a real “window of opportunity” for the Somali peace process, a process substantially brought about by Ethiopia’s successful military backing for the TFG. This will be demonstrated in two weeks time when the representatives of the TFG and of the opposition hold preliminary talks in Djibouti. The peace process does, of course, have enemies, notably among terrorist groups. These enemies now apparently include Amnesty International.

The Government of Ethiopia rejects absolutely the allegations of Amnesty International, an organization which has a long record of refusing to respond to our criticisms of its reports, and of its uncritical use of sources which have their own, all too obvious, agenda. Ethiopian troops are well-disciplined. They are educated in, and committed to, the principles of human rights, to the protection of civilians in conflict areas and the implementation of international humanitarian law. They have proved this time and again in a wide variety of situations in Somalia and in UN peacekeeping operations around the world.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Addis Ababa

May 6, 2008