Ethiopia |
United States |
Ethiopia-United States relations are bilateral relations between Ethiopia and the United States. Ethiopia is a strategic partner of the United States in the Global War on Terrorism. The United States is the largest donor to Ethiopia: in 2008 U.S. foreign aid to Ethiopia totaled US$ 969 million, in 2009 US$916, with 2010 estimated at US$513 and US$586 requested for 2011.[1] U.S. development assistance to Ethiopia is focused on reducing famine vulnerability, hunger, and poverty and emphasizes economic, governance, and social sector policy reforms. Some military training funds, including training in such issues as the laws of war and observance of human rights, also are provided.
Recently, the Ethiopian government has been criticized for severe human rights violations. According to Human Rights Watch, the aid given by the United States is being abused to erode democracy in Ethiopia.[2]
The Ethiopian ambassador to the U.S. is Samuel Assefa; he is also accredited to Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico. Principal U.S. Officials include Ambassador Donald Y. Yamamoto and Deputy Chief of Mission Deborah Malac. The U.S. Embassy in Ethiopia is located in Addis Ababa.
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U.S.-Ethiopian relations were established in 1903, after nine days of meetings in Ethiopia between Emperor Menelik II and Robert P. Skinner, an emissary of President Theodore Roosevelt. This first step was augmented with treaties of arbitration and conciliation signed at Addis Ababa 26 January 1929.[3] These formal relations included a grant of Most Favored Nation status, and were good up to the Italian occupation in 1935.
Warqenah Eshate, while visiting the United States in 1927, visited Harlem, where he delivered Ras Tafari's greetings to the African-American community and Tafari's invitation to skilled African Americans to settle in Ethiopia. A number of African-Americans did travel to Ethiopia, where they played a number of roles in the modernization of the country before the Italian conquest in 1935.[4]
In his autobiography, Emperor Haile Selassie notes that the United States was one of only five countries which refused to recognize the Italian conquest of his country.[5]
Following the return of Emperor Haile Selassie to Ethiopia, the United States certified Ethiopia for participation in Lend-Lease. This was followed on 16 May 1944 by the arrival of what was later called the Fellows Mission, led by James M. Landis.[6] Another significant event transpired in January 1944, when President Franklin Roosevelt met personally with Emperor Haile Selassie aboard the USS Quincy in the Great Bitter Lake of Egypt. Although no matters of substance were resolved, the meeting both strengthened the Emperor's already strong predilection towards the United States, as well as discomforted the British who had been at odds with the Ethiopian government over the disposition of Eritrea and the Ogaden.[7] These ties were strengthened with the signing of the September 1951 treaty of amity and economic relations.[8] In 1953, a further two agreements were signed: a mutual defense assistance agreement, under which the United States agreed to furnish military equipment and training, and an accord regularizing the operations of a U.S. communication facility at Asmara, Kagnew Station. In 1957, then U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon visited Ethiopia and called it "one of the United States' most stalwart and consistent allies".[9] In addition, during the 1960s the U.S. Army provided mapping for much of the country of Ethiopia in an operation known as the Ethiopia-United States Mapping Mission.[10] Through fiscal year 1978, the United States provided Ethiopia with $282 million in military assistance and $366 million in economic assistance in agriculture, education, public health, and transportation.
Ethiopia was one of the first countries to take part in the American Peace Corps program, which emphasized agriculture, basic education, tourism, health, economic development and teaching English as a foreign language. The Peace Corps reports that since 1962, when its first volunteers arrived in Ethiopia, a total of 2,934 volunteers have served in that country.[11] U.S. Information Service educational and cultural exchanges were also an important part of their relations.
After the Ethiopian Revolution, the bilateral relationship began to cool due to the Derg's linking with international communism and U.S. revulsion at the junta's human rights abuses. The United States rebuffed Ethiopia's request for increased military assistance to intensify its fight against the Eritrean secessionist movement and to repel the Somali invasion. The International Security and Development Act of 1985 prohibited all U.S. economic assistance to Ethiopia with the exception of humanitarian disaster and emergency relief. In July 1980, the U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia was recalled at the request of the Ethiopian Government, and the U.S. Embassy in Ethiopia and the Ethiopian Embassy in the United States were headed by Charges d'Affaires.[12]
With the downfall of Mengistu Haile Mariam (who had taken control of the Derg), U.S.-Ethiopian relations improved as legislative restrictions on non-humanitarian assistance to Ethiopia were lifted. Diplomatic relations were upgraded to the ambassadorial level in 1992. Total U.S. government assistance, including food aid, between 1991 and 2003 was $2.3 billion. During the severe drought year of 2003, the U.S. provided a record $553.1 million in assistance, of which $471.7 million was food aid.[12]
The U.S. Congress, however, has set conditions, over the objections of the Bush Administration. In October, the House of Representatives passed the EDAA,[13] banning military aid, for other than counter-terror and peacekeeping unless Ethiopia improves its human rights record. The bill seeks to restrict U.S. military aid for any purpose other than counter-terrorism and peacekeeping purposes. If the President certifies that all political prisoners have been released and an independent media can function without excessive interference, full, normal military aid can resume. The US will provide around $300 million of aid to Ethiopia this year but it is unclear how much would be affected by the bill, which also exempts humanitarian, health care and emergency food assistance. It would restrict security assistance and impose travel restrictions on Ethiopian officials accused of human rights violations unless Ethiopia met the conditions – although the legislation would give the president a waiver to prevent such measures from taking force. The bill still has to pass the Senate before being presented to the Administration.
The Act also exempts counter-terrorism, peacekeeping operations and international military training from any funding restrictions, a reflection of Ethiopia’s military capabilities and its perceived role as a source of stability in the volatile Horn of Africa.[14]
Ethiopia is an important country to the United States in the Global War on Terrorism. The Pentagon needs Ethiopia and its intelligence service to counter the influence of al-Qaida fighters in the neighbouring Somalia.[2]
The CIA is using Ethiopia as a base for black sites to secretly interrogate undeclared prisoners in the Global War on Terrorism.[15]
Human rights groups have accused the United States of giving Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi "a free rein" to abuse his own people. In April 2010, Human Rights Watch published a report which accused Zenawi's ruling party Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front of having "total control of local and district administrators to monitor and intimidate individuals at household level." The report author Ben Rawlence also said that "Meles is using aid to build a single-party state" and accused foreign governments of having colluded in eroding civil liberties and democracy by letting their aid be manipulated by Zenawi. The Ethiopian government has denounced the report as "outrageous".[2]
Human rights violations in Ethiopia have created a strain in the two countries' relations. Jendayi Frazer, head of U.S. African policy as Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs at the Bureau of African Affairs, spoke of "unprecedented" agreements between the Ethiopian opposition and government, which she said were "a monumental advancement in the political environment". Examples she gave included reform of the National Election Board of Ethiopia and a new code of conduct for the press. But she added that the U.S. had raised "strong concerns" about human rights violations.
In April 2010, Ethiopia attempted to jam broadcasts of the Voice of America, the U.S.-run broadcaster. Prime Minister Zenawi accused Voice of America of broadcasting ethnic hatred and compared the broadcaster to the hate speech from Radio Mille Collines, which had helped provoke genocide in Rwanda. The Economist pointed out that the U.S. response to these accusations had been rather muted, probably due to the importance of the U.S.-Ethiopia alliance.[2]
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Department of State (Background Notes).[1]
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