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January 29, 2021
Ethiopian NY / NJ Task Force
To: US Congressman Gregory Meeks, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
As defenders of democracy and human rights in Ethiopia, our organization is concerned by the decision of the CSIS Africa Program to invite a controversial Ethiopian politician. Tsedale lemma discuss foreign policy with Representative Gregory W. Meeks (D-NY).
For many years, our Ethiopian-American community in New York and New Jersey has been working with the Foreign Affairs Committees of the United States House in a bipartisan manner, including with Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ) and the late Representative Donald Payne (D-NJ). who was a great defender of democracy in Africa. However, we are concerned that the Honorable Representative Gregory W. Meeks (D-NY) was invited to an event on February 1, 2021 that featured the controversial figure, Ms. Tsedale Lemma.
Politics Ms. Lemma started as a writer (for “Addis Standard”) under the rule of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) dictatorship in Ethiopia. It quickly gained notoriety, due to the lack of alternative options, as all other Ethiopian newspapers were shut down by the former TPLF regime and many independent journalists jailed or missing. She was seen as an apologist for the Marxist TPLF regime, spreading “economic growth” statistics cooked up by that one-party dictatorship, while her writing downplayed the widespread human rights abuses and mass killings by the junta of the TPLF.
After serving the TPLF regime, in the transition period of 2018, he became a propagandist for the ethnically based nativist movements in Oromia that were indirectly inspired by the TPLF dogma of narrow nationalism. In 2019, the new reformist prime minister, Dr. Abiy, won the Nobel Peace Prize and abandoned the divisive agenda of the ruling party. Despite being an Oromo politician himself, Dr. Abiy decided to transform his own party and transcend ethnic barriers to unite Ethiopians by building bridges. Furthermore, after decades of media censorship under the TPLF rule, the new Prime Minister Abiy also opened up the media environment in Addis Ababa, which suddenly affected Ms Lemma’s media monopoly because her site web became just one of hundreds of new media in the country. today.
Since then, Lemma has become an outspoken and radical supporter of the extremist nationalist Oromo Jawar Mohammed, the equivalent of the white nationalist David Duke. Unfortunately, Mohammed is accused of instigating xenophobic movements in Oromia that led to mass killings of ethnic minorities in Oromia during 2019 and 2020. At that time, the Associated Press reported that the Oromo nativist mobs inspired by Jawar Mohammed were “check identity cards and target Amhara residents”During horrible massacres.
Despite these nativist killings reported by the international media, Ms. Tsedale Lemma downplayed these mass killings in her writings to cover up the crimes of hate groups and defend the hate speech of the nationalist Jawar Mohammed.
In addition to this, Ethiopia recently faced an insurrection more deadly than the violence we face here in the United States capital, as hundreds of federal forces were massacred by a rebellion of the TPLF board in Tigray province. Despite the Ethiopian government’s success in bringing these insurgents to justice, the conflict has sparked a humanitarian crisis as the TPLF has gone underground, blocking interstate highways and ambushing food aid delivery transport in rural Tigray. .
Unfortunately, Ms. Lemma has become a prominent advocate for insurgents like TPLF, who seek to overthrow the federal government and delegitimize our upcoming 2021 elections in Ethiopia. Rather than entertain fringe voices like Lemma who justify the insurrection, we call on the United States government to support non-violent opposition parties in Ethiopia, such as the Ezema Citizens for Social Justice Party (CFSJ), who compete peacefully against the ruling party. Ethiopia must carry out progressive reforms and a peaceful democratic change of government as the basis for stability in the region.
In addition to her fringe views in support of the TPLF insurgents, Ms. Lemma has also personally written nativist comments on social media, intellectualizing and justifying the ethnic cleansing of Amhara and other minorities living within Oromia (including persecuted Orthodox Christians. living in Muslim areas). he has also posted degrading comments against multi-ethnic Ethiopians who oppose the proliferation of tribalism in Ethiopia. Like biracial or multiracial Americans, millions of multi-ethnic Ethiopians in urban areas (who do not adhere to the unique ethnic identification of hate groups) have been a major obstacle to ethno-nationalist hate groups in Ethiopia, who advocate for ethnic segregation. / federalism and ethnic cleansing. the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) You should not associate with such a controversial individual who sells deadly nativism against minorities and hates rebellion against multi-ethnic Ethiopians.
Our NY / NJ Ethiopian-American community categorically rejects hate groups and nativism both within the United States and in Ethiopia. We must condemn ethnic nativism and xenophobic violence in Ethiopia. Therefore, the NY / NJ Ethiopia Task Forces oppose the CSIS Africa Program’s decision to invite the nativist Ms. Tsedale Lemma to this important forum discussing US foreign policy with Congressman Gregory. W. Meeks (D-NY). Doing so will be a disservice to the new administration of US President Joe Biden and its foreign policy in Africa. It also clashes with progressive values, ideals, or strong principles that we all hold dear in America. We advise CSIS to invite nonpartisan and independent pro-democracy analysts and members of Ethiopian civil society, so that President Biden’s US foreign policy does not drift or become tarnished.
To be honest,
Ethiopian NY / NJ Task Force
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