Ethiopia: Official statement on Leaked Cables [full text & Video]

The Ethiopian government issued a statement concerning two issues raised on the US Embassy Cables published by Wikileaks. The statement was delivered on the national television a few hours ago (Thursday, Sept 15 evening local time) .

Read below the full text of the statement.

PRESS RELEASE ON THE ERRONEOUS DISPATCH FROM THE US EMBASSY IN ADDIS ABABA

Lately extensive internal correspondence between the US resident Ambassadors across the globe and Washington DC has been released through Wikileaks.

Among these include discussions held between former US Ambassadors to Ethiopia and various Ethiopian state officials. Among other hearsays gathered from informants of the Us Embassy, the report relayed to Washington includes Dr. Merera’s allegation of government involvement in the case of those who died when the explosive they were trying to plant for their terrorist objective accidentally exploded.

In addition, according to wikileaks the US Ambassadors in Addis had reported as if Prime Minister Meles Zenawi had communicated to the Americans about the need “to remove the Beshir Regime”. In fact, to the contrary the full wikileaks’ release shows that prime Minister Meles Zenawi has advised the Americans on the inappropriateness of “removing the Beshir regime”, and of his suggestion that the US layout “clear bench marks of actions expected of the GoS (government of Sudan) on both Darfur and South Sudan which would go a long way in addressing the “continued challenges”.

In its foreign policy statements, the Government of Ethiopia has time and again declared its firm position that the responsibility of changing a sovereign government solely rests on the people of the respective countries, not on any other outside forces. In this regard, the Ethiopian government has a fundamental difference with the United States that sees regime change as an integral part of its foreign relation practices. It is this principled and democratic stand of Ethiopia that Prime Minster Meles reiterated to US officials in the discussions held on July 9, 2009. In addition to stressing that the US can not substitute itself for the people of Sudan, on whom alone rests the right to change their respective government, and in this connection the Prime Minster has repeatedly pointed out that Ethiopia opposes any regime change policy. A recent living illustration of Ethiopia’s commitment to this democratic stance is the Prime Minister’s repeated disagreement with those foreign powers who tried to prosecute President Al Beshir through the International Criminal Court.

Cognizant that any external attempt aimed at overthrowing any government, has a destabilizing effect not only on the Sudan, but on the whole region as well, the Ethiopian government only seeks good relations with all neighboring states. The Government of Ethiopia neither interferes with the internal affairs of its neighbors, nor does it cooperate with any external force that meddles in the domestic affairs of any of the regional states. In this connection, as cited in wikileaks, in his July 9 discussion, Prime Minster Meles has emphasized that “the Western paradigm of democracy and development can not be imported abroad and applied to the other countries”. In the said wikileaks the Prime Minster has pointed out that “the ‘old paradigm’ of the US is wrong and closes of the emergence of organic democracy in Africa”. Ethiopia, therefore, clarifies its position that it never and nowhere supports any external pressure for regime change.

A government with such a principled stand can by no means be expected to back a US regime change policy. The truth of the matter is that the task of changing the government of a sovereign country cannot be the responsibility of others and Ethiopia is strongly opposed to such a policy of regime change. Hence, despite the haste displayed by the former US Ambassador to submit such a report to his superiors, Ethiopia has never proposed to any foreign country to act as a substitute to that of the Sudanese or any other neighboring peoples to bring about regime change.

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You may watch the reading of the statement(by a journalist) below.