The Honorable Nancy Pelosi

Speaker of the House of Representatives

United States Congress

Washington, DC 20005

Re: Please Stop HR 2003

Dear Speaker Pelosi,

I am writing this letter to urge you to stop HR 2003 (Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability Act of 2007) from reaching the House floor for a vote on Tuesday, October 2, 2007 under the rules of suspension. At the very least, this proposed legislation requires deliberation and debate due to the specious merit of the bill and significant impact it will have on relations between the United States and Ethiopia.

The bill undermines the strategic cooperation between the United States and its strongest and most dependable ally in the region by cutting off critical security assistance to Ethiopia unless the President makes a complex 11-part certification. The bill sanctions all forms of security assistance other than peacekeeping and counter-terrorism. This restriction would deal a fatal blow to the mutuality of interests and sense of shared trust essential to cooperative security arrangements.

Rather than acknowledging and building on the positive steps that the Government of Ethiopia has taken in numerous areas, the bill takes punitive actions. For example, the bill offers only criticism of the 2005 election without any acknowledgement of the fact that there was a dramatic increase of opposition seats in the Parliament. In the previous election, all opposition parties controlled 12 seats out of 546. In the 2005 election, opposition parties won 174 seats, or 32% of the vote. By any reasonable measure this movement toward a functioning multi-party democracy must be viewed as a huge improvement.

Additionally, the bill completely ignores the ongoing reconciliation process between the Government of Ethiopia and those few recently convicted and pardoned opposition leaders organized and led by Ethiopian elders within the context of Ethiopia’s own traditions and legal framework.

Sincerely,

NAME:

ADDRESS: