The Shabia-CUD Tag Team diplomacy The sites of Ethiomedias and Ethiopian reviews are blinking with a news of congressman Dana Rohrobacker. Yet another confluence to shabia-CUD diplomacy in their fight against the government of Ethiopia.While it is of great interest to know how an American citizen is able to play in Ethiopian politics and able to ran for mayor of the capital city in contravention to the Ethiopian law, the case of Birhanu Nega is now being angled from the plight of Amercican citizen with all the benefit and protection of the Mighty Nation. Enters Congressman Dana Rohrabacher. We have seen to what extent the congressman would go if he thinks the right of American citizen is infringed . The Ethiopian government, Rohrabacher said, "will put their own people through deprivation and loss if they refuse to deal with this American citizen's just claims." This was stated in a news in relation to a bill he introduced to “withholds all appropriated U.S. Federal dollars to the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia until private property claims by American citizens and confiscated by the Ethiopian government before the enactment of this act is either returned or said U.S. citizens are justly compensated as certified by the U.S. Secretary of State. …..With the exception of emergency humanitarian aid, this prohibition on funding includes but is not limited to accounts of Economic Support Funds, the Export-Import Bank, Foreign Military Financing, the Global AIDS Initiative, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.” That American citizen,of Eritrean decent, is Petros Berhane whose familiy's National Alcohol and Liquor Factory (NALF) was confiscated by Mengistu. The government of Ethiopia tired to compensate him but the offer was rejected.. This was not the first time such greed was exhibited. Remember Nestle? Nestle, the world's largest coffee company, turned Ethiopian 1.5 million compensation offer and demanded a whapping 6 million at a time Ethiopia is fighting major famine, until it was forced to back down after international uproar? Petros Berhane, not only has the benefit of being an American citizen, he also happens to be good friend and surfing buddy of the congressman. At the time many questioned the wisdom of using American foreign policy to help a single family.This time the congressman comes on behalf of another Amrican citizen Birhanu Nega, to limit military aid at a time when America is fighting terrorism in the horn of Africa. It is hard sale to state that the congressman who threatened
‘deprivation and loss for the Ethiopian people” is introducing
a bill in support of Ethiopians or democracy in Ethiopia. If the congress
man cares about democracy he would not have been so blind the the see
of change Ethiopia has made in democratization. If any thing, it Birhanu
Nega’s coalition that had tried to take democracy hostage to their
whim to no avail. What factors into the congressman’s decision
is the right of American citizen, in this case Birhanu Nega. This is
done at expense of Ethiopia and Ethiopians and American’s national
interest.
Rohrabacher wants U.S. dollars contingent on coverage of family's loss. By Lisa Friedman WASHINGTON — U.S. development aid to Ethiopia could
dry up unless the country pays a tab that Rep. Dana Rohrabacher believes
is owed to the family of one of his surfing buddies. But Rohrabacher, who represents sections of Long Beach in the House, said his measure allowing the U.S. to block economic assistance until Ethiopia returns or compensates an Eritrean-American family in Huntington Beach for an alcohol distillery that was nationalized in the 1970s is a fair one. "I see no reason why, if you have a corrupt government that refuses to compensate U.S. citizens, why we should be providing aid to them," Rohrabacher said. "If they'll steal from a private citizen, they'll steal from our government programs." Now the dispute is poised to reach the highest levels of government. Rohrabacher's resolution passed the House last week as part of a larger foreign policy bill and is making its way to the Senate where little opposition is expected. According to Rohrabacher and Ethiopian officials, the current government has agreed to restore properties illegally appropriated during the Communist regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam. But that's where concurrence about Berhane Gebremedhin's still-operating National Alcohol and Liquor Factory in Addis Ababa ends. Mesfin Endrias, head of public diplomacy at the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington, D.C., maintained that Gebremedhin was offered fair compensation for the distillery but rejected it. "Everything was done for him, but he has a personal, political agenda," Endrias said. But Rohrabacher said Gebremedhin was offered a "a few hundred thousand dollars, which was more of an insult than an offer' and that Ethiopian officials rejected a counteroffer to either pay Gebremedhin the "honest value' of the land or allow the family to re-purchase the factory for that amount. "They just walked away from that," Rohrabacher said. "The reason they don't want to give it back is because the senior government officials have probably been pilfering it for years." Rohrabacher said he learned of the family's plight after meeting Gebremedhin's son, Petros Berhane. The two, he said, developed a friendship based on a mutual affinity for riding the waves. "Frankly, he became sort of a surfing buddy to me," Rohrabacher said. "He's a good friend." In addition to withholding U.S. economic aid, which last year amounted to about $100 million, it also would block money through the Export-Import Bank, Foreign Military Financing, the Global AIDS Initiative, and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation. It does not block emergency food aid. Former U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia David Shinn said he was unfamiliar with the family's situation, but said of Rohrabacher's amendment, "I don't think that this is the best way to go about foreign policy." Rohrabacher, however, is unbowed. "I will never give up on this," he said. The Ethiopian government, Rohrabacher said, "will put their own people through deprivation and loss if they refuse to deal with this American citizen's just claims."
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