Honorable Christopher Smith

__________________________________

By:
Dagne Yemane
07/18/2006)

Honorable Christopher Smith :


Let me begin by thanking you for your firmness and boldness on Human Rights issues around the world. September 11, 2001 clearly showed the consummate evil of Radical Islam: Islamofascism.

We appreciate that you, your colleagues in the Congress, and the President have taken necessary measures to defend the homeland. We applaud you for that.

As an Ethiopian emigre to the United States I am concerned with your legislative suggestions on the outcome of the recent Ethiopian elections. I understand your concern over the use of force by the Ethiopian government as expressed during your questions of the Ethiopian Ambassador to the U.S. during Hearings of the matter in February.. Those questions reflected your support of the Ethiopian opposition living in the diaspora.

What I’m concerned more about is the language and provisions of HR 4423 that your Sub-committee has endorsed .

Neighboring Somalia has increasingly destabilized the Horn of Africa as reflected in the virtual takeover of the southern half of that counrty by the Radical Muslims of the Islamic Court Union (ICU) and its militias . The ICU after a long battle with various warlords have taken control of Mogadishu, the capital city of Somalia.

This takeover in Mogadishu will allow the radical ICU to recruit, fund raise, and give them more legitimacy.

HR 5680 calls for limiting United States military and other foreign aid to Ethiopia, until it fulfills all the requirements set forth in the legislation. I believe that HR5680 ties the President hands during a volatile times in the region. The human rights, land and judicial reforms, should be handled via direct bi-lateral negotiations between our State Department and the Ethiopian government. Given the menacing Islamofascist threats in negihboring Sudan and Somalia, the U.S. needs a vital ally in Ethopia. HR5680 does not in my view strenghten constructive bilateral relations between Ethiopia and United States. Rather, it may hobble an alliance between the U.S. and Ethiopia in the fight against Islamic radicalism and world terrorism.

The ICU in neighboring Somalia harbors several wanted criminal terrorist who were perpetrators of the bombings of U.S. embassies in both Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.
Ethiopia could render valued assistance to the U.S. in the identification and apprehenson of these wanted terrorists who have killed hundrads of Americans and Africans in the name of Islamofascism.

It is for that reason, I urge you to reconsider actions that would bring HR5680 out of your Sub-committee for a Committee endorsement and ultimately a vote by the full House.

Instead, I suggest that a resolution conveying the sense of the Congress urging bi-lateral negotiations over issues identified in your bill by our State Department would appear to be the more appropriate acton.

Thank you for the opportunity to present these views on U.S. Ethiopian relations and the looming crisis in neighboring Somalia.

Sincerely,

Dagne Yemane

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