A peace building organization, Foundation for Peace Professionals also known as PeacePro has cautioned the European Union against unhelpful commentary on the ongoing peace process in Ethiopia.
PeacePro also advised that, if the EU has any advice for Ethiopia, it should communicate with the government through respectable channel or the African Union which facilitated the ongoing peace process instead of making excessive media commentary that maybe misinterpreted.
In a statement by the Executive Director of PeacePro, Abdulrazaq Hamzat, the group explained that, the ongoing peace process in Ethiopia was negotiated by Africa Union with great diplomacy and we expect the EU to respect its African Union counterpart by restraining itself from unhelpful media commentary.
According to Hamzat, EU was barred from observing the peace process for a reason, which signifies outright lost of confidence and we expect that it should be more concerned with rebuilding trust, rather than creating an atmosphere of permanent hostility.
“Making excessive media commentary over the ongoing peace process in Ethiopia portrays the EU as a meddlesome interloper and we consider this unhelpful to rebuilding relationship between the sovereign nation of Ethiopia and the European Union ” Hamzat said.
Hamzat also maintained that, EU’s posture as moral police over Ethiopia over human rights issues is not a good approach, actually, it is a sign of disregard to all those who facilitated the peace process in Ethiopia because what EU is saying in literal terms is that, “those who worked to reconcile the conflicting parties and facilitate peace in Ethiopia, are not able to protect human rights.
“Facilitating peace is the greatest human rights protection in war time”, Hamzat said.
Recall that the European Union (EU) asked that the Ethiopian government to ensure accountability for human rights violations and crimes committed in northern Ethiopia during the two-year war.
Germany’s Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock, and France’s Foreign Minister and Minister for Europe, Catherine Colonna, both visited Ethiopia this week.
Since the Tigray war, the EU has halted all financial assistance to Ethiopia and has urged for stronger sanctions against the Ethiopian federal government.
Ethiopia, on the other hand, stated that the EU cannot participate in the Pretoria peace accord, but it granted US observer status.
