Ethiopia has accused human rights organisation Amnesty International (AI) of lending itself to a smear campaign against Ethiopian troops protecting the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia.
Categorically rejecting allegations in AI’s latest report that Ethiopian troops have killed people by slitting their throats “like goats”, the Foreign Affairs Ministry here said Wednesday that the troops were well disciplined.
“They are educated in, and committed to, the principles of human rights, to the protection of civilians in conflict areas and the implementation of international humanitarian law,” said the ministry in its reaction to the AI report.
Asserting that terrorist groups affiliated to Al-Shabaab were using the cover of human rights through AI to promote their own agenda, the ministry said that the peace process in Somalia had enemies, notably among terrorist groups.
“These enemies now apparently include Amnesty International,” said the statement, wondering why “one of the world’s most prominent human rights organisations should descend to the level of publicising deliberately invented stories about the activities of Ethiopian troops.”
According to the statement, AI has devoted most of the report to fabricated allegations against Ethiopia and its armed forces, deliberately ignoring “the widespread violations of human rights committed by Al-Shabaab, whose signature activities include a widespread campaign of murder and targeted assassination of political and religious leaders.” Panapress .
