Government Communication Affairs Office: “Ethiopia’s government never interferes with the internal affairs of its neighbors”

The Government Communication Affairs Office says Ethiopia’s government never interferes with the internal affairs of its neighbors.

In a press statement it sent to Afro FM yesterday, the office also said the country never cooperates with any external force that meddles in the domestic affairs of any of the regional states. The Government Communication Affairs Office sent the press release on, what it said, the Erroneous Dispatch from the US Embassy in Addis Ababa. Citing a report released through wikileaks, the office said the US Ambassadors in Addis had reported as if Prime Minister Meles Zenawi had communicated to the Americans about the need "to remove the Beshir regime". In fact, to the contrary the full wikileaks’ release shows that Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has advised the Americans on the inappropriateness of "removing the Beshir regime.’’ The statement said the Government of Ethiopia in its foreign policy has time and again declared its firm position that the responsibility of changing a sovereign government solely rests on the people of the respective countries, not on any other outside forces. In this regard, the Ethiopian government has a fundamental difference with the United Sates that sees regime change as an integral part of its foreign relation practices. According to the press statement, it is this principled and democratic stand of Ethiopia that Prime Minster Meles reiterated to US officials in the discussions held on July 9 2009. In addition to stressing that the US cannot substitute itself for the people of Sudan, the Prime Minster has repeatedly pointed out that Ethiopia opposes any regime change policy. A recent living illustration of Ethiopia’s commitment to this democratic stance is the Prime Minister’s repeated disagreement with those foreign powers who tried to prosecute President Al Beshir through the International Criminal Court. In the said wikileaks the Prime Minster has pointed out that "the 'old paradigm' of the US is wrong and closes of the emergence of organic democracy in Africa". Ethiopia, therefore, clarifies its position that it never and nowhere supports any external pressure for regime change. The press statement further indicated that Ethiopia is strongly opposed to such a policy of regime change. Hence, despite the haste displayed by the former US Ambassador to submit such a report to his superiors, Ethiopia has never proposed to any foreign country to act as a substitute to that of the Sudanese or any other neighboring peoples to bring about regime change. (Government Communication Affairs Office Press release)