Diaspora Ethiopians do last minute advocacy on HR 2003

Diaspora Ethiopians are in a last minute advocacy work to persuade US House Representatives to pass HR 2003 on Tuesday October 2. For the first time since the bill was authored, supporters of the government and others opposed to HR 2003 have also joined the fight, to sway the House to say no to the bill. HR 2003, or formally known by its full name Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability Act, was authored by Africa Subcommittee Chair, Congressman Donald Payne of New Jersey. Though it is sponsored by many other US officials, the bill has faced various obstacles before it finally broke thru last week when a U.S Congress Comimittee approved it. The legislative still has to endure Tuesday’s vote before it gets to the president which would be its biggest challenge due to the close relationship between the Ethiopian government and the Bush administration. Many supporters of the government said, they never expected that the bill would go this far. Particularly, its HR 5680 forerunner was quickly defeated, sending the signal that American officials are unlikely to put pressure on the Ethiopia government. Even though it is labeled as a bipartisan bill, only a couple of Republicans have supported it with more than 90% of its cosponsors being Democrats. However, since the new Congress got dominated by Democrats, it gave new life and hope for supporters of the bill. Both groups of Diaspora Ethiopians who support and oppose the bill appear to manipulate the interpretation of the bill during their advocacy work. The supporters of the bill omit some controversial terms of the bill including the Bill’s phrases that give partisan power to monitor human rights in Ethiopia, forbid Ethiopian government officials from traveling to U.S. and put full responsibility of the 2005 post election violence on the government. Meanwhile, opponents of the bill tell their followers only about the “anti-Ethiopia” interpretation of the bill claiming that the bill is trying to colonize Ethiopia by having American officials intervene in the politics of Ethiopia. These opponents say it is the duty of all “patriotic Ethiopians” to condemn the bill. No matter, the momentum is on the side of the bill’s supporters and major sponsors like Ethiopian American Civic Advocacy (EACA) who have been doing this work for many months, are rousing their hundreds of fans to send fax and telephone calls supporting the bill. Opponents of the bill who never thought the bill would even get this far are meanwhile having difficulties starting both the networking or organizing work and advocacy task all at the same time in just a few days.

Published 10/01/2007 - 12:41 p.m.a