Subcommittee on International Human Rights Committee on June 11th, 2024

[The Chair, Liberal, Fayçal El-Khoury]

Thanks to all the witnesses. Thank you for your good intervention.

Now, I would like to open the floor for a questions and answers. We start with Mr. Majumdar.

Mr. Majumdar, you have the floor for five minutes, please.

[Shuv Majumdar, Conservative, Calgary Heritage, AB]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you all for describing what is obviously a very complicated conflict affecting many communities.

Let me start with Yonas Biru, if I might.

You have been a long-time author on the Horn of Africa and the issues therein. You have been warning for years about the kind of violence we have seen unfolding. What would you say is the strategic asset that is Ethiopia in the Red Sea region?

The conflict in this country has the potential to spill out with much larger consequences for the region geopolitically and geo-economically. Could you perhaps take a step back and give us a picture as to what's really on the line here and who some of the players might be?

[Yonas Biru]

Thank you so much.

Yes. I think about 10% of global trade goes through the Red Sea, and about 40% of the the trade between Asia and Europe is channelled through the Red Sea. Ethiopia is an anchor nation, because of its size and population, to the entire Horn of Africa.

I believe the European Union representative for the eastern African countries once said that Ethiopia is not like Yugoslavia: It doesn't implode in. If Ethiopia collapses, the whole region would collapse, so this is really a very serious catastrophe in the waiting.

Beyond that, and beyond the threats, 128 million people are facing a threat of genocide. What we are hearing here, unfortunately, from my Amharan and my Tigrayan friends, is that you hear the Tigrayans saying that everything has been done to them, but they say nothing about what they have done. It is the same thing with my Amharan friends. They talk about the atrocities they faced, but they do not say what the Amhara have done.

If you look at international reports, no one is a victim here: Each is a victimizer and a victim. Until this kind of mentality from our compatriots stops, particularly in Amhara and Tigray, this crisis will continue and, at the end, it is the people of Tigray and the people of Amhara who are suffering.

We have seen the Amnesty International reports. We have seen that all have been condemned of crimes against humanity. We have heard each group using “genocide” like a common word.... The only organizations that came close to announcing genocide were in the last report by the new institute, and anybody who has read it can tell, as I said, that it reads like a TPLF document.

How the Canadian government and the world can help is perhaps by not inviting us to come and complain about what happened to our people, but maybe to find common ground: How can we move away from these claims and counterclaims of genocide and solve the problem with help from the international community?

Thank you.

[Shuv Majumdar, Conservative, Calgary Heritage, AB]

Do I have a minute or two?

I have one minute, so I'll be brief, Yonas Biru. You used to be the deputy global manager of the international economic comparison program at the World Bank. You have tools to think about different models of governance.

You have a minute. The origin story of Ethiopia's ethnic federalism lasted for 27 years and then it broke. What broke?

[Yonas Biru]

Well, it broke because it moved sovereign power from “we, the people of Ethiopia” to “we, the tribes of Ethiopia”. After three decades, or 30 years, Ethiopians started to think as ethnic groups or tribal groups, and that's exactly what we are witnessing here today. Our Amharan friends are talking about only Amhara. Our Tigrayan friends are talking about only Tigray.

We have federalism in Canada and in many parts of the world. The Ethiopian federalism is unique in the sense that it treats the people of Ethiopia as peoples, as if they are different, so that created this animosity across ethnic groups. We have now come to a point where we cannot solve this process by ourselves, because we are locked in a permanent kind of political equilibrium from which we cannot correct by ourselves because—

[The Chair, Liberal, Fayçal El-Khoury]

Thank you. The time is over.

Now I invite Mr. Ali Ehsassi to take the floor for five minutes, please.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to all our witnesses for your testimony.

I think it would be fair to say that we had all hoped that the agreement in 2022, the Pretoria one, would put an end to the suffering throughout Ethiopia, but that unfortunately has not been the case.

To start off, could I ask Mr. Beyene, why is it that the Amhara did not participate in those peace negotiations?

[Wosen Yitna Beyene]

Thank you very much. That's a very important question.

The Amharas made a lot of effort to be part of the agreement and the discussions, but they were refused. They were systematically excluded from participating in that Pretoria agreement. That's exactly why the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement has failed. It failed, and it was doomed to fail from the get-go, because it excluded the Amharas and other key partners.

It was an agreement between the Abiy regime and the TPLF. The western world, including Canada, has to take full responsibility in that role. Had it been all-inclusive, it might have brought a better outcome.

The war on the Amharas that we're witnessing now is a mere reflection of the failure of the COHA.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

If I could go to Mr. Jemere, is it your contention that the Amharas were excluded as well? To the extent that that may be your response, is there an opportunity for a sequence, where there would be discussions between the central government and the Amharas?

[Semaneh Jemere]

Are you asking me whether there is a discussion between the Amharas and the central government?

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Yes. Why did they not partake in the peace negotiations that led to the secession agreement of 2022?

[Semaneh Jemere]

This is a very interesting question. I think we have to put this question to the government of Ethiopia and the TPLF.

The reason they did not invite their Amhara colleagues is that they think they are very contentious, and they think they are the oppressors. They want to exclude them because they have been excluding them from time immemorial, since the TPLF government—

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Before that peace agreement with the central government, the Amharas got along. Is that correct?

[Aserdew Kebbede, Member, Ethio-Canadians for Human Rights]

We're on the same team.

[Semaneh Jemere]

I'm sorry. [Inaudible—Editor] to compare it.

[Aserdew Kebbede]

I'll take it up.

As Mr. Beyene said, the Amharas were not included in the discussion. After all, who said the Amharas should be participating in the discussion and the Tigray group must be participating? If it's a peace agreement, it must have involved all parties and all stakeholders who have participated in one way or another in the conflict in northern Ethiopia.

The Amharas were affected because of the war. The Afar region, another region adjoining the Tigray region, was affected. Neither the Afar group nor the Amhara group was invited. It's because the Abiy government wanted to take advantage of the international pressure so that it could make a backdoor deal without even further discussing the—

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

You're saying there was no invitation and you couldn't partake in that.

[Aserdew Kebbede]

Yes.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

If someone were to say the Abiy government should enter into negotiations, what would the preconditions be?

[Aserdew Kebbede]

I can't speak on behalf of the Amharas. I'm here representing Ethiopians.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Just generally. You follow what is of concern—

[Aserdew Kebbede]

What would have been the best forum for the peace deal is bringing all of the stakeholders in the country, including the Oromo Liberation Army—there are different factions of the Oromos—the TPLF or other Tigrayan groups, all Amhara groups and the Afar region together. Even in Gambela and Benishangul, there are some groups.

All those stakeholders should have been put together to discuss the national issues. That would have been an Ethiopian solution and a win-win solution.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Thank you.

[Semaneh Jemere]

If I can add to that, we don't understand why the Amharas were excluded. It's not only the Amhara region that was excluded, but the Afar region, because the northern war affected both the Amhara and Afar regions, as well as Tigray.

The reason the government of Ethiopia and the TPLF people excluded the Amhara and Afar regions is beyond us. We can't begin to understand the reason.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Fair enough.