Addis Ababa, June 15, 2023 (FBC) – The Human Rights Watch (HRW) report issued a fortnight ago is a destabilizing agenda intended to disrupt the ongoing peace agreement in Ethiopia, an American journalist who visited the area stated in the report noted.
The American journalist, Jemal Countess, told ENA that the Human Rights Watch and other international human rights organizations have repeatedly failed to employ proper working procedures during investigations.
According to him, the Human Rights Watch latest sensational report containing a litany of allegations of grave human rights violations is solely a compilation of phone reports.
The journalist, who visited the areas cited in the report last year noted that these organs have had years to engage people doing phone reports even from other countries and adjacent countries.
The fact is those people have never seen anything on the ground, he stressed.
“Whether people who may or may not exist, but they had the opportunity to have a phone report about these places and say something. It is completely questionable.”
As he had witnessed the facts on the ground, Countess rejected the latest Human Rights Watch report that has basically reversed the circumstances.
The American described the report as a statement employed by a destabilizing agent.
Moreover, it can obstruct the ongoing peace process that has ended the two-year war in northern Ethiopia by fueling ethnic conflict, he underscored.
Therefore, “I think that drastic action is required on the part of governments and other entities like human rights entities in Ethiopia and in the region for that matter. This body (Human Rights Watch) is a destabilizing agent that challenges the entire region, not just Ethiopia.”
Countess believes that most of the international human right organs are instrumental for intervention to achieve their geopolitical interest in Africa by putting pressure on the ground.
Africans, therefore, need to band together and support other Africans.
“Those human right organizations think that they have free reign to spew anything they want. That is why I am saying this needs to be a collective African effort. Multiple countries and other players just need to start the call and force change because the reason is this can’t go on like this.”
The journalist finally urged all Ethiopians to reinforce the reconciliation and justice efforts and avoid divisive agendas that lead to unnecessary conflicts.
“We need to move forward in that way. At the same time this needs to be a collective voice, basically to reject conflict entrepreneurs,” Countess pointed out.
Recall that the Ethiopian government declared that Human Rights Watch’s report is a distorted and misleading portrayal of the situation that attempts to undermine peaceful coexistence and fuel inter-ethnic conflict in Ethiopia.