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Tell Congress to Remind Secretary Blinken that He Is Not Ethiopia's Commander-in-Chief!

Write to your U.S. Representative and Senators about Secretary Blinken's offensive statement - join our Call to Action!

Dear Ethiopian-Americans,

We need you to tell your Members of Congress that Secretary Blinken cannot dictate the positioning of Ethiopian military forces on Ethiopian soil.

Congress needs to hear that the diaspora is insulted by Secretary of State Antony Blinken's repeated call for the "immediate withdrawal of Amhara regional forces" from Welkait.

The goal is for Members of Congress to publicly oppose Secretary Blinken's demand, and call for the United States to present a more even-handed narrative for the war in Tigray.

Hundred of Amharas were slaughtered in Mai Kadra last November, but Secretary Blinken has nothing to say about that atrocity. His demand on Amhara regional forces without mentioning other Ethiopian actors in Tigray feeds into the anti-Amhara narrative that has led to hundreds of Amharas killed across Ethiopia in recent months.

Instructions: fill out all the information on the form using your phone, tablet, or computer to generate a pre-written email to your congressional Representative and Senators. The process is easy, but if you have any questions, please email info@amharaamerica.org and we will help you.

Don't forget to click "Take Action" to send the email!

Click HERE to read Secretary Blinken's February 27, 2021 statement in which he says that "The immediate withdrawal of...Amhara regional forces from Tigray are essential first steps" [to achieve peace].

Click HERE to read the Amhara Association of America's March 2, 2021 response to Secretary Blinken's statement.

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U.S. House and Senate Members

Subject: Oppose Secretary Blinken's Stance on Amhara Regional Forces in Ethiopian War

Message:

As a constituent, I urge the Member to oppose Secretary of State Blinken's February 27 call, repeated in his House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing remarks on March 10, for the "immediate withdrawal of Amhara regional forces" from Ethiopia's Tigray Region.

As you may know, the Ethiopian federal government has been at war with the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) since November 4, 2020, when the TPLF launched a surprise attack on the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF). Since then, forces from the neighboring Amhara, Afar, Somali, & Oromia Regions have fought the TPLF under the auspices of the federal government and military.

Since mid-November, the Amhara regional government has administered areas previously under control of the TPLF that were ethnically cleansed of Amharas in prior years. Secretary Blinken's statement, without providing any additional details or context, demands the immediate withdrawal of Amhara regional forces, calling it an "essential first step" for peace in the region.

This policy demand has offended me and others in the Ethiopian-American diaspora community for several reasons:

1) It implicitly compares the Amhara regional government's forces with the Eritrean military, which Secretary Blinken also demands immediately withdraw from Tigray. It is insulting to imply that an Ethiopian regional government's security forces, fighting under the auspices of the Ethiopian federal government on Ethiopian soil, are equal to a foreign military occupying Ethiopian territory.

2) Without providing any evidence, it emphasizes the Amhara regional forces as a hindrance to ending the war in Tigray. However, the United Nations and multiple human rights organizations have documented human rights abuses and atrocities committed by multiple parties to the conflict - namely, Eritrean and TPLF forces. The way Secretary Blinken phrased his statement feeds into a simplistic narrative that ethnic Amharas are a wholly evil entity while other groups, such as the TPLF, are entirely innocent.

3) It ignores the security situation for civilian Amharas both in this area and around Ethiopia. In recent months, Amharas have been targeted in numerous ethnic-based massacres across the country by non-state actors. This includes the village of Mai Kadra, where several hundred Amharas were slaughtered by local TPLF forces in early November; this is part of the area now under control by the Amhara regional government. For Secretary Blinken to not address this in his statement, nor provide any suggestion as to how Amhara civilians would be protected should Amhara regional forces withdraw, it implies that "Amhara Lives Don't Matter."

For these reasons, I call on the Member to publicly oppose Secretary Blinken's call for the "immediate withdrawal of Amhara regional forces."

For more information, please read the Amhara Association of America's full response to the Secretary's statement here: https://bit.ly/3by7IgO

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