By NNN-ENA
Addis Ababa : United States policy towards the Horn of Africa is aimed at dismantling the Al Qaeda terrorist network and ensuring stability, good governance, democracy and sustainable development, US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi E. Frazer says.
Frazer told the Foreign Affairs Committee of the US Senate last week that the policy the US government was pursuing in the Horn was not beyond ensuring peace and helping advance development in Ethiopia and neighbouring countries.
She said that the over 100-year Ethiopia-US relationship was based on mutual understanding and friendship while the activities being carried out jointly by the US and Ethiopia as well as civil society had won appreciation.
The pardons granted by the Ethiopian government to the leaderships of the CUD based on their request and in accordance with the law of the country had opened a door for political tolerance, she said.
Frzaer said the improvement of the code of ethics governing the members of the House of Peoples Representatives was a good measure taken to give attention to opposition parties.
She called on opposition party leaders to get ready for negotiation and contribute their share in building democracy in the country.
Frazer said when she visited Gode in September this year, she had observed the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) was becoming provocative. She said the killing of nine innocent Chinese and 77 Ethiopians was a manifestation of its provocative act in the region.
She urged the Ethiopian government and international community to exert efforts aimed at minimizing the danger posed by ONLF.
She also expressed the US government’s commitment to provide emergency support and other aids to the people in the regtion.
Frazer said the Eritrean government was fuelling the situation in Ogaden by providing support to the ONLF and other extremists in Somalia.
The deployment of Ugandan troops as part of an African Union (AU) peacekeeping force in Somalia and the recent national reconciliation conference held in Somalia were glimmers of hope for ensuring peace in that country, Frazer added. She said the US would extend the necessary support to re-build war-devastated Somalia.
Frazer expressed eashington’s concern over the human rights violations in Eritrea, where no election had been held since the country’s independence 14 years ago.
She said Eritrea, which has no constitution at all, is a country where there are thousands of prisoners of conscience languishing in prison.