July 3, 2023
President Joe Biden
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20500
RE: U.S Lifts Human Rights Violation Designation on Ethiopia
Dear Mr. President:
We members of the Amhara Association of Nebraska (AAN) are dismayed by the office of the
presidency’s decision to lift the sanction waged against Ethiopian Government. We are dismayed
not only by the decision of lifting sanctions but by the narration for doing so: “Ethiopia no longer
is engaging in a pattern of gross violations of human rights”. Mr. President, it is public
knowledge that prime minister Abiy has waged war on selected ethnicities in Ethiopia, primarily
on ethnic Amharas. Amharas are currently engaged in fighting for their survival in all Amhara
regions namely in Shoa, Gojjam, Gondar; and Wollo with Abiy Ahmed military force.
Prime minister Abiy is willfully and forcefully subjugating selected non-Oromo ethnicities to
misery, starvation, and imprisonment; and committing genocide and ethnic cleansing against
Amharas. Abiy is implementing apartheid system in Addis Ababa City and in the rest of Oromia
region: Amharas cannot travel to or live in Addis Ababa. Amharas that have lived for generations
in Addis Ababa are systematically being displaced through imprisonment, imposition of high
taxes on residential Amhara properties and businesses, and if taxes are not paid within specific
days; government takeover of properties and businesses takes place.
Mr. President, Amharas are confronted with existential threat: War is waged against Amharas
inside and outside of the Amhara region in addition to mass genocide being conducted in the
Oromia region with the most heinous killings that the world has never seen before. Women and
children are executed in masses and the dead is left for wild beasts to feast upon, unarmed men
genitals are cut down and then skinned alive, pregnant women’s bellies are opened wide with
knives and the fetus taken out and given to the dying mothers to hold. We members of AAN
believe that the US intelligence community knows about current and past Amhara genocide and
displacements especially in the Oromia region and wonder why the US government is indifferent
to Amharas but concerned only with Tigray genocide and ethnic cleansing to this day.
We members of AAN admire and support Biden’s administration concern about the genocide
conducted against ethnic Tigrayans in the Tigray region by Abiy Ahmed military force, and the
tons of US humanitarian aid being delivered to Tigray. But how about ethnic Amharas? Aren’t
the trucks loaded with food and other aids for Tigray traveling through Debrebirhan city where
thousands of displaced and starved Amharas are concentrated under the open sky? Is feeding,
clothing, medicating; and advocating for a particular ethnicity from among other ethnicities who
are equally hungry, displaced, and sick a respect for human rights and being humanitarian? Is it
fair to say, “Ethiopia no longer is engaging in a pattern of gross violations of human rights”?
Respectfully,
Asefa Zebene, Chairman AAN
Cc to members of Congress