KEEP ETHIOPIA PART OF THE REAGAN DOCTRINE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000302560010-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 26, 2010
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: April 4, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/26: CIA-RDP90-00552R000302560010-6 STAT
ARTICLE APPEARED
ON PAGE
WALL STREET JOURNAL
4 April 1986
Keep Ethiopia Part of the Reagan Doctrine
By ORRIN HATCH
Since seizing power in 1977, Ethiopian
dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam has im-
posed a Stalinlike reign of terror on his
people. His forced resettlement cam-
paigns, collectivization of agriculture and
disregard for human rights have wreaked
economic and social havoc and resulted in
the suffering of millions of people. Not sur-
prisingly, Mr. Mengistu, who is closely
aligned with the Soviet Union, also has
meddled in the internal affairs of neighbor-
ing Somalia and the Sudan.
The challenge for U.S. foreign-policy
makers is to devise a strategy to persuade
Mr. Mengistu to halt external meddling
and institute sweeping reforms internally.
Regrettably, the Reagan administration
seems to be sending mixed signals on Ethi-
opia. When the president articulated what
has come to be known as the Reagan Doc-
trine in his 1985 State of the Union mes-
sage, he said the U.S. should support free-
dom fighters in Angola, Afghanistan, Nica-
ragua, Cambodia and Ethiopia.
Since that time, however, Ethiopia has
appeared on and then mysteriously disap-
peared from what might be called the ad-
ministration's "freedom-fighter list."
George Shultz included Ethiopia in his
February 1985 freedom-fighters speech,
and the president mentioned the country in
his October 1985 U.N. speech in the context
of regional disputes that we need to resolve
with the Soviets. However, Ethiopia was
not included in the State of the Union mes-
sage this year, although I've heard that
Mr. Reagan included it in a subsequent
statement. What gives? Does the Reagan
Doctrine apply to Ethiopia or not?
I believe this on-again, off-again ap-
proach reflects the influence of the defea-
tists at the State Department who want to
see Ethiopia bumped from the freedom-
fighter list. As Yonas Deressa, president of
the Ethiopian Refugees Education and Re-
lief Foundation, has noted, the depart-
ment's stance with respect to Ethiopia
"seems to be implementing the Brezhnev
Doctrine [which proclaimed the inviolabi-
lity of communist states] as opposed to the
Reagan Doctrine [which seeks to aid dem-
ocratic resistance groups fighting commu-
nist oppression)."
The State Department does not favor
sanctions imposed by Congress as a rule,
and will probably oppose legislation re-
cently reported out by the House Subcom-
mittee on Africa. That legislation, which
contains elements of a bill proposed by
Rep. Toby Roth (R., Wis.), adds Ethiopia
to the State Department's list of Commu-
nist countries (making it ineligible for Ex-
Im Bank loans), requires the president to
report to Congress within 45 days on the
status of Mr. Mengistu's forced resettle-
ment campaign, and gives the president
the option of imposing sanctions against
the Ethiopian government. Two Senate res-
olutions, sponsored by Sens. Paul Trible
Jr. (R., Va.) and Robert Kasten Jr. (R.,
Wis.), express U.S. opposition to the sys-
tematic oppression of the Ethiopian people.
All of these are worthwhile measures.
At the same time, there is an addi-
tional, and potentially very effective way,
to pressure Mr. Mengistu: The U.S. should
support a little-known group of pro-demo-
cratic resistance forces known as the Eth-
iopian People's Democratic Alliance
(EPDA). Although there are a number of
Marxist-oriented resistance groups oper-
ating in Ethiopia, such as the Eritrean
People's Liberation Front and the Tigre
People's Liberation Front, both of which
want to secede from the country, to my
knowledge the EPDA is the only non-com-
munist, non-secessionist movement.
Based in the Sudan, the EPDA aims
to rid Ethiopia of Soviet imperialism. The
group publicly supports democratic
self-government, social justice (including
equal rights for women), genuine indepen-
dence, accelerated economic development,
private ownership of land and a political
order that ensures individual freedoms.
EPDA statements advocate creation of a
constitution guaranteeing freedom of
speech and religion, the right of workers to
strike, freedom from arbitrary arrest and
seizure, and the right to due process of
law. A multi-ethnic group, the EPDA ac-
commodates the rights of all religious, cul-
tural, ethnic and linguistic groups that re-
spect democratic pluralism.
According to press reports, EPDA
leader Dereje Deressa claims that with po-
litical and financial support, the group
could put 50,000 men in the field within
months. The U.S. should back the EPDA in
order to pressure Mengistu into negotia-
tions with the EDPA. A presidential envoy
and regional negotiations to this effect
ought to be considered.
While Washington vacillates, the So-
viets, who have had a deep interest in
Ethiopia for more than 25 years, have es-
tablished a firm foothold there. They have
access to air bases in Ethiopian cities,
have established a naval support facility
on the Dahlac Archipelago, and have
shipped more than $4 billion of arms to the
country since 1977. The Ethio-Soviet alli-
ance poses a serious threat to Western se-
curity because Ethiopia is the linchpin of
the strategic Horn of Africa. The country's
proximity to the Persian Gulf oil fields and
its location bordering the Red Sea could
assist any Soviet effort to choke off West-
ern energy supplies. (Significantly, Ethio-
pia and the Soviet Union recently signed
an accord for bilateral cooperation in oil
drilling and natural-resources exploration
and exploitation.)
While we should support freedom
fighters in Nicaragua, Cambodia, Afghani-
stan and Angola, we cannot afford to ig-
nore the democratic resistance movement
in Ethiopia-a country whose population of
42 million is greater than that of the other
four countries combined. Nor can we af-
ford to let the Soviets tighten their noose
around the strategically important Horn of
Africa any further.
Mr. Hatch, a Republican senator from
Utah, is vice chairman for foreign police
on the Senate Republican Steering Com-
mittee.
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