Obama’s human rights call tempers praise for Ehtiopia’s push to propserity

Barack Obama told Ethiopia’s leaders on Monday that allowing more freedoms would strengthen the African nation, which had already lifted millions in the once famine-stricken country out of poverty. Mr Obama was speaking after talks with prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn during the first trip by a serving U.S. president to Ethiopia, one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies but which has often been criticized for its rights record. Mr Obama said: “The governing party has significant breadth and popularity and, as a consequence, making sure to open additional space for journalists or media or opposition voices will strengthen rather than inhibit the agenda that the prime minister and the ruling party have put forward.” His host acknowledged his country was “young democracy” that had more to do, but also said he had “minor differences” with the U.S about the speed of that process.

My message to the people of Ethiopia is: as you take steps moving your country forward, the United States will be standing by you the entire way

Barack Obama

Ethiopia’s ruling party, in power for quarter of a century, has turned the once famine-stricken economy around, but opponents say it has been at the expense of political freedoms. The opposition failed to secure a single seat in a May parliamentary election. Mr Obama discussed closer security cooperation with Ethiopia, and praised its role in an African force in Somalia that was helping shrink the area controlled by al Shabaab militants. The president’s Africa tour, which began on Friday in his father’s homeland Kenya, also aims to boost trade and business ties with a continent where China overtook the United States as the biggest trade partner in 2009.

We don’t need to send our own marines in to do the fighting: The Ethiopians are tough fighters and the Kenyans and Ugandans have been serious about what they’re doing.

Mr Obama

Obama Ethiopia Africa