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was manifest in the speeches of the Ethio-
pian delegation at the Session of the Coun-
cil of Ministers and the Assembly of the
heads of government of the Organization of
African States in Khartoum, and likewise
at the conference of nonaligned countries
in Belgrade, we cannot consider that the
struggle is over in the ruling circles of the
country about questions of the external po-
litical orientation and the essence of a policy
of nonalignment. In this struggle a signifi-
cant role is played by the petit-bourgeois in-
fluence, which is still quite strong in the
officers’ circles.
Before turning to the nature of Ethio-
pian relations with individual Western coun-
tries, it is worth noting that in the frame-
work of the general anti-imperialist course,
Ethiopia continues to distinguish between
the USA and the countries of the Common
Market.
The central flame of anti-imperialist
propaganda is directed against the USA,
England, the Federal Republic of Germany,
and, to a lesser degree, against France, Italy,
and the Scandinavian countries.
The relations of Ethiopia with the USA
have undergone the greatest changes. [The
Americans] have eliminated their military
objects from the territory of the country,
their propaganda apparatus, their military
mission; they have cut by one half the staff
of the American embassy. The Ethiopian
government delayed the agreement for the
new American ambassador by three months
and gave it only after a serious discussion,
in the course of which the Ethiopians warned
that if the anti-Ethiopian campaign in the
USA, connected, in part, with human rights
issues, was not brought to an end, that they
would seek to break off diplomatic relations.
After this the United States was forced to
reach a certain compromise.
In order to preserve whatever remained
of their former position in Ethiopia, the USA
is trying to use all of the factors enumerated
above (economic pressure, Ethiopian na-
tionalism, ties which remain to the state ap-
paratus). To a large extent the condition of
Ethiopian finance depends, in particular,
upon whether or not the United States buys
coffee, the income from which made up in
1977 approximately 75% of the general ex-
port earnings of the country. The USA per-
sists in offering economic assistance to
Ethiopia, in particular in answer to the cir-
culated appeal from the Ethiopian commis-
sion on assistance to the population of the
Ogaden and Wollo. At the same time, they
underscore that America offers mainly hu-
manitarian aid, while the USSR is generous
only as regards military supplies. Mean-
while, in spite of the fact of the worsening
governmental relations, economic assistance
from the USA to Ethiopia is growing. Thus,
according to information of an American
Congressional commission, which visited
the countries of the Horn of Africa with the
aim of collecting information about the situ-
ation in the region, if in 1977 this assistance
reached 11 million dollars, then in 1978 it
reached 15 million dollars.
In July of this year the USA announced
the delivery in September and October of
this year of assistance at a level of 12.5 thou-
sand tons of food products, valued in sum
at 7 million Ethiopian birr. In accordance
with information from the American Em-
bassy, philanthropic assistance from the
USA to Ethiopia for the period from 1975
reached 75 million Ethiopian birr.
The relations of Ethiopia with the
countries of the Common Market is deter-
mined by their mutual interest in maintain-
ing economic and commercial ties. Trying
to keep Ethiopia in the sphere of their inter-
ests, the Western European countries have
regarded the revolution with patience. As
does the USA, they make declarations re-
garding their support for the territorial in-
tegrity of Ethiopia, both in the event of So-
mali aggression and with regard to Eritrea.
The new French ambassador, upon convey-
ing his letters of credentials to the Head of
the PMAC, Mengistu Haile Mariam, even
declared that France respects the path of de-
velopment chosen by Ethiopia in the frame-
work of a policy of socialist orientation. The
Federal Republic of Germany did not un
continued on page 422
102 COLD WAR INTERNATIONAL HISTORY PROJECT BULLETIN
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