Ethiopian Claims U.S. Has No Grounds for Considering Sanctions

Ethiopia’s top relief official criticized the United States on Friday for considering economic and trade sanctions against his country’s leftist government and said his nation wants better ties with Washington.

“I merely wish to state that . . . the grounds for imposing an economic and trade embargo on Ethiopia are nonexistent,” said Dawit Wolde Giorgis, head of the Ethiopian Relief and Rehabilitation Commission.

Dawit, at a news conference at the Ethiopian Embassy, also said the famine “situation is encouraging,” even though there is still a need for food and development supplies. Although 160,000 people remain in feeding camps in Ethiopia, thousands have left to return to their villages, he said.

Dawit’s remarks were prompted, in part, by Congress’ decision to seek trade sanctions against Ethiopia, which has maintained close ties to the Soviet Union for about eight years.

Question on Rebel Areas

Before sanctions could be imposed, President Reagan would have to certify by Sept. 7 that Ethiopia is pursuing a deliberate policy of starvation in the northern provinces where rebels have been waging a civil war for years. If Congress agrees with the certification, trade between the two countries would be suspended, except for delivery of American emergency food supplies.

Dawit said that an economic embargo against Ethiopia would condemn peasants and nomads “to increasing misery, deprivation, poverty and death.”

While he referred to logistical problems in delivering food to the northern areas of Eritrea and Tigre, Dawit denied that there is a deliberate policy of starvation. He said he concluded after touring the north recently that “food supplies were getting through to those in need.”

Despite strains in U.S.-Ethiopia relations since Mengistu Haile Mariam came to power in 1974, Dawit said his government seeks improved ties with the United States, “development assistance, trade relationships and normal relations . . . .”