Ethiopia. Italian arms sale. The necessary clarifications.
On social media, indignation over the sale of Italian weapons to the Ethiopian government is raging just as the civil war rages in Tigray. A fair indignation but which is based on total disinformation on the law of military cooperation between Italy and Ethiopia, in fact at the moment frozen precisely because of the war events in progress.
On social media, right indignations are observed over the sale of Italian weapons to the Ethiopian government just when the civil war is raging in the north and ethnic cleansing tending to genocide evidences are now irrefutable. Many Ethiopian citizens from Tigray demand the immediate cancellation of the sales contract.
The sale of arms to countries in conflict or regimes that suppress civil rights is a blatant violation of international treaties. In order to support its national arms industry, Italy has repeatedly violated international treaties over the past 10 years through direct sales or triangulations. Between the treaties violated there is the Arms Trade Treaty adopted by the United Nations Assembly in 2013 which prohibits the sale of arms to countries where there is an armed conflict. These sales violate the same Italian law (law no. 185 of 1990) governing the export, import and transit of arms.
In recent years, Italy has won ninth place in arms exports. The main markets are the monarchies of the Arabian Peninsula, Turkey, Israel, Algeria, Angola, Cameroon, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan and Tunisia. The data on the total turnover are lacking but show an exponential growth of contracts from 2003 to today. Only in 2019 Italy sold weapons for a value of 5,174 million euros, the largest recipient is the Egypt of Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a president who refuses to collaborate to shed light on the murder of Giulio Regeni and bases his power over the systematic repression of the opposition and the violation of civil rights. Italian weapons sold to Saudi Arabia were used in Yemen. Morocco and Senegal are waging civil wars in Western Sahara and Casamance.
Who are the beneficiaries of this business of death? The market is mainly controlled by Leonardo, a former Finmeccanica which ranks ninth among the world’s largest arms exporters. The major shareholder of Leonardo is the State through the Ministry of Economy and Finance (30.20% of the shares). Other Italian companies are involved: Elettronica SPA, Calzoni Srl, Orizzonte Sistemi Navali, Iveco Defense Vehicles.
The military cooperation agreement with Ethiopian Federal Gouvernment, that rightly causes strong indignation on social media, was signed in unsuspecting times: on 10 April 2019. At the time there was no even the slightest hint that the political crisis between the TPLF and the Government of the Prime Minister Abyi Ahmed Ali could turn into an armed conflict, as unfortunately happened 19 months later.
The agreement, approved by the Council of Ministers chaired by Giuseppe Conte on June 26, 2019, provides for close cooperation between the two countries in the military and peace support operations. The partnership between the Italian and Ethiopian armed forces provides for exchanges of visits and experiences, participation in courses, conferences, studies, stages of apprenticeship and training at military institutes, promotion of health services and medical research, support for commercial initiatives related to products defense. The agreement also provides for the transfer of weapon systems and war equipment.
After approval by the Council of Ministers, the agreement was approved by the Chamber of Deputies on February 5, 2020 and by the Senate of the Republic on July 8, 2020. The law regulating this military cooperation enters into force on August 4, 2020 after the its publication in the Official Gazette.
At the time, relations between the federal government and that of Tigray were very tense and the political confrontation at the height of its violence. At the centre of the controversy there was the legislative elections cancelled by Prime Minister Abiy in order to stay in power and buy the time necessary to make popular his party: Prosperity Party. Despite political tensions reaching a critical point with the Tigray authorities’ decision to conduct regional elections in September 2020 against the will of the federal government, there were no signs of Nobel Peace Prize Abiy’s intention to resolve the political diatribe initiating a conflict with the participation of the Eritrean totalitarian regime and the fascist Amhara leadership.
Some might argue that there was no need to foresee a possible civil war to block the law of military cooperation. In July 2020 there was the bloody repression of the Oromo revolt that had also involved the capital Addis Ababa. A sign that the Abiy government was moving towards despotic and dictatorial positions. The ethnic tensions present in the country (including the Ogaden — Somali Region and Gambella) were carefully analysed by the Italian government but, despite the violent repression of the Oromo, it was not yet clear the totalitarian drift of the Prime Minister who, in words, remained anchored to its program of democratic reforms.
It was clear that Abiy was facing big problems but no one could foresee the next events. Preparations for the war in Tigray were carried out in great secrecy between Abiy, the Eritrean regime and the far-right Amhara leadership with the consent of the United Arab Emirates between August and October 2020. No foreign intelligence had enough data to predict this alliance and the subsequent conflict.
To my knowledge, the Italian government, while not repealing the law on military cooperation with Ethiopia (which remains in force), is not currently implementing any collaboration with the federal armed forces. In Ethiopia there is no presence of Italian military advisers and no Ethiopian soldiers are enjoying training in Italy or Ethiopia conducted by Italian military experts. There are no sales of weapons, communications systems, logistics vehicles, armed or surveillance drones and other war equipment.
At the contrary it must be clearly underlined that Italy, immediately after Tigray conflict first week, took sides for peace in Ethiopia by lobbying the European Union in order to impose a ceasefire and a national dialogue that did not include only Abyi and the TPLF but all Ethiopian political and social forces in order to peacefully resolve the various tensions avoiding the balkanization of Ethiopia.
It does not seem appropriate to accuse the Italian government of arms sales or military support that do not currently exist. Instead, it is advisable to monitor very carefully that no cooperation and arms sales regulated by the current law will be carried out until the conflict in Tigray will be peacefully resolved. A task that must be carried out by Italian civil society, by the Ethiopian diaspora in Italy, by Ethiopian civil society and by international associations in defence of human rights.
Accusing Italy of a military cooperation law which in fact is currently frozen due to the delicate situation in Ethiopia, means exposing our self (even in good faith) to political exploitation and war propaganda. It is holy and right to condemn the Italian government if will carries out arms sales or will activate military cooperation with the Addis Ababa government, but we cannot condemn it for a law signed between Sovereign States and temporarily frozen for prudence, just to avoid being co-responsible for the tragedy unfolding in Tigray.
