Ethiopia's chief diplomat, Minister of Foreign Affairs Seyoum Mesfin, said racist comments that angered Ethiopians working at the United States Embassy here in Addis Ababa, do not affect the two states' bilateral ties.
Leah Emerson Barry Blog - a post regularly written by American national -Emerson Barry- has angered hundreds of Ethiopians working in the US Embassy compound after the writer repeatedly posted racially prejudiced comments including mocking the Ethiopian Christian Orthodox Church and Muslim faithful religious practices.
Emerson is a wife of Brendan Barry, who was until recently stationed here in Addis Ababa and employed by B.L. Harbert International Construction Company. B.L. Harbert International, the private American company, is constructing new buildings inside the premises of the US Embassy as part of the 280 million dollar deal it secured from the State Department to design and build three new U.S. embassies including the one in Ethiopia.
Mrs. Emerson has extended her racially charged posts against Ethiopian and Africans for months resulting in some 600 workers engaged at the embassy construction site to go on strike in protest.  
When the Ethiopian workers hired by the private construction company for the Addis Ababa U.S embassy construction site stopped working last Monday the embassy went public about the incident. "The embassy took no action other than making sure that the perimeter of the embassy was secured; the dispute was between the workers at the construction site and the private company who is employing them," Michael Gonzales, US Embassy spokesperson, commented to Capital.
According to Gonzales, after the content of the blogs became known, B.L. Harbert International asked Mr. Barry to leave Ethiopia immediately, as of last Thursday, December 17. Mrs. Barry, who reportedly was teaching at the International Community School, aka the American School in Addis Ababa, remained in the United States where she left two weeks ago for vacation. According to Gonzales she too will not return to Ethiopia anytime soon.
"She is a private American citizen who exercised, I would argue poor judgment in,” her freedom of speech when expressing her comments. With freedom comes responsibility and she and her family are now having to deal with the consequences of what she wrote, primarily being asked to leave the country by the company that brought them here," Gonzales said adding that the views expressed are not consistent with both the US government's and the company's values.
The Ethiopian Government who remained sober through the course of the week said that, though the remarks could potentially entail criminal charges, it only considers it as an irresponsible act of an ordinary foreign national.
When asked if the incident could damage Ethio-American ties, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Seyoum said it doesn't and out rightly rejected such assessments. "They are not even government employees, they are simply contractors working at a construction site," Seyoum commented to Capital.
"Assume there is an Ethiopian individual in the States and that individual expressed his view on what American society is. How can American establishment attribute it as all Ethiopians' and Ethiopian public establishments' attitude? It cannot. Some people expressed their views which are extremely racist and damaging. That must not be tolerated but it has nothing to do with Ethiopian and American relations," the minister said adding that his country's ties with the United States are solely based on shared values and common interest.