Indian companies are among the biggest land holders in the African country
through deals concluded in dubious circumstances
"It is not a land-grab, it is a life-grab. It is daylight robbery. But if we
protest, if we speak the truth, we could end up in jail or worse." Obang
Metho was referring to the leasing of land to foreign companies in Ethiopia,
spreading over nearly four million hectares. Nyikaw Ochalla joined in: "This
is happening in the lands I grew up in, and it is my relatives and childhood
friends who are being jailed, beaten up, and driven out; my childhood
memories are being violated."
Metho of the Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia, and Ochalla of the
Anuak Survival Organisation were speaking at the "Indian-Ethiopian Seminar
on Land Investments" organised on February 5-6, 2013 in New Delhi. The
seminar was put together by Indian civil society groups Indian Social Action
Forum (Insaf), Popular Education and Action Centre (Peace), and Kalpavriksh,
the research institution Council for Social Development, and the U.S.-based
research group Oakland Institute.
Indian stakes
The stories narrated by Obang and Ochalla were harrowing. The lands being
leased by the Ethiopian government to companies from India, China, Malaysia,
and other countries, were claimed by it to be "empty." In actual fact these
are areas occupied or used by pastoral and small farming communities, as
also grasslands and forests with significant wildlife. Decisions are being
taken in the country's capital to give up these lands ostensibly to help the
country produce food and generate revenues; the underlying message is that
either there is no one there to do the job, or that local communities are
simply not up to the mark.
Indian companies are among the biggest players in the land deals, with
investments of over $5 billion, and leases over 6,00,000 hectares. Karuturi
Global, a Bangalore-based agroproduce company has alone received 3,00,000
hectares. Claims by these companies and by the Ethiopian government that the
deals are legal and entail no human rights violations, have been shown as
false in a series of on-ground investigations. The Oakland Institute has
meticulously documented the nexus of corporations, politicians, investors,
and officials that has made the land-grab possible. It notes that there is
no public consultation with local communities (much less their consent),
many of whom find out that their pastures or fields have been sold off only
when bulldozers arrive. Any form of resistance or even questioning is met
with imprisonment, beating up, and even killing. Both private security
companies and the Ethiopian government's own forces are used to protect the
investors. And there is a total lack of environmental and social impact
assessments in these deals.
It is also stated sometimes that what Indian companies are doing abroad, is
not the responsibility of the government. But this ignores the various ways
in which the Indian government facilitates and supports such deals, not only
through diplomatic channels but also financially (even if indirectly). For
instance the Indian Export-Import Bank has pledged $640 million of credit
over five years for Ethiopia's sugar industry, and the fact that Indian
companies are getting the biggest deals for sugarcane plantations cannot be
unconnected.
Mass displacement
Obang and Ochalla were careful to clarify that they were not against India's
people, who they realised could not be supporting such land-grab; however,
for the affected communities, "it is Indians who are doing this to us." It
is therefore important for groups here to question the intentions and
actions of Indian companies and the Indian government agencies supporting
them. Does their behaviour in Ethiopia meet the laws or guidelines under
which Indian companies act within their own country? Does it meet
international standards of human rights and environmental sustainability
that India is a signatory to?
Over the next couple of years, the Ethiopian government plans to forcibly
move 1.5 million people off their homelands and concentrate them into a few
settlements in a process called "villagisation." It claims that this will
enable it to provide efficient and good quality services like drinking
water, sanitation, schools, and clinics, which is not possible in the case
of today's scattered, small settlements. But Obang and Ochalla point out
that all the relocation is taking place from lands targeted by investor
companies, and that even where communities are saying they would much rather
stay where they are with whatever amenities they have, they are being
forcibly moved out.
The claim that such investments are a "win-win" deal for the Ethiopian
people and Indian companies is also questionable. Much of the production
(sugarcane, cotton, jatropha, etc) is meant for export, and local foodgrains
which are the staple diet are not being grown. Very little local employment
is created; there is no requirement by the Ethiopian government that
companies have to hire locally. Nor is there any contractual clause by which
the money generated is to remain within the Ethiopian economy. A handful of
businessmen and politicians are the prime beneficiaries.
Obang and Ochalla were at pains to state that part of the blame for this
sell-out is located within the country's own history, in which sometimes
adverse relations between different tribes have become entrenched in the
political system. The country's ruling elite are from a tiny minority
belonging to one ethnic group, who can ignore the sufferings of other groups
affected by land-grab. In this sense, it is the Ethiopian people themselves
who have to resolve the problem. But there is also an important role for
India's people, especially in highlighting the role of their own companies
and government, and facilitating greater awareness of what is taking place
in the name of Ethiopia's development.
Odisha parallel
What is happening in Ethiopia (and other African countries) is an outcome of
India's own aggressive push towards globalised economic growth. The growth
fetish has led to situations of both internal and external colonisation, in
which farms, waterbodies, forests, grasslands and other natural resources
are all up for grabs.
It was an ironical coincidence that on the very days the consultations on
Indian land-grab in Ethiopia were taking place in New Delhi, police action
was under way to forcibly evict villagers in Odisha to make way for the
Korean multinational Posco. Representatives of movements from Jharkhand,
Karnataka and elsewhere told Obang and Ochalla that they were facing similar
repression while resisting forcible takeover by the government or by
corporations. The currently dominant model of "development" is pushing such
violence across the globe, wherever dominant nation-states and giant
corporations are eyeing land and resources.
In such a situation, people in India who care for human rights, ecological
sustainability, and basic justice, have to raise fundamental critiques of
"development" and centralised governance, and work towards radical
alternatives that secure the rights of all people to food, water, shelter,
energy, learning, health and livelihoods. Such alternatives are already
demonstrated to be feasible at thousands of sites across the world, but it
requires a mindset change for both the Ethiopian and Indian governments to
facilitate the empowerment of local communities to adopt them, rather than
paving the way for corporate takeover. Neither the founders of India nor of
Ethiopia would have dreamt of a future in which development takes place at
gunpoint.
