http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/ethiopia/11202677/Britain-axes-aid-to-Ethiopian-police-amid-human-rights-outcry.html
Britain axes aid to Ethiopian police amid human rights outcry
Document warning that aid programme posed 'high' risk to human rights
deleted from Government website as £27 million aid scheme axed
Britain has given £1 billion in aid, including around £70 million for
“governance and security” projects, to the country over three years Photo:
SAUL LOEB/AFP
By Matthew Holehouse, Political Correspondent
10:00PM GMT 31 Oct 2014
Britain has suspended most of a £27 million aid programme to support
Ethiopia’s police force, The Telegraph has learnt, amid mounting
allegations of torture, rape and murder by the regime.
Ministers pulled the plug on a scheme intended to improve criminal
investigations, help Ethiopian police “interact with communities on local
safety” and help women access the justice system.
The cancellation coincides with an Amnesty International report that
documents how the Ethiopian security forces have conducted a campaign of
torture, mutilation, rape and murder in order to suppress political
opposition.
Britain has given £1 billion in aid, including around £70 million for
“governance and security” projects, to the country over three years.
Critics of the ruling regime have disappeared, and Amnesty International
found allegations of men being blinded and women being gang raped and burnt
with hot coals by regime officials.
There are mounting fears for the safety of Andy Tsege, a British national
and critic of the regime, who was abducted in Yemen before being tortured
and sentenced to death.
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The Department for International Development said the project was cancelled
because it did not represent “value for money” and because of “risk” in
getting it delivered on time.
It insisted that the cancellation of the project was entirely unrelated to
allegations of human rights abuses, and said the decision pre-dated the
Amnesty International report.
However, earlier this year an internal government assessment of the
programme warned it posed a “high” risk to human rights, upgrading it from
medium.
The document noted that the Government of Ethiopia appeared reluctant to
improve the human rights situation. “The underlying assumption of GoE’s
commitment to reform in the security sector is sensitive and subject to a
range of factors (e.g. terrorist attacks inside Ethiopia). In light of
this, we propose elevating the risk to ‘high’.”
It also warned that work had been “poor quality” with “weak value for
money”. There were “tensions” between British aid workers and the
Government of Ethiopia, with Ethiopian civil servants complaining over
being “overwhelmed” by paperwork. Work fell behind the timetable.
The document, an annual assessment of the scheme, was subsequently deleted
from the website.
DfID said the document was deleted because the programme had changed. The
decision to axe the programme went unannounced before inquiries from this
newspaper, despite mounting concern at the deteriorating situation in the
country.
A DfID spokesman said: “DFID has suspended major activities under the
Community Safety and Justice programme because of concerns about risk and
value for money. We are updating the website to reflect programme changes.”
One element of the scheme, run by Harvard University in measuring the
effectiveness of justice reforms, will continue to be funded by Britain.
The deletion of the documents was detected by Reprieve, the anti-death
penalty charity which is campaigning for Mr Tsege's release.
"While MrTsege is held in a secret prison in Ethiopia under sentence of
death, Dfid has inexplicably scrubbed alltraces of this funding from its
website," said Maya Foa, the head of the death penalty team. "The
Government should be using its extensive influence in Ethiopia to ensure
the safety of one of its nationals, not aiding the very forces responsible
for his detention - then removing the evidence.”
A blistering report on Thursday warned that British aid money is fuelling
corruption overseas. One development project in Nepal encouraged people to
forge documents to gain grants while police stations in Nigeria linked to
British aid were increasingly demanding bribes, the Independent Commission
on Aid Impact found.
Received on Sat Nov 01 2014 - 21:45:44 EDT