Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2014 22:14:20 +0200
Aid donors announce investigation into tribal evictions in Ethiopia
23 June 2014
Representatives of some of Ethiopia's biggest aid donors have announced that
they will send a team to the southwest of the country to investigate
persistent reports of human rights abuses amongst the tribes living there.
Survival International, the global movement for tribal peoples' rights, has
exposed how the <http://www.survivalinternational.org/tribes/omovalley/>
tribal people of the Lower Omo Valley are being persecuted and harassed to
<http://www.hrw.org/node/123131> force them off their land to make way for
cotton, oil palm and sugar cane plantations.
Many other organizations have published similar reports.
The plantations are made possible by the Gibe IIIhydroelectric dam, which is
itself <http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/9125> the subject of huge
controversy.
The dam, which is nearing completion, will have a serious impact on the
livelihoods of 500,000 tribal people, including those living around Kenya's
Lake Turkana.
It is also projected to have catastrophic environmental consequences for the
region, which is home to renowned UNESCO World Heritage sites on both sides
of the border.
Survival and other NGOs have repeatedly denounced the
<http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/9777> eviction of hundreds of
Bodi and Kwegu and continue to receive reports that people are being
intimidated into leaving their lands for resettlement camps.
The Ethiopian government has not sought or obtained the indigenous peoples'
free, prior and informed consent to move from their lands, in breach of the
guidelines for resettlement drawn up by the Development Assistance Group
(DAG), a consortium of the largest donors to Ethiopia, including the US, the
UK, Germany and the World Bank.
DAG provides significant financial assistance to the local administration
responsible for the forced evictions.
DAG has decided to return to the Lower Omo later this year to investigate
the situation, even though the evictions continue regardless of past donor
visits, the findings of which have often not been published.
This decision follows <http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/10094>
mounting worldwide concerns. European parliamentarians from
<http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+WQ+E-2014-
001202+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN> Italy,
<http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+WQ+E-2014-
004368+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN&language=es> Germany and
<http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=WQ&reference=E-2014-0043
67&format=XML&language=EN> the UK have asked questions in the European
Parliament, and MPs in the UK and Germany have raised their concerns with
various ministries.
<http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201314/ldhansrd/text/140310w0001
.htm#14031010000295> Parliamentary questions have also been tabled in the
UK.
In February the US Congress ruled that
<http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/9983> US taxpayers' money not be
used to fund forced resettlements in Lower Omo.
Following a lawsuit brought by Friends of Lake Turkana, the Kenyan courts
have ruled that the Kenyan government must release all information about the
deals it has made with Ethiopia about buying electricity generated by the
Gibe III dam.
Earlier this year, a UNESCO report recommended that Lake Turkana be
inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger.
<http://assets.survivalinternational.org/pictures/7950/eth-omo-el-mursi-2726
_screen.jpg> Bulldozers clearing Mursi land in Mago National Park, where
communities are being evicted from their land to make way for sugar
plantations.
Bulldozers clearing Mursi land in Mago National Park, where communities are
being evicted from their land to make way for sugar plantations.
C E. Lafforgue/Survival
<http://assets.survivalinternational.org/pictures/7954/eth-omo-el-daasanach-
9858_screen.jpg> Daasanach are being forced off their land to make way for
infrastructure development such as this giant pump at Omorate, which will
facilitate irrigation of the plantations.
Daasanach are being forced off their land to make way for infrastructure
development such as this giant pump at Omorate, which will facilitate
irrigation of the plantations.
C E. Lafforgue/Survival
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