http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2592534/Is-farcical-use-taxpayers-money-Ethiopian-gets-legal-aid-UK-sue-giving-aid-Ethiopia.html
Is this the most farcical use of taxpayers' money ever: Ethiopian gets
legal aid from UK - to sue us for giving aid to... Ethiopia
- *The farmer claims aid is funding a despotic one-party state in his
country*
- *Alleges regime is forcing thousands from their land using murder and
rape*
- *Prime Minister David Cameron says donations are a mark of compassion*
- *If farmer is successful, Ministers might have to review overseas
donations*
By Ian Birrell
*PUBLISHED:* 19:48 EST, 29 March 2014 | *UPDATED:* 08:45 EST, 30 March 2014
An Ethiopian farmer has been given legal aid in the UK to sue Britain -
because he claims millions of pounds sent by the UK to his country is
supporting a brutal regime that has ruined his life.
He says UK taxpayers' money - £1.3 billion over the five years of the
coalition Government - is funding a despotic one-party state in his country
that is forcing thousands of villagers such as him from their land using
murder, torture and rape.
The landmark case is highly embarrassing for the Government, which has
poured vast amounts of extra cash into foreign aid despite belt-tightening
austerity measures at home.
Prime Minister David Cameron claims the donations are a mark of Britain's
compassion.
But the farmer - whose case is set to cost tens of thousands of pounds -
argues that huge sums handed to Ethiopia are breaching the Department for
International Development's (DFID) own human rights rules.
He accuses the Government of devastating the lives of some of the world's
poorest people rather than fulfilling promises to help them. The case comes
amid growing global concern over Western aid propping up corrupt and
repressive regimes.
If the farmer is successful, Ministers might have to review major donations
to other nations accused of atrocities, such as Pakistan and Rwanda - and
it could open up Britain to compensation claims from around the world.
Ethiopia, a key ally in the West's war on terror, is the biggest recipient
of British aid, despite repeated claims from human rights groups that the
cash is used to crush opposition.
DFID was served papers last month by lawyers acting on behalf of 'Mr O', a
33-year-old forced to abandon his family and flee to a refugee camp in
Kenya after being beaten and tortured for trying to protect his farm.
He is not seeking compensation but to challenge the Government's approach
to aid. His name is being withheld to protect his wife and six children who
remain in Ethiopia.
'My client's life has been shattered by what has happened,' said Rosa
Curling, the lawyer handling the case. 'It goes entirely against what our
aid purports to stand for.'
Mr O's family was caught in controversial 'villagisation' programmes. Under
the schemes, four million people living in areas opposed to an autocratic
government dominated by men from the north of the country are being forced
from lucrative land into new villages.
Their land has been sold to foreign investors or given to Ethiopians with
government connections.
People resisting the soldiers driving them from their farms and homes at
gunpoint have been routinely beaten, raped, jailed, tortured or killed.
'Why is the West, especially the UK, giving so much money to the Ethiopian
government when it is committing atrocities on my people?' asked Mr O when
we met last year.
His London-based lawyers argue that DFID is meant to ensure recipients of
British aid do not violate human rights, and they have failed to properly
investigate the complaints.
Human Rights Watch has issued several scathing reports highlighting the
impact of villagisation and showing how Ethiopia misuses aid for political
purposes, such as diverting food and seeds to supporters.
Concern focuses on a massive scheme called Protection of Basic Services,
which is designed to upgrade public services and is part-funded by DFID.
Critics say this cash pays the salaries of officials implementing
resettlements and for infrastructure at new villages.
DFID officials have not interviewed Mr O, reportedly saying it is too risky
to visit the United Nations-run camp in Kenya where he is staying, and
refuse to make their assessments public.
A spokesman said they could not comment specifically on the legal action
but added: 'It is wrong to suggest that British development money is used
to force people from their homes. Our support to the Protection of Basic
Services programme is only used to provide healthcare, schooling, clean
water and other services.'
*BRUTALLY DRIVEN FROM HIS FERTILE LAND - AND HE BLAMES BRITAIN *
Intimidation: Riot police confront a man (not the claimant) near the
Tegbareed Industrial College as officers beat rock-throwing students during
a demonstration
As he showed me pictures on his mobile phone of his homeland, the tall,
bearded farmer smiled fondly. 'We were very happy growing up there and
living there,' he said. This was hardly surprising: the lush Gambela region
of Ethiopia is a fertile place of fruit trees, rivers and fissures of
gold, *writes
Ian Birrell*
That was the only smile when I met Mr O in the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya
last year. He told me how his simple family life had been destroyed in
seconds - and how he blames British aid for his misery. 'I miss my family
so much,' he said. 'I don't want to be relying on handouts - I want to be
productive.'
His nightmare began in November 2011 when Ethiopian troops accompanied by
officials arrived in his village and ordered everyone to leave for a new
location.
Men who refused were beaten and women were raped, leaving some infected
with HIV.
I met a blind man who was hit in the face and a middle-aged mother whose
husband was shot dead beside her - she still bore obvious the scars from
her own beating and rape by three soldiers.
Unlike their previous home, their new village had no food, water, school or
health facilities. They were not given farmland and there were just a few
menial jobs.
'The government was pretending it was about development,' said Mr O, 33.
'But they just want to push the indigenous people off so they can take our
land and gold.'
After speaking out against forced relocations and returning to his village,
Mr O was taken to a military camp where for three days he was gagged with a
sock in his mouth, severely kicked and beaten with rifle butts and sticks.
'I thought it would be better to die than to suffer like this,' he told
me.
Afterwards, like thousands of others, he fled the country; now he lives
amid the dust and squalor of the world's largest refugee camp. He says
their land was then given to relatives of senior regime figures and foreign
investors from Asia and the Middle East.
'I am very angry about this aid,' he said. 'Britain needs to check what is
happening to its money.
'I hope the court will act to stop the killing, stop the land-grabbing and
stop your Government supporting the Ethiopian government behind this.'
As the dignified Mr O said so sagely, what is happening in his country is
the precise opposite of development.
Received on Sun Mar 30 2014 - 10:12:41 EDT