Date: Fri, 30 Sep 2016 01:16:41 +0200
Eight security forces killed in western Ethiopia
ESAT News (September 29, 2016)
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ESAT DC Morning News Thur 29 Sep 2016
Eight security forces have reportedly been killed in Benishangul Gumuz region, western Ethiopia, following clashes with the local people in an area known as Sherkolle, whose land has been give to gold prospectors from Tigray region.
Over one thousand investors, all from Tigray, were recently given large tracts of land in the region to explore gold which angered the locals, who were displaced to pave way for the prospectors. At least 25 locals have sustained injuries, chairman of the Benishangul People’s Liberation Movement told ESAT.
Yosef Hamid said over a thousand members of the regime’s military officials have moved and settled in Sherkolle to explore gold but the locals have refused to leave their land, leading to the deadly clashes.
Tensions have remained high in the area, Hamid said.
The TPLF-led regime has given hundreds of thousands of hectares of land in Benishangul, Gambella, and south Omo regions to exclusively Tigrians and few cronies of the regime displacing thousands of indigenous people from their land.
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Ethiopian regime accused of denying food aid to protesters
Anuradha Mittal
ESAT News (September 29, 2016)
There is ample evidence that the Ethiopian regime uses food aid as a political tool, Anuradha Mittal, founder and executive director of the Oakland Institute said on Thursday.
In an exclusive interview with ESAT in connection with the release of a new report on Ethiopia, “Miracle or Mirage? Manufacturing Hunger and Poverty in Ethiopia,” Mittal said her institute found out that people who have taken part in protests would not be given food aid.
“We definitely found evidence that people who were protesting, who do not want to be removed from their land would not be given food aid,” she said.
“In fact the ones who have been moved were told that they could not grow any food and were actually dependent on food aid,” she added.
The new report “exposes how authoritarian development schemes have perpetuated cycles of poverty, food insecurity, and marginalized the country’s most vulnerable citizens,” the Institute said in a release on Wednesday.
The report also debunks the myth that the country is the new “African Lion.” Anuradha Mittal said the new report basically provided irrefutable evidence that despite the claims of double digit growth the regime has been making and the praise being showered by donors, the World Bank, US and UK, the truth is that each year 8-18 million people in the last decade depended on food aid.
“The whole development paradigm that the country boasts about has not really helped the poorest. It has been able to hide widespread hunger and poverty by assistance from its donors,” Mittal argued.
She further noted that the development policies of the regime, not El Nino, was mainly to be blamed for the food crises. “It is really the development policies, which focused on promoting large scale agricultural plantation such as cotton and sugarcane, which do not feed people.”
Mittal also argued that the current political crises in Ethiopia had to with the whole development scheme that the regime put in place. “Protest has spread, not just in Gambella or lower Omo, but the Oromos, the Amharas and everyone has united to challenge the government policies.”
The regime’s development strategy of leasing millions of hectares of land to foreign investors at the expense of its own citizens has been described by the expert as “the worst mistake that the Ethiopian government could have made.” The strategy has “increased poverty, it has increased insecurity among those communities. It has caused more conflict where resources are shrinking.”
Mittal stressed that the Ethiopian regime, in a very repressive manner, continued to violet the human rights of its own citizens, deny them their livelihood “so few can get rich in the country.”
“The anti-government protests, which threaten the country and regional political stability, are a powerful testimony that Ethiopia’s broken development model needs to be immediately overhauled,” according to the new report.
Oakland Institute is an independent policy think tank, bringing fresh ideas and bold action to the most pressing social, economic, and environmental issues of our time, according to its website.
Anuradha Mittal, founder and executive director of the Oakland Institute, is an internationally renowned expert on trade, development, human rights and agriculture issues. Recipient of several awards, Anuradha Mittal was named as the Most Valuable Thinker in 2008 by the Nation magazine, according to her profile.
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U.S. think tank says Tigrians have lion’s share in Ethiopia’s economy
ESAT News (September 28, 2016)
The Heritage Foundation’s 2016 Index of Economic Freedom reported that economic gains inEthiopia were not evenly shared among all ethnic groups as Tigrians have a much larger share of the pie.
The foundation noted that EPRDF is “increasingly dividing the economic pie mostly among theirown Tigray brethren.”
Whatever economic progress Ethiopia achieved “has not been enjoyed evenly by all of the roughly 80 ethnic groups in the country,” the report said.
“More Economic Freedom Could Mean Less Civil Strife in Ethiopia,” said James M. Roberts, Research Fellow in Freedom and Growth at The Heritage Foundation’s Center for International Trade and Economics.
According to the foundation, Ethiopians deserve a better government than the one that hasdominated political and economic life for a quarter of a century.
The Heritage index recalled that the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front(EPRDF) and its allies in the Tigray ethnic group claimed all 547 seats in the May 2015 parliamentary elections. “Today, little remains of democracy in Ethiopia after the passage of laws that repress political opposition, tighten control of civil society, and suppress independentmedia.” the Index said.
The Index stressed that the TPLF should “address the deficiencies noted by the Index of Economic Freedom, especially with regard to stronger rule of law, more transparency in the investment regime, and more competition in the banking sector.”
Founded in 1973, The Heritage Foundation is a research and educational institution—a think tank—whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on theprinciples of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional Americanvalues, and a strong national defense, according the website of the Foundation.