From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Wed Mar 03 2010 - 07:52:01 EST
Ethiopia famine aid 'spent on weapons'
Video: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8535189.stm
By Martin Plaut
Africa analyst, BBC News
Wednesday, 3 March 2010
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Millions of dollars in Western aid for victims of the Ethiopian famine of
1984-85 was siphoned off by rebels to buy weapons, a BBC investigation
finds.
Former rebel leaders told the BBC that they posed as merchants in meetings
with charity workers to get aid money.
They used the cash to fund attempts to overthrow the government of the time.
One rebel leader estimated $95m (£63m) - from Western governments and
charities including Band Aid - was channelled into the rebel fight.
The CIA, in a 1985 assessment entitled Ethiopia: Political and Security
Impact of the Drought, also alleged aid money was being misused.
Its report concluded: "Some funds that insurgent organisations are raising
for relief operations, as a result of increased world publicity, are almost
certainly being diverted for military purposes."
Multiple rebellions
The crisis in 1984 prompted a huge Western relief effort, spearheaded by pop
star Bob Geldof's Band Aid campaign and Live Aid concerts.
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Although millions of people were saved by the aid that poured into the
country, evidence suggests not all of the aid went to the most needy.
At the time, the Ethiopian government was fighting rebellions in the
northern provinces of Eritrea and Tigray.
Much of the countryside was outside of government control, so relief
agencies brought aid in from neighbouring Sudan.
Some was in the form of food, some as cash, to buy grain from Ethiopian
farmers in areas that were still in surplus.
Max Peberdy, an aid worker from Christian Aid, carried nearly $500,000 in
Ethiopian currency across the border in 1984.
He used it to buy grain from merchants and believes that none of the aid was
diverted.
"It's 25 years since this happened, and in the 25 years it's the first time
anybody has claimed such a thing," he says.
He insists that to the best of his knowledge, the food went to feed the
starving. But the merchant Mr Peberdy dealt with in that transaction claims
he was, in fact, a senior member of the Tigray People's Liberation Front
(TPLF).
"I was given clothes to make me look like a Muslim merchant. This was a
trick for the NGOs," says Gebremedhin Araya.
Underneath the sacks of grain he sold, he says, were sacks filled with sand.
He says he handed over the money he received to TPLF leaders, including
Meles Zenawi - the man who went on to become Ethiopia's prime minister in
1991.
Mr Meles, who is still in office, has declined to comment on the
allegations.
But Mr Gebremedhin's version of events is supported by the TPLF's former
commander, Aregawi Berhe.
Now living in exile in the Netherlands, he says the rebels put on what he
describes as a "drama" to get the money.
"The aid workers were fooled," he says.
He says that some $100m went through the hands of the TPLF and affiliated
groups.
Some 95% of it was allocated to buying weapons and building up a hard-line
Marxist political party within the rebel movement.
Both Mr Aregawi and Mr Gebremedhin fell out with the TPLF leadership and
fled the country.
Gebremedhin Araya and Max Peberdy
Gebremedhin Araya (L) says he posed as a merchant, but was in fact a rebel
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CIA INTELLIGENCE
CIA report into Ethiopia aid crisis
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/img/v3/start_quote_rb.gifSome funds that
insurgent organisations are raising for relief operations, as a result of
increased world publicity, are almost certainly being diverted for military
purposes http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/img/v3/end_quote_rb.gif
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/img/v3/inline_dashed_line.gif
Read
<http://www.foia.cia.gov/search.asp?pageNumber=2&freqReqRecord=undefined&ref
inedText=drought&freqSearchText=undefined&txtSearch=Ethiopia+drought&exactPh
rase=undefined&allWords=undefined&anyWords=undefined&withoutWords=undefined&
documentNumber=undefined&startCreatedMonth=&startCreatedDay=&startCreatedYea
r=&endCreatedMonth=&endCreatedDay=&endCreatedYear=0&startReleasedMonth=&star
tReleasedDay=&startReleasedYear=&endReleasedMonth=&endReleasedDay=&endReleas
edYear=0&sortOrder=DESC> the entire document
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