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From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Wed Nov 03 2010 - 13:27:24 EST
Rights Report on Ethiopia Sparks Fierce Debate
Peter Heinlein | Addis Ababa 03 November 2010
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http://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/Rights-Report-on-Ethiopia-Sparks-
Fierce-Debate-106611813.html
A U.S.-based human rights group has raised an uproar with a report arguing
that development assistance to Ethiopia may be doing more harm than good by
strengthening a repressive government. The report has sparked condemnation
in some quarters, praise in others.
The Human Rights Watch report issued last month accuses Ethiopia's
government of using development aid to suppress political dissent. The
105-page document alleges that much of the $3 billion a year contributed by
foreign donors is used to consolidate the power of the ruling Ethiopian
Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front.
Ethiopian government spokesmen did not answer repeated phone calls seeking
comment on the report. The government, however, launched a scathing
counterattack online. Statements posted on the foreign ministry website
accuse Human Rights Watch of "unbridled arrogance" and "warped
neo-colonialism."
One statement calls the allegations a "make believe" story that is part of a
"vendetta" against the Ethiopian people. Another accuses the rights group of
trying to bully the international aid community into halting cooperation
with Addis Ababa.
A consortium of 25 aid donors, known as the Development Assistance Group,
issued a statement saying it disagrees with the conclusions in the HRW
report. The DAG, as the assistance group is known, said its own independent
study earlier this year uncovered no evidence of widespread or systematic
aid distortion.
The full DAG study posted on the group's website, though, paints a different
picture. It states that its study was a "desk-top" exercise - not an
investigation - and no specific allegations were checked.
The study notes that a fact-finding mission late last year by the U.S.
Agency for International Development observed the potential for political
bias in the allocation of aid. It recommended further analysis to determine
if systematic distortion takes place on the basis of political affiliation.
The United States is Ethiopia's largest individual aid donor, giving an
estimated $1.3 billion per year. USAID Country Director Thomas Staal said
the types of distortion alleged in the HRW report would be difficult for a
donor study to detect.
"To us, the important thing is to make sure the programs are well managed,
closely monitored with strict accountability systems, and you're building
institutions that can make sure programs are meeting the goals, targets and
beneficiaries intended," said Staal. "And you cannot go after individual
cases of an allegation here and there."
Authors of the Human Rights Watch report call the Development Assistance
Group's response to their allegations "disingenuous." In a telephone
interview, HRW Horn of Africa Senior Researcher Leslie Lefkow said the aid
community has been timid in confronting Ethiopia's government with charges
of misusing aid money.
"This is one of the ironies of research we did, and the discussions we had
with officials before we published this report, is that many of them
privately acknowledge the characterization of the regime as repressive. They
acknowledge these characteristics privately, but publicly there is no
appetite for voicing this analysis."
Ethiopian opposition leader Bulcha Demeksa is a former World Bank director
and a long-time senior official of the United Nations Development agency. He
said the ruling party's access to vast sums of cash during the last election
should have been a red flag to donors that aid money was involved.
"I do not understand how they cannot see the huge amount of money that was
spent in elections this year," said Demeksa. "Where does this money come
from? Ethiopia, all by itself, cannot sustain that. I believe this money was
from the various types of aid coming from donors."
Demeksa said political payments were so widespread during the election that
anyone not receiving money was socially ostracized. "In my own district I
know very well ... and there is no house this has not touched. People are
now afraid if they think somebody has not received money, and is not a
thorough EPRDF supporter, nobody goes to his house, he is not invited to
weddings, social functions."
Lefkow said the ruling party's influence has grown exponentially in recent
years. "Between 2005 and 2010, the party increased its membership to between
4 million and 5 million, that is one in seven adults, which means in most
families you have a party member, and in most kebeles (village districts)
every household probably has a party member. So I do not think it is an
exaggeration to say the party has essentially infiltrated every layer of
Ethiopian society."
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi rejects characterizations of Ethiopia as a "one
party state." He describes it as a dominant party state.
In parliamentary elections this year, the EPRDF and its allies won 99.6
percent of the seats. In village and regional council elections two years
ago, the party won all but three of nearly 3 million seats.
Ethiopia remains one of the world's poorest countries, though official
figures show the economy has grown 10 percent or more in each of the past
seven years.
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