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From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Thu Dec 02 2010 - 09:21:51 EST
http://www.europeanvoice.com/article/imported/turning-a-blind-eye-to-ethiopia/69608.aspx
Turning a blind eye to Ethiopia
02.12.2010 / 04:15 CET
The EU is misusing taxpayers' money and letting down those who fight for
justice and democracy.
Since European Voice's last article on Ethiopia, the EU Election Observation
Mission (EOM) has published its final report on the general elections held
in Ethiopia this May. The report, finally published on 8 November, found
that “the electoral process fell short of international commitments for
elections, notably regarding the transparency of the process and the lack of
a level playing-field for all contesting parties”.
The conclusion was unsurprising. The electoral results, with 99.6% in favour
of the ruling party, speak for themselves. And the Ethiopian government
itself clearly expected criticism: it refused to allow the report to be
launched in Addis Ababa, causing the launch to be delayed by several months
and to be held in Brussels.
For me, it was a shock that the EU had even decided to observe the 2010
ballot, because the previous elections in 2005 had been stolen and political
freedoms have been strangled ever since.
And yet, despite the evidence of five years and despite the entirely
unrealistic results, Catherine Ashton, the EU's foreign policy chief, issued
a softly worded statement in which she referred to the election as “an
important moment in the democratic process” in Ethiopia. This was a
statement designed to sustain a ‘business as usual' policy, rather than a
reflection of political dynamics in Ethiopia.
I led the EU's election observation mission in 2005. The campaign was
relatively open, but, once confronted with a landslide victory by the
opposition in the capital, the party of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi
manipulated the vote count.
In the aftermath of the 2005 poll, more than 200 demonstrators were
massacred and thousands were arrested, including virtually all the major
opposition leaders (many of whom remained jailed until mid-2007). Waves of
people then fled, depriving Ethiopia of real opposition. In 2008, Zenawi
re-arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment an opposition leader,
Birtukan Mideksa. She was released only in October, after this year's
election and after she was nominated for the European Parliament's Sakharov
Prize for Freedom of Thought 2010.
Critical voices were also silenced by several pieces of legislation before
this year's ballot. The 2009 Charities and Societies Proclamation, which
Human Rights Watch considers to be more restrictive than similar legislation
in Zimbabwe or Russia, resulted in all independent NGOs ceasing human-rights
activities or simply closing down. Together with the lack of media freedom,
this means that no single credible reporting source remains on the ground.
The Anti-Terrorism Proclamation is another ploy to further restrict
fundamental freedoms.
And yet, strikingly, aid to Ethiopia has increased significantly at the same
time as its human-rights situation has deteriorated drastically. Despite the
blood on his hands, Zenawi was invited to the G8 meeting in Gleneagles in
2005 and to subsequent G8 meetings aimed at fighting poverty, to speak about
good governance and sustainable development. Western leaders, it seems,
delight in politically correct jargon, and disregard deeds.
Despite its violation of the principles of the Cotonou Agreement with the
EU, Ethiopia is now one of the largest beneficiaries of EU support and the
second-largest recipient of global aid, after Indonesia and excluding
war-affected Iraq and Afghanistan. A recent Human Rights Watch report (see
“How Europe contributes to Ethiopia's repression”, 21-27 October) describes
how EU assistance contributes to political repression, as the government is
handing out aid in exchange for party support.
The EU must investigate these extremely serious claims. If the Ethiopian
government does not allow it to do so, the EU should suspend budgetary aid
and some aid programmes. The EU should, in particular, end the awkward modus
operandi in which donors allow government-controlled agencies to distribute
aid without independent monitoring.
More broadly, the reluctance of the EU to speak out against Zenawi's regime
highlights the false clash between human rights, development and stability
interests.
Western leaders like to present Ethiopia as a success story of development
assistance, and trust this ‘aid darling' as a partner in the fight against
terrorism, portraying it as a crucial actor for stability in the Horn of
Africa.
Zenawi's rule is, in fact, a source of regional instability, since he
refuses to accept international arbitration on the border dispute with
Eritrea. This provides the even more brutal regime of his distant cousin,
Issayas Afwerki, with an excuse to meddle and cause trouble anywhere.
By turning a blind eye to gross human-rights violations, fraudulent
elections, and the impact of Ethiopian policies on neighbours such as
Eritrea and Somalia, the EU is not only misusing taxpayers' money, but
supporting an illegitimate status quo, letting down those who fight for
justice and democracy, and increasing the potential for internal and
regional conflict.
Ana Gomes MEP
Brussels
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