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From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Wed Dec 22 2010 - 09:20:21 EST
Ethiopian Donors May Further Probe Allegations That Government Misused Aid
By William Davison -
Dec 22, 2010 11:45 AM GMT+0100 Mon Dec 20 10:45:14 GMT 2010
Major donors to Ethiopia may renew a probe into claims the government has
used aid to silence the opposition after <http://www.hrw.org/> Human Rights
Watch called on them to investigate its allegations further.
In an October report, New York-based Human Rights Watch said the government
used "donor-supported programs" to control political opponents by denying
them access to land, credit, fertilizers, food aid and other resources. In
an e-mailed statement on Dec. 17, the group called on donors to investigate
the claims themselves.
The Development Assistance Group Ethiopia, which is based in Addis Ababa and
made up of 26 donors, met recently to discuss the allegations, Sandra
Baldwin, deputy director of the U.K. Department for International
Development Ethiopia, said by phone on Dec. 18. Baldwin didn't rule out
field research to investigate specific claims of abuse.
The donor group "has been actively discussing the additional work to follow
up on the earlier" report into the abuse allegations,
<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Ken%20Ohashi&site=wnews&client=wnews&p
roxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=
wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1&partialfields=-wnnis:NOAVSYND&lr=-lang_ja> Ken
Ohashi, the World Bank's country director for Ethiopia, said in an e-mailed
response to questions. A government spokesman was not immediately available
to comment.
The group said in an October statement it didn't "concur with the
conclusions" of Human Rights Watch's report that alleged widespread,
systematic abuse of development aid.
"Our study did not generate any evidence of systematic or widespread
distortion," said the donor group, which includes the World Bank,
International Monetary Fund and the U.S.
Human Rights Watch says the Horn of Africa nation, which has been ruled by
former rebels since 1991, is one of the world's largest recipients of
foreign aid, getting about $3.3 billion annually from 2004 through 2008.
In May elections, Prime Minister
<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Meles%20Zenawi&site=wnews&client=wnews
&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfield
s=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1&partialfields=-wnnis:NOAVSYND&lr=-lang_ja> Meles
Zenawi's ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front and its
allies won 545 out of 547 parliamentary seats. A European Union observation
mission said the poll "did not meet certain international commitments." The
government has rejected criticism and said the process was free and fair.
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