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From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Fri Aug 05 2011 - 11:25:33 EDT
Ethiopia Aid Exposed
Analysis: Europe’s taxpayers fund abuses in Ethiopia
August 4th, 2011 | by Ana Gomes
The EU Election Observation Mission (EUEOM) in Ethiopia assessed in
2010 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’.
An unsurprising conclusion: results of 99.6% in favour of the ruling party
reflected the lack of credibility of the elections. Tellingly also, the
Ethiopian government refused to allow the EUEOM report to be launched in
Addis Ababa, as it had already refused in 2005.
*Elections 2010*
For anyone familiar with Ethiopia, it was highly disturbing that the EU
decided to observe the 2010 ballot. Previous elections in 2005 had been
stolen and followed up with brutal repression, as the EUEOM denounced at the
time.
I led the more than 200-strong team of observers of the EUEOM in May 2005.
The electoral campaign had been relatively open and citizens flocked to the
polling stations massively, as never seen before.
But once confronted with a landslide victory for the opposition in the
capital, the ruling party, Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front
(EPRDF), prevented EU observers from continuing to watch the vote counting
in rural areas and the aggregation and tabulation at the national level.
Overnight, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi imposed a curfew, forced independent
media to shut down and declared victory in the next days, bypassing the
National Electoral Commission.
In Addis Ababa alone more than 200 peaceful protesters were massacred on
June 8 and on November 2.
*Crackdown on critics
*Thousands were wounded and thousands more were arrested throughout the
country.
Hardest hit were the most oppressed regions, such as Oromia, Gambela and
Ogaden.
All main opposition leaders remained jailed until mid-2007.
Waves of people have been fleeing the violence since then, depriving
Ethiopia of real opposition.
In 2008 Meles Zenawi re-arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment a brave
young woman who persisted in leading a main opposition party, Birtukan
Mideksa<http://www.amnesty.org/en/individuals-at-risk/write-for-rights/birtukan-mideksa>,
preventing her from running for the 2010 elections.
**All critical voices were silenced: the 2009 Charities and Societies
Proclamation, which Human Rights Watch (HRW) considered more restrictive
than similar legislation in Zimbabwe or Russia, drove all independent NGOs
to cease human-rights activities or close down.
Ethiopian and foreign journalists were jailed, intimidated or expelled, as
was in 2006 Anthony Mitchell, an outstanding British reporter for AP, now
deceased.
Meles Zenawi boasts that his regime jams radio’s ‘Voice of America’ and
‘Deutsche Welle’.
*Conspicuous silence*
Despite the blood being fresh on his hands from the June 8 massacre, Zenawi
was invited by Tony Blair to join the G8 meeting at Gleneagles in 2005. He
was never shunned to speak internationally about good governance,
sustainable development, the fights against poverty and against climate
change.
Meles practices none at home, where the people are now confronted with the
devastating impact of the land grabbing promoted by his regime.
Western leaders, yet, delight in politically correct jargon and disregard
reality and deeds. So does the African Union, well placed to know, with
headquarters in Addis Ababa. Or the UN and the World Bank, keeping
conspicuously silent.
Despite violating human rights clauses in the Cotonou Agreement biding it
with the EU, Ethiopia continues to be one of the largest beneficiaries of
European support and the second largest recipient of global aid, after
Indonesia if you exclude war-affected Iraq and Afghanistan.
*In the interests of ‘stability’*
Human Rights Watch published in October 2010 the report ‘How Europe
contributes to Ethiopia’s
repression’<http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/10/22/how-europe-contributes-ethiopia-s-repression>,
describing how the Ethiopian government ensures that aid is handed out in
exchange for support for the ruling political party, without EU monitoring.
Despite European Parliament concerns, the EU Commission and Council did not
even bother to investigate these extremely serious claims.
Western leaders resist speaking up against Zenawi’s repressive regime by
invoking stability interests. Besides attempting to depict Ethiopia as a
success story of development assistance, EU and the US like to portray their
‘aid darling’ as a partner in the fight against terrorism and a crucial
actor for stability in the Horn of Africa.
*Turning a blind eye*
But Zenawi’s rule is, in fact, a source of regional instability, as Somalia
is showing. As many predicted, the Al Shabab militia have only grown
stronger and survival has been made more difficult, as current famine
attests, since Ethiopian troops invaded in 2006, at the behest of George W.
Bush.
Western leaders also refuse to put pressure on Zenawi to abide by the
international arbitration on the border demarcation with Eritrea. This
provides his cousin, Isaias Afewerki, with an excuse to repress even more
brutally the Eritrean people and to keep meddling in conflicts anywhere in
the region, from Somalia to Sudan.
By turning a blind eye to gross human-rights violations, fraudulent
elections, impoverishment and dispossession in Ethiopia and on the impact of
Ethiopian policies on neighbours, the EU is not only misusing European
taxpayers’ money, but supporting an illegitimate status quo, letting down
all those who fight for justice and democracy and increasing the potential
for conflict in Ethiopia and in Africa.
*Ana Gomes MEP, August 2011*
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