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From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Fri Aug 05 2011 - 11:34:08 EDT
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2011/aug/05/ethiopia-aid-political-tool-opposition
Ethiopia 'using aid as a political tool'
BBC report alleges the government is withholding aid from opposition
supporters and committing human right abuses
Mark Tran
guardian.co.uk, Friday 5 August 2011 15.45 BST
Article history
Development aid in Ethiopia is alleged to have been withheld from those
opposed to the government. These are longer-term funds aimed at poverty
reduction, not the emergency aid currently needed to help those affected by
the famine.
A joint undercover team from BBC's Newsnight and the bureau of investigative
journalism at London's City University, travelled to Addis Ababa, the
capital, and the south, posing as tourists. They spoke to farmers in the
south who supported the opposition. The farmers said they were deprived of
fertiliser and seed for their crops. The team also found evidence that
people had been tortured for their political beliefs. An opposition
politician described scenes of torture, men hung upside down, immersed in
water and given electric shocks.
The Ethiopian embassy in London refuted (pdf) the allegations.
The Newsnight report on Thursday contained interviews with women who said
they had been raped by soldiers and men who said they had been tortured in
prison. The women were among the growing number of Ethiopian refugees
fleeing the worst drought in the Horn of Africa in 60 years.
One Ethiopian grandmother of four, who arrived at the Dadaab refugee camp in
northern Kenya last month, said how soldiers killed her son in front of her
and than jailed her for one-and-a-half years during which she was repeatedly
raped. Another woman at Dadaab who had been accused of being a supporter of
the Ogaden National Liberation Front, a rebel group, said soldiers stamped
on her stomach when she was eight months pregnant, killing her child.
The charges echo those carried in a report by Human Right Watch (HRW) last
year, which said local officials routinely deny government support to
opposition supporters and civil society activists, including rural residents
who need food aid.
The report said foreign aid-funded "capacity-building" programmes are used
by the government to indoctrinate schoolchildren, intimidate teachers and
purge the civil service of people with independent political views.
HRW said political repression was particularly pronounced leading up to
parliamentary elections in May 2010, in which the ruling party, led by Prime
Minister Meles Zenawi, won 99.6% of the seats. The report was based on
interviews with more than 200 people in 53 villages across three regions
during a six-month investigation in 2009.
Farmers told HRW how they were denied access to agricultural aid,
micro-loans, seeds and fertilisers because they did not support the ruling
party. One farmer in Amhara region was quoted as saying: "[Village] leaders
have publicly declared that they will single out opposition members, and
those identified as such will be denied 'privileges'. By that they mean that
access to fertilisers, 'safety net' and even emergency aid will be denied."
Ethiopia is heavily dependent on foreign aid, receiving $3.9bn in 2009. The
World Bank and donor nations provide direct support to district governments
in Ethiopia for basic services such as health, education, agriculture and
water, and support a "food-for-work" programme for some of the country's
poorest people. The EU, the US, Britain and Germany are the largest
bilateral donors.
Following the Newsnight programme, the UK international development
minister, Stephen O'Brien, said: "We take all allegations of human rights
abuses extremely seriously and raise them immediately with the relevant
authorities, including the Ethiopian government, with whom we have a candid
relationship. Where there is evidence, we take firm and decisive action. The
British aid programme helps the people of Ethiopia, 30 million of whom live
in extreme poverty. We demand full accountability and maximum impact on the
ground for support from the British taxpayer."
The Ethiopian embassy in London said in a statement: "The Ethiopian
government refutes absolutely the allegation that there is a policy or
practice of extra-judicial killings, arbitrary arrest and routine torture by
the police, prison officers and other members of the security services and
the military. The Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF) fully understands
the importance of serving the cause of the people."
On the charge that aid is being denied to opposition supporters, the embassy
said the claim had been refuted, not just by the Ethiopian government, but
by the donors' assistance group (DAG), a consortium of 26 donor governments
and international organisations, after it had made thorough investigations.
Britain gave £214.3m in aid to Ethiopia in 2009-10. In its operational plan
for Ethiopia, covering the next four years, the Department for International
Development said: "The Ethiopian government is capable and committed to
growth and development, and is a proven partner in making rapid progress
towards the millennium development goals. But its approach to political
governance presents both substantive challenges to sustainable development
and reputational risks to partners."
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