From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Fri Nov 20 2009 - 07:51:55 EST
U.S. to Increase Inspections of Food Aid to Ethiopia
By Jason McLure
Nov. 20 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. will increase inspections of food aid
deliveries to <http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/africa/ethiopia_pol99.jpg>
Ethiopians after complaints by members of the country's opposition that its
members are routinely denied access to foreign aid, a U.S. State Department
official said.
"We are very much concerned about it," Karl Wycoff, a deputy assistant
secretary of state, told reporters today in the Ethiopian capital, Addis
Ababa. "We are aware of the reports and we take such reports very, very
seriously."
President
<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Barack+Obama%3Fs&site=wnews&client=wne
ws&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfie
lds=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1> Barack Obama's administration is also worried
that the Prime Minister
<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Meles+Zenawi%3Fs&site=wnews&client=wne
ws&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfie
lds=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1> Meles Zenawi's government is cracking down on
political freedoms ahead of national elections slated for May, Wycoff said.
Ethiopia's main opposition group, the Forum for Democratic Dialogue, has
accused the government of using its access to foreign-funded, anti-poverty
programs to gain support for the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary
Democratic Front. University graduates have to register with the ruling
party in order to secure jobs in the civil service or as teachers in
Ethiopia's educational system, which is funded in part by European aid
agencies, Beyene Petros, a opposition lawmaker, said in an interview on Nov.
10.
"The U.S. is concerned by what we see as reductions in that political space,
the ability of opposition parties to operate and do what opposition parties
should do," he said. "There are continued reports of human rights abuse."
Wycoff said that during his visit to Ethiopia he would meet with the
chairman of the electoral board to discuss complaints that it has been slow
in registering opposition candidates for the election.
U.S.-backed Ethiopian troops invaded Somalia in Dec. 2006, ousting an
Islamist alliance that the U.S. said had links to al Qaeda. Ethiopia
received $930 million in U.S. aid last year.
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