Witness of the Calamity on Ethiopians in Saudi

Witness of the Calamity on Ethiopians in Saudi Arabia As the last day  of pardon to legalize their stay in Saudi Arabia for more than two million inhabitants of different countries came to an end, the atmosphere in all those  bustling cities like Mecca, Median and Riyadh became tense. There are thousands of Ethiopians who have entered Saudi illegally and are earning their living in different ways. But most Ethiopians can’t be able to legalize their papers in those months of pardon given by the Saudi government  for different reasons. The difficult bureaucracy in the Saudi government  offices and the fact that the Consulate couldn’t provide the necessary papers of the citizens to the Saudi officials in time has hampered the process. Therefore, when the pardon month came to an end, there was a gloomy speculation that a very severe catastrophe will descend on all the Ethiopians;  legal and illegal. Even those Ethiopians who have legal papers to stay and work in Saudi have expected hard times as the pardon months’ end closes in. As the last day of the pardon months ended, many thousands of Ethiopians stayed at home and began to expect the worst. Though the Saudi government  officials said that there will not be any home to home search, for Ethiopians  living in Riyadh Monday night was a different affair – all through the night  there was abusive home to home search where as the initial count declares  two Ethiopians get killed and a lot more having severe physical injuries. A Menfuha neighborhood in Riyadh where many Ethiopians who entered Saudi through Yemen illegally was the first target of the search and the abuses.  In the coming days the number of Ethiopians died of this incident rises to five. Saudi government forces even use motor bikes and helicopters for their  ‘man hunt’ outside the cities. As the Ethiopian community school closed, the images of mutilated bodies and Ethiopians who have died of gunshot began  to circulate among the Ethiopian community worldwide. Girum DireTube from Nebeyu Sirak in Saudi From the Previous Post SOURCE, DIRE TUBE

Breaking news የግንቦት 7 መሪዎችን ለመግደል የተጠነሰሰው ሴራ ከሸፈ

በኢትዮጵያ የብሄራዊ መረጃና ደህንነት ዋና ሃለፊ በአቶ ጌታቸው አሰፋ እና በጠቅላይ ሚኒስትሩ የብራዊ ደህንነት አማካሪ በአቶ ጸጋየ በርሄ ቁጥጥር የተመራና በአቶ አንዳርጋቸው ጽጌና በግንቦት7 ህዝባዊ ሀይል መሪዎች ላይ የተቀነባበረው የግድያ ሙከራ ከሸፈ።

ከግንቦት7 ህዝባዊ ሀይል ለኢሳት የደረሰው መረጃ እንዳመለከተው ለግድያ የተላከው ሙሉቀን መስፍን የተባለው ግለሰብ በትናንትናው እለት በቁጥጥር ስር የዋለ ሲሆን፣ በእየደረጃው ከሚገኙ የደህንነት ሀላፊዎች ጋር በስልክ ሲያደርግ የነበረው የስልክ ለውውጥ በህዝባዊ ሀይሉ የመረጃ ክፍል ሲቀዳ ቆይቷል።

ወያኔ-ኦ-ሚሊኒየም በሚል የተመራው የግድያ ዘመቻ -በነገው እለት ጥቅምት 30/2006 ዓም ሊካሄድ ታቅዶ እንደነበር የድምጽ መረጃው ያመለክታል። ( )

የግንቦት 7 ህዝባዊ ሀይል ሰራዊት የምረቃ በአል በነገው እለት የሚካሄድ መሆኑን መነሻ በማድረግ በእለቱ በግንቦት7 ህዝባዊ ሀይል መሪዎችንና የኤርትራ ባለስልጣናትን ለመግደል የታቀደው ዘመቻ ከመነሻው ክትትል ሲደረግበት ቆይቶ፣ በፍጻሜው ዋዜማ ላይ ሲድርስ ሙሉቀን መስፍን የተባለውን ለግድያ የተላከውን ግለሰብ ህዝባዊ ሀይሉ በቁጥጥር ስር በማድረግ ወያኔ-ኦ-ሚሊኒየም የተባለው ኦፕሬሽን ከሽፏል።

የድምጽ መረጃውን ኢሳት ዌብሳይት ላይ ተከታተሉ

Source,http://ethsat.com/video/esat-breaking-news-nov-08-2013/

SMNE Calls for Strong Measures from the International Community, Donors and International Investors in Confronting Official Corruption in Ethiopia

The Government of Ethiopia is broadly soliciting for development aid, foreign-based business partnerships and financial investors; yet, the unpopular ruling party has been accused of abuse of state power, misuse of donor funds, widespread party-run business monopolies, illicit financial practices and endemic corruption. It is time to demand accountability from all involved and concerned.

The Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia (SMNE) is a non-political and non-violent social justice movement of diverse people that advocates for freedom, justice, good governance and upholding the civil, human and economic rights of the people of Ethiopia, without regard to ethnicity, religion, political affiliation or other differences. The SMNE believes a more open, transparent and competitive market economy, supported by viable institutions and reasonable protections, which provides equal opportunity, will result in greater prosperity to the people rather than keeping it in the hands of a few political elites. 

We strongly contend that Ethiopia will not emerge as a dependable global economic partner until the corrupt and illegal practices of the current one-party regime’s monopoly end and existing blocks of entry to non-party members are lifted. We also believe the global business community as well as donors to Ethiopia can contribute by coming alongside Ethiopians in the push for meaningful reforms. Such reforms would include greater transparency and an opening up of economic space to the private sector, without which growth and development—beyond the benefit of the ruling party’s affiliates—will never be realized. 

In light of this, the SMNE urges the international community, donor nations, charitable organizations, and the international financial and business community to make demands on the Government of Ethiopia (GOE) for compliance with national and international laws. This must include holding companies affiliated or owned by members of the ruling party, including those businesses associated with their business conglomerate, Endowment Fund for the Rehabilitation of Tigray, (EFFORT), accountable. Additionally, measures should also strongly support restoring autonomy to independent institutions, the judiciary, and the Media and upholding the human and economic rights of the people. 

Until these measures are taken, the SMNE urges these stakeholders in the international community to withhold investments, development financing and other forms of partnering with the regime and its cronies.

The ruling TPLF/EPRDF party has misused its state power and expenditures of foreign aid to corner the market through its companies and affiliates in all sectors of the economy. Illegal expropriation of land and public resources, corruption, illicit capital leakage and dubious allegiances riddle these secretive deals, putting prospective partners at high risk for future liability or other uncertain consequences. 

The Oakland Institute in its July 17, 2013 press release: “Development Aid to Ethiopia: Overlooking Violence, Marginalization, and Political Repression,” warned the international community on the dangers of unwitting complicity in creating this illegal monopoly of business and civil society that provides the Ethiopian regime development aid amounting to “an average [of] $3.5 billion a year, equivalent to 50 to 60% of Ethiopia’s national budget.” 

Likewise, the international community and investors have largely ignored or, knowingly or unknowingly, become complicit with the pervasive corrupt practices of many of the 100’s of companies owned and operated by the Tigrayan Peoples’ Liberation Front (TPLF) that dominates the ruling coalition government of the Ethiopian Peoples’ Democratic Republic Front (EPDRF). “Companies under the Endowment Fund for the Rehabilitation of Tigray, known as EFFORT, alone account for roughly half of the country’s modern economy”, according to an IPS report titled “Examining the Depths of Ethiopia’s Corruption.” The wife of the late Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, headed up the organization until only recently.

Bloomberg News, in its October 27, 2009 edition, reported “Guna Trading House Plc, owned by Ethiopia’s ruling party, said it plans to become one of the nation’s biggest coffee exporters, raising concern among industry observers that private industry may get crowded out.

The report quotes the late prime minister regarding the company’s plans to expand in the industry. ‘We are intending to export to Europe, the U.S. and China,’ he said. Guna is among at least four other companies owned by the state or Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s ruling party.”

Coffee Plantation Development Enterprise, Dinsho Trading P.L.C and Ambasel Trading House P.L.C. are among coffee exporters under the ownership of the ruling party that has been able to obtain favored treatment from public agencies and enterprises due to the regime’s control of these government agencies that should otherwise be holding them accountable. Companies that fall out of line can suddenly fall under the scrutiny of these agencies. As a result, those associated with the ruling party are able to dominate key industries, including the export of commodities. See some of the more visible companies and less visible, like Wogagen Bank, Sheba Tannery P.L.C., Ambasel Trading House P.L.C., and many more companies owned by the ruling party.

Another company within EFFORT’s group is Almeda Textile Factory. According to the company, it is the biggest textile factory in Ethiopia. It is one of the major exporters of textile products to the US market. The company has had help in achieving this position through assistance from US government agencies, made available through the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). Additionally, according to the United States Agency for International Development‘s News, they report giving technical assistance to Almeda Textile Factory through the USAID East Africa Competitiveness and Trade Expansion Program (COMPETE). They also sponsored the company in an exhibit at the MAGIC Apparel Trade Show in August 2009. 

Essentially, the US government agency admittedly supported this Ethiopian ruling party-owned company in its exports into the US market, also allowing Almeda AGOA’s duty free import privilege, something that was intended for independent businesses. This is in direct violation of US anti-corruption laws. 

Another ruling party-owned company, Addis Pharmaceutical Factory, which dominates the local market, claims to be the largest pharmaceutical manufacturing plant in Ethiopia. According to the company, it manufactures “analgesics, anti-acids, antibiotics, anti-malarias, anti-asthmatics, amoebicides, anthelmenics, cough syrups and vitamin preparations.” Addis Pharmaceutical allegedly benefits from the expenditure of health funding from development agencies. 

The international community, including development agencies, charitable organizations and investors, often have ignored the implication of associating with the ruling party’s owned companies. This is contrary to the public interest and is in violation of international laws and regulations against corruption. 

For example, in a press release on the appointment of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s first official representative in Ethiopia, the co-chair, Melinda Gates, said, “We invest more than half of our resources in Africa, and we want to build closer and more effective relationships with valued partners on the ground.”

According to the Foundation, “Ethiopia is an important focus country for the foundation, which currently provides more than USD $265 million in funding to partner organizations that are operating health and development programs across the nation.” 

In Ethiopia, ruling party controlled organizations and businesses are nearly the only partners possible, creating an oligarchy similar to what has happened in Russia and other countries in Africa where totalitarian governments and their cronies pillage the economy and resources to their own advantage and without regard to the people.

What appears to be negligence and a lack of doing due diligence on the part of the foreign aid community and investors, including the UN Millennium Development Goal (MDG), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, USAID, among many other agencies and investors, unfortunately contributes to making it possible for the ruling party and its affiliated companies to involve themselves in all kinds of shadow businesses while eroding the prospects for viable independent businesses to emerge and survive. 

As a result, in the last decade the number of parallel shadow business enterprises associated with the ruling party and affiliates have mushroomed in every sector of the economy while at the same time the international community has poured in billions of dollars in development aid and investment without appearing to question the ruling party’s extensive involvement in business and trade. 

Global Advice Network on its Business Anti-Corruption portal concludes in the profile on Ethiopia: “The [Ethiopian] government strategy is clearly top-down, dominating anti-corruption institutions, the anti-corruption debate, and the formulation of anti-corruption policy. Despite the introduction of anti-corruption initiatives in previous years, including the Federal Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission (FEACC) in 2001, corruption remains widespread at many levels of government administration in the country.” 

In the findings of the Bertelsmann Foundation 2012 Report , they assert: “Ethiopian society’s deeply ingrained clientelism does not foster a culture of accountability and transparency, has fostered cover-ups and non-enforcement of laws”. For example, they report: “Competition laws aimed at preventing monopolistic structures and conduct exist within some sectors, but are enforced inconsistently. A Competition Commission was established in 2006, and by the end of 2007 had reviewed some 23 cases. Although informally provided, the strongest complaints are against the government’s preferences for party-affiliated businesses; [however], only trade-related issues were investigated. The transportation sector, for example, is to a large extent in the hands of business people belonging to the para-party sector. There are a number of companies close to the government and the ruling party, which leads to a lack of transparency and [high levels of] corruption.” 

A World Bank 2012 report on Ethiopia reinforces the same, saying that “high-level corruption is widespread within the construction sector, and that it is dominated by the ruling party affiliated companies.”

Reports alone cannot fully capture the enormity of the ruling party’s affiliated companies’ extensive involvement in all sectors of the economy due to the ruling party’s control of:

1. Public agencies such as: Ethiopian Rural Land Management Agency, Privatization Agency, Investment Commission, Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, Ethiopian Agriculture Transformation Agency, Ethiopian Grain Trade Enterprise, Development Bank of Ethiopia, The Federal Ethics and Corruption Commission, Information and Communication Technology Agency and others;
2. Trade institutions such as: Chambers of Commerce and Sectoral Associations, The Ethiopian Commodity Exchange, Ethiopian Coffee Exporters Association and farmers and trade union and associations;
3. Licensing and regulating of charitable organizations, which includes: The Ethiopian Charities & Civil Societies Agency (ECCA) and legislations severely limiting the kinds of activities—civic engagement important to healthy societies—that organizations are allowed to carry out if they receive more than 10% of their financing through foreign sources, rather than through government funding under the Charities and Societies Proclamation; resulting in the ruling regime’s operation of hundreds of charitable organizations, including the Tigray Development Association (TDA);
4. Public Media infrastructures, including Ethiotelecom, (the only internet provider in the country) ‎ and Ethiopian Broadcasting Authority (the only shortwave Radio and Television broadcasters in the country), The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology http://www.mcit.gov.et/ 

The UNDP commissioned Global Financial Integrity Report: ‘Illicit Financial Flows from the Least Developed Countries: 1990-2008’, revealed that “approximately US$197 billion flowed out of the 48 poorest developing countries and into mainly developed countries, on a net basis over the period 1990-2008. Trade mispricing—when imports are overpriced and exports underpriced on custom documents—accounts for 65 percent of illicit financial flows.” 

The report ranked Ethiopia among the top ten worst countries out of the forty-eight. As a recipient of the largest development aid in Sub-Sahara Africa, the international community has the obligation to hold the GOE and the ruling party owned business conglomerate and facilitating organization primarily responsible and accountable. 

In light of these concerns, the SMNE calls on the international community, donor countries and organizations and financial institutions, investors or business partners, either prospective or established, to not ignore the overwhelming evidences of endemic corruption but to take strong measures to ameliorate the problem to the best of their ability through exposure, denial of services, investigations, criminal proceedings and remedial actions. Some of these actions should include:

• Demand that the ruling party disclose and dissolve all its business holdings built on public resources and foreign aid
• Demand that the ruling party affiliated charitable organizations’ including EFFORT Group, disclose their financial holdings to the public and cease operating charitable organizations
• Call for an independent investigation of the regime’s business and charitable activities
• Call for the immediate restoration of the independent Media, including allowing the international Media to operate freely in the country with full access to the public records
• Demand public disclosure of all records on foreign investment, including land contracts for the purpose of commercial farming as well as real-estate, mining and manufacturing

The SMNE urges the international community, donor nations and organizations, Ethiopian political parties, civic and religious organizations and the Media, at home and abroad, to pressure the international community to:

• Not provide a blank check and diplomatic cover for the Government, the ruling party and its affiliated companies
• Require meaningful conditions be met as part of receiving development aid and diplomatic support
• Closely monitor the misuse of military and security assistance they or others have provided that has helped the ruling party gain control of the ways and means of the economy
• Open an investigation on crimes of corruption and money laundering on the part of the ruling party’s affiliated companies, officials, and family members residing inside or outside of the country, in their respective jurisdictions abroad
• Close any access for the ruling party affiliated companies that do business in the international markets until compliance with international and national laws are followed.

The SMNE and partners advise all concerned organizations to use established laws, agreements and protocols, where possible, to compel the ruling party to abide by international and regional conventions and protocols as well as to follow all applicable laws and regulations on corruption both nationally and internationally.

 

Source, Abugida Yeadera Eda

Aiding and Abetting: UK and US Complicity in Ethiopia’s Mass Displacement

In the face of evidence, the UK and US continue to deny systematic human rights abuses are occurring in the Lower Omo as thousands are displaced for an irrigation scheme.

The US-based think tank, the Oakland Institute, recently accused the UK and US governments of aiding and abetting the eviction of thousands of people from their land in Ethiopia’s Lower Omo Valley.

The accusation was not new – it had been made before by Survival International and Human Rights Watch amongst others. What was new about this report was that it made use of transcripts of interviews conducted by officials from the UK Department for International Development (DfID) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), during a field visit to the lower Omo in January 2012.

The interviews were recorded by the report’s author, Will Hurd, who accompanied the officials and acted as their interpreter. The recordings contain vivid first-hand accounts of the abuses suffered by local people at the hands of the government, the police and the army.

Hurd, an American human rights activist who speaks one of the local languages, decided to release the recordings to journalists when both agencies claimed publicly, months after their visit, that they had found no evidence of the ‘systematic’ abuse of human rights. Having spent 40 years working as an anthropologist in the area myself, I am confident of the accuracy and authenticity of the report and of the interviews on which it is based.

The abuses being carried out by the Ethiopian government in the Lower Omo are incontrovertible. Thousands of agro-pastoralists are being evicted by government fiat and without compensation from their most valuable agricultural land along the banks of the Omo in order to make way for large-scale commercial irrigation schemes. By far the largest of these schemes is being set up by the state-owned Ethiopian Sugar Corporation. The evictions are being accompanied by a resettlement or ‘villagisation’ programme which, although described by administrators as ‘voluntary’, is forced in the sense that those affected have no reasonable alternative but to comply.

Members of the Nyangatom, one of the communities affected by the project, loading donkeys by the river. Photograph by William Davison.

This is a glaring example of how not to do river-basin development. No impact assessments, feasibility studies or resettlement plans have been published. No plans have been announced for compensation, benefit sharing or livelihood reconstruction. And no attempt has been made to give the affected people a genuine say in decision making. In short, the project appears to have been conceived as a quasi-military operation, with the police and army acting as an occupying force amongst a recalcitrant and ‘backward’ civilian population. Not surprisingly in these circumstances, there have been reports of beatings, arrests and sexual violence by military personnel.

We know from 50 years of academic research on ‘development-forced displacement and resettlement’ as well as from countless reports by NGOs and development agencies that, if the project continues in this way, it will have a devastating impact on the economic, physical, psychological and social wellbeing of the displaced population. To use an expression from Michael Cernea, formerly the World Bank’s Senior Adviser on Social Policy and Resettlement, river-basin development in the lower Omo looks like its becoming yet another “disgracing stain on development itself.”

Aiding and abetting

Ethiopia receives $3.5 billion a year from international donors, which amounts to approximately half its annual budget. In March 2011, it was announced that the UK would be giving $2 billion in development aid to Ethiopia over the following four years, making Ethiopia the biggest single recipient of British aid money. The UK is also the biggest state contributor to the World Bank’s ‘Promoting Basic Services’ (PBS) programme for Ethiopia. PBS funds provide budget support for local government expenditure on education, health, agricultural extension and road construction. Since resettlement in the Lower Omo is the responsibility of the local administration, it would be stretching credulity beyond reasonable bounds to believe DfID’s claim that no UK money is being used to finance this activity.

Over the past two years I have tried to alert both the Ethiopian government and DfID to what I believe is a disaster in the making. The Ethiopian officials I have spoken to simply denied that there was any basis for my concerns. I have learnt that critics of Ethiopian government policies are liable to be treated either as ‘enemies’ of Ethiopia or as well meaning friends in need of remedial education. DfID staff were interested in what I had to say but the official line is that the British Government takes a ‘robust stand’ on human rights and, ‘where it has concerns’ it raises them ‘at the very highest level’ – to which the only answer, if you’ve had to stand by and watch your fields and grain stores flattened by a sugar corporation bulldozer, is ‘Yeah, right’.

Whatever is going on behind closed doors, public statements made by British officials about allegations of human rights abuses in the lower Omo have been consistently supportive of the Ethiopian government. On 5 November 2012, the Minister for International Development, Justine Greening, announced in reply to a question in Parliament that DfID had not been able to “substantiate” the allegations made to it during its visit to the lower Omo in January that year. She promised that another visit to the area would be made “to examine these further.”

Another visit was indeed made, by DfID and USAID staff, a week after the Minister’s reply. But no report of this visit has been released despite a Freedom of Information request from Survival International. Meanwhile, Sir Malcolm Bruce, Chairman of the International Development Committee of the UK’s House of Commons, repeated the Minister’s line on a visit to Addis Ababa in March 2013. Speaking to a local newspaper, he said “we cannot make decisions based on allegations….what we have now is mostly allegations, many of which the government has already addressed”.

A robust stand with Ethiopia

On this showing, DfID’s proud boast that it takes a ‘robust stand’ on human rights looks like empty rhetoric – cynical, politically expedient and morally bankrupt. Nor would one have to be a great cynic oneself to at least wonder whether the allegations made to DfID and USAID staff by lower Omo residents in January 2012 would have seen the light of day if they had not been tape-recorded and published by Will Hurd.

It needs to be stressed that the allegations were not principally about rapes, arrests and beatings. These have certainly occurred, but they may or may not have been part of a systematic campaign of intimidation. What is undeniable is the forced, large-scale, ongoing and systematic eviction of whole communities from their land by their own government, without consultation and without compensation. And it is clear from the interview transcripts, published along with the Oakland Institute report, that this was the most deeply felt, vehemently expressed and frequently repeated allegation of human rights abuse made to DfID and USAID staff during their January 2012 field visit. Any “further examination” of this allegation, if indeed it is necessary, should not take long to complete.

The British government is helping to sustain, with its financial, moral and political support, a project which, if it continues without change, will lead to the needless suffering of thousands of people. This is not a technical problem. We know very well what practical steps should be taken, now, to prevent or at least mitigate the worst consequences of the project. But the UK’s politicians are not only “turning a blind eye” to the problem, as the Oakland Institute’s report puts it, but repeatedly denying it exists. We must conclude that they will only have second thoughts about this policy if they come to doubt its political expediency. Or, as a colleague of mine once put it, more colourfully, if it “comes back to bite them in the bum”.

Source: Think Africa Press, ECADF