Ethiopia - Donors money used for oppression and environment devastation

Wednesday 12 July 2006
EPRDF/TPLF: the government that uses donor money to declare a multi-pronged war on citizens and the environment

By Kerrnassoo Biyyaa*

July 12, 2006 — Many writers, researchers, and commentators have spilt much ink to write on devastating problems such as war, drought, poverty and HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia. More often than not, the causes of these problems are attributed to nature and scarcity of resources than ruling part(ies), Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Front (EPRDF). Of course, its not only the external and internal writers that attribute the causes of these ever increasing problems, but also government reports also attribute the cause of these problems to the innocent nature. What makes these kinds of writings fruitless is shown in the fact that many international donors including the IMF, European Union and the United States Government have invested hundreds of billions of dollars to make no change to the so called nature-caused fatal problems in Ethiopia and the Horn. But the results have always been more war, more droughts, more HIV/AIDS, and more poverty. For these problems to be properly addressed, I argue that the donor countries and organisations have to pause and think of a different cause than nature itself.

Based on the facts that I observe on the ground in Ethiopia, in this critical analysis I argue that the present Ethiopian/EPRDF like its tyrant predecessors use funds from International donors to declare war on the people and the natural environment imperceptibly. If there is genuine interest on part of the international community, it is not too late to address the problems caused by the unelected terrorist government in Ethiopia. In the rest of the critical analysis, I will deal with two issues: how the EPRDF/ TPLF is using donor money to declare war on citizens and the natural environment.

Donor money and the internal war on the people The Ethiopian government arguably uses two tactics to wage internal wars against ‘its’ citizens. The first and the most common one is inciting conflicts between clans and tribes. Given that inciting violence among tribes and neighbouring regional states fails due to citizens’ unresponsiveness to callous calls from EPRDF, then it resorts to kill the people by using its own troops. Because this second technique exposes it to the international community, it[government] uses it commonly in the peripheral and remote areas of Oromia Regional State, Gambella, Somali, Afar, and Southern Nations (SNNP) and some remote parts of Amhara. Why remote? Because it can be done out of sights of the international media.

The indirect internal war

Starting from the indirect method of waging war namely ‘inciting ethnic violence’, the recent example the EPRDF-caused violence between the Oromo clans of Borana and Guji in Oromia State, Southern Ethiopia. This conflict left 100 people dead and 20,000 displaced (AngolaPress, June 20, 2006). Similar trend have been observed in when the EPRDF pitied the ethnic Somali and Oromo and as result hundred of thousands of peasant houses were burnt down, hundreds were massacred in the bloody encounter in the Eastern part of the country. The national government, the regional governments of Oromia and Somali did not act to stop that. In both the conflicts have been based on the redrawing of boundaries between clans and regions by EPRDF to cause such deadly conflicts. However, these issues remain to be insignificant because the statistics does not tell us about the physical hazards, and emotions that are involved in this process. What is funny is that the government pretends to step aside and give misleading explanations in the course the conflicts; it depicts as if the conflict have occurred because of rivalry over grazing pastures and watering points. Most the media doing the coverage of these issues also attribute the cause of the problem to be ‘ethnicity’ and resource, rarely engaging in investigating the root cause. The government is not, for example, questioned whether it did anything to prevent or stop these trends. Simply reports are tramped up in passive voice which removes the agent makes the issue weigh less.

The other regional state where EPRDF pities a fellow man against his fellow man is Gambella. In 2003 alone in Gambella region the EPRDF-caused conflict between Anuak and Nuer led to mass massacre, and displacement of people estimated to 10,000(IDPs, 2006). Because of late arrival of humanitarian aid groups and the international media the figures that are found after the events could be lesser. This EPRDF’s indirect war on the people has also resulted in deadly massacres and demolition of houses in SNNP alike. An example for this is the 800 deaths, 5,800 displacements, and 2000 houses demolished in conflicts in Sheckicho Zone because of redrawing of boundaries by the government without being asked to do so by the people. Again, within South in Benchi Maji Zone 1000 people were displaced (ibid). This statistics is just the tip of the iceberg about the many EPRDF indirect wars on the citizens in Ethiopia. Liberation Fronts such as Oromo Liberation Fronts (OLF) have intelligently speculated that the government is using the divide and rule policy in order to stay in power and to appear to the international community as a self-appointed arbiter of conflicts among and within peoples occupying different unautonomous regional states. When and where these evils are perpetrated on the people, where on earth are the UN, AU, and EGGAD and other concerned organisations. Many donors focus on after- the- event follow up than focusing on preventions of these phemena.

The direct internal war

The second brand of EPRDF’s war on the people is direct deployment of troops on protesting civilians. To wage direct war on the people the EPRDF/ TPLF uses funds from international donors. The military spending of the country is increasing at an alarming rate as people have totally shunned the EPRDF/TPLF and the legitimacy of its rule anymore. Through its Ministry of Finance the government has endorsed the increase in budget for Federal police to birr 295 million, for National Information and Security Services (NISS) to birr 76 million, for prison administration to birr 65 million. These spendings on the institutions show a 92.4, 19.1, and 18 percents increases respectively (Ethiopian Media Forum, 2006). Obviously, the government gets this money from the donors who keep failing to understand the killing aspirations of the present regime. The darker side of the story is that the money that is meant for the hungry poor peasants ends up in military budget. So, the voiceless poor have to spend more days, nights, and years without adequate food, water, medical care and schoolings literally if they are luck. There is also death.

The core issue is that more money on military means more bloodshed, more fears, more tears and frustrations inflicted on the general populace by the bloody Federal Police, and Agazi special elite forces. These forces are presently standing on each one’s doorsteps in big cities like Finfinnee (Addis Ababa), Oromia and other Regional States. Evidences for direct war is widespread in the country since the coming to power of the defacto EPRDF/ TPLF in 1991. To mention the most recent ones, the massacre of Oromo students demonstrating to ask for legalising Oromo Liberation Front to lead the self determination of the Oromo people since November 2005 and until now and before are worthwhile. It is not uncommon that the TPLF security forces turn High School play grounds of school children into blood pools. In June 2005 following the demonstrations against Election Fiasco, the government massacred hundreds of civilians in Finfinne (Addis Ababa) and jailed thousands. These were done by using the same money the donors give to buy state-of-the-art military tanks and machine guns that are used against civilians. The statistics for prisoners is 24, 000 in Oromia region alone and 40,000 for out of sight hard labour prisoners from all over Ethiopia in Tigray (Unanimous personal communication). If there is one country in the world made into hell for its citizens, it is Ethiopia. The people are less citizens than they are subjects.

To facilitate its security operations, in the country the regime pays unqualified, often illiterate and poor agents, in the salary range of birr 1200-1500 while a B.SC or BA degree holder is paid a salary of birr 736-850. Further, the Massacre of the protesting Sidama in Awassa is also one of the stunning stories of war on people. The lists of victims and areas can go on and on endlessly. Because it is busy with its military campaigns to remain in power the issues of HIV/AIDS is hardly implemented though included in the national plans for formality. Very sad of all, the government follows a discrimination policy against HIV/AIDS related healthcares in Oromia Regional State. In the rural areas thousands are dying because of lack of awareness on issues of prevention and control of HIV/ AIDS. Perhaps this could also be a malicious way of letting people die in their own time. Other problems such as environmental degradations are widespread in the country but government takes little or no action. Surely you can observe and see this for yourself if you are really concerned about what is going in Ethiopia and if you dare to travel from the cities into the countryside.

The War on the Environment

Predictably, as you might well think, the internal indirect and indirect conflicts discussed above do not take place somewhere in a vacuum. They involve the wider ecology. Ethiopia is a country of history of internecine internal and external wars resulting in devastation of environments. The peasants who have direct contact with nature are the ones who feel the pinch first. Go north or South and ask them, they will tell you this part of the land was green and used to yield a lot of crops before this or that war. They will also tell you pensively, that the earth is no more grows grasses, trees, and crops now and that they have no place to run to for their lives. The Ethio-Eritrean war which claimed the lives of nearly 100,000 men from both sides did not go without that effect. Because I am dealing with internal problems and not external ones, I would not go into the detailed analysis of the consequences of Ethio-Eritrean War.

Internally, the government often burns down natural forests in a bid to destroy the hideouts for rebels. The tragic setting on fire of natural forests in Oromia from 2000 on justifies the environmental war being waged by EPRDF/TPLF. Thousands of acres of forest in Borana, Bale and Wallaga were consumed by what the government termed as ‘the wild fire’. The truth of the matter was that the EPRDF/TPLF set them on fire because it was looking for Oromo Liberation Troops. It fought the environment than fighting the armed freedom fighters. The simple proof for this is that that the government did not campaign to stop the fires. Its security forces were even stopping the local people and students from extinguishing the fires. Live ammunitions were fired at many students at Ambo Secondary schools and other schools all over Oromia just because they are willing to go and help stop the fires. As a consequence, the burning down of forests, drought and deaths of animals and people followed in the mentioned areas. About 15 million people were starved in the years following. The call again is to the international community come after the event whenever on man-made catastrophe leads to another.

One can sill go and on listing and reporting what happens, but crucial is to approach the problem from the roots; let us together begin to think outside the box for real solutions. The solution is to solve the political standoffs to solve other problems.

Conclusions

For the donors, I suggest to keep thinking ways in which the people of Ethiopia can be direct beneficiaries of funds than the funds handed to the unpopular EPRDF/TPLF. That way it is possible to at least lessen the chances that development funds are used to buy state of the art military machines like tanks that are used against the people. Secondly, International and local NGOs and Organisations concerned with issues of environment conservation, HIV/AIDS need to widen their scope to reach out more and more to the most populous regions such as Oromia and others. International Organisations concerned with the political developments should end the days of sufferings of the innocent Ethiopians under tyranny of TPLF/EPRDF. Facilitating dialogue between all political stakeholders via the newly formed Alliance for Freedom and Democracy (AFD) is timely issue. Members of this Alliance such as the Oromo Liberation Front, the Oganden Liberation Front, the Sidama Liberation Front, Coalition for Unity and Democracy and others enjoy an overwhelming support in Ethiopia. The international community should also understand that the hindrance to the dialogue effort is the ruling party, EPRDF/TPLF itself and should deal with it accordingly.

To the Peoples’ of Ethiopia, the homework to be done is a lot albeit the most important one is to keep struggling for the aspired goals of freedom and democracy for everyone. The more immediate cause to fight for is to stop the multi-pronged wars declared on them by ruling EPRDF/TPLF. Then everyone will be free to express its will through ballot to the kinds of political parties or coalitions of them who are given the power by the people to lead the people.

This are the ways I believe the problems could be solved from the root; otherwise the more divided the efforts, and the more the symptoms are addressed than the diseases the more government-sponsored terrorism prevails.

* The author is based in Finfinnee (Addis Ababa, he can be reached at meettaa@gmail.com