Ethiopia's rights abuses 'being ignored by US and UK aid agencies'
DfID and USAid accused of overlooking complaints of human rights abuses by
Ethiopians caught up in 'villagisation' scheme
* Claire Provost <
http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/claire-provost>
* <
http://www.guardian.co.uk/> guardian.co.uk, Thursday 18 July 2013
17.22 BST
The UK Department for International Development (DfID) and USAid, the
American <
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/aid> aid agency,
have been accused of ignoring evidence of
<
http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/human-rights> human rights abuses allegedly
linked to their support for a multibillion-dollar social services programme
in <
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/ethiopia> Ethiopia.
<
http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/sites/oaklandinstitute.org/files/OI_Brief_I
gnoring_Abuse_Ethiopia_0.pdf> A report published on Wednesday by the
US-based thinktank the Oakland Institute details a long list of grievances
presented to aid officials from the UK and US by communities in the Lower
Omo Valley in southern Ethiopia. They claim they suffered intimidation,
beatings, rape, forced evictions and other abuses as a result of the
government's controversial "villagisation" resettlement programme, which
seeks to clear land to make way for commercial investments.
"Donor agencies were given highly credible first-hand accounts of serious
human rights violations during their field investigation, and they have
chosen to steadfastly ignore these accounts," says the report, written by
Will Hurd, an NGO worker who served as a translator for a team of DfID and
USAid officials on a visit to the region in January 2012.
Transcripts of parts of these meetings,
<
http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/sites/oaklandinstitute.org/files/Transcript
s_DFID_USAID_Interviews_Mursi_Bodi.pdf> which have been made public
alongside the report, show community members ignored aid officials'
questions about the state of education, development and health clinics, and
repeatedly tried to bring the conversation back to the subject of abuse.
According to the transcripts, one of the two DfID representatives present
told community members: "[O]bviously we agree that it's unacceptable –
beatings and rapes and lack of consultation and proper compensation … [I]
would raise very strongly with the government as the wrong way to do this.
It just simply is wrong. It simply is wrong. Obviously, we totally agree and
it's worrying to hear about those things."
The allegations linking claims of abuse to aid funding centre around the
relationship between Ethiopia's Protection of Basic Services (PBS) programme
and the government's Voluntary Resettlement programme (villagisation).
PBS, which has the support of several large international donors, is a
multibillion-dollar social services project described as "expanding access
and improving the quality of basic services in education, health,
agriculture, water supply and sanitation". Human rights campaigners have
attacked donor support for PBS on the grounds that funds are also being used
to plan and implement the villagisation programme as aid money is being
spent on health, education and other services in the resettlement sites.
"The problem is that these services will not be provided unless the people
accept resettlement," says the Oakland Institute report, which insists the
two programmes are connected and cannot be neatly separated by donors who do
not want their funding to appear tainted.
Leigh Day & Co, the London-based law firm that last September took up the
case of an Ethiopian farmer, "Mr O", who claims he was forcibly evicted from
his farm in Gambella, in the west of the country, argues that through its
support for PBS, DfID helps finance the infrastructure and salaries required
under villagisation.
<
http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/sites/oaklandinstitute.org/files/OI_Brief_D
evelopment_Aid_Ethiopia.pdf> Another report, also published by the Oakland
Institute on Wednesday, adds: "It is difficult not to conclude that DfID and
USAid have decided to support the current policy of the Ethiopian
government, their strategic ally in the Horn of
<
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/africa> Africa, despite the major human
rights abuses this government is perpetrating in the Lower Omo Valley.
"By doing so, they are willful accomplices and supporters of a development
strategy that will have irreversible devastating impacts on the environment
and natural resources and will destroy the livelihoods of hundreds of
thousands of indigenous people."
The UK
<
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/2
08445/annual-report-accounts2013-13.pdf> spent £261.5m on aid to Ethiopia in
2012-13. In DfID's
<
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/2
08445/annual-report-accounts2013-13.pdf> annual report, it said: "Ethiopia
has experienced impressive growth and development in recent years, but
remains poor and vulnerable. The UK government continues to track and raise
concerns about limitations on civil and political rights. The government of
Ethiopia's approach to political governance presents challenges."
Last November,
<
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2012-11-05b.126709.h> the
development secretary, Justine Greening, said DfID had not been able to
substantiate allegations of human rights abuse received during its visit to
Lower Omo in January 2012, and that it would return to the area to examine
these further. This has yet to happen, though there are plans for a visit
this year.
A DfID spokesperson said on Wednesday: "It is completely wrong to suggest
that British development money is used to force people from their homes. Our
assistance has helped millions of people in Ethiopia, a country that has
suffered famine and instability over many decades. We condemn all human
rights abuses and, where we have evidence, we raise our concerns at the very
highest level …
"To suggest that agencies like DfID should never work on the ground with
people whose governments have been accused of human rights abuses would be
to deal those people a double blow."
Meanwhile, the World Bank has decided to undertake a full investigation into
allegations that its support for the PBS programme has financed human rights
abuses in Ethiopia.
The bank has previously denied any connection between PBS and villagisation,
but its internal watchdog, the Inspection Panel, argues that
<
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTINSPECTIONPANEL/Resources/EthiopiaPBS
3_RandR.pdf> this is not a "tenable position", saying: "The two programmes
depend on each other, and may mutually influence the results of the other."
The panel had recommended an investigation earlier this year after receiving
a complaint from indigenous communities in Gambella describing incidents of
intimidation, beatings, arrest and torture.
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Received on Thu Jul 18 2013 - 17:27:43 EDT