From: Biniam Haile \(SWE\) (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Thu Aug 20 2009 - 19:01:11 EDT
Ginbot 7 Strongly Condemns The Illegal Sale of Ethiopian Farmland
August 20, 2009
Press Release
The ruling minority regime in Ethiopia has recently announced that it
has set aside nearly 3 million hectares of land for sale to foreign
companies and governments. The land that is put aside for sale
constitutes a substantial amount of the nation's fertile land, which is
owned and operated by the Ethiopian people. This contemptible transfer
of land to foreigners is taking place in a country [Ethiopia] where more
than 85 percent of the population directly depend on farming for their
livelihood. Ethiopia, the second most populace country in Sub-Saharan
Africa, is a country that has suffered years of corrupt agricultural and
poor environmental policies that has resulted in a high degree of
environmental degradation.
Currently, Ethiopia's rich bio-diversity is very fragile, and its
eco-system is in a precarious condition. Therefore, the proposed large
scale agricultural mechanization and chemicalization of soil by foreign
governments that ignores the nation's current and future integrated
agricultural and environmental needs is an extremely dangerous move that
accelerates the ecological disaster already in progress mainly due to
negligence by the irresponsible regime ruling the country.
Following the "Auction Notice" posted by the regime; Ethiopia has become
a very attractive destination for Middle Eastern and Asian interests.
Under the guise of "Foreign Investment", the ruling Tigrai People's
Liberation Front (TPLF) has embarked on a large-scale land selling
spree, disregarding the advice of economists, environmental experts,
entrepreneurs and concerned citizens. In fact, many Ethiopian land
experts, policy analysts, agricultural researchers, and the World Food
Programme (WFP) have warned that large-scale land acquisition by foreign
interests negatively impacts the immediate and long-term economic
interests of the people of Ethiopia.
Obviously, the powerful global interests and the countries involved in
this neo-colonial land grab with the full consent of Zenawi's corrupt
regime, are not interested in overcoming Ethiopia's recurring famine and
perennial food shortage, their sole interest is to produce agricultural
products to alleviate food shortages in their respective countries.
Moreover, this illicit land sale will not end poverty as claimed by
Zenawi's regime; it will rather disenfranchise millions of poor peasant
farmers who cultivate small pieces of fragmented land (0.09 hectares).
As late as July 2009, the WFP announced that it requires a total of
744,000 metric tons of food to help 9.7 million Ethiopians that need
urgent food assistance. Owing to the prevalence of bad governance and
faulty economic policies, it is already clear that Ethiopia is far from
achieving its Millennium Development Goals. Evidently, the Millennium
goals will never be attained if Ethiopian farmers, whom the goal is
intended to benefit, are uprooted from their ancestral land.
According to many economic analysts, the TPLF regime's perfidious
foreign land sale deals have far reaching negative economic consequences
that hamper agricultural transformation and industrial development in
Ethiopia. In many developed and developing countries [including the U.S.
and China, one of the land acquiring countries], government policies
protect domestic agricultural producers. In Ethiopia, the unpatriotic
TPLF regime is doing the exact opposite, which is protecting the
interest of foreign producers at the expense of poor Ethiopian farmers.
For example, Ethiopia is a major sesame exporter to China. But, with the
new land deal China will have the opportunity to produce sesame and
other agricultural products on the cheaply acquired fertile Ethiopian
land and ship it directly to its domestic market. If this very troubling
"land grab" deal is allowed to continue, in the coming three to five
years, Ethiopia's import earnings will contract, and most importantly,
the livelihood of millions of Ethiopian farmers that depends on sesame
farming will be endangered. In the long run, Ethiopia's national
security will be severely impacted as foreign interests make more and
more agricultural decisions.
Ginbot 7 supports foreign investment in Ethiopia and encourages foreign
companies, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists to invest in one of
Africa's largest markets. However, deals shrouded with corruption,
limited democratic participation by the society at large and non
transparent bi-lateral deals with the notoriously opaque Zenawi regime,
will not facilitate agricultural and industrial transformation that will
be beneficial to the people of Ethiopia.
Ethiopians have harbored exceptionally strong sentimental attachments to
the land owned by their ancestors for millennia; and generations of
Ethiopians have fought to protect their land. Any attempt at
transferring these ancestral lands to foreigners will most definitely
provoke strong national resistance.
The Zenawi regime is engaged in this "land for cash" deal with foreign
interests to benefit its corrupt ethnic cronies in the ruling party. The
Ethiopian people understand that this new wave of foreign land
acquisition is neither an investment in their future nor protects the
national interest of their country. Furthermore, it needs to be
underscored that there is no land in Ethiopia that has no rightful
owner. The Zenawi regime can only make these deals by dispossessing and
forcefully evicting the rightful owners of the land.
Ginbot 7, strongly condemns this unlawful action by the illegitimate
regime of Meles Zenawi and calls on the international community and
friends of Ethiopia to denounce the unsavory trend of land acquisition
that compromises the food security and land sovereignty of Ethiopia with
the concomitant effects on the fragile ecosystem in the country.
Ginbot 7, unequivocally believes that Ethiopian sovereignty trumps
contractual obligations. Therefore, all foreign interests that are
turning to Ethiopia, in particular, as a food security blanket for their
growing population, need to be reminded that the primary and sacred duty
of a future democratically elected government of Ethiopia is to protect
the welfare of the Ethiopian people.
Ginbot 7 PR Office
Tel +44 208 1335670
pr@ginbot7.org
http://www.ginbot7.org/Press_Release/20_August_2009.htm
----[This List to be used for Eritrea Related News Only]----