Britain and the international community stand accused of turning a blind eye to widespread human rights abuses in Ethiopia, by providing billions of dollars of aid despite evidence that it is used as a tool of political oppression.
An undercover investigation by the Bureau and BBC Newsnight reveals that as areas of Ethiopia fall victim to drought and famine, whole communities are being denied basic food, seed and fertilizer for failing to support Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
The investigation has also gathered evidence of ongoing ethnic cleansing, mass detentions, the widespread use of torture and extra-judicial killings by Ethiopian government forces.
And we can reveal that senior officials in both the EU parliament and the UK failed repeatedly to act on similar reports of horrific human rights abuses.
In one instance the EU Commission allegedly tried to water down an official report, which detailed major concerns about the actions of the Ethiopian government.
Meles Zenawi October 2005 – Flickr/aheavens
Generous donations of aid
Ethiopia receives $3bn in development aid every year, with Britain the second largest donor after the US.
This year the UK will hand out £290m, not including the £48m in emergency aid announced last month, a massive 24-fold increase over the past decade. The EU provided £152m last year.
Yet since 2005, when Zenawi was accused of ‘stealing the election’ after the opposition won a landslide in the capital, evidence of horrific human rights violations have poured into the international community.
Basic human rights abuses are being committed by the Government on a daily basis – the EU must respond firmly and resolutely.
Timothy Clarke
Portuguese MEP Ana Gomes, who was the chief election observer for the European Union during the 2005 Ethiopian election, is outspoken about the ongoing human rights abuses in Ethiopia. She has spoken to the Bureau and accused the international community of a deliberate agenda of ‘hear no evil, see no evil’.
Analysis: How Europe’s taxpayers fund abuses of human rights and democracy
She said: ‘There is this industry of aid not only in the European Commission but in the different member countries, namely those who are the biggest aid donors to Ethiopia, like Britain, like Germany who want the business to continue as usual because they have their own interests at stake.’
Gomes even suggested that EU commission officials attempted to water down reports she produced in 2005 documenting problems with that year’s election. The reports are seen and edited by several people.
‘What really stunned me was the feedback I got from Brussels… the department for development of the commission was completely rewriting my own report and was actually toning down, watering down, all the most difficult passages which were detailing the situation and the repression of the opposition… I was really shocked.’
Reign of terror in Maikelawi detention centre
Turning a blind eye
The problem is that Ethiopia commands a strategically important geographic position.
‘Western leaders resist speaking up against Zenawi’s repressive regime by invoking stability interests. Besides attempting to depict Ethiopia as a success story of development assistance, EU and the US like to portray their ‘aid darling’ as a partner in the fight against terrorism and a crucial actor for stability in the Horn of Africa,’ said Gomes.
The Bureau has been passed confidential daily reports by the former EU Ambassador for Ethiopia, which show abuses were routinely reported to senior officials at the European Commission as far back as 2005.
There is this industry of aid not only in the European Commission but in the different member countries, namely those who are the biggest aid donors to Ethiopia, like Britain, like Germany who want the business to continue as usual because they have their own interests at stake.
Ana Gomez
Violent crackdowns on opposition supporters by Zenawi troops are detailed in 61 emails sent by Ambassador Timothy Clarke to 27 top officials in the highest offices of the European Union.
The emails were sent over three months in the days after the 2005 ballot. They expressed increasing concern about reports of murders and arrests of thousands of civilians by government forces.
Members of the Council of Europe and the Commission’s offices for external relations, development and aid were all contacted.
Related article: Aid as a weapon of political oppression in the Southern Region
On one occasion, on June 12, Clarke became so concerned he demanded immediate action: ‘Basic human rights abuses are being committed by the Government on a daily basis – the EU must respond firmly and resolutely.’
Yet the next day the EU presidency commended the joint Ethiopian declaration on the elections.
Then on July 6 2005 Zenawi, at the invitation of Tony Blair, attended the G8 summit at Gleneagles where they discussed poverty in Africa.
Following the 2005 election, the EU gave €134m to Ethiopia, increasing this to €244m in 2007.
Zenawi’s grip on power
Meles Zenawi came to power after ousting the Derg military regime in 1991, engaging the west under the banner of ‘revolutionary democracy’.
But in the elections of 2005, the opposition won a landslide in the capital Addis Ababa. The government quickly reacted by declaring a victory across the nation. People took to the streets and a brutal crackdown ensued. In the subsequent violence tens of thousands were detained, 193 killed.
Since 2005 Meles Zenawi has tightened his grip on power. In the 2010 elections last year the government secured 99.6% of the vote.
However allegations of mass detentions, oppression, torture and rape continued to surface.
Related Article: EU Ambassador in Ethiopia reported on ‘daily’ intimidation by government forces
Officials informed of abuse
British officials have also repeatedly been told of human rights violations.
Professor Merera Gudina, the founder and leader of one of Ethiopia’s opposition parties said: ‘I’ve been dealing with British diplomats for the last 15 years….. In fact we have challenged your ambassador and diplomats several times especially when they are defending the protection of basic services.
‘A lot of development aid that comes to Ethiopia is misused by the Ethiopian government. We challenge them to monitor where is it going. How the government is using [it]. We gave them the evidence we had and we challenged them to go into the field.’
At no point did the international community publicly condemn Zenawi. In fact on July 6 2005 Zenawi, at the invitation of Tony Blair, attended the G8 summit at Gleneagles where they discussed poverty in Africa.
Reports by the UN, US and human rights organisations have also repeatedly documented abuses by the Ethiopian government.
Gomes said: ‘This is being shown to the international community, there is no way that they can say that they don’t know about these reports. What’s blocking them from acknowledging [what] is going on in Ethiopia?’
Now our investigation can reveal that concerns about aid being used as a political tool are also being ignored.
Ben Rawlence, senior researcher with Human Rights Watch, which has published several damning reports on the situation in Ethiopia said: ‘Development is only available to those people who support the regime or vote for the ruling party.’
This is leaving entire communities without desperately needed aid.
Rawlence added that the international community needed to ‘think much more strategically about how you engage with a country that fundamentally disrespects human rights, how do you make sure that aid in that context actually gets where it’s supposed to get. It’s very, very hard.’
Related article: Voices of the oppressed
Our investigation also reveals that despite the encroaching famine a brutal crackdown by the Ethiopian government is continuing unchecked, forcing thousands to flood out of Ethiopia.
Many are fleeing to Dadaab refugee camp in northern Kenya, which has been in the international spotlight for weeks as thousands of famine victims from Somalia have descended on it.
But unlike the Somalian refugees the Ethiopians who claim to be fleeing hunger and terror are not being heard.
They include a 35-year-old woman who claimed she had lost her unborn baby after being repeatedly raped and stamped on by members of the army; a grandmother of four, arrested along with 100 others from her village, who claimed her son had been slaughtered in front of her; and a man who claimed to have been brutally beaten and made to fight with dogs for food.
Related article: Voices of the tortured
Gomes said: ‘By turning a blind eye to gross human-rights violations, fraudulent elections, impoverishment and dispossession in Ethiopia and on the impact of Ethiopian policies on neighbours, the EU is not only misusing European taxpayers’ money, but supporting an illegitimate status quo, letting down all those who fight for justice and democracy and increasing the potential for conflict in Ethiopia and in Africa.
The Ethiopian Ambassador to the UK Abdirashid Dulane told the Newsnight programme that the report ‘lacked objectivity and evenhandedness.’
He said that Ethiopia ’roundly condemned torture and abuse’ and that there were protections against such acts ‘enshrined in the country’s constitution’. He said that similar allegations in the past had been disproved.
Mr Dulane went on to say that the team in Ethiopia’s only source were ‘opponents of Ethiopia who have already been rejected by the electorate’ accusing the journalists of only gaining evidence from the ONLF and OLF rebels groups and people in the Dadaab camp in Kenya.
The Bureau is happy to clarify that the majority of the interviews were conducted inside Ethiopia.
International Development Minister, Stephen O’Brien, said:
We take all allegations of human rights abuses extremely seriously and raise them immediately with the relevant authorities including the Ethiopian Government, with whom we have a candid relationship. Where there is evidence, we take firm and decisive action.
The British aid programme helps the people of Ethiopia, 30 million of whom live in extreme poverty. We demand full accountability and maximum impact on the ground for support from the British taxpayer.
Watch the full Newsnight report here.
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August 5th, 2011 at 12:54 am (#)
God Bless this reporter.Thank you !!! you became voice for the voiceless.
August 5th, 2011 at 10:03 am (#)
I feel that the REAL…REAL focus should be on the millions that are straving, the millions that are desperate and fighting with what little they have to helplessly stay alive.
(Editor: Sections of this comment were redacted in line with our rules on posting).
August 5th, 2011 at 10:53 am (#)
The West bombs them to remove the Government and half the people in the world get annoyed.
They send them aid, the other half complain the money isn’t reaching the right people.
What do you want them to do?
August 5th, 2011 at 1:17 pm (#)
ello
Really disappointed by those called jaurnalists. they want a distablezedd and oppressive monarchial rule in ethiopia. they want to control Ethiopia. they want to divide ethiopia. i don’t know why they write all false about the country?
the 2005 CUD OPPOSITION leaders was completlt Amharas who did not care about ethiopia. their main slogan was reserection of the fuedal system. the Amhara dynasity. sure the won in towns because the towns was emerged by military some years back during the fuedal system and former dictator. most inhabitants are the reminants of the old governments. they were not elected by the 85 % of the rural population. observers never talk or discuss from both groups especially never tried in rural coz they were chiling in the town with birhanu nega. she was (ana gomez) doing her personal business foundation hoping CUD will won and have business in ethiopia later. she also cosiders the previous Portugal and chiristian high land kinkdom returning with the Amharas. 400 years back more than 500 portugues fighters faought against the musilim parts of ethiopia who was backed by the ottoman turkish. n
now we are changed we ethiopians know what is good for us what is bad for us. it was almost baseless report.
u can reach me by my e-mail
August 5th, 2011 at 1:54 pm (#)
Really disappointed by those called jaurnalists. they want a distablezedd and oppressive monarchial rule in ethiopia. they want to control Ethiopia. they want to divide ethiopia. i don’t know why they write all false about the country?
the 2005 CUD OPPOSITION leaders was completlt Amharas who did not care about ethiopia. their main slogan was reserection of the fuedal system. the Amhara dynasity. sure the won in towns because the towns was emerged by military some years back during the fuedal system and former dictator. most inhabitants are the reminants of the old governments. they were not elected by the 85 % of the rural population. observers never talk or discuss from both groups especially never tried in rural coz they were chiling in the town with birhanu nega. she was (ana gomez) doing her personal business foundation hoping CUD will won and have business in ethiopia later. she also cosiders the previous Portugal and chiristian high land kinkdom returning with the Amharas. 400 years back more than 500 portugues fighters faought against the musilim parts of ethiopia who was backed by the ottoman turkish. n
now we are changed we ethiopians know what is good for us what is bad for us. it was almost baseless report.
u can reach me by my e-mail
August 5th, 2011 at 2:16 pm (#)
This is a sad reality in ethiopia, how can somebody questioned his political stand while he is starved to death? This is wild of the regieme and the donors responsiblity. oh dirty politics of this world…
August 5th, 2011 at 3:55 pm (#)
it is good report and it is completely true. Meles Zenawi uses all his forces to oppress all Ethiopians except his supporters. All officials in his government are thinking about only for their pocket, they do not care about the people. And western countries especially US, UK and German knows everything that happens under this regime and they don’t care about the human right abuse in the country. They support this regime without any precondition concerning human right. They only works only for foreign politics.
August 5th, 2011 at 4:56 pm (#)
How can one nation go to cycles of famine for half a century?
First was during feudal Emperor Haile Sellasie, second was during dictator Mengistu Hailemariam, and now during a reign of mischievous dictator Melles Zenawi. One thing is in common the West gave aid with no question and with no lasting solution. The lasting solution is to leave the people of Ethiopia to take ownership of their own fate, to help democracy and rule of Law prosper. But no, leadership plan has to always come via Washington, and London as if Ethiopians are not capable of taking care of themselves. Ethiopians and the whole Horn of Africa is paying the price for the deeds of crooked thinkers in Washington. The images that you see daily on TV come to haunt you for your evil deeds. The famine faces are souls abused and literally murdered by foreign policies.
August 5th, 2011 at 5:06 pm (#)
The situation in Ethiopia is much much worth than it is reported. The economic woes, corruption, purposely kindred ethnic and religious animosity by the regime are driving the country more and more towards a calamity.
What is frightening is the regime has no choice but to continue on the same policies to keep themselves on power since the players will be wanted for crimes against humanity as soon as they live office.
There will not be a possibility for the regime to reform or give a platform for the opposition as the western powers hope it will do.
The aid money will only prolong the misery and give time for the problems to become deeper and deeper, strengthening and exasperating the political, economic and social problem in the country till the whole thing collapse. That is where it is going and the western countries are helping it towards that goal.
At this stage the west can only help by completely cutting off Meles Zenawi and his cadres and demanding for a full and independent international investigation and tribunal for the atrocities committed for the last 40 years by both regimes one sponsored by the communist east the other by west today. That is the only way to avert the looming calamity in the country and build a better future.
Please continue your good work.
August 5th, 2011 at 7:08 pm (#)
What we have seen in Newsnight and Journalist bureuinvestgate.com film, was shocking human right voilation. The grave tragedy in Ogaden presents indications of a new genocide, for it affects severely the most susceptible and indefensible group – women, children and the elderly – in the hands of ruthless Malasia, the ruling part of Ethiopian Regime, TPLF, and it is dictator leader Murder Males Zenawi.
But the question is why countries like UK and western democratic nations, is helping this dictator to this situation. The international community is now watching a human catastrophe more huge than Darfur’s, giving the Ogaden people a strong impression that they have been forgotten, in particular, at this critical juncture of their history when destitute women and children are dying on the Ogaden border with Kenya for starvation in an attempt to flee from persistent bloodshed.
This is the time to act and to Stop the Regime not to kill more Ogaden Somali people by European taxpayers.
August 5th, 2011 at 10:42 pm (#)
We are in this alone.
The west will support whoever will do their bidding, not necessarily one who will work for their people. Ethiopians have known the nature of TPLF since the beginning as these acts of human rights abuse (as well as genocide) are TPLF’s trademark.
August 5th, 2011 at 10:52 pm (#)
This is a deplorable piece of work. The allegations about the supposed misuse of development aid to Ethiopia in this article and in the BBC’s Newsnight of 4 August are intellectually slippery to the point of being dishonest. They assert a connection between allegations of human rights abuses and western development aid without a shred of evidence that the two issues are in any way connected. Allegations of discrimination against opponents of the Ethiopian government on political grounds are reported as fact, with virtually no attempt to subject them to critical scrutiny. The presenter’s definition of the purposes of UK development aid at the end of the segment — all about promoting democracy — was fatuous, obviously invented to enable the programme to assert that UK aid was a failure. There is a clear but unstated assumption that development aid targeted at improving the lives of the desperately poor is a legitimate instrument for punishing human rights abuses, implying that rights such as freedom of expression and free trade unions are more important than giving the poorest people access to safe drinking water, medical care and education: an assumption that is morally repulsive. There is also an unspoken implication that if Ethiopia had not received development aid from Britain and other western countries, its government would not have been able to adopt measures to discriminate against opposition parties at elections, which is palpably absurd.
The opportunity given by Newsnight to the deputy head of the Ethiopian embassy in London to reply to this hotchpotch of unsupported allegations, based for the most part on false assumptions, was derisory to the point of being insulting. It would have required at least half an hour to disentangle this hopeless mishmash of accusations and innuendo in order to rebut them. Buried in the mess were some serious questions about human rights abuses in Ethiopia that would have been worth pursuing. But using them to try to discredit development aid to one of the poorest countries on earth was inexcusable.
Few informed observers would deny that the Ethiopian government’s human rights record is at best dubious and at worst a subject of serious concern. But the idea that the poorest and most vulnerable Ethiopians should be punished by the withdrawal of our development aid for the shortcomings of their government is profoundly mistaken. Development aid demonstrably saves lives and helps to alleviate the burdens of extreme poverty. Those who seek to discredit it and to damage the confidence of western electorates in it bear a heavy responsibility.
(Editor’s note: Brian Barder was British Ambassador to Ethiopia during the Ethiopian famine of 1984-85.)
August 6th, 2011 at 12:59 am (#)
The deceite and lies of the ruling cadre of the EPRDF are exposed by this execellent piece of journalism. Malez is a dictator who starves his own people to death and this is very sad indeed. The way our hard earned tax is being used to kill, rape and torture women and children in Ethoipia. UK and other doner nations must hold their head in shame by putting our money in the coffers of a dictator like this without monitoring how it is used. This is a double standard. Why are we funding to hold Malez Zenawi in power when there is no democracy insight as he won a landslide 99.6% of the vote. This is because all the opponents are in jail or chased out of the country. Malez and his ruling junta label a terrorist any one who disagrees with they.
The Free world must open its eyes and be on the side of the majority of ethoipians who are marginalised by a minority EPRDF who are only in power by our tax and donations.
August 6th, 2011 at 2:05 am (#)
Ethiopia ‘using aid as weapon of oppression’
INFORM YOURSELF. DON’T BE DECEIVED. YOU CAN AVERT HUMAN SUFFERING
We have pulled few previous posts to show the donor world where and how money was being used; to show how and why lives are being wasted and perhaps to nudge some from deep sleep and challenge their governments why human rights abusers are being propped up and why they have not been told the whole truth. And to demand a stop to this nightmare and allow the culprits to face justice and to reverse new laws that went into effect before the 2010 elections that virtually de-registered pro-democracy civil society organizations.
http://etrecycler.blogspot.com/2011/08/ethiopia-using-aid-as-weapon-of.html
August 6th, 2011 at 2:33 am (#)
If the west stops their aid to the Ethiopian government I’m sure their fall will come and Amharas, tigreys, ogadenis, afars will decide their own fate. Ethiopia should be divided instead of holding together an artificial state.
August 6th, 2011 at 11:14 am (#)
Dear Brian, my people in the Ogaden aren’t receiving your so called aid instead government forces are raping my sisters, jailing my brothers and starving our children and deliberately blocking the region.
REPRESSIVE regimes do not deserve aid. The international community and donors can play a positive role in Ethiopia all they have to do is pressure the Ethiopian regime to end its deliberate targeting of civilians and negotiate with Ogaden National Liberation Front.
ONLF has on numerous occasions stressed their desire to negotiate peacefully with the regime. If your government wants to actually help the people of ETHIOPIA be the voices for those who are oppressed and STOP turning a blind eye.
Injustice anywhere is threat to Justice everywhere!
August 6th, 2011 at 7:02 pm (#)
Well one can see how concocted lies are used to tarnish the image of Ethiopia, which now is in earnest fighting a battle to beat poverty .What a mockery of professionalism in the name journalism?Where lie the investigation so much talked about?Is regurgitation of baseless allegations from opposition reports the new definition for investigation?We know that there are entities bent on distracting us from our preoccupation,improving the livelihood of our people through development plans which have proved to be the panacea for the ailing motherland which had suffered under the burden of ill conceived policies.Some power mongers dealt with a blow by the electorate should accept defeat an understand any amount of lie and conspiracy would never change the course of democracy and development we are adhering to.We know you will always fail,because you are in the way of the tide of change that will see you further alienated as you hopelessly could be a material for the new system which is slowly but firmly is taking hold.
August 8th, 2011 at 1:32 am (#)
In the early 1990s the US and Britain made sure Meles Zenawi and his ethnic party took power in Addis Ababa. The two nations’ Embassies became ground zero for consultation and where such a road map was ratified. Mr. Meles promised “three meals a day”, “multiparty democracy”, and not to repeat anything Mengistu’s Derg had engaged in. For complying he was granted legitimacy and shots of aid after aid after aid. Twenty years on the nation is still plagued by hunger, corruption, mass and unlawful incarcerations, and absence of strong opposition or free press. There was not a single year millions have not been starving and a single time Mr. Meles was not publicly denying the problem existed. But aid has been flowing in at the rate of 3 billions per year.
In his ‘Democracy as a Universal Value’ Amartya Sen has said:
“Famines are easy to prevent if there is a serious effort to do so, and a democratic government, facing elections and criticisms from opposition parties and independent newspapers, cannot help but make such an effort.”
The ruling minority in Ethiopia reneged its pledges to the constitution and run every credible opposition out of town to establish a one-party state: a thinly veiled socialism labeled “developmental state”. Mr. Meles and his ethnic party will have been in power a quarter of a century by the end of this term. Under the guise of self-censorship, it clamped down on free press. This, in every sense, has been nothing but a return to the dreaded Mengistu-era governance. State-run rationing stores are back with long lines to boot. Government price controls on basic commodities has created such a dire situation that public outrage spilling onto the streets is imminently anticipated. This, in turn, could force the ruling minority to resort to violent intervention. Will the US and Britain be standing by and chattering about law and order?
Over 8 billions of illicit money left the country in less than two decades, according to UN Financial Integrity Report [2011]. Corruption and widespread fear are two issues plaguing Ethiopian society at the moment. Chinese imperialists are making things worse; their technology is in the service of jamming broadcasts and eavesdropping devises trained on the public [the latter is perhaps not so strange to Britain and its publics]. And now hunger comes to the cities and rural areas [excepting Mr. Meles’s region].
The Economist should be ashamed of itself. Archived reports on Ethiopia are clearly so lopsided and less factual that we had to wonder if you were not paid for writing them.
Famine in the early 1970s and 1980s and the secrecy and denial of it was what eventually brought down the governments of Emperor Haileselassie and of the Derg. In all fairness the Economist should be investigating the following issues: a) mining deals between the ruling minority and foreign companies – especially British companies b) land lease to Arab and Indian agri-business, the displacement of the small farmer and destruction of pristine forests and the resulting famine. [Incidentally, you were one of the first to condemn the Derg regime for "villagization" and "resettlement" programs; will you do similarly now the ruling minority is planning to do just that or be fooled into accepting that this time it is going to be strictly "voluntary"?] d) Ms. Reeyot Alemu was sent to jail on account of reporting fundraising tactics employed by the government [that every worker pay a month's salary spread over a year - exactly what Mengistu's regime did] for dam construction. Today the government reported about $200 millions have been raised in this manner. Talk of priorities.
Ms. Reeyot and Mr. Woubshet were labeled “terrorists” for exercising their constitutional rights and sent to jail under a “anti-terror” law hastily put together to forestall the kind of uprisings the world witnessed in North Africa and the Middle East. Hunger is just the symptom; the real ailment is somewhere else. It is absence of free press, lack of transparency, less state intervention and, above all, the freedom to choose who to vote in and who to vote out.
Read More here about how aid was diverted: http://etrecycler.blogspot.com/2011/08/ethiopia-using-aid-as-weapon-of.html
August 9th, 2011 at 8:09 pm (#)
I think Brian Barder comments prove a point about the political economy of aid. The donors, starting from the junior staff who has to build career from start working up ways to the highest ranking have to tell us that their efforts are not in vain.
Brian misses the point. The report did not claim that international development aid (let alone humanitarian aid) should be suspended in the interest of human rights. What it implies is that the donor groups in the country could and should have done better. I wonder if the Ambassador would be content with his right to food exchange for his right to speak in his own country. Also, it is naive an assumption that the right to food is conflicting with the right to speak, be free. I understand his concern and where his coming from, the West needs Meles much more than Meles needs them at this moment. In addition, Brian, if you have done better (i mean by not doing what you did) during your tenure here, things would have been much better. The counter factual you suggest—that the government doing same or worse even if there were not aid is really absurd. I thought the oppositions guys were telling you that if Meles did not hold on to your “generous” hand, they would have taken him down. How do you miss that- or …
I have no question about the good meaning heart and character of people in the international development industry. But as usual, the sum is more than the parts and the way the whole industry works is messy. Things could be done better—and bravo for the reporter for being voice of the voiceless.
August 10th, 2011 at 10:03 am (#)
Thank you to Mr. Angus Stickler, The Bureau of investigative Journalism and finally the BBC.
Thank you for being a voice for the voiceless in Ogaden region, Oromia region, Gambella region and Amhara region in Ethiopia, oppressed by brutal and viscous regime led by butcher Meles Zenawi, the darling of the West in Horn of Africa.
You all have uncover a genocide that is worse than Darfur that has been happening in the Ogaden region for sometime now. No journalist or NGO worker is allowed to inter Ogaden region as we recently saw what happened to the two Swedish freelance journalist still in the hands of the dictator Meles, Ethiopia does not want its donor countries like USA,UK, EU to see what’s going on on the ground in Ogaden and the rest of Ethiopia, for fear of loosing that crucial aid money.
Ethiopia’s army is conducting a targeted ethnic cleansing against Ogaden nomads people living in the Ogaden region occupied by Ethiopia since 1948.
There is mass rape, killings, mass arrests, disappearances, mass relocations all because Ethiopia is after the oil & gas underneath the Ogaden basin, therefore it needs to get rid off the inhabitants of the land so then the Chinese companies can come in and start drilling wells and oil production could follow soon. The Western countries who feed Meles Zinawi’s killing machine should be ashamed for themselves, by preaching democracy and the rule of law and good governance in Africa and supporting dictators and butchers like Meles Zinawi of Ethiopia.
Prime Minister David Cameron, and President Obama who preach good governance in exchange of aid to Africa must walk the walk and help accountable Meles Zinawi for his actions, just like they did to Omar Al-Bashir of Sudan for involvement in Darfur— or will they?. U.S, UK & EU must do something to stop the horrific genocide in Ogaden region, as much as they worked hard to stop the one in Dardur.
People in the Ogaden region suffer daily and this story is one reporters observation based on one visit to the region but the suffering continuous in a daily basis and has been for last 40yrs. The world must come to the aid of the people in Ogaden region in Ethiopia before its too late.
Meles Zinawi has committed crimes against humanity, he committed more crimes than the two Bosnian criminals Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic combined. The ICC also indicted Omar Al-Bashir of Sudan for his involvement in Darfur. Why not Meles Zinawi, with all the evidence from U.S State department human rights office, that of UN, and European human rights commission, that of HR Watch, Amnesty International and millions of victims in all over refugee camps in Africa and elsewhere ready to testify against him why is he not indicted? why is he protected by the West from indictment. Are all those damning reports from their own government agencies and private NGO’s lying?.
U.S & Europe did a good job finally apprehending the two criminals in Bosnia and putting them on trail at the ICC. Its time Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia faces the same faith unless the west is playing a double standard.