Andrew Mitchell in full flow. But what is he really saying?
This is the transcript of the interview of British Secretary of State for Development Aid, Andrew Mitchell by Jeremy Paxman on the BBC’s Newsnight programme on Wednesday 21 September, 2011.
Q. Andrew Mitchell do you accept that British aid used for political purposes in Ethiopia?
No, I don’t – but I do accept that there are serious allegations made in your film and those allegations need to be answered. And I raise these allegations when I meet Ethiopian ministers, I’m going to meet one in a few minutes and when I see the Prime Minister Meles I always raise these allegations with him.
Q. But you have never seen them proved?
Well one of the allegations which you mention is about the misuse of food support and we had that investigated by officials in some detail about six or seven months ago and they found no evidence at all of systemic misuse of food support. So I accept completely that these allegations must be looked at – that is the position of the British government, but they are allegations.
Andrew Mitchell, Secretary of State for International Development
Q. Just to be clear about that particular allegation which you say was investigated – did your investigators go to Ethiopia – to the places in question?
Yes the, the – my investigators are the officials who are based in Ethiopia and run the British development programme there. And they investigated these allegations – and as I say they discovered that there was no systemic misuse of food support.
Q. When you look at the assessments of the human rights record of the government of Ethiopia – the hanging of civilians, torture, mass rape, arbitrary imprisonment and the rest – one wonders why even one pound of British taxpayers money is being funnelled through them let alone £290 million pounds of it?
Well let us be clear. These allegations need to be investigated and the British government will press for them to be so, in an open and independent way. That is entirely separate from the issue of British development support – British aid going to Ethiopia – none of which goes through the government. And we should be clear that British development over recent years has made a huge difference in Ethiopia, saving literally millions of lives and you can see this now by looking at the way in which the desperate situation in the horn of Africa is affecting Somalia, where probably 400,000 children are at risk of dying later this year. Compare that to what has happened in Ethiopia where the international development effort has been hugely successful and we’ve probably cut the prevalence of malnutrition amongst children in the last 20 years by nearly 50 per cent. So British aid works.
Q. Can I just clarify one point of fact here – you say development aid does not go through the government of Ethiopia – you’re absolutely certain about that are you?
Well there is no general budget support through the government of Ethiopia – that was stopped in 2005 after the election of Prime Minister Meles on that occasion. We have a very extensive social protection programme, which is administered by an independent government organisation which we monitor extremely closely and which gives protection and support to some 7.5million people in Ethiopia. Now that programme uses aspects of local government, but it does not go through the central government in Addis and it relies on regional implementation to deliver it. I’ve seen or myself, I’ve followed the way that programme works and I’ve seen how effective it is in saving lives.
‘… my investigators are the officials who are based in Ethiopia and run the British development programme there. And they investigated these allegations.’
Andrew Mitchell, Secretary of State for International Development
Q. Sure, but the accusation is that that aid itself is being manipulated for political ends?
Well the accusation is that food aid – which is a very small part of it – is being manipulated. And as I say British officials investigated that on the ground, and found that, you know we can’t be certain that it never happens, but we found no evidence of the systemic manipulation of food aid.
Q. And do you also believe that this government won 99.6 per cent of the vote in the elections of 2005?
Well the independent analysis of the election was that it wasn’t perfect but it was in African terms quite good and better than the previous election.
Q. How is it then that given your confidence in the legitimacy of the government there, that the Americans have come to such very different conclusions about the sort of regime that it is?
Well these are leaks through Wikileaks, they are quite dated – but I emphasise that all these allegations should be investigated independently, and we always press when these allegations are made, and they are allegations, that they should be properly investigated.
Q. These allegations aren’t very dated, they date from 2009?
I think they refer to events that took place 2008, 2009, two years ago, since when we’ve made very strong representations and the investigations of my officials into the distortion of food aid were some six or seven months ago.
Q. Andrew Mitchell thankyou
Thankyou.
Jeremy Paxman: Well after we recorded that interview the Department for International Development clarified that no department official actually been into the field to specifically investigate allegations of misuse of aid, there investigation was they say a desk based study conducted from Addis Ababa which did not seek to prove or disprove allegations of distortion.
To watch the Newsnight interview with Andrew Mitchell, click here.
September 22nd, 2011 at 8:42 pm (#)
Food aid is definitely being used as a tool for political oppression by the Ethiopian government. I say this because I have been there to witness it myself .The government has been using developmental aid to reward and punish farming communities depending on whether a particular community voted for or against the government during previous elections (last May’s election being a prime example.) Citizens who support EPRDF and vote for them are able to survive as they are the only ones who receive food support, others are left to starve and die. Whether or not food aid is a small part of the aid given by the British government, it is still being misused and manipulated. This type of systemic misuse of food support needs to end!
The situation is one that needs thorough investigation in the regions involved, not a desk based study conducted from Addis Ababa. The allegations against the Ethiopian government are true. Regions of Ethiopia are suffering drought, famine and the government is to be held responsible for this.
September 23rd, 2011 at 10:28 am (#)
It is very sad and dumbfounding to see that UK Secretary of State categorically state without any qualifications that the Ethiopian regime is not misusing aid in general and food aid in particular. It is even more bizarre for him to state that his department has proved that there is no misuse of food aid in Ethiopia. The reality of the matter is that the regime in Ethiopia uses food aid to suppress the people in a very public manner and gets away with it, because it always gets uncritical and often immoral support from the donor countries who knowingly look away, despite the glaring proof of Ethiopian regime’s calumny. For example in Ogaden, 90% of the area is a no go area to Journalists, NGO’s, the WFP and even Diplomats. That the regime is systematically blockading both aid and trade and only gives aid to those who bring militia to fight their own people or spy for them, has been amply documented by independent international NGO’s, Human Right Watch and independent journalists with with no hidden agenda. These organisations had already proved that the Ethiopian regime is diverting food and denying it to the needy so those who are in the dark or are deliberately ignoring the truth are of no help to anyone.
A British proverb was that ” from the sublime to the ridiculous is only one step”, so Honourable Secretary re-examine your facts.
A Mahdi
September 24th, 2011 at 11:21 pm (#)
Brian Barder says:
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: Mr Barder used to be the British Ambassador to Ethiopia.)
September 29th, 2011 at 1:04 pm (#)
Am so sorry to hear that such a high profile official lies. At the end of the interview, it was proved that there was no official investigator sent to investigate the allegations that
were well tested and reported. What is the need to talk what was not done? If he didn’t send anyone to make a specific investigation, he should have said, ”we will send investigators to test what is said”, not that he already sent.
We Ethiopians know our problem well better than any westerner leaders. Actually, we will do our battle for freedom irregardless of their involvement and stop them from doing so.Like the Libyans did
Thank you dear investigators. Challenge such liers as he is who live only for POLITICAL FIGURE BUILDING, not for the right of human beings.
October 10th, 2011 at 1:13 am (#)
I am the high ranking leader of ogaden refugee community in kenya be for i talk to the point let me give you example when the ragim of ethiopia loss somone to talk about the brutalis of ethiopian gov, un ethiopian security ageny were killed assassinate 5mens in kenya refugee campes nairobi and garissa town including the cherman of ogaden communty and when we told to the unhcr and kenyan gov. We didnt, get enough answer stil and we are all in under unhcr wat about inside the region how many torture maskilling rep and jailing is going in very minints it,s uncountable also uk, usa and international ngo,s knows that very wel this deplomatic are talking wat his gov,talking about