Ethiopia's 'bulldozer' government arrests 100 tribal people over dam

Ethiopia’s ‘bulldozer’ government arrests
100 tribal people over dam

06 October, 2011 | Survival International
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Survival has received

reports that around one

hundred Ethiopian

tribespeople have been

arrested and jailed for

opposing Ethiopia’s

controversial

Gibe III dam

Plans for the dam and

irrigated land plantations

nearby are gathering pace,

along with rising repression

and intimidation to any

opposition.

A policeman reportedly told

one indigenous community

that the government was, ‘like a bulldozer, and anyone opposing its
development projects will be crushed like a person standing in front
of a bulldozer.’

Ethiopia is leasing out large tracts of tribal lands in the South Omo
region to foreign and state run companies for the growth of sugar
cane, crops and biofuel plantations. These will be fed by water from
the dam.

But a climate of fear is growing in the region as opposition to these
leases is being brutally suppressed by the country’s secret police
and military.

Survival has learned that

security forces are

encircling and intimidating

indigenous communities

whose grass huts are built

on the land proposed for

development.

Those with criminal records

over the last ten years are being arrested, and anyone caught voicing
opposition, beaten or threatened with imprisonment.

There are also reports of women being raped, and herds of cattle
stolen.

Survival’s Director,

Stephen Corry, said today,

‘The Ethiopian government

and its foreign backers are

bent on stealing tribal land

and destroying livelihoods.

They want to

reduce self-

sufficient tribes to a state of

dependency

, throw all who

disagree into prison, and

pretend this is something to

do with ‘progress’ and

‘development’. It’s

shameless, criminal, and

should be vigorously

opposed by any who care

about fundamental human

rights.’

The 100 arrested at the end of September were from the Mursi and
Bodi tribes.

The Lower Omo Valley is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It
contains two national parks, and is home to approximately 200,000
agro-pastoralists.

One Suri pastoralist said the Gibe III dam, and tribespeople being
driven from their land, signaled, ‘the end of pastoralism in southern
Ethiopia.’

Courtesy