The politicization of food aid under one-
party rule in Ethiopia
31 January, 2010 | By Seeye Abraha
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
populations. As a result, the ruling party has been able to effectively use
relief aid to mobilize support for itself and undermine support for its
opposition.
The politicization of food aid in Ethiopia operates crudely in the open.
Members and supporters of the ruling party and their families are given
top priority in the delivery of ample relief aid. Relief aid is dangled in
front of non-party members who are presented with the option of
joining the ranks of the ruling party if they want to receive aid.
Opposition party members are forced to make the choice of going
hungry or involuntarily joining the ruling party by abandoning their own.
The intense pressure to join the ruling party is reinforced through
family, community and peer pressure. Those who speak up against
such practices or openly protest are targeted for persecution,
intimidation and harassment.
The people forced to make the impossible choice between life and
liberty choose life and do the best they can under the circumstances.
Western donors are fully aware of the misuse and abuse of the
unfortunate situation their relief aid has caused in the country. For some
inexplicable reason, they have chose to remain deaf, blind and mute.
The opposition coalition, Forum, has raised this issue repeatedly with
the Western diplomatic corps in Addis Ababa. Forum has provided
eyewitnesses to provide corroboration for the misuse and abuse of relief
aid. Recently, eight residents from Tigray who were members and
supporters of coalition member Arena were brought to Addis to provide
eyewitness testimony on the political use of relief aid experience. These
brave individuals who risked their lives to tell the truth were picked up
by plainclothes policemen and detained on Dec.23, 2010. They were
forcibly returned to Tigray after five days of detention and interrogation
and were given stern warnings that they would face severe
consequences if they testified.
On January 4, 2010 Jason McClure, the American journalist for
Bloomberg, went to Tigray to investigate the allegations of politicization
of relief aid. Shortly after he arrived he was taken into custody and
detained for in a prison in Mekele before being whisked back to Addis
where he was served with a notice of expulsion, which was latter
retracted, from the country in 48 hours. The story of Mr. McClure, a
highly respected journalist, and his harrowing experiences in trying to
investigate this matter are yet to be told in public.
Over the past two weeks, I have travelled to Tigray and visited Kola
Tembien election district. I spoke with Teklezgi W/Gabriel and Zenawi
Asmelash, two of the eight eyewitnesses who had agreed to speak to
Mr. McClure during his visit there. They told me that they are labeled as
traitors and their life is under threat since their return from Addis
Ababa. I also talked to others in the community. The story is much the
same. If they want to get relief aid, they have to join.
Hunger, food aid and politics have been intertwined in Ethiopia since the
1973 Ethiopian draught which caused the downfall of Emperor Haile
Selassie's regime. As a veteran politician and an ex-commander of an
insurgent army that brought down the Derg military regime, I know
relief aid could be misused to purchase ammunition, weapons, spare
parts, fuel and other materials. Grain and cooking oil can be converted
into cash to buy anything including voting cards.
Forum has raised its concerns about the danger of relief aid driven vote
buying as early as August 2009. The issue was included as an agenda
item in the inter-party dialogue that was initiated through the good
offices of the UK Ambassador, Norman Ling, here in Addis Ababa in
September but was rejected by the ruling party.
I was a member the leadership of the core of the ruling party coalition
in Ethiopia, the TPLF, for about twenty five years. I served as an
elected member of the Parliament for two terms until I was illegally
denied my seat in Parliament in 2001, following a split within the
leadership of the ruling party. In this context, it is instructive to look at
the way the Meles-led clique used food grain to stage manage my
“recall” from my parliamentary seat and that of eight other colleagues.
In 2001 the farmers of Kola Tembien, my electoral district in Tigray,
were ordered to collect their wages in food grain for work done in soil
and water conservation activities. This was the usual method of
dispensing food aid to the able-bodied citizens experiencing food
shortage. When the farmers showed up at the designated sites to
receive their grain allotments, they were asked to put their names and
signatures on sheets of paper as evidence of receipt. Incredibly, the list
of names and signatures was later presented to the National Election
Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) as a petition of my electorate to effect my
recall from Parliament. The so-called recall petition was sustained and
we were forced out of our elected offices. We sued the NEBE but to no
avail since Kemal Bedri, the Chair of the NEBE, was also President of
the Supreme Court of the country. Victimized by such dirty tricks, we
were illegally barred from entering the premises of the Parliament and
effectively dismissed from our elected positions.
The use of food grain as a weapon for sidelining dissidents has been
perfected by the ruling party ever since. It is their preferred weapon of
choice to squeeze the farmers and rural residents into following their
one-party system lockstep. My recent visit to Tembien was to assess
the political situation in the context of the coming election. I visited
many villages in the district, but limited my contacts to friends, relatives
and acquaintances. Although I have visited Tembien many times, the
way the local officials treated me this time around was quite different. I
visited Tambien as a member of the Unity for Justice and Democracy
Party (UDJ), another opposition party active in Tigray and member of
Forum coalition. I would not be surprised if my visit was viewed as
sort of a political debut by the local administration. Unlike other times
there was an intense interest and activity in the security apparatuses in
the villages I visted. Security forces were fully mobilized to put all my
activities under security surveillance, including open harassment of my
visitors and relatives. It was deeply saddening to be treated a fugitive
and security threat in my own hometown, amidst my relatives and
friends.
As soon as I arrived at Abiy Adi town, the capital of Kola Tembien
district, my father-in-law’s house was surrounded with plain clothes
policemen and informants who tried to dissuade people not to enter the
premise and speak to me. Those who ignored the warnings, and many
did, were later harassed by the police and given strong warnings not to
speak to others favourably about me. In Adiha, my birth place, where I
stayed for two days, a Lieutenant and three other policemen were
dispatched from Abiy Adi town to augment the resident policeman.
They sort of created a makeshift police station to monitor my activities.
The residents were so disgusted by the level of intrusion that the local
administrators told the Lieutenant: “As much as Meles Zenawi is entitled
to visit and run for election in Adwa, Seeye is equally entitled to do so in
Tembien and will take it as our duty to facilitate his participation.”
The surveillance procedures used against me revealed great concern on
the part of the officials. Before I visited every village, the local security
police officials would coordinate by mobile phone my expected
itinerary. Local leaders and members of the ruling party in the villages
were instructed to maintain surveillance of the locations and individuals
with who I met. When I arrive at the location, these party hacks would
openly tell people not to have contact with me or speak to me. Those
who met with me were blacklisted. They would hang around collecting
information and taking notes on what I said, what others said and any
activities that occurred. Once I left the villages, the district governors
would call public meetings, collect information and warn them not to
associate with anyone connected to me. Despite the surveillance and
false propaganda against me, I am grateful to the people for their
affection and support.
There is little distinction to be made between the ruling party and the
local police institutions. The security institutions are in effect
appendages of the party. Their principal purpose is to neutralize any
opposition to the dominance of the ruling party. Lawful political
opponents are viewed as a security issue and treated in the same way as
criminals. I did experience this personally; but the vast majority of the
people view me as their son, brother or friend and would not abandon
or ignore me despite the risks of not getting relief aid, or the price they
have to pay for associating with me. They have my everlasting respect
and appreciation.
Some people may believe Tigray to be the “backyard” of the ruling
party. That is simply not true. People in Tigray want change and
genuine multiparty democracy as much as their compatriots in other
parts of the country do. There is general consensus in Tigray that a
united democratic opposition could be a major positive factor in forcing
the TPLF to re-evaluate its present course and out of enlightened self-
interest pursue a democratic process that meets the urgent and critical
needs of all the people. This is a view widely shared by the majority in
Tigray. They welcome the coming of Arena and UDJ to compete
openly for the votes and support of the people of Tigray.
The 800 pound gorilla in the room is of course election rigging. There is
general consensus in Tigray that the TPLF will rig the election and
declare itself the winner in May. Many have asked me to make sure and
get enough independent international observers to monitor the elections.
Forum does not have the ability to guarantee the presence of an
adequate number of international observers in any part of the country.
I have nevertheless decided to present myself as candidate of the Forum
in Kola Tembien district. The reason is simple. I know that the ruling
party can not field a candidate who can beat me in most of the election
districts of Tigray, let alone in Tembien. I also know that the ruling
party with its complete monopoly over the electoral process and
security apparatuses will not hesitate from rigging the election in broad
daylight. If it declares victory, no one will be surprised. But the people
of Tembien will know their voice has been stolen and the declaration of
victory, by the ruling party, would only serve as a proof that it stole the
election.
As to the West’s commitment to democracy in Ethiopia, the big talk
needs to be backed up with at least a little action. There is a viable
alternative in Forum, and the West should do what it can to help level
the playing field.
------------------------------
The writer Seeye Abraha was Defence Minister of Ethiopia and is
currently vice chair of the UDJ party. He can be reached at
seabrag@gmail.com
party rule in Ethiopia
31 January, 2010 | By Seeye Abraha
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- The West has provided
hundreds of millions of
dollars of food aid to Ethiopia
in the past several years.
However, donor countries
have placed few monitoring
and accountability
populations. As a result, the ruling party has been able to effectively use
relief aid to mobilize support for itself and undermine support for its
opposition.
The politicization of food aid in Ethiopia operates crudely in the open.
Members and supporters of the ruling party and their families are given
top priority in the delivery of ample relief aid. Relief aid is dangled in
front of non-party members who are presented with the option of
joining the ranks of the ruling party if they want to receive aid.
Opposition party members are forced to make the choice of going
hungry or involuntarily joining the ruling party by abandoning their own.
The intense pressure to join the ruling party is reinforced through
family, community and peer pressure. Those who speak up against
such practices or openly protest are targeted for persecution,
intimidation and harassment.
The people forced to make the impossible choice between life and
liberty choose life and do the best they can under the circumstances.
Western donors are fully aware of the misuse and abuse of the
unfortunate situation their relief aid has caused in the country. For some
inexplicable reason, they have chose to remain deaf, blind and mute.
The opposition coalition, Forum, has raised this issue repeatedly with
the Western diplomatic corps in Addis Ababa. Forum has provided
eyewitnesses to provide corroboration for the misuse and abuse of relief
aid. Recently, eight residents from Tigray who were members and
supporters of coalition member Arena were brought to Addis to provide
eyewitness testimony on the political use of relief aid experience. These
brave individuals who risked their lives to tell the truth were picked up
by plainclothes policemen and detained on Dec.23, 2010. They were
forcibly returned to Tigray after five days of detention and interrogation
and were given stern warnings that they would face severe
consequences if they testified.
On January 4, 2010 Jason McClure, the American journalist for
Bloomberg, went to Tigray to investigate the allegations of politicization
of relief aid. Shortly after he arrived he was taken into custody and
detained for in a prison in Mekele before being whisked back to Addis
where he was served with a notice of expulsion, which was latter
retracted, from the country in 48 hours. The story of Mr. McClure, a
highly respected journalist, and his harrowing experiences in trying to
investigate this matter are yet to be told in public.
Over the past two weeks, I have travelled to Tigray and visited Kola
Tembien election district. I spoke with Teklezgi W/Gabriel and Zenawi
Asmelash, two of the eight eyewitnesses who had agreed to speak to
Mr. McClure during his visit there. They told me that they are labeled as
traitors and their life is under threat since their return from Addis
Ababa. I also talked to others in the community. The story is much the
same. If they want to get relief aid, they have to join.
Hunger, food aid and politics have been intertwined in Ethiopia since the
1973 Ethiopian draught which caused the downfall of Emperor Haile
Selassie's regime. As a veteran politician and an ex-commander of an
insurgent army that brought down the Derg military regime, I know
relief aid could be misused to purchase ammunition, weapons, spare
parts, fuel and other materials. Grain and cooking oil can be converted
into cash to buy anything including voting cards.
Forum has raised its concerns about the danger of relief aid driven vote
buying as early as August 2009. The issue was included as an agenda
item in the inter-party dialogue that was initiated through the good
offices of the UK Ambassador, Norman Ling, here in Addis Ababa in
September but was rejected by the ruling party.
I was a member the leadership of the core of the ruling party coalition
in Ethiopia, the TPLF, for about twenty five years. I served as an
elected member of the Parliament for two terms until I was illegally
denied my seat in Parliament in 2001, following a split within the
leadership of the ruling party. In this context, it is instructive to look at
the way the Meles-led clique used food grain to stage manage my
“recall” from my parliamentary seat and that of eight other colleagues.
In 2001 the farmers of Kola Tembien, my electoral district in Tigray,
were ordered to collect their wages in food grain for work done in soil
and water conservation activities. This was the usual method of
dispensing food aid to the able-bodied citizens experiencing food
shortage. When the farmers showed up at the designated sites to
receive their grain allotments, they were asked to put their names and
signatures on sheets of paper as evidence of receipt. Incredibly, the list
of names and signatures was later presented to the National Election
Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) as a petition of my electorate to effect my
recall from Parliament. The so-called recall petition was sustained and
we were forced out of our elected offices. We sued the NEBE but to no
avail since Kemal Bedri, the Chair of the NEBE, was also President of
the Supreme Court of the country. Victimized by such dirty tricks, we
were illegally barred from entering the premises of the Parliament and
effectively dismissed from our elected positions.
The use of food grain as a weapon for sidelining dissidents has been
perfected by the ruling party ever since. It is their preferred weapon of
choice to squeeze the farmers and rural residents into following their
one-party system lockstep. My recent visit to Tembien was to assess
the political situation in the context of the coming election. I visited
many villages in the district, but limited my contacts to friends, relatives
and acquaintances. Although I have visited Tembien many times, the
way the local officials treated me this time around was quite different. I
visited Tambien as a member of the Unity for Justice and Democracy
Party (UDJ), another opposition party active in Tigray and member of
Forum coalition. I would not be surprised if my visit was viewed as
sort of a political debut by the local administration. Unlike other times
there was an intense interest and activity in the security apparatuses in
the villages I visted. Security forces were fully mobilized to put all my
activities under security surveillance, including open harassment of my
visitors and relatives. It was deeply saddening to be treated a fugitive
and security threat in my own hometown, amidst my relatives and
friends.
As soon as I arrived at Abiy Adi town, the capital of Kola Tembien
district, my father-in-law’s house was surrounded with plain clothes
policemen and informants who tried to dissuade people not to enter the
premise and speak to me. Those who ignored the warnings, and many
did, were later harassed by the police and given strong warnings not to
speak to others favourably about me. In Adiha, my birth place, where I
stayed for two days, a Lieutenant and three other policemen were
dispatched from Abiy Adi town to augment the resident policeman.
They sort of created a makeshift police station to monitor my activities.
The residents were so disgusted by the level of intrusion that the local
administrators told the Lieutenant: “As much as Meles Zenawi is entitled
to visit and run for election in Adwa, Seeye is equally entitled to do so in
Tembien and will take it as our duty to facilitate his participation.”
The surveillance procedures used against me revealed great concern on
the part of the officials. Before I visited every village, the local security
police officials would coordinate by mobile phone my expected
itinerary. Local leaders and members of the ruling party in the villages
were instructed to maintain surveillance of the locations and individuals
with who I met. When I arrive at the location, these party hacks would
openly tell people not to have contact with me or speak to me. Those
who met with me were blacklisted. They would hang around collecting
information and taking notes on what I said, what others said and any
activities that occurred. Once I left the villages, the district governors
would call public meetings, collect information and warn them not to
associate with anyone connected to me. Despite the surveillance and
false propaganda against me, I am grateful to the people for their
affection and support.
There is little distinction to be made between the ruling party and the
local police institutions. The security institutions are in effect
appendages of the party. Their principal purpose is to neutralize any
opposition to the dominance of the ruling party. Lawful political
opponents are viewed as a security issue and treated in the same way as
criminals. I did experience this personally; but the vast majority of the
people view me as their son, brother or friend and would not abandon
or ignore me despite the risks of not getting relief aid, or the price they
have to pay for associating with me. They have my everlasting respect
and appreciation.
Some people may believe Tigray to be the “backyard” of the ruling
party. That is simply not true. People in Tigray want change and
genuine multiparty democracy as much as their compatriots in other
parts of the country do. There is general consensus in Tigray that a
united democratic opposition could be a major positive factor in forcing
the TPLF to re-evaluate its present course and out of enlightened self-
interest pursue a democratic process that meets the urgent and critical
needs of all the people. This is a view widely shared by the majority in
Tigray. They welcome the coming of Arena and UDJ to compete
openly for the votes and support of the people of Tigray.
The 800 pound gorilla in the room is of course election rigging. There is
general consensus in Tigray that the TPLF will rig the election and
declare itself the winner in May. Many have asked me to make sure and
get enough independent international observers to monitor the elections.
Forum does not have the ability to guarantee the presence of an
adequate number of international observers in any part of the country.
I have nevertheless decided to present myself as candidate of the Forum
in Kola Tembien district. The reason is simple. I know that the ruling
party can not field a candidate who can beat me in most of the election
districts of Tigray, let alone in Tembien. I also know that the ruling
party with its complete monopoly over the electoral process and
security apparatuses will not hesitate from rigging the election in broad
daylight. If it declares victory, no one will be surprised. But the people
of Tembien will know their voice has been stolen and the declaration of
victory, by the ruling party, would only serve as a proof that it stole the
election.
As to the West’s commitment to democracy in Ethiopia, the big talk
needs to be backed up with at least a little action. There is a viable
alternative in Forum, and the West should do what it can to help level
the playing field.
------------------------------
The writer Seeye Abraha was Defence Minister of Ethiopia and is
currently vice chair of the UDJ party. He can be reached at
seabrag@gmail.com
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