Britain and EU increase aid to Ethiopia while
ignoring human rights warnings
04 August, 2011 | Bruno Waterfield (Telegraph)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Britain and the EU have increased aid to Ethiopia while
ignoring repeated diplomatic warnings of human rights abuse
and concerns that Western funding is being used as a tool of
repression by the country's regime.
about human rights abuses, evidence that European governments,
including Britain, were prepared to turn a blind eye to repression in
order to woo a key African ally.
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism investigation has also
gathered evidence of continuing ethnic cleansing, mass detentions,
the widespread use of torture and extra-judicial killings by Ethiopian
government forces.
The Daily Telegraph understands that last summer the EU failed to
condemn crack downs on opposition politicians and journalists in
return for Ethiopian support in critical climate change negotiations in
December 2009.
Ethiopia receives £1.8 billion in development aid every year, with
Britain the second largest donor after the US.
This year the UK will hand out £290 million, not including the £48m
in emergency aid announced last month, a 24-fold increase over the
past decade. The EU provided a further £152m last year.
Leaked emails reveal that both the EU and Britain failed to act on
confidential daily diplomatic telegrams from Timothy Clarke, the
EU's former ambassador in Ethiopia.
The emails were sent over three months in the days after elections in
2005 and express increasing concern about reports of murders and
arrests of thousands of civilians by government forces.
"Basic human rights abuses are being committed by the government
on a daily basis - the EU must respond firmly and resolutely," he
wrote on June 12 2005.
Despite the warnings, Brussels commended Ethiopian conduct of
the elections a pattern that was mirrored in 2010 when the EU
welcomed as "an important moment in the democratic process" a
result that saw Zenawi's regime won 99.6 per cent of the vote amid
reports of widespread human rights abuses.
Ana Gomes, a Portuguese MEP who was the chief election
observer for the EU during the 2005 Ethiopian elections, has
accused European officials of "watering down all the most difficult
passages" which detailed repression.
"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," she said.
A spokesman for the EU diplomatic service said: "Protection of
human rights is a priority for the EU and it features prominently in
our dialogue with all external partners. This also applies to the EU
dialogue with Ethiopia, where we raise human rights issues regularly."
Courtesy
ignoring human rights warnings
04 August, 2011 | Bruno Waterfield (Telegraph)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Britain and the EU have increased aid to Ethiopia while
ignoring repeated diplomatic warnings of human rights abuse
and concerns that Western funding is being used as a tool of
repression by the country's regime.
- An investigation by the Bureau of
Investigative Journalism and BBC
Newsnight has found that as
Ethiopia is hit by drought and
famine, communities are being
denied basic food, seed and
fertiliser for failing to support Meles
Zenawi, the country's authoritarian
leader.
- Senior Brussels officials
about human rights abuses, evidence that European governments,
including Britain, were prepared to turn a blind eye to repression in
order to woo a key African ally.
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism investigation has also
gathered evidence of continuing ethnic cleansing, mass detentions,
the widespread use of torture and extra-judicial killings by Ethiopian
government forces.
The Daily Telegraph understands that last summer the EU failed to
condemn crack downs on opposition politicians and journalists in
return for Ethiopian support in critical climate change negotiations in
December 2009.
Ethiopia receives £1.8 billion in development aid every year, with
Britain the second largest donor after the US.
This year the UK will hand out £290 million, not including the £48m
in emergency aid announced last month, a 24-fold increase over the
past decade. The EU provided a further £152m last year.
Leaked emails reveal that both the EU and Britain failed to act on
confidential daily diplomatic telegrams from Timothy Clarke, the
EU's former ambassador in Ethiopia.
The emails were sent over three months in the days after elections in
2005 and express increasing concern about reports of murders and
arrests of thousands of civilians by government forces.
"Basic human rights abuses are being committed by the government
on a daily basis - the EU must respond firmly and resolutely," he
wrote on June 12 2005.
Despite the warnings, Brussels commended Ethiopian conduct of
the elections a pattern that was mirrored in 2010 when the EU
welcomed as "an important moment in the democratic process" a
result that saw Zenawi's regime won 99.6 per cent of the vote amid
reports of widespread human rights abuses.
Ana Gomes, a Portuguese MEP who was the chief election
observer for the EU during the 2005 Ethiopian elections, has
accused European officials of "watering down all the most difficult
passages" which detailed repression.
"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," she said.
A spokesman for the EU diplomatic service said: "Protection of
human rights is a priority for the EU and it features prominently in
our dialogue with all external partners. This also applies to the EU
dialogue with Ethiopia, where we raise human rights issues regularly."
Courtesy
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