Detentions display UN's impotence in Ethiopia

Ethiopia's government has held one United Nations employee in jail without charges for well over a year, while another is facing prosecution under a notorious anti-terrorism law.

By William Davison, Correspondent / April 25, 2012

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA

Ethiopia's government, a favored and oft-praised Western partner, has held one United Nationsemployee in jail without charges for well over a year, while another is facing prosecution under a notorious anti-terrorism law.

The detentions are a stark indicator of the UN's predicament in the illiberal Horn of Africa nation.

The 27 UN agencies in Ethiopia largely work harmoniously with the government in areas such as funding HIV/AIDS programs, helping care for a quarter of a million refugees, or supporting female education campaigns. UN cash, for example, has helped provide antiretroviral therapy to 249,000 HIV-sufferers from 743 facilities – there were only 3 clinics offering the treatment in 2005. A high level delegation representing six UN agencies visited Ethiopia this month, and praised the country for its progress toward meeting five out of the eight Millennium Development Goals, rapid economic growth, and heavy investment in social services. Few would disagree that advances are being made in providing healthcare, education, and infrastructure for over 80 million Ethiopians.

The dignitaries, however, made no mention of Ethiopian national and UN Local Security Assistant Yusuf Mohammed, who has been languishing in a remote regional jail – without charges – since December 2010. Human rights activists say Ethiopia may use Mr. Mohammed as a bargaining chip in gaining custody of his brother, wanted for bankrolling a rebel group from Denmark.

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A colleague of Mohammed's in the UN Department of Safety and Security, Abdirahman Sheikh Hassan, is being prosecuted for links with the same designated terrorist group, the Ogaden National Liberation Front. The group operates in Ethiopia's Somali region, which is inside Ethiopia but is majority Somali ethnic. Mr. Hassan's arrest in July came shortly after he negotiated the release of two abducted UN World Food Program workers with leaders of the ethnic-Somali insurgents.

While Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's two-decade-old government welcomes international assistance as it strives to haul Africa's second-most populous nation out of poverty, there is no doubt about who's in charge.

"The UN and any other member of the international community are caught between a rock and a hard place," says an aid worker with years of experience in the Somali region, who asked not to be named. "While there is clearly some great work going on in many key sectors, if anybody were to push their agenda beyond a limit considered acceptable by Ethiopia's notoriously strong and rigid government, then they would risk being expelled from the country." Or, he says, if you are Ethiopian; imprisoned.

Confidentially – public protestations may jeopardize career advancement – UN staff tell of regular harassment by the Ethiopian authorities: equipment is impounded at customs, UN workers' spouses are denied work permits, and vehicles are searched in contravention of the government's 53-year-old agreement with the organization.

In a public statement earlier this month on its imprisoned workers, the UN said it had advised the government of "the appropriate procedure to be followed in such cases under the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations" and that it had inquired about the "legal basis for their arrest."

While the local workers should be immune from detention under the convention, the government may have mistakenly believed that only international UN staff are protected, according to a UN official. This seems an unlikely mistake to have made in the case of Milan Dubcek, Slovakia's Ambassador to Ethiopia, who was held over a weekend in November by security agents after picking a sensitive spot on the fringes of the capital, Addis Ababa, to go for a Saturday stroll. "The local authorities neither informed Slovakia nor offered any explanation for why Dubček had been arrested," reported The Slovak Spectator.

In the case of Mr. Hassan, after taking almost a week to track down the file, government spokesman Shimeles Kemal was bullish about the "prima facie" evidence the state had against him. Officials have not commented on Mr. Mohammed's case.

Although a UN worker held in arbitrary detention may be unusual, the practice itself is not uncommon in Ethiopia, according to advocacy groups. "We believe that there were hundreds of individuals arbitrarily detained last year alone and the practice appears to be widespread," says Laetitia Barder from Human Rights Watch. Both HRW and Amnesty International – frequent, vociferous critics of Mr. Meles's administration – say identifying an exact figure is impossible due to the lack of independent monitoring of Ethiopia's prisons.

This lack of scrutiny is partly due to Ethiopia's 2009 Charities and Societies Proclamation, which bars NGOs that receive more than 10 percent of funding from abroad from participating in rights work. The rationale is to allow Ethiopia's civil society to develop organically without undue and unaccountable foreign influence, explained Meles to journalist Peter Gill in his 2010 book Famine & Foreigners, Ethiopia Since Live Aid. Critics say the less-prosaic purpose is to shut out  foreign charities, such as those that allegedly helped try to unseat the ruling party in 2005.  

"The government would very much like to control the UN and other multilaterals the way they control the NGO sector," says an Ethiopia expert who asked not to be named for fear of limiting his future access to the country. But without the legal power to do so, and recognizing the UN's vital work, "it is a constant game of cat and mouse," says the aid worker about the government's relationship with the UN. "Yet the cat, it seems, will always get the cream."  

But at times, offshoots or smaller branches of the UN are quite critical: Five UN Special Rapporteurs on rights slammed the government for a crackdown on dissent in February; last year the International Monetary Fund was instrumental in highlighting the role of central bank lending to state enterprises in fueling soaring inflation; and the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization joined a chorus of criticism of the Gibe III hydropower dam.

But unless lead agencies also find a critical and concerted voice, there is no substantive UN opposition to the government's rogue tendencies. Or, as online Ethiopia commentator Jawar Mohammed puts it: "Meles does not give a damn about the toothless UN." http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/2012/0425/Detentions-display-UN-s-impotence-in-Ethiopia

 

IPI World Press Freedom Heroes Condemn Imprisonment of Ethiopian Journalist Eskinder Nega A Call for an End to the Persecution of Journalists in Ethiopia

By: Naomi Hunt, Press Freedom Adviser for Africa & the Middle East | April 24, 2012

VIENNA – Twenty international journalists who have been recognised as World Press Freedom Heroes by the Vienna-based International Press Institute (IPI) have condemned the Ethiopian government’s decision to jail Eskinder Nega and other journalists on terrorism charges, and called for their immediate release.

Eskinder Nega, an online writer and critic of the current Ethiopian government, was arrested in September 2011 and is accused of supporting terrorism, for which he could face the death penalty if convicted. He was jailed shortly after having criticized the government’s use of anti-terrorism laws to jail other journalists and opposition figures. This is hardly Eskinder's first brush with the authorites – he and his wife, also a journalist, were jailed for 17 months on treason charges in the aftermath of the disputed 2005 elections. Their son was born in prison. Since then, Eskinder has been banned from journalism but has continued to speak out and write.

Ethiopia, which is set to host the World Economic Forum on Africa in May 2012, jailed Eskinder and four other journalists on anti-terrorism charges over the past year.  Woubshet Taye, deputy editor of the now-defunctAwramba Times, and Reyot Alemu of Feteh newspaper were convicted and sentenced to 14 years in prison this January. In December, Swedish journalists Martin Schibbye and Johann Persson were sentenced to 11 years in prison for aiding terrorists. They had been arrested last year in the company of rebels in the Ogaden region.

Last month, IPI Executive Director Alison Bethel McKenzie called on United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to speak out against Ethiopia’s use of anti-terror laws to jail journalists, which IPI said "makes a mockery of the universal right to ‘hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.’”

IPI noted that this practice also undermines “the fight against real terrorists, who use violence - and not words - to achieve their ends”.

Each of the men and women who signed this petition has been honoured for their contributions to freedom of the press in their home countries and around the world. Many have themselves been jailed for their work – indeed Turkish author and investigative reporter Nedim Sener’s battle against terrorism charges, believed by observers to be designed to silence him as a journalist, is not over yet. Read their call for Ethiopia’s journalists to be freed, below:

*******************************************************************************

H.E. Meles Zenawi

P.O.Box 1031

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Via Fax: 2511-55-20-20

Dear Prime Minister,

We are writing to express our extremely strong condemnation of the Ethiopian government’s decision to jail journalist Eskinder Nega on terrorism charges on Sep. 14, 2011. We believe the government’s decision to arrest him violates the rights of freedom of speech and freedom of the press guaranteed by the Ethiopian constitution, the United Nations’ International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The imprisonment of Eskinder Nega and other journalists represents the criminalisation of investigation and criticism, which should be part and parcel of any democratic society.

We are particularly concerned by reports from Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International that Eskinder may be subject to torture during his imprisonment.

We call on the Ethiopian government to unconditionally release Eskinder and other journalists unjustly detained; to ensure that he and others are treated humanely; to halt the use of anti-terrorism laws to prosecute journalists; and to fully defend the rights of the press outlined by Ethiopia’s constitution and international agreements. 

Please note that we are sending this statement to the authorities of the African Union – including the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Dr. Jean Ping, and the Chairperson of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, Catherine Dupe Atoki. We wish to draw their attention to the fact that the conduct of the Ethiopian Government is in conflict with the protocols of the African Union, the African Union Charter, and the guarantees of freedom of expression protected under various international human rights instruments including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Moreover, we find that the conduct of the Ethiopian government also brings the African Union into disrepute because its headquarters are in Addis Ababa.

Signed by: 

Kenneth Best, Liberia – Kenneth Best founded The Daily Observer, Liberia’s first independent daily, in 1981. As a result of its critical reporting of Samuel Doe’s dictatorship, Kenneth Best was arrested on multiple occasions and the paper shut down four times, once for a period of two years. In 1990, when The Daily Observer facilities were burnt down, Kenneth Best and his family were exiled to The Gambia, where another newspaper of the same name was established.

Lydia Cacho, Mexico – One of Mexico’s most famous journalists, reporting on organised crime, political corruption, domestic violence, and child prostitution, Lydia Cacho has raised awareness of serious issues facing women and children in Mexico. Lydia has written for Novedades de Cancún and Por Esto, as well as books including Los Demonios del Eden: El Poder Que Protege a la Pornografía Infantil ("The Demons of Eden: The Power That Protects Child Pornography"). Lydia Cacho remains committed to her work despite having been imprisoned and tortured.

Juan Pablo Cardenas, Chile – As chief editor of Análisis during General Pinochet’s regime, Juan Pablo faced constant harassment and legal prosecution. Despite the murder of one of his journalists, Cardenas remained committed to reporting on government corruption and human rights abuses. He once endured a 541-night prison sentence for offending the armed forces in his editorials. Now, Juan Pablo continues to write for national and international publications and is currently a professor at the University of Chile’s School of Journalism.

May Chidiac, Lebanon – Dr. May Chidiac is the founder and president of the May Chidiac Foundation. Known for her criticism of Syria’s sway over Lebanon, an issue that was seldom critically discussed in the country, May Chidiac worked as the main anchor on political talk show Bi Kol Jor’a. May Chidiac nearly lost her life in a car bomb attack in 2005, which left her severely injured.

Sir Harold Evans, United Kingdom - One of Britain’s most respected journalists and the crusading editor of The Sunday Times for 14 years, Sir Harold Evans brought a new style of investigative reporting to his country. He has authored and edited best-sellers and served as a contributor to various media houses including The Guardian and the BBC. In 2011, Sir Evans joined the Reuters news agency as editor-at-large.

Akbar Ganji, Iran – Often called ‘Iran’s most prominent political dissident’, Akbar Ganji spent six years in Evin prison for a 1999 series of articles he wrote for Sobh Emrouz newspaper about Iran’s notorious ‘chain murders’. Akbar Ganji also wrote a number of articles accusing high level political figures and clerics of being involved in assassinations of dissidents and intellectuals. In 2000, Ganji was arrested for spreading propaganda and endangering national security. He spent six years in prison, much of it in solitary confinement. However he used this time to write his “Republican Manifesto”. After his release in 2006, Akbar Ganji left Iran and has been campaigning for democracy. He published his first book in English in 2008, entitledThe Road to Democracy in Iran.

Amira Hass, Israel – As a journalist for Ha’aretz, Amira Hass has covered the Gaza strip and Palestinian affairs for years, becoming the first Israeli journalist to live in the Palestinian territories. Amira Hass was convinced that the Israelis needed to know the truth about the plight of the Palestinian people. Despite arrests and confrontations with the Israeli authorities and the Palestinian National Authority, she continues to report with independence.

Daoud Kuttab, Jordan – Daoud Kuttab is General Manager at the Community Media Network, Amman and Founder of AmmanNet, Amman, Jordan, the Arab world’s first Internet radio station. One of the best known Palestinian journalists, Kuttab fought for a free media in the Palestinian Territories under both the Israelis and the Palestinian Authorit. He has worked for a number of publications including Al Fajr and Al Quds, but went on to help establish both the Arabic Media Internet Network in 1995 and the Institute of Modern Media at Al Quds University in 1996.

Gwen Lister, Namibia – As founder and former editor of The Namibian, Gwen Lister remained committed to reporting injustice and corruption both before and after Namibia’s independence from apartheid South Africa, despite prosecutions, raids and violent attacks. She previously co-founded the Windhoek Observer and worked as a political editor. She is a founder of the Media Institute of Southern Africa.

Raymond Louw, South Africa – Raymond Louw is a veteran champion of press freedom and journalists’ rights. Chairman of the South African Press Council and one of the founding members of the South African National Editors’ Forum, until 2011 Louw also worked as the editor and publisher of Southern Africa Report, a private current affairs weekly. Raymond Louw previously worked for the Sunday Times and the Rand Daily Mail, which was renowned for its investigative journalism with regards to apartheid and other issues.

Veran Matic, Serbia – As co-founder of Radio B92, Veran Matic provided an accurate and impartial account of events in Serbia, whilst standing up to pressure from the authorities and withstanding multiple threats, physical attacks and arrests. B92 was banned in 1991 and again in 1996. The radio station was repeatedly jammed and then closed down, but it continued to operate via the Internet. Mass rallies and protests forced the authorities to open the station again. Matic established the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM), a network of independent radio stations in Serbia and Montenegro, in an attempt to provide listeners with objective news. ANEM is still going strong today with more than 50 independent radio and television stations.

Adam Michnik, Poland – As a former dissident, writer, historian, lecturer and journalist, Adam Michnik is known for his defence of human rights. He spent a total of six years in prison between 1965 and 1986 for his opposition to communist rule in Poland. As editor in chief of the first independent Polish daily, Gazeta Wyborcza, Adam Michnik has remained committed to the paper’s independence. Today, the newspaper remains the top-selling daily in Poland, and one of the most respected in Europe.

Fred M’membe, Zambia – Known for his outspoken defence of press freedom and his paper’s exposés on government corruption and abuses of power, Frank M’membe is founder and editor-in-chief for The Post, Zambia’s leading independent daily. Despite harassment, raids, multiple lawsuits including accusations of defamation and treason confiscation and censorship, Frank M’membe continues to uphold the principle of press freedom. Frank M’membe is also a founder of the Media Institute of Southern Africa, which fosters a free and independent media.

Nizar Nayouf, Syria – Nizar Nayouf repeatedly paid the price for his work. While working as editor in chief for Sawt Al Democratiyya, and because of his affiliation with the Committee for the Defence of Democratic Freedom, Nayouf was sentenced in 1992 to ten years in prison. He spent most of this time in solitary confinement and was tortured, but still managed to write four books. Since his release from prison, Nizar Nayouf has left Syria and is chief editor of Syria Truth.

Pap Saine, The Gambia – Gambian publisher and editor Pap Saine is the publisher and editor of The Point and a Reuters correspondent for West and Central Africa. Pap Saine has faced imprisonment and harassment for his work, particularly for his commitment to press freedom and revealing the truth about Deyda Hydara, his co-founder who was murdered by unknown men in 2004.

Faraj Sarkohi, Iran – A writer and journalist, Faraj Sarkohi was persecuted by both the Shah of Iran and the Islamic Republic of Iran. As a result of his work for Adineh, a literary monthly he founded and edited, Faraj Sarkohi faced imprisonment and torture before he was forced into exile. He continues to campaign for greater press freedom in Iran. 

Nedim Sener, Turkey – After spending a year behind bars, Nedim Sener was recently released from prison pending trial. He faces allegations that his criticism of government investigations into alleged coup plots demonstrated support for those plots. Sener is an author and investigative journalist with Turkish daily newspaper Posta. His work includes publication of a book on the 2007 murder of his friend, Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, which accused Turkish security agencies of failing to prevent Dink's murder.

Arun Shourie, India – One of India’s most renowned and controversial journalists, Arun Shourie was the uncompromising editor of the English-language daily Indian Express, and introduced a new style of independent investigative journalism to India. At one stage, there were 300 cases filed against the Indian Express by the government but Shourie remained committed to press freedom, ensuring him a vast following, and many enemies, across India. Arun Shourie is now working in politics and previously was a Minister for the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Ricardo Uceda, Peru – Famous for his fearless reporting on government corruption and the military’s abuse of human rights, Ricardo Uceda is one of Peru’s most renowned investigative journalists. As editor of newsweekly Sí, Ricardo Uceda revealed military abuses and faced physical threats and censorship. Ricardo Uceda also founded the Investigative Unit of El Comercio, Peru’s oldest daily, and previously he also worked for El Mundo, Expreso, El Diario, El Nacional, Canal 2 and La Razón, and is a founding member of Instituto Prensa y Sociedad (Press and Society Institute).

Jose Ruben Zamora, Guatemala – Founder and former editor-in-chief of the independent daily Siglo Veintiuno (21st Century), Jose Ruben Zamora has built up a reputation for reporting on taboo subjects and exposés covering corruption, drug trafficking and human rights violations. Zamora resigned as editor in chief of Siglo Veintiuno in 1996 and launched a new daily,El Periódico, which continues its critical coverage. Zamora has faced censorship, harassment, death threats, kidnapping and attacks for his work.

International Press Institute contact: Naomi Hunt +43 1 512 90 11 or nhunt@freemedia.at
Committee to Free Eskinder Nega contact: Jason McLure +1 202 370 6905

Ethiopia: Green Justice or Ethnic Injustice?

Prof.
Alemayehu G. Mariam 

Last week, dictator Meles Zenawi hectored his rubbers tamp parliament in Ethiopia about the forced expulsion (or as some have described it “ethnic cleansing”) of Amharas from southern Ethiopia and zapped his critics for their irresponsibility in reporting and publicizing it. Zenawi denied any expulsion had taken place, but explained that some squatters (he described them as “sefaris from North Gojam”) had  to be removed from their homesteads in the south purely out of environmental conservation concerns for the area’s forestlands. In a broadside against organizations “that promote the view that our collective identity is Ethiopianity,” Zenawi harangued:

… By coincidence of history, over the past ten years numerous people — some 30,000 sefaris (squatters) from North Gojam – have settled in Benji Maji (BM) zone [in Southern Ethiopia]. In Gura Ferda, there are some 24,000 sefaris. Because the area is forested, not too many people live there. For all intents and purposes, Gura Ferda is little North Gojam complete with squatters’ local administration. That is not a problem: There is land to farm [in BM zone], and there are people who want to farm it. Everybody wins, no one loses. There is only one problem: The squatters did it in a disorganized way. The squatters settled individually and haphazardly and in an environmentally destructive way. The settlement was not based on a sound environmental impact study on the destruction of the forest. The pristine forest in the area must be protected. The squatters want land that can be easily developed and cultivated. They don’t care if it is a forest or not. They cut the forest and used the wood to make charcoal to aid in their settlement. As a result massive environmental destruction has occurred…. Settlers cannot move into the area and destroy the forest for settlement. It is illegal and must stop. Those who try to distort this fact are irresponsible. It is necessary to filter the truth. The rights of all Ethiopians must be protected on equal footing. Those who allege persecution and displacement of Amharas are engaged in irresponsible agitation which is not useful to anyone…

Stated more simply, the “sefaris of North Gojam” are environmental criminals who deserved forcible expulsion; and they should thank they lucky stars they are not prosecuted criminally.

Africa’s C.E.O.  

When it comes to defending the African environment, no person has more expertise or passion than Zenawi who, after all, is the anointed C.E.O. (Chief Environmental Officer) of Africa. In 2009, Zenawi headed a delegation of African negotiators to the Copenhagen Summit (2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen) to morally and financially hold accountable the wayward West for its environmental destruction, climate change, global warming and all the rest. In the run up to the Summit, Zenawi threatened to bring down the Summit if the West did not do right by Africa and cough up $40bs:

We will use our numbers to de-legitimise any agreement that is not consistent with our minimal position… If needs be we are prepared to walk out of any negotiations that threaten to be another rape of our continent… Africa’s interest and position will not be muffled as has usually been the case… Africa will field a single negotiating team empowered to negotiate on behalf of all member states of the African Union…. The key thing for me is that Africa be compensated for the damage caused by global warming. Many institutions have tried to quantify that and they have come up with different figures. The sort of median figure would be in the range of 40 billion USD a year.

A day into the Summit, Zenawi was ready to cut a deal with “Africa’s rapists” for a cool $10bs. He told his African brethren cold cash is better than talking trash:

I know my proposal today will disappoint those Africans who from the point of view of justice have asked for full compensation for the damage done to our development prospects. My proposal dramatically scales back our expectation with regards to the level of funding in return for more reliable funding and a seat at the table in the management of such funds.

In October 2011, in a speech before the African Economic Conference, Zenawi lectured:

Much of our land has been cleared of tree cover resulting in massive land degradation, soil erosion and vulnerability to both flooding and drought. As a result of the global warming that has already happened we have become more exposed to strange combinations of drought and flooding.  The resource base of our agriculture is very seriously threatened.

In other words, we need to go back to the Western rapists and squeeze some more cash out them.

Zenawi’s Stewardship of the Environment in Ethiopia

Zenawi is manifestly the go-to expert on the impact of climate change and global warming on Africa. But does he have a clue about the environmental destruction, and particularly, the deforestation of Ethiopia? By 2020,  Ethiopia is expected to lose all of its forest resources according to the Ethiopian Agricultural Research Institute (the foremost agricultural research institute in the country):

Ethiopia’s forest coverage by the turn of the last century was 40%. By 1987, under the military government, it went down to 5.5%. In 2003, it dropped down to 0.2%. The Ethiopian Agricultural Research Institute says Ethiopia loses up to 200,000 hectares of forest every year. Between 1990 and 2005, Ethiopia lost 14.0% of its forest cover (2,114,000 hectares) and 3.6% of its forest and woodland habitat. If the trend continues, it is expected that Ethiopia could lose all of its forest resources in 11 years, by the year 2020.

According to a 2004 study, Ethiopia has some 60 million hectares of land covered by woody vegetation of which nearly 7 percent is forestland. Some 63 percent of the forestland is located in Oromiya, followed by   Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples region [SNNP] (19%) and Gambella (9%). It is remarkable that Zenawi decided to draw the line on deforestation in Benji Maji/Gura Ferda in 2012 given the worsening nature of the problem in that region as a result of uncontrolled foreign commercial export agriculture. It is equally remarkable that he chose ethnic removal as a tool of reforestation and land reclamation.

But is Zenawi’s claim of environmental concern and forest protection for the expulsion of the “North Gojam sefaris” supported by evidence? Or is he using an environmental subterfuge to evade controversy and withering criticism?  Over the past five years, Zenawi has “leased” (sold) some of the most fertile land (much of it forestland) in the country to the Saudis, the Shiekdoms, the Indians, the Chinese and Koreans (SSICKs) and anyone else sporting a crisp dollar bill. According to the respected Oakland Institute [OI], beginning in 2008, Zenawi’s regime has

transferred at least 3,619,509 hectares of land to foreign investors although the actual number may be higher… The Ethiopian government insists that for all land deals consultation is being carried out, no farmers are displaced, and the land being granted is “unused.” However, the OI team did not find a single incidence of community consultation… There are no limits on water use, no Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA), and no environmental controls. It is alarming that investors are free to use water with no restrictions. Investors informed the OI team of the ease with which they planned to dam a local river and of the virtual lack of control and regulations over environmental issues. Despite assurances that EIAs are performed, no government official could produce a completed EIA, no investor had evidence of a completed one, and no community had ever seen one…. Displacement from farmland is widespread, and the vast majority of locals receive no compensation…. Displaced farmers are forced to find farmland elsewhere, increasing competition and tension with other farmers over access to land and resources.

The bottom line is that the SSICKs who slash and burn pristine forests for large-scale commercial export agriculture are called investors. Ethiopians who clear small plots of land to feed themselves and their families are called “sefaris” (squatters).  The SSICKs are  given 99-year leases to millions of hectares to “develop”.  Ethiopians are forcibly ejected from their ancestral lands and tiny homesteads to make way for the SSICKs. The SSICKs are allowed to grab as much land as they want for pennies; Ethiopians are grabbed and thrown off the land and lose every hard earnerd penny they have invested. The SSICKs are welcomed with open arms at sunrise; Ethiopians are kicked in the rear end and told to get out of town before sundown. The SSICKs have property rights in land; Ethiopians do not have a right to own land. The SSICKs are treated like royalty; Ethiopians are given the shaft. The shame of it all: Ethiopians are “hunted down like animals where they are constantly asked if they support these [SSICK] plantations” according to the Oakland Institute study.

Welcome to SSICKistan.

Are there Environmental Laws the “North Gojam Sefaris” Could Follow?

Zenawi claims that the expulsion was necessary because many of the “North Gojam sefaris” engaged in a pattern and practice of settlement that is disorganized, haphazard and environmentally destructive. But does Zenawi’s regime have policies that would facilitate an orderly, systematic and organized settlement of rural areas or ensure sound forest conservation practices?  For instance, the seminal law on the subject, the “Rural Lands Administration and Use Proclamation No.456/2005”, authorizes free access to rural lands for all who intend to engage in farming activities; but it provides no clear direction on how settlements are to be established or administered. It leaves implementation of the Proclamation entirely to the “regional authorities” who often do not have the expertise or capacity to implement it. To be sure, Proclamation No. 456 is virtually silent on the use, conservation or management of forestlands. In fact, it makes only three passing references to “forestry”, “forest degradation” and “forest land.”

The Revised SNNPRS Determination of Executive Organs’ Powers and Responsibilities Proclamation No. 106/2007 [Southern Nations, Nationalities' and Peoples' Regional State], purportedly aims to implement Proclamation No. 456, but the region has no environmental protection agency. The task of implementing Proclamation 456 is apparently given to the region’s Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Development which purportedly has oversight authority over conservation of natural resources and wild life, but no specific responsibility to undertake forest conservation or management. Land use restrictions under SNNPRS Rural Land Administration and Use Regulation No 66/2007 does not deal with forestlands at all; it is principally concerned with the use of wetlands and sloping lands. Simply stated, there is no regional law that deals with deforestation or clearing of forests for settlements or farming. What are the “sefaris” to do?

Similarly, the “federal” “Forest Development, Conservation, and Utilization Proclamation No.542/2007” is so vague and general as to be nothing more than a statement of policy orientation. The Proclamation recognizes “government” and “private” forests, but provides no indication on how the forests can be developed or where individuals could apply to get authorizations. Incredibly, the Proclamation catalogues the obligations of private forest developers without enumerating any of their rights. The bulk of the Proclamation is not law but aspirational policy statements about what ought to be done in the future.

Zenawi secondary argument is that the Amhara “sefaris” settled in Benji Maji/Gura Ferda without the required environmental impact assessment (EIA) presumably pursuant to Proclamation No. 299/2002 (“Environmental Impact Assessment Proclamation” [EIAP]). That Proclamation requires an assessment to “identify and evaluate in advance any effect which results from the implementation of a proposed project or public instrument”. As a technical legal matter, the “sefari’s” pattern of homesteading falls outside of the EIAP’s statutory definition of “proposed project” or “public instrument”. In other words, under the present language and definitions in Proclamation No. 299, the “sefaris” would be exempt from performing an environmental impact assessment. Rather, they would be subject to Proclamation No. 456 (Rural Lands Administration and Use ).

But all of the technical legal analysis and arguments aside, the fact of the matter is that a tiny percentage of all private sector projects are subject to the EIAP because of exemption loopholes and political decisions that override the technical merits of such reports. As the OI report has shown “despite assurances that environmental impact assessments [EIAs] are performed, no government official could produce a completed EIA, no investor had evidence of a completed one, and no community had ever seen one….” The regime’s “environmental impact assessment” on Gibe III Dam demonstrates the pro forma nature of such undertakings when it is politically expedient.

Ethnic Cleansing or Forest Conservation?

There is no question that tens of thousands of Amharas have been forcibly removed from Benj Maji/Gura Ferda in southern Ethiopia, and not just from “North Gojam”. Numerous interviews of victims by the Voice of America provide substantial evidence of forced expulsion.  So we must face the unavoidable question: Is the forced expulsion of the “sefaris” a form of ethnic cleansing or the consequence of the unintended effects of routine ecological remediation? The evidence on this question from the two individuals who are in the best position to know is rather curious to say the least. Zenawi says the “North Gojam sefaris” were evicted solely because they were destroying the forest in their haphazard settlement patterns. But in  his written order, Shiferaw Shigute, President of SNNP, does not not mention a single word about deforestation or harm to the environment in the expulsion of the Amhara “sefaris”. Goodness gracious, who to believe?

“Ethnic cleansing” does not have a specific formal legal definition. A 1993 United Nations Commission defined the phrase as, “the planned deliberate removal from a specific territory, persons of a particular ethnic group, by force or intimidation, in order to render that area ethnically homogenous.” A UN Commission of Experts established pursuant to Security Council Resolution 780 held that the practices associated with ethnic cleansing “constitute crimes against humanity”. Others have defined “ethnic cleansing as the expulsion of an ‘undesirable’ population from a given territory due to religious or ethnic discrimination, political, strategic or ideological considerations, or a combination of these.” Article 7 (d) of the Rome Statute declares that “deportation or forcible transfer of population”, (defined as “forced displacement by expulsion or other coercive acts from the area in which they are lawfully present, without grounds without grounds permitted under international law”) is a “crime against humanity”. Whether the expulsion of the Amhara “sefaris” is part of a deliberate and systematic policy of “ethnic federalism” in which ethnic purges of a civilian population are undertaken to ensure the ethnic homogeneity of the southern part of the country to the detriment of other Ethiopians of a different ethnic stripe will bear significantly on the question of ethnic cleansing.

Be fair to the people!

Amharic translations of recent commentaries by the author may be found at:

http://www.ecadforum.com/Amharic/archives/category/al-mariam-amharic and

http://ethioforum.org/?cat=24

Previous commentaries by the author are available at:

http://open.salon.com/blog/almariam/  and

www.huffingtonpost.com/alemayehu-g-mariam/