Britain is supporting a dictatorship in Ethiopia

It’s 30 years since Ethiopia’s famine came to attention in the UK. Now, a farmer plans to sue Britain for human rights abuses, claiming its aid has funded a government programme of torture and beatings as villagers have been removed from their homes

One of hundreds of families in the Gambella region who have been forcibly removed from their homes. Photograph: Jenny Vaughan/AFP/Getty Images

“Life was good because the land was the land of our ancestors. The village was along the riverside, where you could get drinking water, go fishing and plant mango, banana and papaya. The temperature there was good and we could feed ourselves.”

This is how Mr O – his name is protected for his safety – remembers the home he shared with his family in the Gambella region of Ethiopia. The fertile land had been farmed for generations, relatively safe from wars, revolutions and famines. Then, one day, near the end of 2011, everything changed. Ethiopian troops arrived at the village and ordered everyone to leave. The harvest was ripe, but there was no time to gather it. When Mr O showed defiance, he says, he was jailed, beaten and tortured. Women were raped and some of his neighbours murdered during the forced relocation.

Using strongarm tactics reminiscent of apartheid South Africa, tens of thousands of people in Ethiopia have been moved against their will to purpose-built communes that have inadequate food and lack health and education facilities, according to human rights watchdogs, to make way for commercial agriculture. With Orwellian clinicalness, the Ethiopian government calls this programme “villagisation”. The citizens describe it as victimisation.

And this mass purge was part bankrolled, it is claimed, by the UK. Ethiopia is one of the biggest recipients of UK development aid, receiving around £300m a year. Some of the money, Mr O argues, was used to systematically destroy his community and its way of life. Now this lone subsistence farmer is taking on the might of Whitehall in a legal action; a hearing took place in the high court in London last Thursday, but judgment on whether the case can go ahead has been reserved. Mr O and his legal team now await a decision on permission from the judge, who will declare whether there is an arguable case that can go forward to a full hearing.

“The British government is supporting a dictatorship in Ethiopia,” says Mr O, speaking through an interpreter from a safe location that cannot be disclosed for legal reasons. “It should stop funding Ethiopia because people in the remote areas are suffering. I’m ready to fight a case against the British government.” The dispute comes ahead of the 30th anniversary of famine in Ethiopia capturing the world’s gaze, most famously in Michael Buerk’s reports for the BBC that sparked the phenomena of Band Aid and Live Aid. Now, in an era when difficult questions are being asked about the principle and practice of western aid, it is again Ethiopia – widely criticised as authoritarian and repressive – that highlights the law of unintended consequences.

Mr O is now 34. He completed a secondary-school education, cultivated a modest patch of land and studied part-time at agricultural college. He married and had six children. That old life in the Gambella region now seems like a distant mirage. “I was very happy and successful in my farming,” he recalls. “I enjoyed being able to take the surplus crops to market and buy other commodities. Life was good in the village. It was a very green and fertile land, a beautiful place.” So it had always been as the seasons rolled by. But in November 2011 came a man-made Pompeii, not with molten lava but soldiers with guns. A meeting was called by local officials and the people were told that they had been selected for villagisation, a development programme the government claims is designed to bring “socioeconomic and cultural transformation of the people”.

Mr O says: “In the meeting the government informed the community, ‘You will go to a new village.’ The community reacted and said, ‘How can you take us from our ancestral land? This is the land we are meant for. When a father or grandfather dies, this is where we bury them.'”

The community also objected to the move because they feared ethnic persecution in their proposed home and because the land would not be fertile enough to farm. “Villagisation is bad because people were taken to an area which will not help them. It’s a well-designed plan by the government to weaken indigenous people.”

Land grab in the Gambella region in March 2011. Photograph: John Vidal for the GuardianThe army used brutal means to force the villagers to resettle. Mr O says he witnessed several beatings and one rape, and he knows of several women who contracted HIV as a result. Some people simply disappeared. He claims to have witnessed soldiers, police and local officials perpetrating the abuses. The  villagers, including Mr O and his family, found themselves in a new location in Gambella. He says there was no food and water, no farmland, no schools and no healthcare facility. Jobs, and hope, were scarce.

So in 2012 he dared to return to his old village and tried to farm his land. It was a doomed enterprise. In around April, he claims, he was caught and punished for encouraging disobedience among the villagers. Soldiers dragged him to military barracks where he was gagged, kicked and beaten with rifle-butts, causing serious injuries. He was repeatedly interrogated as to why he had come back. “I went to the farm and was taken by soldiers to military barracks and locked in a room,” Mr O recalls. “I was alone and beaten and tortured using a gun. They put a rolled sock in my mouth. The soldiers were saying: ‘You are the one who mobilised the families not to go to the new village. You are also inciting the people to revolution.’ Other people were in different rooms being tortured, some even killed. Some women were raped. By now they have delivered children: even now if you go to Gambella, you will meet them.” He reflects: “I felt very sad. I had become like a refugee in my homeland. They did not consider us like a citizen of the country. They were beating us, torturing us, doing whatever they want.”

In fear for his life, Mr O fled the country. The separation from his wife and children is painful. He communicated indirectly with them last year through a messenger. “I am sad. The family has no one supporting them. I am also sad because I don’t have my family.”

But such is the terror that awaits that, asked if if he wants to return home, he replies bluntly: “There’s nothing good in the country so there is nothing that will take me back.”

Modern Ethiopia is a paradox. A generation after the famine, it is hailed by pundits as an “African lion” because of stellar economic growth and a burgeoning middle class. One study found it is creating millionaires at a faster rate than any other country on the continent. Construction is booming in the capital, Addis Ababa, home of the Chinese-built African Union headquarters. Yet the national parliament has only one opposition MP. Last month the government was criticised for violently crushing student demonstrations. Ethiopia is also regarded as one of the most repressive media environments in the world. Numerous journalists are in prison or have gone into exile, while independent media outlets are regularly closed down.

Gambella, which is the size of Belgium, has a population of more than 300,000, mainly indigenous Anuak and Nuer. Its fertile soil has attracted foreign and domestic investors who have leased large tracts of land at favourable prices. The three-year villagisation programme in Gambella is now complete. A 2012 investigation by Human Rights Watch, entitledWaiting Here for Death, highlighted the plight of thousands like Mr O robbed of their ancestral lands, wiping out their livelihoods. London law firm Leigh Day took up the case and secured legal aid to represent Mr O in litigation against Britain’s international development secretary, whom it accuses of part-funding the human rights abuses.

Mr O explains: “The Ethiopian government is immoral: it is collecting money on behalf of poor people from foreign donors, but then directing it to programmes that kill people. At the meeting, the officials said: ‘The British government is helping us.’ Of all the donors to Ethiopia, the British government has been sending the most funds to the villagisation programme. “I’m not happy with that because we are expecting them to give donations to support indigenous people and poor people in their lands, not to create difficult conditions for them. They should stop funding Ethiopia because most of the remote areas are suffering. The funds given to villagisation should be stopped.” Mr O did not attend last week’s court hearing at which Leigh Day argued that British aid is provided on condition that the recipient government is not “in significant violation of human rights”. It asserted that the UK has failed to put in place any sufficient process to assess Ethiopia’s compliance with the conditions and has refused to make its assessment public, in breach of its stated policy.

Starving families lift sacks of food at a Red Cross feeding centre in Ethiopia. Photograph: Steven L Raymer/National Geographic/Getty Images“There are credible allegations of UK aid money contributing to serious human rights violations,” states Leigh Day’s summary argument. “In particular, there is evidence that the ‘villagisation’ programme is partly funded by the defendant’s payments into the promotion of basic services programme.” The concerns have led to a full investigation by the World Bank, it adds.

Rosa Curling, a solicitor in the human rights department at Leigh Day, says: “It’s about making sure the money is traced. When you’re handing over millions of pounds you have a legal responsibility to make sure the money is being used appropriately. The experience of the village is absolutely appalling. We’re saying to the Department for International Development (DfID), please look at this issue properly, please follow the procedure you said you would follow, please talk to the people who’ve been affected. Look at what happened to Mr O and his village. They haven’t done that.”

Mr O offered to meet British officials, she adds, but they decided his refugee camp was too dangerous. He offered to meet them in a major city, but still they refused. “They haven’t met anybody directly affected by villagisation.” Curling urges: “If you’ve got money, trace it and put conditions on it so it’s not being used like this. It completely defeats the point of aid if it’s being used in this way. We’re talking about millions of British pounds.”

The view is echoed by Human Rights Watch. Felix Horne, its Ethiopia and Eritrea researcher, says: “Given that aid is fungible, DfID does not have any mechanism to determine how their well-meaning support to local government officials is being used in Ethiopia. They have no idea how their money is being spent. And when they are provided [with] evidence of how that money is in fact being used, they conduct seriously flawed assessments to dismiss the allegations, and it’s business as usual.

“While they have conducted several ‘on the ground’ assessments in Gambella to ascertain the extent of the abuses, they have refused to visit the refugee camps where many of the victims are housed. The camps are safe, easy to access, and the victims of this abusive programme are eager to speak with DfID, and yet DfID and other donors have refused to speak with them, raising the suspicion that they aren’t interested in hearing about abuses that have been facilitated with their funding.”

DfID is set to contest the court action, denying that any of its aid was directly used to uproot Mr O or others affected by villagisation. A spokesman says: “We will not comment on ongoing legal action. The UK has never funded Ethiopia’s resettlement programmes. Our support to the Protection of Basic Services Programme is only used to provide essential services like healthcare, schooling and clean water.” Shimeles Kemal, the Ethiopian government’s state minister of communications, was unavailable for comment.

UK slams Ethiopia’s human rights record

The 2013 edition of the Human Rights and Democracy Report of the government of the United Kingdom (UK)

severely criticized the government of Ethiopia for its application of its Anti-Terrorism Proclamation and the Charities and Societies Proclamation, which hampers the activity of the opposition camp of the country.

The report says that the UK is concerned about continuing restrictions on opposition and dissent in Ethiopia through use of the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation (ATP) and the Charities and Societies Proclamation (CSP) .

Those detained under the ATP include members of opposition groups, journalists, peaceful protesters, and others seeking to express their rights to freedom of assembly and expression while the CSP has had a serious impact on Ethiopian civil society’s ability to operate effectively, according to the report.

Section 11 of the report, which covers and focuses on the issues related to Human Rights in countries of concern contains a review of the human rights situation in 28 countries where the UK Government has wide-ranging human rights concerns.

This part of the report explores the concerns of the government of the UK. The report takes Bahrain, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Rwanda and Egypt as case study countries.

In this regard, the report presents the condition of human rights abuse in Ethiopia as follows. The report chooses to highlight a number of reports of mistreatment of prisoners in detention.

In May, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC), whose mandate and powers are defined by Parliament, published a report, “Monitoring Report on Respect of Persons Held in Custody of Ethiopian Police Stations” which described generally poor detention conditions with some incidents of human rights abuses and unlawful interrogation tactics.

The report was based on the monitoring of 170 police stations and inspections were conducted without any prior notification. One institution, the Meakelawi Police Detention Facility, has drawn a high level of criticism from former detainees and international NGOs for alleged mistreatment of its inmates.

Allegations of abuse by the “Special Police” in the Somali Region are also a concern of the report despite the report saying the increased security presence in the region had brought some benefits including some development of basic services and infrastructure – albeit from a low base.

However, there have been many reports of mistreatment associated with the special police including torture and execution of villagers accused of supporting the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) .

Moreover, the report said the UK government and the UN have pressed the Ethiopian government to articulate a reform plan for the Special Police, and the Ethiopian government has agreed this is needed. So, according to the report, the UK government promises to encourage the government of Ethiopia to take action.

Ethiopian farmer gets legal aid from UK – to sue UK for giving aid to a brutal regime of Ethiopia

An Ethiopian farmer has been given legal aid in the UK to sue Britain – because he claims millions of pounds sent by the UK to his country is supporting a brutal regime that has ruined his life.

He says UK taxpayers’ money –  £1.3 billion over the five years of the coalition Government – is funding a despotic one-party state in his country that is forcing thousands of villagers such as him from their land using murder, torture and rape.

The landmark case is highly embarrassing for the Government, which has poured vast amounts of extra cash into foreign aid despite belt-tightening austerity measures at home.

Prime Minister David Cameron claims the donations are a mark of Britain’s compassion.

But the farmer – whose case is  set to cost tens of thousands of pounds – argues that huge sums handed to Ethiopia are breaching the Department for International Development’s (DFID) own human rights rules.

He accuses the Government of devastating the lives of some of the world’s poorest people rather than fulfilling promises to help them. The case comes amid growing global concern over Western aid propping up corrupt and repressive regimes.

If the farmer is successful, Ministers might have to review major donations to other nations accused of atrocities, such as Pakistan and Rwanda – and it could open up Britain to compensation claims from around the world.

Ethiopia, a key ally in the West’s war on terror, is the biggest  recipient of British aid, despite repeated claims from human rights groups that the cash is used to crush opposition.

DFID was served papers last month by lawyers acting on behalf of ‘Mr O’, a 33-year-old forced to abandon his family and flee to a refugee camp in Kenya after being beaten and tortured for trying to protect his farm.

He is not seeking compensation but to challenge the Government’s approach to aid. His name is being withheld to protect his wife and six children who remain in Ethiopia.

‘My client’s life has been shattered by what has happened,’ said Rosa Curling, the lawyer handling the case. ‘It goes entirely against what our aid purports to stand for.’

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Mr O’s family was caught in controversial ‘villagisation’ programmes. Under the schemes, four million people living in areas opposed to an autocratic government dominated by men from the north of the country are being forced from lucrative land into new villages.

Their land has been sold to foreign investors or given to Ethiopians with government connections.

People resisting the soldiers driving them from their farms and homes at gunpoint have been routinely beaten, raped, jailed, tortured or killed.

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Exodus: The farmer claims villagers are being attacked by troops driving them from their land

 

‘Why is the West, especially the UK, giving so much money to the Ethiopian government when it is committing atrocities on my people?’ asked Mr O when we met last year.

His London-based lawyers argue that DFID is meant to ensure recipients of British aid do not violate human rights, and they have failed to properly investigate the complaints.

Human Rights Watch has issued several scathing reports highlighting the impact of villagisation and showing how Ethiopia misuses aid for political purposes, such as diverting food and seeds  to supporters.

Concern focuses on a massive scheme called Protection of Basic Services, which is designed to upgrade public services and is part-funded by DFID.

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Force: Ethiopian federal riot police point their weapons at protesting students in a square in the country’s capital, Addis Ababa

 

Critics say this cash pays the salaries of officials implementing resettlements and for infrastructure at new villages.

DFID officials have not interviewed Mr O, reportedly saying it is too risky to visit the United Nations-run camp in Kenya where he is staying, and refuse to make their assessments public.

A spokesman said they could not comment specifically on the legal action but added: ‘It is wrong to suggest that British development money is used to force people from their homes. Our support to the Protection of Basic Services programme is only used to provide healthcare, schooling, clean water and other services.’

BRUTALLY DRIVEN FROM HIS FERTILE LAND – AND HE BLAMES BRITAIN 

Intimidation: Riot police confront a man (not the claimant) near the Tegbareed Industrial College as officers beat rock-throwing students during a demonstration

 

As he showed me  pictures on his mobile phone of his homeland, the tall, bearded farmer smiled fondly. ‘We were very happy growing up there and living there,’ he said. This was hardly surprising: the lush Gambela region of Ethiopia is a fertile place of fruit trees, rivers and fissures of gold, writes Ian Birrell

That was the only smile when I met Mr O in the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya last year. He told me how his simple family life had been destroyed in seconds – and how he blames British aid for his misery. ‘I miss my family so much,’ he said. ‘I don’t want to be relying on handouts –  I want to be productive.’

His nightmare began in November 2011 when Ethiopian troops accompanied by officials arrived in his village and ordered everyone to leave for a new location.

Men who refused were beaten and women were raped, leaving some infected with HIV.

I met a blind man who was  hit in the face and a middle-aged mother whose husband was  shot dead beside her – she still bore obvious the scars from  her own beating and rape by three soldiers.

Unlike their previous home, their new village had no food, water, school or health facilities. They were not given farmland and there were just a few menial jobs.

‘The government was pretending it was about development,’ said Mr O, 33. ‘But they just want to push the indigenous people off so they can take our land and gold.’

 

After speaking out against forced relocations and returning to his village, Mr O was taken to a military camp where for three days he was gagged with a sock in his mouth, severely kicked and beaten with rifle butts and sticks.

‘I thought it would be better  to die than to suffer like this,’ he  told me.

Afterwards, like thousands of others, he fled the country; now he lives amid the dust and squalor of the world’s largest refugee camp. He says their land was then given to relatives of senior regime figures and foreign investors from Asia and the Middle East.

‘I am very angry about this aid,’ he said. ‘Britain needs to check what is happening to its money.
‘I hope the court will act to stop the killing, stop the land-grabbing and stop your Government supporting the Ethiopian government behind this.’

As the dignified Mr O said so sagely, what is happening in his country is the precise opposite  of development.

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Ethiopia’s resettlement scheme leaves lives shattered and UK facing questions

A family in Kir, Gambella. Ethiopia’s controversial resettlement programme has forced people to leave their villages. Photograph: Jenny Vaughan/AFP/Getty Images

Mr O twists his beaded keyring between his long fingers as he explains why he started legal action against Britain’s international development department over its aid funding to Ethiopia. Three other refugees from the Gambella region listen as he speaks in a stifling room in north-eastern Kenya. All have a story to tell.

The accounts are broadly similar, but the details reveal the individual tragedies that have shattered their lives: they say they were forced to leave their villages, beaten by soldiers, and sent to remote areas lacking all basic services under a controversial “villagisation” programme.

Eventually, they fled to Kenya, joining nearly half a million displaced people living in the world’s biggest refugee complex, a sprawling expanse of tents and rudimentary houses set in the sun-hammered scrub and sand outside Dadaab.

“We don’t have any means of retrieving our land. We decided to find an organisation that could be our lawyer and stand up for us so that those who are funding these organisations to displace us will be stopped,” Mr O said. He spoke through a translator in the language of the Anuak, an indigenous people who live in Ethiopia’s western Gambella region.

“Britain is a very big power in the world. Britain is Ethiopia’s top donor,” says Mr O, whose identity is being protected for his safety. The 32-year-old wears a stained white shirt, white trousers and a blue-beaded bracelet on his left hand.

London-based law firm Leigh Day & Co has taken the case for Mr O, arguing that money from the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID) is funding the villagisation programme.

Ethiopia is one of the biggest recipients of UK aid and Britain, alongside other international donors, contributes significant funding for the Protection of Basic Services (PBS) programme. Lawyers for Mr O say that, by contributing to this programme, DfID contributes to villagisation, be it by financing infrastructure in new settlements or paying the salaries of officials overseeing the relocations.

DfID says it does not fund any commune projects in Ethiopia. A spokesman said the agency was aware of allegations of abuses and would raise any concerns at the highest levels of the Ethiopian government. Leigh Day is waiting for a response to its letter to the UK government in December.

The three-year villagisation programme aims to move 1.5 million rural families to new “model” villages in four regions, including approximately 45,000 households in Gambella. Official plans say the movements are voluntary, and infrastructure and alternative livelihoods will be provided in the new villages.

In January 2012, a Human Rights Watch report said the Ethiopian government was forcibly relocating thousands of people in Gambella, with villagers being told the resettlement was linked to the leasing of large tracts of land for commercial agriculture.

For the four Anuak in Dadaab, relocation has been a catastrophe: Mr O has not seen his wife and six children since he left, Peter’s wife was raped by soldiers, widow Chan and her eldest son were beaten, and Ongew was detained 11 times on charges of inciting villagers. The four did not want to give their full names for fear of retribution.

There is a desperate sense of powerlessness among the refugees, who link the recent abuses to years of alleged targeting of their ethnic group, including a 2003 massacre of Anuak in the town of Gambella. “I feel so very bad because I have been separated from my family, which shows we do not have the power to protect ourselves … Unless you decide to leave that area there will not be hope for you,” Mr O says.

Powerlessness

Peter, a 40-year-old who lost his sight 20 years ago, bows his head as he tells how he was beaten when he asked the soldiers to take his disability into account before moving him in October 2011. Then, his wife was taken away and raped.

“I’m powerless. There was nothing I could do to stop that. Also, my cousin was taken by the soldiers and is still missing today,” Peter says. He left through South Sudan and arrived in Kenya with his wife and five children in March last year.

When soldiers came almost two years ago to move Chan, a 37-year-old farmer and mother of four, they beat her on the arm and face with a stick. The skin on the right side of her face, just below her ear, is uneven and marked. The soldiers also beat her then 18-year-old son on the head with a gun. Nobody could fight back.

“Because we don’t have power,” she says, her hands upturned helplessly on her lap. “Whenever these soldiers come to a village, there are very many. How will you fight? If you try to beat even one soldier, they will attack the whole village.”

Chan, whose husband was killed during the 2003 massacre, moved to the new village. “There was no water, no school, no clinic, not even good farm land because it is dry land,” she says. People were still being abused, so she decided to leave with her children. She arrived in Kenya last February. Despite the creeping insecurity in the Dadaab refugee camps, she says life is better “because nobody is coming to beat you in your home”.

Mr O, then a farmer and student at agricultural college, was forced from his village in November 2011. At first he would not leave, so soldiers from the Ethiopian National Defence Force beat him with guns. He lifts the faded black baseball hat he is wearing, marked with the words “Stop violence against women”, and shows a thin, long scar on his head. Strong men were forced to lie down and then beaten while women were also beaten, and those who resisted were taken and raped in a military camp, he says.

He was forced to a “new place” which did not have water, food or productive land. He was told to build a house for his family, but when work didn’t progress as quickly as expected, he was taken to a military camp and beaten again. After one month he left, sneaking past village leaders and “local militias” who controlled the area, refusing to let people leave. He arrived in Kenya in mid-December 2011.

Ongew, a 35-year-old wearing a red baseball cap and blue jeans, believes the international community can stop the alleged abuses. “There are powerful countries that control the world. So we are requesting those international communities … to stand firm and force Ethiopia to leave our land and stop this villagisation,” he says.

Ongew used to distribute food to the new villages for the government but when villagers began to complain about the absence of services, he was blamed for inciting them. The father of four was beaten many times. He gets news of his family sometimes from a relative in Britain. He has heard that police have repeatedly questioned his wife about his whereabouts.

Mr O’s wife and children are now in a new village. He has not seen them since he left but news of them reaches him through new arrivals.

The four Anuak say the relocations are continuing, with new refugees still arriving in Kenya.

Mr O says he is not taking legal action in order to get money. “Money will not bring any change for me and my family … What we want from the court is our land back. We will go there, produce what we like, and we will support our lives as before.”

UK urged to refrain from funding Ethiopia’s “special police”

January 12, 2013 (LONDON) – An exiled independent advocacy group, Resolve Ogaden Coalition (ROC), on Saturday urged the British government to refrain from sending money to train Ethiopian paramilitaries that are widely accused of human rights abuses in the ethnic Somali region.

Britain is preparing to fund up to £15 million in foreign aid to train the government-backed paramilitary group locally known as “Liyu police” as part of a five-year “peace-building” programme.

There have repeatedly been allegations of human rights abuses against the Liyu police.

International human rights groups have documented many extrajudicial killings, rape and torture by the Ethiopian militia group. The Ethiopian military has dismissed those allegations saying smear campaign against nation.

“Resolve Ogaden Coalition strongly urges the British government to immediately halt all financial, military and political support for the Liyuu Police and the Ethiopian regime” it said in statement it sent to Sudan Tribune.

ROC called on the British government to put pressure on the Ethiopian government to stop alleged gross human rights violations committed by the special police against the Ogaden people.

The group appealed to the British Government to pressure both the Ethiopian government and the Ogaden rebels to resume their stalled peace talks to end the long-standing conflict in the region.

Global bodies including Amnesty International have voiced concerns on how Britain’s foreign aid is spent.

However, Britain’s Department for International Development said that the peace and development programme will be managed by non-governmental and United Nations organizations “with the goal of improving the security, and accountability of the force.”

The department added that no funding will go through the government of Ethiopia to avoid financial abuse.

The UK is the largest aid contributor to Ethiopia after the United States.

In 2007, the Ethiopian military launched a counter-insurgency campaign against ONLF after the rebel group attacked a Chinese oil field and killed 65 Ethiopians and 9 Chinese workers.

Ethiopia’s counter-insurgency campaign is led by 14,000-strong special police.

The ONLF is a separatist militant group fighting a low-scale war for the independence of the Ogaden region that neighbors war-torn Somalia.

Addis Ababa has designated the group as a terrorist entity along with rebel group of Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and Gibot 7 movement.

In 2010, a major section of the ONLF signed a peace accord with Ethiopia.

British aid ‘to fund Ethiopian paramilitaries’ accused of rape, murder and torture

• Department for International Development offers £15million in aid to train security forces
• Human rights groups warn money could fall into the hands of special police known as Liyu

By Gerri Peev

PUBLISHED: 16:27 GMT, 11 January 2013 | UPDATED: 16:52 GMT, 11 January 2013

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British taxpayers could be used to fund a group of Ethiopian paramilitaries who stand accused of murder, rape and torture.

The Department for International Development will dole out up to £15 million in foreign aid to train security forces in Ogaden, a Somali region within Ethiopia.

But human rights groups have warned that the money could fall into the hands of a thuggish security force that has been accused of executions and other crimes.

Official documents invite bids to train security forces as part of the five-year ¿peace building¿ programme in the war torn country. A girl is pictured in front of a rusted old Russian tank lying in a field near Aksum, Ethiopia

A document calls for tenders to train security forces as part of the five-year ‘peace building’ programme.  The Ethiopian government has relied on a violent ‘special police’ force to carry out its counter-insurgency in the area and there are fears that the UK is poised to engage with them.

Officials even spell out to any interested parties the ‘reputational risks of working alongside actors frequently cited in human rights violation allegations’.

The ‘special police’ known as Liyu have been accused of carrying out executions, rape, torture and raizing villages to the ground.

It is also claimed that they carried out a mock execution of a Swedish journalist jailed in Ethiopia in 2011.

Campaigners warn human rights abuses committed by the special police in Ethiopia are widespread

The Department for International Development insisted that ‘not a penny’ of money would go to the force and that the tender was for NGOs and private companies to improve security.

International Development Secretary Justine Greening also met with Ethiopia’s foreign minister to discuss human rights abuses on Thursday.

Ethiopia receives more than any other country in foreign aid from British taxpayers, some £390 million a year.

It is seen as an ally against Islamic militancy in east Africa.

DfID documents for the tender say the work will be for the ‘security and justice component’ for Ethiopia’s Somali region’ to ‘build a more peaceful and inclusive Somali region’.

It added: ‘The primary recipients of the services will be DfID for the design element and for the implementation of the regional government of the

Somali Regional State, specifically state and non-state security and justice service providers.’

‘The peace and development programme will be delivered in partnership with NGOs and UN organisations and no funding will go through the government of Ethiopia.’

But a Human Rights Watch report warns of the abuses meted out by the Liyu police, who it describes as a ‘force of some 10,000 -14,000 young Somalis mostly recruited from within the conflict zone (aka the Ogaden sub-region) using recruitment methods similar to those of insurgent groups.’

International Development Secretary Justine Greening has met met with Ethiopia¿s foreign minister to discuss human rights abuses

‘Training is minimal and loyalty within the force closely linked to personalities in leadership positions, of whom the president is paramount. Human rights abuses committed by the special police are believed to be more widespread and severe than those committed during the military campaign.

‘However, having a Somali paramilitary force lead operations in the region is convenient for the federal government who have been able to frame the conflict as internal regional politics rather than a government-led crackdown.’

Amnesty International’s Ethiopia researcher, Claire Beston, told the Guardian newspaper which unearthed the tender documents that any engagement with the paramilitaries was highly concerning.

She said: ‘There have been repeated allegations against the Liyu police of extrajudicial killings, rape, torture and other violations including destruction of villages and there is no doubt that the special police have become a significant source of fear in the region.’

A DFID spokesman said: ‘Not a penny of British money will go to the Liyu police force.  Reforming the Special Police is critical for achieving a safe and secure Somali Region and, following a request from Human Rights Watch, we are discussing with UN partners how we might work together to improve the Police’s human rights record.

He added: ‘The peace and development programme will bring safety, security and justice, as well as healthcare, water and education, to hundreds of thousands of people in the Somali region of Ethiopia. The safety and justice part of this programme will boost personal safety and the quality and reach of justice services, particularly for women and girls.’

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Ethiopian man threatens action over UK ‘link to abuse’

Ethiopia is resettling around 1.5 million people in new villages

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• Ethiopians ‘forced off the land’
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An Ethiopian farmer could sue the UK government after claiming a project that received funding from Britain led to human rights abuses.

The man – known as Mr O – told his British lawyers he was evicted from his farm, beaten and witnessed rapes as part of a “villagisation” scheme.

Mr O’s lawyers say the programme receives funding from the UK Department for International Development (Dfid).

Dfid said it does not fund “any commune projects” in the country.

Ethiopia is among the biggest recipients of UK aid and in July 2011 received £38m ($61m) during the country’s worse drought in a decade.

The UK government is also one of the main partners in Ethiopia’s Protection of Basic Services programme, money from which lawyers for Mr O claim is helping to finance forced resettlement.

‘Men were beaten’

Mr O – whose identity has not been revealed – lived in the Gambella region, which is one of four areas in Ethiopia subject to villagisation. About 1.5 million people are being resettled.

The married farmer, who has six children, told lawyers at London firm Leigh Day & Co his family were forced from their farm in Novermber 2011 by soldiers from the Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF).

His lawyers said he claimed that “several men were beaten, women were raped and some people disappeared” during the resettlement.

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UK aid goals in Ethiopia

• 1.2 million people helped to get enough food and avoid hunger
• Two million children in school, almost half to be girls
• 7.5 million people provided with basic healthcare
• 1.4 million people given access to safe drinking water
• Two million couples provided with access to family planning
• One million children protected from malaria

To be achieved by 2015

Source: Dfid

They added that Mr O’s family were made to resettle in a new village where they were given no replacement farmland, food or water and could not earn enough money to live.

When he tried to return to his former home, he claimed he was hit repeatedly with a rifle butt and taken to a military camp by ENDF soldiers, then gagged and subjected to further beating.

The firm – who were approached directly by Mr O – wrote to the new International Development Secretary Justine Greening on Wednesday, asking for the release of several documents and further information about the role of Dfid in the villagisation process.

Lawyers are seeking to establish how far the UK government has gone to ensure British aid has not been used to contribute to human rights violations during the programme.

Rosa Curling, from the Leigh Day & Co team representing Mr O, said the government has “a responsibility for transparency”.

“The UK spends a considerable amount of money on international aid and Dfid has a responsibility to ensure that this money does not contribute in any way to human rights abuses such as the ones suffered by our client.

“Our government has a duty to ensure that the programmes it supports meet the highest compliance standards,” she added.

A spokesperson from Dfid said the threat of legal action meant they could not comment at length, but insisted the UK “does not fund any commune projects in Ethiopia”.

The department has 14 days to respond to the letter. Depending upon the outcome, lawyers could demand disclosure of the documents from the courts.

Mr O is currently a refugee in Kenya, while his family remains in Ethiopia.

 

UK unhappy with governance in Ethiopia, to cut Govt Aid

“Under our new programme, we will be adding a new element called “wealth creation,” which is designed to particularly support the private sector (in Ethiopia)…. That sends a signal that most of our money, which has been channeled through government channels, will now be channeled through private channels” said the UK Ambassador to Ethiopia Norman Ling in an interview with the Ethiopian private newspaper Fortune.

(Excerpts from Interview below)

Q: Do you agree with the criticism against this government that, due to its ideological predisposition toward a developmental state, it is expanding the state’s domain at the expense of the private sector?

Norman Ling: Yes. There you have a single word straight from the representative of the British government. I believe that. This is a centre-left government, which has achieved a great deal with the developmental state model in terms of providing basic services to its people.

However, for the long-term development of this country, there is a real need, right now, for the shackles on the private sector to be lifted and for it to be allowed to develop.

There are a whole series of reasons why that is not happening. Some are better reasons than others, but, it must happen soon if Ethiopia is not to be handicapped in its development.

Q: Considering that the political party in power has a leftist background, the best one may expect from them is, perhaps, to move centre-left. Do you think this country has a credible and viable political alternative that would create more room for the private sector?

Norman Ling: One reason why we have not seen the political diversity that Ethiopia requires is the weakness of the opposition parties since 2005. That is regrettable. Every government needs an effective opposition. While they do not always welcome it, they need it.

That is holding back Ethiopia’s broader development. Economic and social development does not happen in isolation. It needs a challenge that a democratic system provides. I hope that will happen.

Q: In the aftermath of the 2005 elections in Ethiopia, former Prime Minister Tony Blair said confidence between the British public and the Ethiopian government had been breached. As a result, experts came up with this aid mechanism known as Protection of Basic Services (PBS). In hindsight, do you think it was the right thing to do?

Norman Ling: If the question is whether we should have done something more draconian, such as stopping aid, the answer is that it would not have been the right thing to do because we have millions of vulnerable people in this country.

I am not justifying what happened in 2005, as many things happened then that are unjustifiable. Yet, you do not correct one wrong by perpetuating another. You could argue that we should have done more. Nothing is ever perfect, but I would have opposed cutting aid.

Q: PBS was designed to be a temporary mechanism for three years, but it continued. Does it mean that you are comfortable with it? What did you learn from the experience and how long will it continue this way?

Norman Ling: I do not know how long it will continue. What I can say is that we are not entirely happy with political governance here; that is an issue for us. We believe it is also an issue for Ethiopians. As we see elsewhere in the world, sustainable development is achieved only if you have good political governance.

Ethiopia’s political governance needs to improve. However, we are reasonably happy with the way in which aid has been spent here over the past five to 10 years, even including since 2005.

We are always looking to improve how we deliver aid. Under our new programme, we will be adding a new element called “wealth creation,” which is designed to particularly support the private sector. For the reasons I gave you before, it is underdeveloped.

We need to support small entrepreneurs to encourage private sector development and growth in the economy more generally. That sends a signal that most of our money, which has been channelled through government channels, will now be channelled through private channels.

Q: Can you elaborate on which part of political governance you are dissatisfied with?

Norman Ling: We do not have a fully functioning democracy here. What we have is, as the ruling party has made clear, a dominant party model.

Elections should be free, fair, and transparent. The opposition should be given more space. The media should be given more space to report and more protection when it does so.

We would like to see greater freedoms enshrined in the laws of this country so that people know if they went to court if a case was brought against them, the courts will be truly free and fair [in their rulings].

There are many areas where we believe the political, legal, and judicial systems need to improve. The government here tells us that that is also its objective, that it is working on parallel lines on economic and social development as well as political governance.

We see the evidence on the economic and social side. We see less evidence on the political side. We would like to see more progress there.

SOURCE: FORTUNE