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_________________ When we do it right No-one remembers,
When we do it wrong No-one forgets.
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ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — When Ethiopia’ s government imposed price controls in January to combat the spiraling cost of staples like meat, cooking oil and bread, butcher Wabe Habse had a long line of customers, but could barely make a profit.
Now, after price controls were dropped earlier this month, Wabe is still not making money.
“ The meat market has collapsed,” said Wabe, who raised his prices nearly two-fold and saw his customers abandon him. “ I am not sure how we are going to survive.”
Ethiopia, like many African nations, has seen spiraling food prices this year. Nearby Uganda has seen violent protests over rising costs.
Buyers and sellers in Ethiopia’ s capital say the government’ s attempt to bring down prices by imposing price caps on basics like oil and sugar for five months this year has caused even more turmoil. When they were in place, the price caps bankrupted businesses that could not afford to sell at cheaper prices.
The government claims the country is a victim of rising international food prices, but the International Monetary Fund says the government is causing inflation by borrowing and printing money to pay for infrastructure projects. One economist called the government’ s attempt at price caps “ a fool’ s errand.”
After most of the caps were lifted in early June, prices again soared to levels unaffordable for many here. Already, 3.2 million Ethiopians depend on food aid. Recent government figures put inflation at nearly 35 percent in the last year.
In a rare show of rebellion in a country historically used to authoritarianism, Ethiopian consumers earlier this month started a text-message campaign to boycott meat in an attempt to force prices down. Wabe says the campaign has affected his customer base but that he can’ t afford to reduce prices.
“ There is no profit if I do that,” he said.
Taxi driver Abraham Habtamu, who earns about $60 a month in Addis Ababa, said that since the price controls were dropped he can only afford to gaze longingly at the beef that is now selling for about $5 a kilogram ($2.30 a pound), up from the capped price of about $3 a kilogram ($1.40 a pound).
“ For me it is untouchable,” said Abraham, who is his family’ s main provider.
Prices of cheaper goods such as chickpea flour have also risen. The flour, which formerly cost about 65 cents a kilo (30 cents a pound), is used to make a stew that is generally considered a poor man’ s meal. Now it costs $1.60 a kilo (70 cents a pound).
Economist Seid Hassan, who was born in Ethiopia but is now a professor in Kentucky, said imposing price caps to fight inflation has been “ a fool’ s errand.”
“ The measure was taken without any careful study about the causes of rampant inflation, and the ruling party took the measures to distract public anger and potential unrest,” said the economics professor, who teaches at Murray State University.
If it wants to create a healthy economy, Ethiopia should “ minimize its heavy interventions in the ‘ free’ market,” he said.
This East African nation’ s communist government was overthrown in 1991 by the current administration, which despite promises of adopting free market principles established an economy in which state enterprises dominate key industries. Other sectors are strictly regulated.
Ethiopia expects to collect almost $1.3 billion from foreign donors in the next fiscal year on a total budget of less than $7 billion.
The International Monetary Fund last week welcomed the decision to lift most of the price controls and urged the government to further improve the business climate and avoid “ overheating” its economy, which has one of the highest growth rates on the continent.
Ethiopia pumps huge amounts of money borrowed from foreign donors and provided by its central bank into its economy to support massive infrastructure projects.
The IMF said Ethiopia’ s inflation was mainly caused by this excessive growth of money supply and the country is not, as the government claims, a victim of rising international food prices. In fact, global food prices have a minimal impact on agricultural economies like Ethiopia’ s, economists say.
The government accused private wholesalers of monopolizing the market and creating artificial shortages to increase prices even more. Ethiopia’ s last resort, according to its government, was a price ceiling: an emergency measure usually reserved for countries at war or struck by a disaster.
The price ceilings felt like “ payback time” against business owners, said Betelhem Rehobot, who works at a clothing store.
She said the adjusted food prices were a big relief to her at first. But instead of stabilizing the market, the price controls soon created shortages of goods and forced businesses to choose between bankruptcy and the black market because of nonexistent or narrow profit margins.
The government has monopolized the sale of sugar, oil and flour, products which still have price ceilings. Betelhem says she doesn’ t have time to wait in line for these items at government distribution points. But consumers have fewer choices than ever: many retailers say they now can’ t afford to sell oil and sugar because of narrow profit margins.
Because of the rising inflation, even the country’ s most important crop, coffee, has become too expensive for many. Abraham, the driver, said his family can no longer honor a basic Ethiopian courtesy by serving it to guests.
“ I made my mother cry last night when I gave her my salary, which she says it is worthless these days,” he said.
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The government claims the country is a victim of rising international food prices, but the International Monetary Fund says the government is causing inflation by borrowing and printing money to pay for infrastructure projects. One economist called the government's attempt at price caps a fool's errand.
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The government claims the country is a victim of rising international food prices, but the International Monetary Fund says the government is causing inflation by borrowing and printing money to pay for infrastructure projects. One economist called the government's attempt at price caps a fool's errand.
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The head of the U.N. World Food Program (WFP) in Ethiopia says the country's emergency food stocks are almost completely exhausted, with drought conditions expected to worsen before they improve. There are also growing concerns about food shortages in Ethiopia's reclusive neighbor, Eritrea.
WFP's Ethiopia Country Director Abdou Dieng says despite a good response to international appeals for food aid, Ethiopia faces a critical shortfall in emergency supplies. He says the reserve established by the government to prevent a recurrence of past food crises is almost empty.
"There is food reserve, but today it's almost at zero level. We cannot count on that. Now what we are trying to do is increase the level of the food which can be kept in the reserve. We can go up to one million tons [and] we're talking about 80 million people here who need food, so this is exactly where we are working together to try to increase the food reserve," noted Dieng.
Of Ethiopia's 80 million people, Dieng says between 13 million and 14 million are receiving some sort of food assistance. The government estimates 4.5 million need emergency food aid, but experts expect that number to keep rising until the rains come, allowing farmers to plant and harvest life saving crops.
The WFP official says $200 million in donations has been received since the onset of the current drought. Dieng estimates another $100 million will be necessary to meet Ethiopia's needs until the end of the year.
Dieng also said the WFP is monitoring reports filtering out of Eritrea suggesting food shortages there as well. The reports are hard to verify, and Eritrea's autocratic government has denied the drought is affecting food supplies. But satellite images indicate the country is affected by the same weather pattern that has victimized much of the Horn of Africa.
Dieng says Eritrean refugees arriving at camps in northern Ethiopia are saying the Asmara, Eritrea, government tries to prevent them from leaving, and that conditions are deteriorating.
"All this is speculation," Dieng added. "What we know is you can't have a drought in Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya in a certain area and not having the same [nearby]. But what we heard from the government in Eritrea, they say there is no problem when it comes to food aid in Eritrea. But for people crossing the border and coming into Ethiopia that we interview, we know there is some problem, and we are monitoring that very closely."
Assistant U.S. Secretary of State for Africa Johnnie Carson last month said many Eritrean refugees fleeing to Ethiopia are suffering from life-threatening malnutrition. He urged officials in the Eritrean capital, Asmara, to cooperate with U.N. agencies and international organizations to address the issues of hunger and food shortages.
The WFP's Dieng estimates the number of Eritrean refugees at camps in northern Ethiopia at a few thousand. That is nowhere near as large as the more than 150,000 Somali refugees in southern and eastern Ethiopia, and the even larger numbers in Kenya.
He says the U.N. agency technically maintains an office in Asmara, but has not had any international staff there since 2005, and is not able to monitor conditions in the nation of 5 million.
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Britain and the international community stand accused of turning a blind eye to widespread human rights abuses in Ethiopia, by providing billions of dollars of aid despite evidence that it is used as a tool of political oppression.
An undercover investigation by the Bureau and BBC Newsnight reveals that as areas of Ethiopia fall victim to drought and famine, whole communities are being denied basic food, seed and fertilizer for failing to support Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
The investigation has also gathered evidence of ongoing ethnic cleansing, mass detentions, the widespread use of torture and extra-judicial killings by Ethiopian government forces.
And we can reveal that senior officials in both the EU parliament and the UK failed repeatedly to act on similar reports of horrific human rights abuses.
In one instance the EU Commission allegedly tried to water down an official report, which detailed major concerns about the actions of the Ethiopian government.
Generous donations of aid
Ethiopia receives $3bn in development aid every year, with Britain the second largest donor after the US.
This year the UK will hand out £ 290m, not including the £ 48m in emergency aid announced last month, a massive 24-fold increase over the past decade. The EU provided £ 152m last year.
Yet since 2005, when Zenawi was accused of ‘ stealing the election’ after the opposition won a landslide in the capital, evidence of horrific human rights violations have poured into the international community.
Portuguese MEP Ana Gomes, who was the chief election observer for the European Union during the 2005 Ethiopian election, is outspoken about the ongoing human rights abuses in Ethiopia. She has spoken to the Bureau and accused the international community of a deliberate agenda of ‘ hear no evil, see no evil’ .
She said: ‘ 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.’
Gomes even suggested that EU commission officials attempted to water down reports she produced in 2005 documenting problems with that year’ s election. The reports are seen and edited by several people.
‘ What really stunned me was the feedback I got from Brussels… the department for development of the commission was completely rewriting my own report and was actually toning down, watering down, all the most difficult passages which were detailing the situation and the repression of the opposition… I was really shocked.’
Turning a blind eye
The problem is that Ethiopia commands a strategically important geographic position.
‘ Western leaders resist speaking up against Zenawi’ s repressive regime by invoking stability interests. Besides attempting to depict Ethiopia as a success story of development assistance, EU and the US like to portray their ‘ aid darling’ as a partner in the fight against terrorism and a crucial actor for stability in the Horn of Africa,’ said Gomes.
The Bureau has been passed confidential daily reports by the former EU Ambassador for Ethiopia, which show abuses were routinely reported to senior officials at the European Commission as far back as 2005.
Violent crackdowns on opposition supporters by Zenawi troops are detailed in 61 emails sent by Ambassador Timothy Clarke to 27 top officials in the highest offices of the European Union.
The emails were sent over three months in the days after the 2005 ballot. They expressed increasing concern about reports of murders and arrests of thousands of civilians by government forces.
Members of the Council of Europe and the Commission’ s offices for external relations, development and aid were all contacted.
On one occasion, on June 12, Clarke became so concerned he demanded immediate action: ‘ Basic human rights abuses are being committed by the Government on a daily basis – the EU must respond firmly and resolutely.’
Yet the next day the EU presidency commended the joint Ethiopian declaration on the elections.
Then on July 6 2005 Zenawi, at the invitation of Tony Blair, attended the G8 summit at Gleneagles where they discussed poverty in Africa.
Following the 2005 election, the EU gave € 134m to Ethiopia, increasing this to € 244m in 2007.
Officials informed of abuse
British officials have also repeatedly been told of human rights violations.
Professor Merera Gudina, the founder and leader of one of Ethiopia’ s opposition parties said: ‘ I’ ve been dealing with British diplomats for the last 15 years… .. In fact we have challenged your ambassador and diplomats several times especially when they are defending the protection of basic services.
‘ A lot of development aid that comes to Ethiopia is misused by the Ethiopian government. We challenge them to monitor where is it going. How the government is using [it]. We gave them the evidence we had and we challenged them to go into the field.’
At no point did the international community publicly condemn Zenawi. In fact on July 6 2005 Zenawi, at the invitation of Tony Blair, attended the G8 summit at Gleneagles where they discussed poverty in Africa.
Reports by the UN, US and human rights organisations have also repeatedly documented abuses by the Ethiopian government.
Gomes said: ‘ This is being shown to the international community, there is no way that they can say that they don’ t know about these reports. What’ s blocking them from acknowledging [what] is going on in Ethiopia?’
Now our investigation can reveal that concerns about aid being used as a political tool are also being ignored.
Ben Rawlence, senior researcher with Human Rights Watch, which has published several damning reports on the situation in Ethiopia said: ‘ Development is only available to those people who support the regime or vote for the ruling party.’
This is leaving entire communities without desperately needed aid.
Rawlence added that the international community needed to ‘ think much more strategically about how you engage with a country that fundamentally disrespects human rights, how do you make sure that aid in that context actually gets where it’ s supposed to get. It’ s very, very hard.’
Our investigation also reveals that despite the encroaching famine a brutal crackdown by the Ethiopian government is continuing unchecked, forcing thousands to flood out of Ethiopia.
Many are fleeing to Dadaab refugee camp in northern Kenya, which has been in the international spotlight for weeks as thousands of famine victims from Somalia have descended on it.
But unlike the Somalian refugees the Ethiopians who claim to be fleeing hunger and terror are not being heard.
They include a 35-year-old woman who claimed she had lost her unborn baby after being repeatedly raped and stamped on by members of the army; a grandmother of four, arrested along with 100 others from her village, who claimed her son had been slaughtered in front of her; and a man who claimed to have been brutally beaten and made to fight with dogs for food.
Gomes said: ‘ By turning a blind eye to gross human-rights violations, fraudulent elections, impoverishment and dispossession in Ethiopia and on the impact of Ethiopian policies on neighbours, the EU is not only misusing European taxpayers’ money, but supporting an illegitimate status quo, letting down all those who fight for justice and democracy and increasing the potential for conflict in Ethiopia and in Africa.
The Ethiopian Ambassador to the UK Abdirashid Dulane told the Newsnight programme that the report ‘ lacked objectivity and evenhandedness.’
He said that Ethiopia ’ roundly condemned torture and abuse’ and that there were protections against such acts ‘ enshrined in the country’ s constitution’ . He said that similar allegations in the past had been disproved.
Mr Dulane went on to say that the team in Ethiopia’ s only source were ‘ opponents of Ethiopia who have already been rejected by the electorate’ accusing the journalists of only gaining evidence from the ONLF and OLF rebels groups and people in the Dadaab camp in Kenya.
The Bureau is happy to clarify that the majority of the interviews were conducted inside Ethiopia.
International Development Minister, Stephen O’ Brien, said:
We take all allegations of human rights abuses extremely seriously and raise them immediately with the relevant authorities including the Ethiopian Government, with whom we have a candid relationship. Where there is evidence, we take firm and decisive action.
The British aid programme helps the people of Ethiopia, 30 million of whom live in extreme poverty. We demand full accountability and maximum impact on the ground for support from the British taxpayer.
ተድላ
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_________________ When we do it right No-one remembers,
When we do it wrong No-one forgets.
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