Source: Survival International
The United States Congress has acted to prevent its aid to Ethiopia being
used to fund forced evictions of tribal
peoples in the south west of the country.
The provisions in the Omnibus Appropriations Bill for 2014 represent a slap
in the face for USAID, which last month said that ‘there
are no reports of widespread or systematic human rights abuses’ in the
region.
In fact, tribes of the Lower Omo Valley are being violently evicted from
their villages by the government to make way for lucrative cotton, palm oil, and
sugarcane plantations whose irrigation will be made possible by the
controversial Gibe III dam. Transferred to designated
resettlement areas, the once self-sufficient tribes will be left with no access
to their livestock or lands and, consequently, will
be unable to sustain themselves. Intimidation tactics, such as rape and
beatings, have reportedly been used against those who resist resettlement.
One Mursi man told Survival
International, ‘We are waiting to die. We are crying. When the government
collects people into one village there will be no place for crops, and my
children will be hungry and have no food.’
The Ethiopian government has not consulted any indigenous communities over
its aggressive plantation plans in the Omo Valley, and very few were consulted
over the construction of the Gibe III dam.
The region’s top human rights body, the African
Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, has written to the Ethiopian
government asking
it to halt the forced resettlement of the Lower Omo tribes while it
investigates Survival’s submission regarding human rights violations in the
area.
Ethiopia is one of the biggest
recipients of American and British aid through the United States Agency for
International Development (USAID) and the UK Department
for International Development (DFID).
Although the provisions in the recent spending bill will force USAID to reevaluate the funding given to Ethiopia, it will
ultimately be the responsibility of Congress to guarantee that the terms are
upheld.
Survival International Director Stephen Corry said today, ‘This bill is a
huge step in the right direction, and shows that USAID’s shameful denials of the
human rights abuses being committed in the Lower Omo simply haven’t been
believed.
‘American taxpayers want to be sure that their money isn’t going toward the
destruction of tribal peoples’ lives. Hopefully the historic provisions in this
year’s spending bill will ensure that’s the case. It is now high time that
British parliamentarians follow suit and ensure that DFID does not use UK taxpayers’ money to fund human rights
violations in the Lower Omo.’
Notes:
- See
the Omnibus Appropriations Bill (p. 1295-1296)
- Read
USAID’s letter to Survival denying human rights abuses in the Omo
Valley.
- Survival continues to call on USAID and
DFID to make aid to Ethiopia conditional on putting an
end to the devastating resettlement policies and the accompanying human rights
violations.
- Watch Survival’s
new film on the perils of forced development for tribal peoples.