Anuradha Mittal - Large-Scale Land Investments are Violating Human Rights and Undermine Food Security in Ethiopia
May 18, 2012 Ethiopia's Land Lease Project
May 17, 2012, Oakland, CA: On the eve of upcoming meeting at Camp
David on May 19, 2012, with four African leaders to discuss food
security, including Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, the
Oakland Institute and the Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia
(SMNE), call upon President Obama to address what may be the single
largest man-made contributor to food insecurity on the continent
today: large-scale land investments by foreign investors.
In an Open Letter to President Obama, the Oakland Institute and SMNE
are delivering a petition signed by over 8,000 supporters of the
indigenous and local communities of Gambella, Ethiopia - 70,000
people in all - who are being forcibly relocated to make land
available for investment in agriculture. There are plans to relocate
an additional 150,000 people, most of whom are subsistence farmers
who have been able, until now, to feed their families without
receiving government or foreign aid over the last twenty years.
The letter points out that in addition to the many problems
surrounding forced relocations and human rights abuses, the loss of
ancestral lands where people farm equals the loss of their ability to
feed themselves. Farmers and pastoralists are being turned into
plantation workers with false promises that result in menial seasonal
jobs that do not put food on the table or provide for their basic
needs.
The Oakland Institute's field research in Ethiopia revealed a grim
picture of violence, coercion, and unrealized benefits by relocated
communities. These findings are confirmed by Human Rights Watch's
independent study involving 100 interviews and sixteen site visits
this year.
The burden of the Ethiopian government's objective of economic growth
is being borne by the indigenous and local people of Gambella and the
Lower Omo Valley, where a half million will lose their lands. This is
too great a cost. As Ethiopia is one of the largest recipients of US
aid (more than $1 billion a year since 2007), the US bears
responsibility on matters of such grave consequence. The letter
cautions that something has to be done to ensure that the United
States is not an unwitting partner in this current tragedy.
The Oakland Institute and Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia are
urging President Obama to look beyond the charade of so-called
responsible investment that will supposedly benefit all in the long
run, and instead, calls for the US to reassess the terms of its
support to the Ethiopian regime.
Our hope is that President Obama will take leadership in responding
to an international call asking him to put the brakes on this
impending and present-day catastrophe.