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.