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In a country where limited, outdated and inaccurate
information is the norm rather than the exception,
sifting through what is available with a degree of
scepticism and a healthy attention to motivations is
crucial. But it is also important to concentrate on
the larger implications and hidden messages when
that slight trickle of reporting does come forth.
This is especially the case with the American
Department of State human rights report on
Ethiopia, in several other countries in the Horn of
Africa, was released last Monday. While this agency,
along with countless other international bodies,
unveil accounts of dubious activities year after
year that may come as a surprise to the undiscerning
ear listening to official reports, it is the high
stakes involved that make this document worth a
read.
Normally, most groups alleging the Ethiopian
government’s lack of attention to accepted human
rights conventions do not surprise international
observers accustomed to disappointment, and little
change occurs in the flow of international aid or
official relations. But this year’s report comes at
a crucial time when the HR-2003 legislative bill
hangs in the US Senate with consequences for aid
money from one of the biggest donor countries.
Congressmen interested in the issue will surely have
a glance at the detailed description of a year’s
worth of troubling accounts.
Not surprisingly, the report devotes much of its
space to the sketchy information available on the
remote Ogaden region, Somali Regional State, where
press coverage has been scant at best and aid
organizations have complained of being forced to
choose between involving in local political and
social upheaval with questionable activities on both
sides or delivering needed relief to food insecure
people while turning eyes the other way. This
internal conflict represents the newest alleged
transgressions and ultimately falls into the
category of choosing whom to believe in a patchy
chain of information, the government or varied
international and local groups.
The Ogaden case exemplifies the lack of credible
information and forces choices between
contradictions. This is a huge problem and one that
will continue to hinder the ease with which business
and other interested parties operate in Ethiopia.
One of the symptoms of this problem is the report’s
constant admission that in many cases of alleged
wrongdoing it and other organizations pursued, “no
developments” were brought forward. It seems court
cases and allegations are seemingly forgotten by the
system or rather brushed aside by people bombarded
by the next positive news coming from official
sources. There appears to be a lack of ability or
resources for organizations, both watchdogs and
media, to follow-up on the cases allegedly
languishing in the courts for extended periods of
time.
A
causal reader of the report familiar with the
HR-2003 bill would be right to conclude that the
legislation hits the mark in many ways if the State
Department has truth on its side. Recurrent cases of
the criminal justice system lacking the resources
and qualified personnel to deliver the swift
decisions an underdeveloped arm of the government
needs would be helped along by the annual 20 million
dollar programmes for judiciary training the US is
proposing. Moreover, the linking of military budgets
to the absence of human rights abuses by security
and military personnel would put incentive based
pressure to halt illegal action if the report is
hitting the mark, or at least prompt the government
to address the allegations meaningfully.
If anything were to come out of the limited scope
legislation that this government has waged a massive
media campaign against, it would be in helping along
many of the processes towards achieving accountable
and transparent governance such as the criminal
courts mentioned that the report says are
progressing but still have a long way to go. This
process includes the training of security staffs
into a more professional force and regional
political freedoms, though the article does emphasis
that there were no reports of suspicious fertiliser
politics, an improvement over the past.
The fact that the State Department’s latest
impressions on Ethiopia supposedly target the year
2007 but in practice contain volumes of information
relating to alleged official abuses dating back to
2005 is quite telling. While a sceptic of such
foreign watchdogs may see grounds to dismiss the
report due to this time factor, it may not be too
far from the picture of the national mindset.
It is the post-2005 elections events that no doubt
come to mind when Ethiopians considering voting in
the upcoming political contests may conjure up.
Moreover, it is these very same cases that may cause
the disenchanted many to continue apathetic
avoidance of civic participation. Thus, maybe the
report is right to highlight the unresolved past.
It is the brushed over cases that the State
Department highlights. The signal is clearly that
there is a long road ahead for a government to
absolve itself of past problems either in face or in
fact. The message for the legislators in the US, on
the balance, will be that this country needs further
international help to move towards being a nation
free from human rights abuses in the eyes of global
observers, the aim of HR-2003.
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