Ethiopia - The Donor Colony

November 16, 2009
Press Release

At present, donor countries give Ethiopia two billion dollars in development aid annually, amounting to nearly 60% of government expenditure. What does the ruling TPLF regime do with this largesse? As it has done all during its eighteen years in power, it diverts much of this donor largesse towards maintaining a tight grip on power through systematic repression, political imprisonment, and human rights abuses.

Among the thousands of political prisoners in TPLF jails is Ethiopia's first female political party leader, Birtukan Mideksa. She was imprisoned for life for simply questioning government propaganda regarding the conditions of an earlier jail sentence.

Much of the political responsibility for this and other TPLF human rights abuses lies in the hands of donor countries. As any government is accountable to its source of funds, the TPLF is accountable to donor countries. Donors, by giving the regime aid, have assumed de facto majority control of the Ethiopian polity, marginalizing the Ethiopian people and reducing their democratic rights. In effect, Ethiopia has become a donor colony.

As funders of the TPLF regime, donors must accept not only political responsibility, but more importantly moral responsibility, for the regime's abuses. They are morally responsible for all misdeeds and consequences of the TPLF dictatorship, including not only political oppression, but also economic mismanagement and the poverty and famine that continues to plague Ethiopia as a result.

There are only two ways for donor countries and their citizens to properly address this moral culpability. One is to find or negotiate a way of reaching directly the needy ones. The second solution is for donor governments to assert themselves fully, hold the TPLF regime accountable and force it to put an end to human rights abuses and move towards democratic governance.

To date, donors have done neither. In fact, they have not even been willing to subject the TPLF dictatorship to any significant public criticism of the type they regularly meet out to other dictatorships in Africa and elsewhere.

Instead, they seem to be working towards the further dilution of the democratic rights of the Ethiopian people. For example, they are currently engaged in an exercise of essentially strong-arming opposition parties to nominally participate in the TPLF's next show elections. (Apparently, donors were embarrassed by the optics of the TPLF winning last year's local elections by 99.9% and would like a slightly less Soviet-like number this time around.). Such cynical and unethical policies and practices on the part of donors is reminiscent of a bygone colonial era.

Ginbot 7 believes that there is no place for this sort of abrogation of moral responsibility in the modern world. Donors have made Ethiopia into a colony - it is time they ensure that the Ethiopian people enjoy the same rights and freedoms as their own citizens.

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