Ethiopia: Green Justice or Ethnic Injustice?
Posted by ECADF Ethiopia Articles, Popular Sunday, April 22nd, 2012
by Alemayehu G. Mariam
Alemayehu G. Mariam
Last
week, dictator Meles Zenawi hectored his rubbers tamp parliament in
Ethiopia about the forced expulsion (or as some have described it
“ethnic cleansing”) of Amharas from southern Ethiopia and zapped his
critics for their irresponsibility in reporting and publicizing it.
Zenawi denied any expulsion had taken place, but explained that some
squatters (he described them as “sefaris from North Gojam”) had to be
removed from their homesteads in the south purely out of environmental
conservation concerns for the area’s forestlands.
In a broadside against organizations “that promote the view that our collective identity is Ethiopianity,” Zenawi harangued:
…
By coincidence of history, over the past ten years numerous people —
some 30,000 sefaris (squatters) from North Gojam – have settled in Benji
Maji (BM) zone [in Southern Ethiopia]. In Gura Ferda, there are some
24,000 sefaris. Because the area is forested, not too many people live
there. For all intents and purposes, Gura Ferda is little North Gojam
complete with squatters’ local administration. That is not a problem:
There is land to farm [in BM zone], and there are people who want to
farm it. Everybody wins, no one loses. There is only one problem: The
squatters did it in a disorganized way. The squatters settled
individually and haphazardly and in an environmentally destructive way.
The settlement was not based on a sound environmental impact study on
the destruction of the forest. The pristine forest in the area must be
protected. The squatters want land that can be easily developed and
cultivated. They don’t care if it is a forest or not. They cut the
forest and used the wood to make charcoal to aid in their settlement. As
a result massive environmental destruction has occurred…. Settlers
cannot move into the area and destroy the forest for settlement. It is
illegal and must stop. Those who try to distort this fact are
irresponsible. It is necessary to filter the truth. The rights of all
Ethiopians must be protected on equal footing. Those who allege
persecution and displacement of Amharas are engaged in irresponsible
agitation which is not useful to anyone…
Stated more
simply, the “sefaris of North Gojam” are environmental criminals who
deserved forcible expulsion; and they should thank they lucky stars they
are not prosecuted criminally.
Africa’s C.E.O.
When it comes to defending the African environment, no person has more expertise or passion than Zenawi who, after all, is the
anointed C.E.O. (Chief Environmental Officer) of Africa.
In 2009, Zenawi headed a delegation of African negotiators to the
Copenhagen Summit (2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in
Copenhagen) to morally and financially hold accountable the wayward West
for its environmental destruction, climate change, global warming and
all the rest. In the run up to the Summit, Zenawi threatened to bring
down the Summit if the West did not do
right by Africa and cough up $40bs:
We
will use our numbers to de-legitimise any agreement that is not
consistent with our minimal position… If needs be we are prepared to
walk out of any negotiations that threaten to be another rape of our
continent… Africa’s interest and position will not be muffled as has
usually been the case… Africa will field a single negotiating team
empowered to negotiate on behalf of all member states of the African
Union…. The key thing for me is that Africa be compensated for the
damage caused by global warming. Many institutions have tried to
quantify that and they have come up with different figures. The sort of
median figure would be in the range of 40 billion USD a year.
A day into the Summit, Zenawi was ready to cut a
deal with “Africa’s rapists” for a cool $10bs. He told his African brethren cold cash is better than talking trash:
I
know my proposal today will disappoint those Africans who from the
point of view of justice have asked for full compensation for the damage
done to our development prospects. My proposal dramatically scales back
our expectation with regards to the level of funding in return for more
reliable funding and a seat at the table in the management of such
funds.
In October 2011, in a speech before the African Economic Conference, Zenawi lectured:
Much
of our land has been cleared of tree cover resulting in massive land
degradation, soil erosion and vulnerability to both flooding and
drought. As a result of the global warming that has already happened we
have become more exposed to strange combinations of drought and
flooding. The resource base of our agriculture is very seriously
threatened.
In other words, we need to go back to the Western rapists and squeeze some more cash out them.
Zenawi’s Stewardship of the Environment in Ethiopia
Zenawi
is manifestly the go-to expert on the impact of climate change and
global warming on Africa. But does he have a clue about the
environmental destruction, and particularly, the deforestation of
Ethiopia? By 2020, Ethiopia is expected to lose all of its forest
resources according to the Ethiopian Agricultural Research Institute
(the foremost agricultural research institute in the country):
Ethiopia’s
forest coverage by the turn of the last century was 40%. By 1987, under
the military government, it went down to 5.5%. In 2003, it dropped down
to 0.2%. The Ethiopian Agricultural Research Institute says Ethiopia
loses up to 200,000 hectares of forest every year. Between 1990 and
2005, Ethiopia lost 14.0% of its forest cover (2,114,000 hectares) and
3.6% of its forest and woodland habitat. If the trend continues, it is
expected that Ethiopia could lose all of its forest resources in 11
years, by the year 2020.
According to a 2004 study,
Ethiopia has some 60 million hectares of land covered by woody
vegetation of which nearly 7 percent is forestland. Some 63 percent of
the forestland is located in Oromiya, followed by Southern Nations,
Nationalities and Peoples region [SNNP] (19%) and Gambella (9%). It is
remarkable that Zenawi decided to draw the line on deforestation in
Benji Maji/Gura Ferda in 2012 given the worsening nature of the problem
in that region as a result of uncontrolled foreign commercial export
agriculture. It is equally remarkable that he chose ethnic removal as a
tool of reforestation and land reclamation.
But is Zenawi’s claim
of environmental concern and forest protection for the expulsion of the
“North Gojam sefaris” supported by evidence? Or is he using an
environmental subterfuge to evade controversy and withering criticism?
Over the past five years, Zenawi has “leased” (sold) some of the most
fertile land (much of it forestland) in the country to the Saudis, the
Shiekdoms, the Indians, the Chinese and Koreans (SSICKs) and anyone else
sporting a crisp dollar bill.
According to the respected Oakland Institute [OI], beginning in 2008, Zenawi’s regime has
transferred
at least 3,619,509 hectares of land to foreign investors although the
actual number may be higher… The Ethiopian government insists that for
all land deals consultation is being carried out, no farmers are
displaced, and the land being granted is “unused.” However, the OI team
did not find a single incidence of community consultation… There are no limits on water use, no Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA),
and no environmental controls. It is alarming that investors are free
to use water with no restrictions. Investors informed the OI team of the
ease with which they planned to dam a local river and of the virtual
lack of control and regulations over environmental issues. Despite
assurances that EIAs are performed, no government official could
produce a completed EIA, no investor had evidence of a completed one,
and no community had ever seen one…. Displacement from farmland is widespread, and the vast majority of locals receive no compensation…. Displaced
farmers are forced to find farmland elsewhere, increasing competition
and tension with other farmers over access to land and resources.
The
bottom line is that the SSICKs who slash and burn pristine forests for
large-scale commercial export agriculture are called investors.
Ethiopians who clear small plots of land to feed themselves and their
families are called “sefaris” (squatters). The SSICKs are given
99-year leases to millions of hectares to “develop”. Ethiopians are
forcibly ejected from their ancestral lands and tiny homesteads to make
way for the SSICKs. The SSICKs are allowed to grab as much land as they
want for pennies; Ethiopians are grabbed and thrown off the land and
lose every hard earnerd penny they have invested. The SSICKs are
welcomed with open arms at sunrise; Ethiopians are kicked in the rear
end and told to get out of town before sundown. The SSICKs have property
rights in land; Ethiopians do not have a right to own land. The SSICKs
are treated like royalty; Ethiopians are given the shaft. The shame of
it all: Ethiopians are “hunted down like animals where they are
constantly asked if they support these [SSICK] plantations” according to
the Oakland Institute study.
Welcome to SSICKistan.
Are there Environmental Laws the “North Gojam Sefaris” Could Follow?
Zenawi
claims that the expulsion was necessary because many of the “North
Gojam sefaris” engaged in a pattern and practice of settlement that is
disorganized, haphazard and environmentally destructive. But does
Zenawi’s regime have policies that would facilitate an orderly,
systematic and organized settlement of rural areas or ensure sound
forest conservation practices? For instance, the seminal law on the
subject, the “
Rural Lands Administration and Use Proclamation No.456/2005”,
authorizes free access to rural lands for all who intend to engage in
farming activities; but it provides no clear direction on how
settlements are to be established or administered. It leaves
implementation of the Proclamation entirely to the “regional
authorities” who often do not have the expertise or capacity to
implement it. To be sure, Proclamation No. 456 is virtually silent on
the use, conservation or management of forestlands. In fact, it makes
only three passing references to “forestry”, “forest degradation” and
“forest land.”
The Revised SNNPRS Determination of Executive
Organs’ Powers and Responsibilities Proclamation No. 106/2007 [Southern
Nations, Nationalities' and Peoples' Regional State], purportedly aims
to implement Proclamation No. 456, but the region has no environmental
protection agency. The task of implementing Proclamation 456 is
apparently given to the region’s Bureau of Agriculture and Rural
Development which purportedly has oversight authority over conservation
of natural resources and wild life, but no specific responsibility to
undertake forest conservation or management. Land use restrictions under
SNNPRS Rural Land Administration and Use Regulation No 66/2007 does not
deal with forestlands at all; it is principally concerned with the use
of wetlands and sloping lands. Simply stated, there is no regional law
that deals with deforestation or clearing of forests for settlements or
farming. What are the “sefaris” to do?
Similarly, the “federal” “
Forest Development, Conservation, and Utilization Proclamation No.542/2007”
is so vague and general as to be nothing more than a statement of
policy orientation. The Proclamation recognizes “government” and
“private” forests, but provides no indication on how the forests can be
developed or where individuals could apply to get authorizations.
Incredibly, the Proclamation catalogues the obligations of private
forest developers without enumerating any of their rights. The bulk of
the Proclamation is not law but aspirational policy statements about
what ought to be done in the future.
Zenawi secondary argument is
that the Amhara “sefaris” settled in Benji Maji/Gura Ferda without the
required environmental impact assessment (EIA) presumably pursuant to
Proclamation No. 299/2002 (“Environmental Impact Assessment Proclamation” [EIAP]).
That Proclamation requires an assessment to “identify and evaluate in
advance any effect which results from the implementation of a proposed
project or public instrument”. As a technical legal matter, the
“sefari’s” pattern of homesteading falls outside of the EIAP’s statutory
definition of “proposed project” or “public instrument”. In other
words, under the present language and definitions in Proclamation No.
299, the “sefaris” would be exempt from performing an environmental
impact assessment. Rather, they would be subject to Proclamation No. 456
(Rural Lands Administration and Use ).
But all of the technical
legal analysis and arguments aside, the fact of the matter is that a
tiny percentage of all private sector projects are subject to the EIAP
because of exemption loopholes and political decisions that override the
technical merits of such reports. As the OI report has shown “despite
assurances that environmental impact assessments [EIAs] are performed,
no government official could produce a completed EIA, no investor had
evidence of a completed one, and no community had ever seen one….”
The regime’s “environmental impact assessment” on Gibe III Dam demonstrates the pro forma nature of such undertakings when it is politically expedient.
Ethnic Cleansing or Forest Conservation?
There
is no question that tens of thousands of Amharas have been forcibly
removed from Benj Maji/Gura Ferda in southern Ethiopia, and not just
from “North Gojam”.
Numerous interviews of victims by the Voice of America provide substantial evidence of forced expulsion. So
we must face the unavoidable question: Is the forced expulsion of the
“sefaris” a form of ethnic cleansing or the consequence of the
unintended effects of routine ecological remediation? The evidence on
this question from the two individuals who are in the best position to
know is rather curious to say the least. Zenawi says the “North Gojam
sefaris” were evicted solely because they were destroying the forest in
their haphazard settlement patterns. But in
his written order, Shiferaw Shigute, President of SNNP,
does not not mention a single word about deforestation or harm to the
environment in the expulsion of the Amhara “sefaris”. Goodness gracious,
who to believe?
“Ethnic cleansing” does not have a specific
formal legal definition. A 1993 United Nations Commission defined the
phrase as, “the planned deliberate removal from a specific territory,
persons of a particular ethnic group, by force or intimidation, in order
to render that area ethnically homogenous.” A UN Commission of Experts
established pursuant to Security Council Resolution 780 held that the
practices associated with ethnic cleansing “constitute crimes against
humanity”. Others have defined “ethnic cleansing as the expulsion of an
‘undesirable’ population from a given territory due to religious or
ethnic discrimination, political, strategic or ideological
considerations, or a combination of these.” Article 7 (d) of the Rome
Statute declares that “deportation or forcible transfer of population”,
(defined as “forced displacement by expulsion or other coercive acts
from the area in which they are lawfully present, without grounds
without grounds permitted under international law”) is a “crime against
humanity”. Whether the expulsion of the Amhara “sefaris” is part of a
deliberate and systematic policy of “ethnic federalism” in which ethnic
purges of a civilian population are undertaken to ensure the ethnic
homogeneity of the southern part of the country to the detriment of
other Ethiopians of a different ethnic stripe will bear significantly on
the question of ethnic cleansing.
Be fair to the people!
Amharic translations of recent commentaries by the author may be found at:
http://www.ecadforum.com/Amharic/archives/category/al-mariam-amharic and
http://ethioforum.org/?cat=24
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