GEESKA AFRIKA ONLINE  DAILY NEWS AND VIEWS  SOMALI DAILY NEWS

Ethiopian Private Sector Blames Meles
Nairobi (HAN) April 1, 2005--Ethiopia's private sector has lashed out at the government in a public forum that included Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, blaming failed policies for an impending food crisis and a struggling private sector.

"The fact that over 14 million people are facing food shortages indicates that Ethiopia's agricultural policy is outdated and is not working," Desalenge Rahameto, a senior private sector economist told the forum.

"It is an illusion to think that Ethiopia could end the cycle of famine through subsistence and small peasant farms," he told an audience including World Bank and IMF officials, and called for land to be privatized by the government.

A calm-looking Meles rejected the appeal for land reforms, a highly controversial issue in Ethiopia where many believe the current system of land tenure is outdated and an impediment to achieving long-term food stability.

"Land will remain state-owned as long as the EPRDF is at the helm of the country's leadership," Meles said, referring to his Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front party.

Meles said his government had taken the first steps to addressing a growing food crisis in the Horn of Africa nation by giving out up to 300,000 tonnes of grain from the food security reserve at the first sign of problems.

"We did not hide the drought situation based on evidence from our early warning system (and) we have appealed for help to the donor community in advance," he said.

Economists, businessmen and the opposition are critical of government economic policy.

"In a country where good governance does not exist and where the government is the land and business owner and the people are tenants, it is difficult to imagine that the private sector would prosper," secretary general of the opposition Ethiopian Democratic Party (EDP) Lidetu Ayalew said.

"After 14 years or so of leadership by the EPRDF up to 20 percent of the country's 65 million people are not able to eat even once a day," President of the Ethiopian and Addis Ababa Chamber of Commerce Berhane Mewa added. sources: ethiomedia

THE US Disappointed over the Ethiopia's Expulsion  of US Groups
Nairobi (HAN) April 1, 2005- The State Department said Thursday the United States is very disappointed over the Ethiopian government's announced expulsion of three U.S. non-governmental democracy groups. They had been helping prepare the African country for elections in May.

The State Department says it has lodged a direct complaint with the Ethiopian government over its decision to expel the three groups, which had been working on a U.S.-sponsored program to lay groundwork for the country's May 15th general elections.

The groups are the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute. The latter two are affiliated with the U.S. Republican and Democratic Parties.

News reports from Addis Ababa said their staff members, who had been in Ethiopia for several weeks, were told by government officials Wednesday they had 48 hours to leave.

The reason given for the move was that they had not been registered with the Ethiopian government.

But at a news briefing here, State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher said they had been operating openly with the knowledge of the government, and that their efforts to get proper accreditation had been rebuffed by officials.

"These three groups have worked diligently and very closely with various government of Ethiopia ministries to try to register, and they've worked with the National Election Board of Ethiopia," said Mr. Boucher.  "And so they've tried to get registration and they haven't been able to secure it.  So frankly we find this decision disappointing.  We've expressed that directly to the Ethiopian government."

Mr. Boucher said other non-governmental groups working in Ethiopia on the elections have also not been able to register.

Officials here would not speculate on any underlying motives for the Ethiopian decision beyond the stated reason for the expulsion.

But some of the affected workers said they believed they were being expelled in retaliation for U.S. criticism of Ethiopia in the State Department's annual report on human rights world-wide issued in late February.

That report credited Ethiopia with progress on human rights in 2004, but said among other things that the country's police continued to use excessive force, and that freedom of the press was restricted.

The May 15 elections, for a national parliament and regional assemblies, are only the third of their kind in the country's history.

The previous two have been swept by the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Movement, which along with affiliated parties controls all but a handful of seats in the 548-member parliament.

A spokesman for the 14-party opposition coalition, the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces, said the expulsion of the U.S. democracy workers was a very bad sign, and an indication of a lack of seriousness by the ruling party in making the election free and fair.

The three U.S. groups had been working under a grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development to train voters and election observers and promote election cooperation among the Ethiopian parties.

Ethiopia: Security Beyond Borders

By Leslie S. Lebl

Neither U.S. nor eu political leaders have engaged the attention of their political elites with their counter-terrorist agenda. Officials on both sides of the Atlantic, well aware of the overall turbulence of the transatlantic relationship, have been at pains to keep foreign policy and counter-terrorist issues separate and to address problems within government channels rather than negotiating via the media. But while this approach undoubtedly has brought substantial benefits, it does have the downside of failing to educate either the public or the political elites about the true state of affairs. Nothing is kept secret, but the technical nature of the issues makes them harder to understand and less attractive than, say, foreign policy disputes. 

Nor does this practical cooperation equate to agreement on the strategic approach to be taken in combating terrorism: Is this a fight to be conducted primarily at home or carried abroad to the enemy? The Europeans until now have overwhelmingly favored the former, particularly if what is under discussion is military action abroad. And they have firmly rejected talk of a “war on terror,” preferring instead to call it the “fight against terrorism.” The U.S. approach is shaped in part by the fact that the United States has long, porous borders, making a defensive policy alone extremely dangerous. Perhaps the eu, as it absorbs the reality of its long, porous, post-expansion borders, will come closer to the U.S. strategic perspective. (Read Full Report)

Leslie S. Lebl is nonresident senior fellow of the Atlantic Council of the United States. An earlier version of this article appeared as a working paper of the American Consortium on European Union Studies.

Ethiopia expels three American democracy-building groups By Matthew J. Rosenberg April 1, 2005 LONDON (AP) -- Ethiopia on Wednesday ordered three private American groups that promote democracy to cease operations in the Horn of African nation and gave their foreign staff 48 hours to leave, officials with two of the groups said. Field missions from the groups -- the National Democratic Institute, the International Republic Institute and IFES -- were in Ethiopia helping prepare the country for May 15 general elections. Foreign staff from all three were called to the Foreign Ministry on Wednesday and told by Ethiopian authorities they had two days to leave, officials from two of the groups said. The Ethiopians, the officials said, told the groups they were being kicked out because they were not properly accredited. Both officials said their groups had earlier applied for accreditation. The officials -- one in Washington, the other in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia -- spoke on condition of anonymity, saying all three groups were pushing to get back into the country and did not want to further upset the Ethiopians. Ethiopian officials were not immediately available for comment. All three groups are based in Washington and focus on building democracy in the developing world. They had relatively small staffs in Ethiopia -- IRI and IFES each kept only one foreign staffer in the country. An official from one the groups said members of all three organizations believed they were being expelled in a broad Ethiopian retaliation to recent U.S. criticism of Ethiopia's human rights record -- especially a U.S. State Department report released earlier this year. The report, one of the annual human rights updates the U.S. government prepares for every country, said Ethiopia had made progress in respecting human rights in 2004, but noted that police lacked needed training and continued to employ excessive force, the judiciary remained overburdened and lacked capacity and there were still restrictions on freedom of the press. The elections in Ethiopia, a country of 25.6 million [72 million: UN 2005] would be only the third democratic ballot in the nation's history. All the elections have been won by the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front. To advertise in The GEESKA AFRIKA ONLINE AND HAN, contact: HAN Banner Advertisement Price List The HAN Ad Desk office Email: han@geeskaafrika.com

HAN Bulletin is your independent, online intelligence resource edited and published by the regional political historian, veteran newsman and founder of www.geeskaafrika.com (Geeska Afrika Online 1985). Each week he taps his vast network of international intelligence sources to bring you credible insights into geo-political and geo-strategic developments for the Horn of Africa.  Contact at  nurkafi@geeskaafrika.com  (Managing Editor/Publisher)