Etiopiens regering bliver beskyldt for at tvinge titusindvis af fattige bønder til at flytte fra deres jord, så den i stedet kan lejes ud til udenlandske investorer.
Det fremgår af en ny rapport fra Human Rights Watch, der blev fremlagt mandag.
Ifølge Human Rights Watch er omkring 70.000 oprindelige folk blevet tvunget til at fraflytte deres jord og i stedet flytte til nye landsbyer, der mangler mad, landbrugsjord, adgang til sundhed og uddannelsesmuligheder.
LONDON, 16. January 2012 (HRW): The Ethiopian government under its “villagization” program is forcibly relocating approximately 70.000 indigenous people from the western Gambella region to new villages that lack adequate food, farmland, healthcare, and educational facilities, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Monday.
State security forces have repeatedly threatened, assaulted, and arbitrarily arrested villagers who resist the transfers.
The report, “‘Waiting Here for Death’: Forced Displacement and ‘Villagization’ in Ethiopia’s Gambella Region,” examines the first year of Gambella’s villagization program. It details the involuntary nature of the transfers, the loss of livelihoods, the deteriorating food situation, and ongoing abuses by the armed forces against the affected people.
Many of the areas from which people are being moved are slated for leasing by the government for commercial agricultural development.
“The Ethiopian government’s villagization program is not improving access to services for Gambella’s indigenous people, but is instead undermining their livelihoods and food security,” said Jan Egeland, Europe director at Human Rights Watch.
“The government should suspend the program until it can ensure that the necessary infrastructure is in place and that people have been properly consulted and compensated for the loss of their land.”
The government says the “villagization” program is designed to provide “access to basic socioeconomic infrastructures” to the people it relocates and to bring “socioeconomic & cultural transformation of the people.”
But despite pledges to provide suitable compensation, the government has provided insufficient resources to sustain people in the new villages, Human Rights Watch said.
The residents of Gambella, mainly indigenous Anuak and Nuer, have never had formal title to the land they have lived on and used. The government often claims that the areas are “uninhabited” or “under-utilized.”
That claim enables the government to bypass constitutional provisions and laws that would protect these populations from being relocated.
The report is based on more than 100 interviews in Ethiopia in May and June 2011, and at the Ifo refugee camp in Dadaab and Nairobi, Kenya, where many Gambellans have fled.
Læs videre her: http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/01/16/ethiopia-forced-relocations-bring-hunger-hardship
Læs hele rapporten “Waiting her for death” her: http://www.hrw.org/reports/2012/01/16/waiting-here-death
