Aid does not get to needy

Totalitarian regimes routinely use aid and such to punish those who stand out and to reward the compliant. Dictator Mengistu did it. The Chinese still do it. Meles Zenawi did it to people of Tigray in the early 1980s and is doing it to a whole nation now. You accept Zenawi as the only wise leader or else you won't get a sack of donated fertiliser (especially if you make noise about your region being over-run by hordes of land grabbing Asians and Arabs). And you won’t find employment if you are college graduate or can’t hold down a job as a state employee and speak out on human rights abuses and the death of opposition politics.

The stream of denials on account of Human Rights Watch’s report which said that aid agencies have in fact been feeding repression is once again percolating to the media (mostly set-up by the Zenawi regime). ‘World Bank, US and embassies reject HRW's Ethiopia report’ runs the counter-attack.

If the allegations are wrong, we think one way to disprove them is to allow independent journalists to interview target populations. Zenawi will not allow this because he knows what he has been up to. He has a different approach: appear as saying something without saying anything of substance and call to the witness stand the Development Assistant Group (DAG) including the World Bank, Irish, Canadian, etc.

It is true DAGs operate in Ethiopia. But what does that prove? Nothing. None of the DAG members are going to deny operating in Ethiopia. This is a grenade being tossed to an inquisitive public and is typical of Zenawi. Zenawi knows what is at stake for DAGs. Their taxpayers will be up in arms if their governments admitted that tax dollars have not been reaching the intended populations. Such reports in the 1980s created a furore against the Mengistu regime (in addition to resettlement programs). Zenawi has been doing both and more (including displacing ethnic populations) with impunity and few foreigners raised their voices.

This matter of denying facts is what we would call the Geldof Syndrome. Admitting to failure jeopardises future fundraising as well as leaves dark spots on one’s legacy. You, therefore, refuse to accept such responsibility and instead turn to making a promotional movie. Zenawi knows denial will breed denial. So he denies in the face of cold statistics. Remember Stalin. Remember Mengistu. It is self-preservation to the end. The result? Donor nations and their lieutenants will move on to something else because they can’t stand scrutiny that will ‘out’ their dishonest dealings and reports. They would rather be philosophical about it: What was the alternative to dealing with the tyrant Zenawi? We need to leave the line of communication open.

Sure, great improvements were registered compared to the Cold War era. We need to engage tyrants to manage regional security. This is music to Zenawi’s ears. The next thing you know more millions will have been added to his coffers. Zenawi once again has a new lease on his tyrannical politics. And we are back where we started.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* This article was originally published by Ethiopian Recycler
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