- Title: [SW Column] (Seyoum
Hameso) Nature Ethiopia: Famine, War, and Environmental Destruction - Nature to Blame?
- From:[]
- Date :[20 April 2000]
Opinions expressed in this column
are those of the contributors and not necessarily those of SW.
Nature
Ethiopia: Famine, War, and Environmental Destruction -
Nature to Blame?
By Seyoum Hameso
As it happened in the seventies and the eighties, the western
media is once again focusing in a disaster situation in Ethiopia.
Only a few months into the new millennium, a potentially
devastating event is unfolding. While international attention is
useful in leading to temporary relief measures, it fails to
address the fundamental problems that cause the recurrence of such
emergencies.
In this brief article, I ask if all is gloom and doom imposed by
nature or if the hands of people gave added impetus for
destruction. In other words, are the people of that area destined
to doom and stories of doom or is it something that can be solved,
given the human will?
The working assumption here is that while it is easy to blame
nature (for one it dos not know how to enter into dispute), the
problem at hand is as much man-made. The readily available hands
for implication are of those people who are in a position to do
something, those who can decide and devise social, political and
economic policies that bedevil the lives of ordinary people.
It should be clear from the outset that drought and other natural
calamities do strike in any part of the world. It is the policy of
the governments that lessens their impacts. Drought does not
translate itself directly to famine if the people have enough
reserves, if distribution of resources including food materials is
fair. But that is not the case with the consecutive Ethiopian
regimes who care for something other than the peoples.
One would argue that these regimes brought famine conditions to
the population groups. For example, Menelik was preoccupied with
his expansionary war to the south when a Great Famine struck in
1896. According to imperial chronicles, the situation was so bad
that, in these days, some form of cannibalism was practised.
A little over a half a century, Haile Selassie had a badly
reported fight in his hands with Ogaden and Eritrea when nearly a
million people perished in 1973-74. The regime that was supported
by the West did crumble by the combination of Western camera
exposure and overbearing local dissent. The places that famine
struck hard, including Wollo and Tigray were not the regime's
favourite areas, as they were complicated by traditional feudal
power rivalries. Unhealthy distribution of resources, mainly land
and destructive exploitation of nature and people led to a
situation where peasant farmers were in no position to resist any
drought condition. In other words, they lost their resilience to
natural hazards. War worked to complicate matters. Traditionally
northern warlords of Ethiopia thrived in the business if war and
banditry which is only 'modernised' by imperial
centralisation. Here as elsewhere the first victims of banditry
are peasants. So they were in 1973.
In 1984, the world media was again preoccupied with another round
of gloom. Famine was back again. The military regime of Mengistu
Hailemariam had one vision: build a communist empire. Revolution
was what his regime proclaimed as it toppled the dying feudal
autocracy. No one asked the cost, and no one cared to measure it.
The slogan was: build 'it' at any cost. It did not matter if
that cost was the loss of millions of lives, or dashed hopes and
opportunities. The word 'building' seemed positive, but the
actions were about destruction of humanity.The 1984 famine
followed a protracted war in different parts of the Ethiopian
empire: war with Ogaden, war with Eritrea and Tigray, war within
the establishment, the red terror, etc Mengistu's atrocities
did not end there. The villagisation and resettlement programmes
were projects that would be planned by devils. And all Ethiopian
regimes have been closer to one. The villagasation programme was a
communist experiment in a terribly poor empire. It made everyone
equally destitute, and Mengistu learned the lessons long after M.
Gorbachev of the then Soviet Union. The poverty that visited upon
the rural families by ruthless policies, the environmental damage
that malicious resettlement programs engendered, and the ruthless
execution of war which led to famine was openly described by the
western journalists. They declared the place something nearer to
hell on hearth. For millions of people whose voices are crushed
and repressed, the place has been a hell for nearly a century.
Now come the year 2000. No one reported in 1973 and 1984 that the
magnitude of the problem is as huge as it is today. About eight
million people are threatened with famine. The world is now
surprised why all this is happening in the lands where only a few
years ago the regime's officials were outspoken in saying their
programs help rural communities (where more than 85% of the whole
populations live), that food self-sufficiency was achieved.
The current Tigrean ethno-national regime is only nearly a decade
long, but the blunders it commits have no proportions or
precedents. No one community or national group is at ease with the
policies of TPLF/EPRDF regime. Since its coming to power in 1991,
all aspects of life are politicised. Its 'federal' regional
policies are a sham, as The Economist magazine has once noted.
Its democratic record is a shambles. Its human rights record are,
if anything, worse. Its economic policies are full of
contradictions; they are full of favouritism and open disregard of
humane change and socio-political balance. Political corruption is
rife while the regime's evaluation and transparency measures
focus on political loyalty more than on anything else.
For over a period of years the regime went into war with
neighbouring countries using all the pretexts it can manipulate.
At one time it fights 'Islamic fundamentalism ' (e.g.
Somalia), a crusader of the 20th century. At another time, it
becomes a peacemaker fighting lawlessness outside its jurisdiction
(e.g. in Kenya and Somalia). All along, since 1992, it caries out
low level wars with organised groups that demand self-
determination for their people. Today the people who live in the
areas where this demand is strong face famine (e.g. Ogaden and
Oromia regions).
Only a few months ago massive fires consumed large forests, the
plight of which was not properly addressed. Again the areas of
this calamity are the southern areas such as Bale and Borana in
Oromia, Qoreleh in Ogaden, Malagawondo and Meme in Sidama, and
scores of areas in the west as in Benishangul. The cause of the
fires remains suspect but the reasons such as windy, long dry
seasons, honey collection and land scramble by local populations
is lame. Students demonstrated against the government's handling
of the fire crisis and they faced hostile response. A few students
died in Ambo, central region of Oromia. Whatever caused the fire,
the destruction of the forests will have huge environmental
consequences not only for the areas involved concerned but for the
region as a whole. In this regard, one would only appeal to
international humanitarian and environmental groups to pursue the
matter and pre-empt further destruction.
The problems do not stop at fires and famine. The regime's
policies of inciting ethno-national conflicts has displaced
thousands among Gedeo and Guji Oromo communities. The regime
encourages artificial divisions within national communities along
caste, religious and regional dimensions. In many rural areas, the
forced sale of fertiliser to peasant farmers and the method of
recouping the sales proceeds, the heavy tax exactions, and several
forms of forced contributions to TPLF owned and controlled
economic entities made people (rural and urban) exceedingly
vulnerable to natural mishaps. Problems were observed in Hadiya,
in Gambella and in Wolayta associated with the regime's
policies.
On top of all these, the war with Eritrea which is in its third
year is exacting massive burden on populations in Ethiopia. First
came the requirement to safeguard 'territorial' sovereignty
and integrity of the empire. This meant 'Everything to the War
Front', a familiar tone from the derg era. The incident in Badme
is blown out of proportion causing the massacre of thousands, if
not hundreds of thousands, while the heavy fire in the south did
force raise the eyebrows of the officials of the regime. Next came
the recruitment for war.
This author anticipated in July 1998, only a few months into the
beginning of the TPLF war venture with Eritrea, the catastrophic
humanitarian consequences of the war. These meetings were
conducted in Berlin, Germany, and soon in Stockholm, Sweden, and
nearly no one in the international community heeded the voices of
the oppressed people then. And now every one seems scrambling for
what can be done to relieve the burden of destruction and death
primarily imposed by a very bad government. The same war is not
only depleting the natural resources but all kinds of resources
that may be available in future.
To informed audience, it came to no surprise when a minister of
Ethiopia accused foreigners for not responding soon for a disaster
his regime has a big hand facilitating the processes that lead up
to this scenario. As if begging is a business of prudence and
pride, it dictates which routes the aid should come and which
should not. It refuses the offer of port services from a warring
neighbour for 'moral ' reasons or for reasons only devils
understand.
The difference of the TPLF regime of Ethiopia from the past ones
is that this one uses all the pretexts and precedents to pre-empt
and trample alternatives. The past rulers of the empire are too
proud to tell the world that people under their, otherwise tragic,
rule do starve in fact. Menelik had a pretext to hide the great
famine behind the war with European fascism. Haile Selassie had to
hide fascistic famine with the connivance of the western powers.
Mengsitu had a project to finish before accepting his policies
were ruthless and contributed to famine. Today's rulers are the
first to tell all is well and sooner than later admit that all is
worse. They cannot avoid today's media exposure which contrasts
with the deafening silence of the past. For this, they admit the
inevitable and declare bankrupt when everything is out of their
handling.
Now the outside world faces a dilemma, as this author does. It is
true that politics affects the economic and social conditions in
any country. It is true that the buck stops at the benches of
officials who impose destructive policies and their sponsors. But
the humanitarian disaster does not give much time to spend on the
luxury of disputing the rights and wrongs of the regime in power.
In the short term, the international community has no alternative
other than looking for ways of helping those people whose
saddening images appear in the screens which disturbs people's
conscience. Such relief aid may help the dying, but the real help
is commitment to humanitarian approach and to help people to help
themselves. That is an issue to be addressed today. While relief
work is as urgent as ever, the need to see long is by far
beneficial to the people affected, to the region, and even to the
world. It is only then that gods will have good time free from
blame.
Reprinted with Permission
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