Gemechu
Tussa
Ethiopia once identified poverty as its
arch=foe. The country has been working day in day out to make poverty a history
and ensure sustainable development having envisioned becoming one of the middle
income countries in 2025. As a result
there are various encouraging changes since 1991. The past twenty five years
witnessed that Ethiopia
has made progress in both economic and social developments.
There are a lot of substantiating
performances in this regard. The country’s economy has grown at a double digit
for the past ten consecutive years. A number of huge projects including the
Ethiopian Grand Renaissance Dam, Ethio-Djibouti railway, Addis Ababa light railway, the hydropower
dams, road infrastructure, telecommunication, access to potable water, access
to health and education are some developments among many others.
Ethiopia has been working hard to alleviate poverty and ensure
sustainable development. The past twenty four years witnessed that the country
is in the right truck to be food self sufficient. It managed to do that at country level and it
has been struggling to ensure food self-sufficiency at individual or family
level. Recognizing the country’s effort
towards sustainable development, many partners have backing it. Countries like China, India
and others have participated in Ethiopia’s
development efforts.
However, these were not achieved without
any obstacles. The country has been facing a number of challenges in its
forward movements. One of the challenges it has been facing is fabricated image
distorting activities mainly by the international group Human Rights Watch.
If we, for example, start from the resent
fabricated allegation of HRW, we can consider the report of Human Rights
Watch’s researcher Felix Horne.
He has recently agitating the European
Union to use its role as Ethiopia’s
main development cooperation partner to force Ethiopia to allow a foreign body
into its internal affairs, which is a fundamental violation of the country’s sovereignty.
He addressed the European Parliament’s Subcommittee that an
unknown number of people, possibly hundreds, died during a stampede after
security forces used teargas and gunfire to control a tense crowd at the annual
Ireecha festival. He added that the security forces have used live ammunition. This
is not some thing strange. HRW has been blackmailing every development activity
for the past twenty years. They have propagated as if the government had
attempted to impose on the Orthodox Church following the endorsement of the
Ethiopian Constitution which guaranteed equality of all religious.
Human Rights Watch has been accusing Ethiopia for
displacing its citizens from their villages as it began investing huge Sugar
development Projects in various parts of the country. The argument repeatedly
came in a sense that the people are resettled to another area without any
consultation. Besides, it has been arguing as if they won’t be beneficiary of
the projects. HRW connected it with the
violation of Human Rights. However, the
situation on the ground is quite different from what HRW has been accusing the
country. It is evident that citizens have been benefiting from the various
projects.
The government has undertaken different measures
to ensure fair wealth distribution among Nations, Nationalities and Peoples of
Ethiopia. They have become beneficiaries
of the fast sustainable economic development and the booming infrastructure.
Obviously, any development taking place without
social recognition and acceptance has little fruits. Recognizant of this fact, the government has
been ensuring the participation of the Ethiopia people in any development
agenda. As a result, the government held discussions on every project with the
people residing around the site.
The EGRD, Gibe Three and the Omo Kuraz
Sugar Factory Projects were among the mega projects that were under the
continuous attacks of the so called HRW.
This project has been undertaken since the beginning of the First Growth
and Transformation Plan.
In contrast to the allegation by HRW and
other groups with different hidden agendas, the Ethiopian people witnessed the
significance of the projects for the betterment of their lives. For instance, if we consider Kuraz Sugar
Project, commenced after the government held discussions with over 15,622
dwellers and 199 officials at different levels on the significance of the
project, it has created a good opportunity to the people residing around it.
As a result, about 1,890 farmers and pastoralists
have settled in villages and got enough access to basic infrastructure and
social services. Available documents
indicate that the government has allotted over 80 million birr in building
infrastructure, schools, police stations, mills, and health posts that could facilitate
better living situations.
Now the
resident are witnessing that the social services built in the villages are
playing significant roles in easing their lives. The people have benefited from the road
infrastructure as it joined neighboring villages, Zones and Cities. Besides, children who had no chance to
schools have now started to attend regular classes in the villages.
The other baseless allegation was on Gibe three
arguing that it could affect the flow of water to Turkana Lake.
This is so festering that HRW is accusing Ethiopians for using their resources
for their daily bread. However, it has been doing all these allegations under
the pretexts of violating Human Rights.
HRW has been doing lots of things in fact on purpose to
jeopardize development efforts in the country. It has repeatedly explained as
if the hydropower and sugar developments in the country have negative impacts
on the people.
It usually reports non-existed problems. Some religious fundamentalist, bloodsucking
politicians and irresponsible institutions have participated in providing false
information to HRW. All of its allegations have emanated on a purpose to
jeopardize the development of the country. HRW has failed to do justice to Ethiopia by
coming up with lots and lots of glaring misrepresentations concerning its
struggle to alleviate poverty.
All reports by HRW so far contribute nix to improve either
the Human Rights situation or the ongoing democracy in the country. Neither do
they help the government to learn from its mistakes if there is any. The
Ethiopian people knew that HRW has been working to create a crack between
Ethiopian and the country’s development partners through fabricated stories. It
has been working to implement its plan to jeopardize the country’s development
through disseminating inaccurate
It mainly focuses on Mega development projects attempting
to connect their impacts on pastoralists. It has been accusing the government
for its tremendous efforts to change the lives of the people in general ans the
pastoralists in particular
In a nut shell, HRW has unrevealed agendas behind the
curtain. It is jeopardizing the development of the country. That is why all its reports have been
focusing on the country’s mega development projects. It has been exerting unreserved efforts to
hit its hidden targets. The worst of all is the fact that it usually comes with
fabricated and baseless stories and recommendations based of methodology flaw.
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