Local elected officials in southern and western Ethiopia are bitterly opposing the selling away of farm land by the Woyanne ruling junta to foreign investors. Some of the local officials who take a stand are receiving threats and being summarily dismissed by Meles Zenawi’s puppets who are installed as regional administrators. One of these officials is Ato Tamiru Ambelo, chairman of the Gumare Kebele in Gambella, western Ethiopia.
Ato Tamiru and people in his kebele have been protesting the leasing of a large tract of land to an Indian company to be used for tea farming. even though there is a severe food shortage in the country. Read the threats and dismissal letters here. Also read Timiru Ambello’s letter here. It is a testimony by a local official of how the Woyanne junta is destroying the country’s irreplaceable forest.
9 thoughts on “Local official dismissed over land grab protest”
Ato Tamiru Ambelo this is the time to raise arm.
The sins of the most hateful man tyrant Meles, doesn’t end only in the southern and western Ethiopia. Please! every time we mention about the land grab, let us also not forget the acres and acres of land that was taken from Gondar and given to Sudan, and the additional land that was also taken from Gondar and Wollo to enlarge the greater Tigrea. Forgetting and failing to mention the land grab in every part of Ethiopia, including in Gondar and Wollo, is what the despicable woyanes want, please let us not give them the satisfactions, and show them that we will never accept what they have done.
Madagascar leader axes land deal
Madagascar’s new leader has cancelled a controversial deal for a South Korean firm to lease a vast tract of land to grow food crops.
Andry Rajoelina said he was axing the deal because the people should be consulted. Daewoo Logistics has reportedly expressed its frustration.
The plan had helped fuel popular anger against President Marc Ravalomanana, who was forced from office on Tuesday.
Mr Rajoelina has also suspended parliament and held a cabinet meeting.
The BBC’s Christina Corbett in the capital Antananarivo says he is trying to legitimise himself ahead of his inauguration as transitional leader on Saturday.
Land rights
After annulling parliament, he set up two transitional bodies to run the country.
There is no word on the whereabouts of Mr Ravalomanana, who resigned on Tuesday when a group within the army backed his rival.
Correspondents say Malagasy people have deep ties to their land and some had condemned the deal as “neo-colonialism”.
Widespread protests had already slowed down progress on the deal, which would have used about half of Madagascar’s arable land.
The South Korean industrial giant had sought to produce corn and palm oil on 1.3m hectares (3.2m acres), in one of the biggest deals involving foreign firms seeking to secure African farmland since food prices soared last year.
“In the constitution, it is stipulated that Madagascar’s land is neither for sale nor for rent, so the agreement with Daewoo is cancelled,” Mr Rajoelina told reporters.
“We are not against the idea of working with investors, but if we want to sell or rent out land, we have to change the constitution, you have to consult the people. So at this hour the deal is cancelled.”
Daewoo’s long-term aim was to replace more than half the corn that South Korea, the world’s third-largest corn buyer, imports, mainly from the US and South America.
Expressing frustration, Shin Dong-Hyun, who oversees the deal for Daewoo Logistics, told Yonhap news agency: “Already we have invested not a small amount in Madagascar.
“We are just waiting and watching this situation to see whether to retreat.”
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/7952628.stm
Published: 2009/03/19 15:49:56 GMT
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Why not our people take the same action as above one? Are we less than Madagascar people ?
Why is it that Ethiopian activists in USA and Europe not protesting against India, China, Saudi Arabia, etc., governments that are complicit with the Eth regime in robbing land from poor Ethiopians most of whom are suffering from starvation because of Woyane’s inhuman landuse policy?
I believe that this trend will continue. For sure we need foreign direct investment in the agricultural sector. The point is where, in what form, for what purpose etc. I think, economists, policy experts and such should debate about it.
According to ECOFAIR TRADE DIALOGUE (Germany) discussion paper “FDI in the Agricultural Sector in Ethiopia” (2009) major investors and their share are shown below.
Main Investors Average
EU 21.22%
India 32.43%
Israel 7.18%
Saudi Arabia 3.10%
USA 11.54%
Rest 24.53%
Eventhough my comment will get posted for reasons i am not aware of, let me shout a word here to express my opinion. The reason i said this is because the last time i wrote down a comment in the ethiopian review, it didn’t get posted. Now back to the point. there’s no plausible reason to destroy forest-land and convert it to agricultural-land at all. Deforestation has been used as a way to open-up farm-lands during the medieval time when everthing was old-fashioned and everybody was unenlightened about the consequences of carrying out such activities. Apparently, there was no technology at that time to develop dry or marginal lands and use them for agricultural production. But now time has changed, and we’re living in the 21st century when irrigation coupled with conseravtion schemes is being used in arid and semiarid regions for the production of agricultural produces. I think it is time for the change of attitude from ethiopian government-side to solicit foreign investors who can develop dry and mariginal lands in our Afar, Somali, Tigray, parts of the Amhara regions and elsewhere in the country using the untapped water resources we have on our disposal for irrigation purpose, but NO DEFORESTATION at all in this uncertain world when no one knows what the future holds for the human race given the so called climate- change!!!
This is the kind of troubles that would speed up the fall of the Woyane. They are so arogant, they do not sell Tigryan land to foreign investors, but they are happy to be selling Ethiopia’s land to foreign investors. WHY?
The ONLY solution is to guillotine Meles and his cronies.
Because he has killed more than 193 people and no charge had been established against the commanders as well as perpetrators. Meles anticipates to be applied Hammurabi’s law of tit for tat.
We cannot afford to protest like Egyptians in Tahrir Square. There the stakeholders of the diehard regime are trying their best to appease the protestors in a slander way and let the protesters go back home without achieving a tangible thing and having lost the lives of about 300 peaceful demonstrators. The still governing ruling clique wants to revenge the protestors and eventually ban the opposition from going into the streets.
The Egyptians want to assert their demand in a civilized way. But the regime wants to reverse the peace revolution.
The regime is a lame duck now in Egypt. In spite of this fact it still endeavors to repair its damage with the help of hypocrites in the West as well as Middle East.
The struggle is going to be long and protracted.
As far as Ethiopia is concerned, the Meles hated regime is insulting people by saying:
We will cut your fingers, tongues, etc. if you start uprising like Tunisia and Egypt.
Such amoral and savage words are flooding out of the tyrant.
The answer should be to cut off his head as Dervish did century years ago.
This traitor must stand down as soon as possible. His six associates should be dismissed from their offices.
We do not have stout shoulder to carry him more than twenty years.
I kindly request H.E President Girma Woldegiorgis to dissolve the fake “Parliament” call for a provisional “Care taker government” because the regime has not stopped dealing with selling of land secretly. This would leave a big burden for subsequent leaders as well as the people on the ground.
A provisional “Care taker government” l comprised of broad representation of the people should be setup as possible. The country is in a dire situation.
The Defense Forces and Police as well as the Justice should stay independent and should cooperate with the provisional council.
Let us go towards this goal.
Ethiopia shall prevail.
This has to be publicized more agressively in World Media before its too late ! We will not be able to get our forests back ! Meles is also one who attends all the top Global warming meetings representing Africa how does he square this ? Something has to be done maybe an Internet letter asking people to sign and send to some ” World Environmental Body” to investigate ?