Awash Construction SC, the state-owned construction enterprise, filed a lawsuit against Wegagen Bank, which is owned by a former member of the Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF) politburo Sebhat Nega, for the recovery of nearly 800,000 birr plus interest for a failed construction project.
The construction company signed a nearly 1.3 million birr contract for the supply and fixing of swimming pool works at the National Bank project in January 2010 with Project Design Innovation Trading.
It also claimed that it has extended 30 percent of the advance payment in two installments after receiving a guarantee of nearly 400,000 birr from Wegagen Bank for a period of four months. The state-owned construction company also claimed that the bank signed up a performance guarantee of nearly 130,000 birr for the same period.
However, Awash Construction S.C. terminated the agreement on August 2010 alleging a breach of contract. Despite repeated notices given to Project Design Innovation Trading, the project was not finalized within 120 days of the signing as agreed in the contract, claims Awash Construction. It also alleged that the bank, which extended its guarantee period for a further period of six months, failed to make the payment after notice was sent to it on September 2010.
Awash Construction S.C., which was established in 1993, instituted the lawsuit against both Wegagen Bank and Project Design Innovation Trading as the first and second defendants, respectively at the Ninth Civil Bench of the Federal High Court early last week. It claimed a little over 500,000 birr from the bank for failing to pay for the advance payment guarantee and performance bond. The plaintiff also sought nearly 300,000 birr from the second defendant for the delay which caused the value of the contract to increase by 22 percent due to the devaluation of the birr.
The defendants are expected to present their statements of defense at a hearing which will be held on October 29.
Meles Zenawi’s new, non-Tigrean, “Foreign Affairs Minister” Hailemariam Desalegn has assumed his position and one of his first major tasks is a meeting with an English football team, while the real Foreign Affairs Minister, Berhan GebreKristos, a central committee member of the Tigray People Liberation Front (Woyanne), is calling on U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and his other foreign counterparts. Individuals like Hailemariam have a conscience of a pig. That’s why they allow Meles Zenawi to use them as puppets while giving real power only to his ethnic group. For every non-Tigrean minister, there is a Tigrean official (deputy or state minister) who holds real power.
The following is a report by the Woyanne-controlled Ethiopian News Agency (ENA):
Foreign Affairs Minister Holds Talks With English Premier League
Addis Ababa (ENA) – Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Ethiopia, Hailemariam Desalegn held talks here on Monday with the Chairman of the English Premier League, David Richards.
Hailemariam said the working with the England Premier League would revive Ethiopian football.
He recalled that Ethiopia is one of the founders of African foot ball teams and has a significant contribution for the development of football in Africa.
However, he said, Ethiopia still lags behind compared to other African countries.
Richards said on his part that he was happy about everything he has seen in Ethiopia.
The prevalence of peace and security in the country in particular would have a significant contribution for the development of sport.
Ben Rawlence, author of a new Human Rights Watch report, “How Aid Underwrites Repression in Ethiopia,” accuses the World Bank of feeding repressing in Ethiopia in his latest piece posted today on HuffingtonPost.com. He writes:
Publicly, the World Bank insists that development programs are helping large numbers of people and that there are mechanisms to monitor political {www:manipulation} of donor-supported programs. But privately they openly acknowledge that they have no way of knowing if their aid is distributed manipulatively and in fact they know there is discrimination and repression but are powerless to stop it.
Read the full text below.
World Bank Feeding Repression in Ethiopia
By Ben Rawlence
The child in the man’s arms is painfully thin. The father is hungry too. He lives in southern Ethiopia, where food shortages are an annual occurrence. There are food distributions in his village but the man, let’s call him Joseph, is a member of the wrong political party.
Joseph is a well-known critic of the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and openly campaigned for the opposition in his ward in controversial 2005 elections and this year’s general elections in May.
His family has paid for his political views. His wife left him, taking the youngest children because, he says, she was tired of being hungry. Their eldest child, too old for the emergency feeding programs, remains with Joseph. The boy is 8, but looks like an undernourished 5 year old.
No one will hire Joseph because of his opposition ties. The land he’s allowed to farm has been reduced by the village chairman, a ruling party representative. And when Joseph sought to participate in a food-for-work program, he was denied. The day before he spoke to me, the chairman of his village told him: “You are suffering so many problems, why don’t you write a letter of regret and join the ruling party?”
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has made a global name for himself as a reformer committed to eradicating poverty and making strong progress toward the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. In support of this progress — though there is some dispute about the accuracy of Ethiopia’s statistics — Western donors including the World Bank, the United States, United Kingdom and European Commission give more than $3 billion to Ethiopia every year. The money goes straight to the treasuries of the federal and regional governments for spending on public services in villages and safety net food for work programs.
These programs are run by the World Bank and jointly monitored by Ethiopian and donor officials. But the programs are so huge, the sums so vast, and the access granted by the Ethiopians to independent monitors so limited, that the bank and other donors mostly trust the Ethiopian officials to spend the money as agreed.
Ethiopia’s government is one of the most highly organized on the continent. It is also one of the most repressive, with the government and the ruling party increasingly fused during the party’s 19 years in power.
When the party faced protests following the 2005 elections, the government showed its sinister side, killing over 200 protesters, detaining around 30,000 opposition supporters and bringing treason charges against leading members of the opposition and the media.
The World Bank and its donors suspended direct budget support to the government, fearing that their aid money might be misused to support only ruling party members and divide society, what they termed “political capture” of development assistance. The suspension was temporary, though. Overall, between 2004 and 2008, annual aid spending doubled, to $3.3 billion.
But what the World Bank feared in 2005 has come to pass. It is notoriously difficult to speak openly in Ethiopia. In the villages where 85 percent of the population live, every five households are organized into a cell, whose leaders report on households to the village leaders. Visitors, conversations and political affiliation are all noted and evaluated when decisions are made about allocating seeds, fertilizers, micro-credit loans or participation in the food-for-work safety net program. Village officials also provide references for students and references for jobs and promotions for teachers and civil servants.
The bottom line is that if you step out of line, you risk not just social exclusion, but total deprivation, as Joseph did.
In 2009 Human Rights Watch interviewed over 200 people from over 50 villages in three regions of the country, many with stories like Joseph’s.
Publicly, the World Bank insists that development programs are helping large numbers of people and that there are mechanisms to monitor political manipulation of donor-supported programs. But privately they openly acknowledge that they have no way of knowing if their aid is distributed manipulatively and in fact they know there is discrimination and repression but are powerless to stop it.
The ruling party, which won over 99 percent of the seats in elections in 2008 and May 2010, locks up dissidents, intimidates journalists into leaving the country and has passed repressive laws that eviscerate civil society.
Donors are in a bind. They fear that if they push Ethiopia too hard, it may turn toward China’s no-strings money. But continuing to write checks in the face of Ethiopia’s increasing authoritarianism runs counter to donors’ own policies, which state that human rights are central to sustainable development.
Bank officials in Addis Ababa were eager in interviews to discuss the Chinese model and whether it is possible to have development without freedom. But the real question for donors, and for Western taxpayers, parliamentarians and governments, is whether development reserved only for those who support one political party is the kind of development they are happy to support.
The 5th Anniversary of Ethiopian Election Massacre Remembrance task force invites patriotic Ethiopians around the world to participate in a worldwide volunteers conference that will be held on Sunday, Oct. 24, at 4:00 PM Washington DC time.
The conference will 1) update participants on the planned worldwide events, and 2) receive feedback and suggestions.
As we approach the Month of November, the Global Task Force calls on all Ethiopia Democratic forces — political, civic, human rights, media groups, and others concerned groups — in each city and locality throughout US, Europe, Africa, Oceania, and others to come and work together in remembering the martyrs of 2005 election and the thousands of Ethiopians who perished in the hands of Meles Zenawi regime while struggling for freedom, justice, and democracy to prevail in Ethiopia.
To participate in Sunday’s teleconference please register by sending email with full name and phone number to [email protected] or call 202 656 5117.
A collection of international aid agencies in Ethiopia that has named itself Development Assistance Group (DAG) has issued a statement rejecting a recent report by Human Rights Watch that points out how foreign aid is being used by the ruling junta to suppress people. DAG said:
We do not concur with the conclusions of the recent HRW report regarding widespread, systematic abuse of development aid in Ethiopia. Our study did not generate any evidence of systematic or widespread distortion…
DAG is not willing to accept all the evidences that have been compiled by international human rights groups because it is in its self interest for Ethiopia to stay poor and underdeveloped. The aid agencies in Ethiopia are perpetuating poverty by helping prolong the brutal dictatorship’s grip on power. Most of the $3 billion that is being funneled to the Meles dictatorship every year through DAG is not reaching the poor.
Let’s crunch the numbers:
DAG gives Ethiopia’s regime $3 billion per year, according to HRW, which is roughly 50 billion birr. This amount of money is enough to give 5 million children 10,000 birr each per year, which is enough to provide food, cloth, shelter and education for each child for a year.
However, the fact on the ground right now is that even in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, tens of thousands of children eat trash to survive, while DAG Ethiopia representatives dine, wine and party with officials of the Meles regime every night of the week in Addis Ababa’s most expensive restaurants and night clubs.
All the aid agencies (poverty pimps) would do the people of Ethiopia a big favor if they pack up and leave.
The following is a list of DAG members:
African Development Bank
Mr.Lamin Barrow
Resident Representative
Tel :0115-533244
Fax :0115-546355
Email : [email protected]
http://www.afdb.org/en/countries/east-africa/ethiopia/
Austria Development Cooperation
Mr. Heinz Habertheur
Head of Development Cooperation
Tel : + 251 11 553 38 28
Fax : + 251 11 553 38 31 Email: [email protected]
http://www.entwicklung.at/uploads/media/Ethiopia_Country_Strategy_2008-2012_02.pdf
AECID
Ms.Cruz Ciria
Head of Development Cooperation
Tel : 0116-185365
Fax : 0116-185357
Email : [email protected]
CIDA
Mr. Edmound Wega
Country Dirctor and Head of Development Cooperation
Tel : 0113-713022
Fax : 0113-713033
Email : [email protected]
DFID Mr. Howard Taylor Head
Tel: +251 116-180601
Fax:+251 116-610588 [email protected]
European Commission
Mr. Denis Thieulin
Head of Development Cooperation
Tel :+251 116-612511
Fax : +251116-612877
Email : [email protected]
Embassy of Belgium
Mr. Wouter Detavernier
First sec. and Head of Dev.Cooperation
Tel : +251 11 661 16 43
Fax : +251 11 661 36 46
Email : [email protected]
Embassy of Finland
Ms. Virpi Kankare
Deputy Head of Mission
Tel : +251 11 320 59 20
Fax : +251 11 320 59 23
Email : [email protected]
Embassy of France
Mr. Patrick Cohen
Head of Development Cooperation
Tel : +251 11 140 0000
Fax : +251 11 140 0050
Email : [email protected]
German Embassy-German Development Cooperation
Mr. Bernhard Trautner (Phd.)
First Counsellor/Head of Development Cooperation
Tel : +251 11 123 5139
Fax : +251 11 123 5132
Email : [email protected]
German Embassy www.addis-abeba.diplo.de
Embassy of Japan
Mr. Yoshinori Kitamura
First Secretary/ Head of Development Cooperation
Tel : +251 11 551 10 88
Fax : +251 11 551 13 50
Email : [email protected]
Embassy of Norway /NORAD
Mr. Havard Hoksnes
Head, Development Cooperation
Tel : +251 11 371 07 99
Fax : +251 11 371 12 55
Email : [email protected]
International Monetary Fund
Mr. Sukhwinder Singh
Resident Representative
Tel :+251 116-627800
Fax : +251 116-627803
Email : [email protected]
Indian Embassy
H.E. Bhagwant Bishnoi
Ambassador
Tel : +251 11 1235544/38
Fax : +251 11 1235547/48
Email : [email protected]
Irish Aid
Ms.Colleen Wainwright
Head of Development
Tel : +251 11 4 665005
Fax : +251 11 4 665020
Email : [email protected]
http://www.embassyofireland.org.et/home/index.aspx?id=71961
Italian Cooperation
Mr. Giorgio Sparaci
Head of Development Cooperation
Tel : +251 11 123 96 00/01/02
Fax : +251 11 123 96 03
Email : [email protected]
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)
Mr. Ota.Koji
Resident Representative
Tel : +251 11 550 47 55
Fax : +251 11 550 44 65
Email : [email protected]
Netherlands Embassy
Mr. Geert Geut
Head Development Cooperation
Tel : +251 11 371 11 00
Fax : +251 11 371 15 77
Email : [email protected]
SIDA
Mr. Abdi Foum
Head of Development Cooperation
Tel :+251 115-180018
Fax : +251 116-626752
Email : [email protected]
http://www.sida.se/English/Countries-and-regions/Africa/Ethiopia/Our-work-in-Ethiopia/
Turkish International Cooperation Agency (TICA)
Mr. Abdullah Sari
Programme Coordinator
Tel : +251 116-627850/51
Fax : +251 115-185357
Email : [email protected]
UN Development Programme (UNDP)
Mr. Eugene Owusu
Resident Representative
Tel : +251 11 551 10 25
Fax : +251 11 551 51 47/ +251 11 551 49 77
Email : [email protected]
USAID
Mr. Thomas H. Staal
Mission Director
Tel : +251 11 551 08 51
Fax : +251 11 551 00 43
Email : [email protected]
http://www.usaid.gov/policy/budget/cbj2010/
World Bank
Mr. Kenichi Ohashi
Country Director
Tel : +251 11 662 77 00
Fax : +251 11 662 77 17
Email : [email protected]
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTETHIOPIA/Resources/ETHIOPIA_CAS_FY08.doc
Brave Ethiopians in Seattle have dispersed a meeting called by Woyanne cadres Friday afternoon.
Woyanne Minister of Youth and Sports Aster Mamo and two other ruling party officials were scheduled to speak at public meeting.
After chasing away the Woyannes, the Ethiopian activists held a meeting to discuss plans for the upcoming 5th anniversary of Ethiopian election massacre remembrance events.
The activists have also formed a Seattle anti-Woyanne coalition that is composed of all Ethiopian groups, including Ginbot 7, UDJ, OLF, and civic groups.
