March 28, 2011
The repressive regime of Meles Zenawi in Ethiopia has surreptitiously resorted to forced resettlement and villagization of thousands of people as it pursues its condemnable policy of leasing out land cheaply to foreign firms and countries.
In the eighties the forced resettlement and villagization of thousands of Ethiopians as part of a strategy to defeat anti government forces led to incredible misery and disruption of the lives of the people. As a result, the Mengistu regime was roundly condemned by the world at large. The Meles regime is deemed a friend of the West and thus his crimes are glossed over and his anti people policies ignored. Enjoying such a cover, it has continued with promoting the disastrous land grab drive by Indians, Chinese, and Arab so called investors in Ethiopia and allowed them to cause ecological disaster. Ethiopian fertile land is handed over cheap for many years and local people are pushed out of their land and forced to resettle elsewhere and the condemned villagization of the past is being revived. This should be condemned with no reservation.
What is going in Ethiopia is outright land confiscation. Peasants are being ousted from their land. Even in the urban cities and towns including Addis Abeba Ethiopians are being forced to cede their homes /land cheaply. In the rural areas, natural reserves and conserved forests have been given to foreign firms that have felled the trees and are engaged in farming for export. This is criminal at least and needs all round condemnation. Forced resettlement is a crime as is forced villagization that is within the policy of totalitarianism. EPRP condemns this anti people act by the Meles regime and vows to fight against the resettlement and villagization measures of the repressive Meles regime.
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