British aid failing to get through to those most in need. British aid to Ethiopia is being denied to people in need, according to a Human Rights Watch report that accuses the Department for International Development (DfID) of failing to safeguard its £7.8 billion budget. by Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent. Source:telegraph Britain provides more than half of all international contributions to Ethiopia's £2 billion a year national work-for-food scheme Photo: REUTERS Meles Zenawi, the country’s prime minister, had used a DfID-backed scheme to reward loyalty to his regime and punish dissidents who refused to support his government, the report said. Voters who backed the opposition were being denied food aid, fertilisers, loans and health care by officials who demanded support for the ruling party. Britain provides more than half of all international contributions to Ethiopia’s £2 billion-a-year work-for-food scheme that is supposed to provide seven million people with enough food to survive. Human Rights Watch talked to scores of people who said they had been banned from the scheme because of their political views. “They want your life to be unbearable until you join the ruling party,” said one Ethiopian denied access to the aid fund. Poor countries must prove what British aid is spent on, say ConservativesHuman Rights Watch said that DfID was foremost among international organisations that had turned a blind eye to abuse of the aid schemes. Other aid agencies said British officials were uniquely powerful in Addis Ababa but were blocking demands for reform. “We all have problems with DfID,” said a European aid official. “We are at the opposite end of the scale on many issues.” A DfID spokesman said the allegations had been investigated but no evidence had been found. “We have found nothing that suggests systemic abuse of this nature. We don’t think there is widespread misuse of aid,” she said. The Coalition has faced criticism from Tory back-benchers after it increased overseas aid by 37 per cent to £11 billion by 2011 while the rest of Whitehall faced budget cuts in the spending review. Andrew Mitchell, the Development Secretary, has ordered the establishment of an independent watchdog to evaluate aid spending in an effort to defuse criticism of the increased expenditure. Whitehall’s links to Mr Meles have long been controversial. He was returned to power in a widely criticised general election in May when his party took 545 seats in the 547-member parliament. Ethiopia received £165.5 million from Britain in direct help this year, the second largest grant behind India. Mr Meles was courted by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown as an exemplary African leader, despite his anti-democratic credentials. The former guerrilla, who has led Ethiopia since 1991, was chairman of Tony Blair’s Commission for Africa. Ben Rawlence, the researcher who wrote the report, said the regime undermined the effectiveness of the aid spent in Ethiopia. He said: “Aid spending has got to be transparent. You can’t go dropping large amounts of money into the treasury of authoritarian states because you can’t have development without freedom.” The Ethiopian government yesterday attacked Human Rights Watch, accusing it of waging a campaign against its reputation. “The allegations made by Human Rights Watch simply do not reflect reality,” it said. “Indeed this would appear to be an attempt by Human Rights Watch to blackmail the international community as part of its ongoing vendetta against the government of Ethiopia.” Source-http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/ethiopia/8078743/British-aid-f ailing-to-get-through-to-those-most-in-need.html

Over 105 pages Human Rights Watch report HRW Report

Ethiopia: Donor Aid Supports Repression Contributors Should Review Development Programs, Monitor Use of Funds October 19, 2010 The Ethiopian government is routinely using access to aid as a weapon to control people and crush dissent. If you don’t play the ruling party’s game, you get shut out. Yet foreign donors are rewarding this behavior with ever-larger sums of development aid. Rona Peligal, Africa director at Human Rights Watch .(London) - The Ethiopian government is using development aid to suppress political dissent by conditioning access to essential government programs on support for the ruling party, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Human Rights Watch urged foreign donors to ensure that their aid is used in an accountable and transparent manner and does not support political repression. The 105-page report, "Development without Freedom: How Aid Underwrites Repression in Ethiopia," documents the ways in which the Ethiopian government uses donor-supported resources and aid as a tool to consolidate the power of the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). "The Ethiopian government is routinely using access to aid as a weapon to control people and crush dissent," said Rona Peligal, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "If you don't play the ruling party's game, you get shut out. Yet foreign donors are rewarding this behavior with ever-larger sums of development aid." Ethiopia is one of the world's largest recipients of development aid, more than US$3 billion in 2008 alone. The World Bank and donor nations provide direct support to district governments in Ethiopia for basic services such as health, education, agriculture, and water, and support a "food-for-work" program for some of the country's poorest people. The European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany are the largest bilateral donors. Local officials routinely deny government support to opposition supporters and civil society activists, including rural residents in desperate need of food aid. Foreign aid-funded "capacity-building" programs to improve skills that would aid the country's development are used by the government to indoctrinate school children in party ideology, intimidate teachers, and purge the civil service of people with independent political views. Political repression was particularly pronounced during the period leading up to parliamentary elections in May 2010, in which the ruling party won 99.6 percent of the seats. Despite government restrictions that make independent research difficult, Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 200 people in 53 villages across three regions of the country during a six-month investigation in 2009. The problems Human Rights Watch found were widespread: residents reported discrimination in many locations. Farmers described being denied access to agricultural assistance, micro-loans, seeds, and fertilizers because they did not support the ruling party. As one farmer in Amhara region told Human Rights Watch, "[Village] leaders have publicly declared that they will single out opposition members, and those identified as such will be denied ‘privileges.' By that they mean that access to fertilizers, ‘safety net' and even emergency aid will be denied." Rural villagers reported that many families of opposition members were barred from participation in the food-for-work or "safety net" program, which supports 7 million of Ethiopia's most vulnerable citizens. Scores of opposition members who were denied services by local officials throughout the country reported the same response from ruling party and government officials when they complained: "Ask your own party for help." Human Rights Watch also documented how high school students, teachers, and civil servants were forced to attend indoctrination sessions on ruling party ideology as part of the capacity-building program funded by foreign governments. Attendees at training sessions reported that they were intimidated and threatened if they did not join the ruling party. Superiors told teachers that ruling party membership was a condition for promotion and training opportunities. Education, especially schools and teacher training, is also heavily supported by donor funds. "By dominating government at all levels, the ruling party controls all the aid programs," Peligal said. "Without effective, independent monitoring, international aid will continue to be abused to consolidate a repressive single-party state." In 2005, the World Bank and other donors suspended direct budget support to the Ethiopian government following a post-election crackdown on demonstrators that left 200 people dead, 30,000 detained, and dozens of opposition leaders in jail. At the time, donors expressed fears of "political capture" of donor funds by the ruling party. Yet aid was soon resumed under a new program, "Protection of Basic Services," that channeled money directly to district governments. These district governments, like the federal administration, are under ruling party control, yet are harder to monitor and more directly involved in day-to-day repression of the population. During this period the Ethiopian government has steadily closed political space, harassed independent journalists and civil society activists into silence or exile, and violated the rights to freedom of association and expression. A new law on civil society activity, passed in 2009, bars nongovernmental organizations from working on issues related to human rights, good governance, and conflict resolution if they receive more than 10 percent of their funding from foreign sources. "The few independent organizations that monitored human rights have been eviscerated by government harassment and a pernicious new civil society law," Peligal said. "But these groups are badly needed to ensure aid is not misused." As Ethiopia's human rights situation has worsened, donors have ramped up assistance. Between 2004 and 2008, international development aid to Ethiopia doubled. According to Ethiopian government data, the country is making strong progress on reducing poverty, and donors are pleased to support Ethiopia's progress toward the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. Yet the price of that progress has been high. When Human Rights Watch presented its findings to donor officials, many privately acknowledged the worsening human rights situation and the ruling party's growing authoritarian rule. Donor officials from a dozen Western government agencies told Human Rights Watch that they were aware of allegations that donor-supported programs were being used for political repression, but they had no way of knowing the extent of such abuse. In Ethiopia, most monitoring of donor programs is a joint effort alongside Ethiopian government officials. Yet few donors have been willing to raise their concerns publicly over the possible misuse of their taxpayers' funds. In a desk study and an official response to Human Rights Watch, the donor consortium Development Assistance Group stated that their monitoring mechanisms showed that their programs were working well and that aid was not being "distorted." But no donors have carried out credible, independent investigations into the problem. Human Rights Watch called on donor country legislatures and audit institutions to examine development aid to Ethiopia to ensure that it is not supporting political repression. "In their eagerness to show progress in Ethiopia, aid officials are shutting their eyes to the repression lurking behind the official statistics," Peligal said. "Donors who finance the Ethiopian state need to wake up to the fact that some of their aid is contributing to human rights abuses." Background Led by the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), the ruling party is a coalition of ethnic-based groups that came to power in 1991 after ousting the military government of Mengistu Haile Mariam. The government passed a new constitution in 1994 that incorporated fundamental human rights standards, but in practice many of these freedoms have been increasingly restricted during its 19 years in power. Although the ruling party introduced multiparty elections soon after it came to power in 1991, opposition political parties have faced serious obstruction to their efforts to establish offices, organize, and campaign in national and local elections. Eight-five percent of Ethiopia's population live in rural areas and, each year, 10 to 20 percent rely on international food relief to survive. Foreign development assistance to Ethiopia has steadily increased since the 1990s, with a temporary plateau during the two-year border war with Eritrea (1998-2000). Ethiopia is now the largest recipient of World Bank funds and foreign aid in Africa. In 2008, total aid was US$3.3 billion. Of that, the United States contributes around $800 million, much of it in humanitarian and food aid; the European Union contributes $400 million; and the United Kingdom provides $300 million. Ethiopia is widely considered to be making good progress toward some of the UN Millennium Development Goals on reducing poverty, but much of the data originates with the government and is not independently verified. Source:http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/10/18/ethiopia-donor-aid-supports-repression

An Ugly Exploration by Jonathan Ewing Addis Ababa, Ethiopia—After the battle he was given the ugly task of counting the bodies and separating them—Ethiopian from Chinese. This wasn’t an easy job. Each time he finished the tally, he’d forget the number and have to start again. This happened to Omar Muktar four times. He was shocked by what he had just seen and participated in. He counted the body of a Chinese oil worker who lay partially covered by a cardboard box. Next, there was the body of a uniformed teenager, one of the Ethiopian guards assigned to protect the Chinese. A group of five bodies lay across a wooden set of stairs near the barracks, where staff from China’s Zhoungyan Petroleum Exploration Bureau [ZPEB] lived, just outside the town of Abole, in Ethiopia’s ****** desert. These are Muktar’s recollections. On April 24, 2007, he along with several hundred separatist rebels from the ****** National Liberation Front [ONLF] attacked the Chinese-run oil installation near Abole. They entered the barracks in time to see the Chinese flee. Those who were too slow tried to hide under beds or in closets before they were shot at close range. Sometimes they were shot in the head, Muktar said, which made it very difficult to identify them later. Survivors were marched outside, lined up and executed by the ONLF. The separatists rebels had warned the foreign oil companies, including ZPEB, against working with a government that was waging war against them. For the ONLF, any oil money to be made would almost certainly go toward buying more of the weapons and ammunition used to suppress them. The government in Addis Ababa was humiliated by the ONLF attack, which underscored its inability to provide security to international businesses operating in remote parts of the country. Worse still, the attack occurred just as Ethiopia was beginning to attract foreign investment. The oil companies were shaken, and demanded meetings with top officials and security guarantees. The government complied. Within weeks, the military launched a counter-insurgency campaign, which continues today, and is characterized by the destruction of towns and villages, beatings, executions and the forced resettlement of thousands. Ethiopia’s ****** is home to a Somali-speaking people—an ethnic extension of the lawless nation to the east—and a profound sense of marginalization exists among them. Their homeland is one of the poorest and most underdeveloped regions of Ethiopia. But while many accuse Ethiopia’s Christian-led government of persecuting the ******i because they are Muslim, the real reason likely has more to with the oil and natural gas that may lie beneath their ancestral land. Ethiopia remains one of America’s most important allies in the Horn of Africa, receiving more than $1 billion in aid from Washington in 2008 alone. But Ethiopia is quickly becoming a public relations nightmare for the United States. Since 2008, as many as 40 villages have reportedly been destroyed, and many of the people have been displaced. The inhabitants were then ordered to move to larger towns nearby, but many refused, instead becoming refugees in neighboring Kenya and Somaliland—an island of stability since it broke-away from Somalia in 1991. The UN High Commission for Refugees reported that an average of nearly 500 Ethiopian ******is arrived in Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camps each month throughout 2009. Tens of thousands of Ethiopians now live there, along the remote Somali border in northeastern Kenya. Those with some money, means or connections might live in the nearby towns of Garissa or Wajir, or the Eastleigh section of Nairobi—where I met Muktar. Harassments We were first introduced at the New Hid-dig Palace, a small hotel on a dead-end street in Eastleigh, a Nairobi neighborhood run by ethnic-Somalis, who are the majority in this section of Kenya’s capital city. Refugees, many living here illegally, feel comfortable and reasonably secure meeting in the New Hiddig—away from police who beat them or Ethiopian intelligence officials, who also cause trouble. Muktar told me that his village was first harassed by the military in the summer of 2006 when the Chinese arrived in Abole. Most of the locals employed by the Chinese were Christians, either Amhara or Tigray, the politically dominant ethnic groups in Ethiopia. His village elders began complaining to local authorities that ******is were not being hired. They were told that the decision was the federal government’s, completely out of the hands of local or regional authorities. At night they heard music from the workers’ camp and saw them mingling with soldiers, barbequing meat behind the barbed wire fences, which separated the oil field workers’ camp from the villagers. This pattern continued for several weeks, with workers leaving their camp early each morning and returning at dusk, when they would enjoy a life that was closed-off to the ******is. Then the Chinese cleared the nearby villages for road construction and seismic testing. “We were ordered by the military to abandon our house, and this was without being paid anything in compensation. Within days, Chinese bulldozers, backed by Ethiopian army tanks, began clearing our village,” Muktar recalled. Houses and nearby farms were torched, and bulldozers were called in to level the ground. The Chinese bulldozers had been busy: in previous months they had done the same in other villages throughout the region. The ONLF—which is believed to have connections with Hizbul Islam, one of two main Islamist insurgent groups in neighboring Somalia—saw in the destruction an opportunity, and began recruiting young men throughout the region by appealing to their sense of injustice at being colonized by “highlanders” (the Amhara and Tigray ethnic groups from the north) and the Chinese. For months, Muktar said, “we listened to them. But we never believed them until our village was cleared. Then I joined the rebels, and we killed the Chinese and the Christian highlanders too.” But after the battle, after the ugly task of counting the bodies and separating them, Muktar said he was disgusted and felt trapped by the rebel and government brutality. With help from his family and money borrowed and saved, he crossed into Kenya illegally and over the course of months, drifted slowly south until he reached Nairobi. Next, the conflict between the ****** National Liberation Front and the Ethiopian military intensifies. Jonathan Ewing is a Stockholm-based investigative reporter who traveled to East Africa on a grant from the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute, researching the relationship between the government of Ethiopia, the separatist rebels, the petroleum industry and the global interests they represent. Picture via Flickr by carsten_tb. Source: http://www.worldpolicy.org/blog/2010/10/18/ugly-exploration

Ethiopia using Canadian aid as a political weapon, rights group says GEOFFREY YORK Johannesburg— From Wednesday's Globe and Mail The Canadian government says it is “deeply concerned” by a report that its foreign aid to Ethiopia is being used as a weapon to crush political dissent and bolster the power of the ruling party. The federal government, which provided more than $150-million to Ethiopia in 2008, is calling for a full investigation into the allegations that Ethiopia’s ruling party is routinely using aid money to reward supporters and punish those who fail to support it. “Canada, together with other donor countries, continues to encourage the authorities in Ethiopia to investigate these allegations thoroughly and to take corrective action if required,” Scott Cantin, a spokesman for Canada’s aid agency, the Canadian International Development Agency, said in a statement. Ethiopia is one of the world’s largest recipients of foreign aid, benefiting to the tune of more than $3-billion in 2008 alone. The country is considered a strategic ally for the United States, providing stability in the troubled Horn of Africa where the war in Somalia has spilled across borders and fuelled terrorist attacks. Canada was the fourth-biggest donor to Ethiopia in 2008, providing about $153-million (U.S.) in aid, nearly three times the amount it gave in 2004. Human Rights Watch, an independent monitoring group, reported on Tuesday that the Ethiopian government has withheld aid from those who desperately need it, even starving families, if they refuse to support the ruling party. The report, based on a six-month investigation in 53 villages, concluded that Ethiopia is abusing its foreign-aid funds to consolidate the rule of a repressive one-party state. Farmers who fail to support the ruling party are denied access to the fertilizers, seeds, loans and other agricultural aid that is funded by foreign donors, the report says. In some districts, farmers cannot get assistance unless they provide receipts to prove that they paid membership dues to the ruling party, the report states. In other cases, aid goes to supporters of the ruling party who are not poor and should not qualify for it. “The Ethiopian government is routinely using access to aid as a weapon to control people and crush dissent,” said Rona Peligal, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “If you don’t play the ruling party’s game, you get shut out. Yet foreign donors are rewarding this behaviour with ever-larger sums of development aid.” Canada is one of the biggest donors supporting a $398-million “capacity-building” program for Ethiopian public servants. But the government is using this program, and similar foreign-funded programs, to intimidate teachers, purge the civil service of anyone with an independent political view and indoctrinate school children in the ideology of the ruling party, Human Rights Watch says. Responding to questions on Tuesday, Mr. Cantin said Canada’s aid to Ethiopia can be suspended if the authorities fail to meet the conditions that are attached to the aid, including a pledge that the aid must reach the targeted beneficiaries. Surveys by CIDA suggest that its aid is reaching those who need help, he said. “CIDA takes allegations of aid politicization seriously,” he said, “and together with the international community, will participate in efforts to strengthen safeguards where necessary.”

The international watchdog Human Rights Watch published a report this week that is an embarrassing look at the way billions of dollars in well-intentioned international aid to Ethiopia is too often being used by the government there as "political weapons to control the population, punish dissent and undermine political opponents." The report, entitled Development Without Freedom: How Aid Underwrites Repression in Ethiopia, is a damning investigation into the politicization of international aid money in an African country that has struggled with war and hunger over the past generation and which has, in many respects, made considerable progress moving away from those catastrophes. As Bob Geldof, the Irish rock star and champion of Ethiopia pointed out recently in an editorial in the Globe and Mail, Ethiopia now has a rapidly growing economy, many more children in schools, a dramatic decline in malaria deaths, and progress in combating HIV/AIDS. But even so, Ethiopia is still among the world's poorest countries, and the second largest recipient of international aid. It receives a total of about $3 billion US every year from various donors including the World Bank, the United States, the European Commission, the U.K., Germany, Netherlands, Canada and Japan. Canada is Ethiopia's fourth largest donor, giving more than $152 million US in 2008, which was way up from the $59.58 million it gave in 2004. What is happening to this aid money? It is reaching Ethiopians, particularly the 10 to 20 per cent of the 85 million who still rely on food aid to survive. But Human Rights Watch accuses the current government of Ethiopia, the coalition Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) led by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, of controlling the delivery of that aid to benefit its supporters and punish its opponents. People push a cart packed with bags of maize in southern Ethiopia. (Jose Cendon/IFRC/Reuters) Zenawi's regime, it is generally recognized, has become over the years a repressive state that silences any critics and opposition. Human Rights Watch argues that this is having an impact on international aid. If you are part of the opposition, you are denied assistance. The prime minister denies this policy, but Human Rights Watch researchers say they interviewed a wide range of people, including civil servants, who back up their allegations. International donors are aware of the problem, but either downplay the scale of the problem or turn a blind eye for complex political reasons, says Human Rights Watch. CBC producer Jennifer Clibbon interviewed Leslie Lefkow, senior researcher and Horn of Africa team leader at Human Rights Watch. She was one of the researchers of the report along with Ben Rawlence, the author, and a researcher in the Africa division. CBC News: There have been other reports about the misuse of aid to Ethiopia in the past. How is this report different? What is its significance? Leslie Lefkow: Previous reports dealt with the allegation that the TPLF (the Tigray People's Liberation Front) diverted aid in the 1980s to buy weapons, during the war against the Mengistu regime. At that time the TPLF was a rebel group operating from northern Ethiopia and it worked with aid agencies to deliver food and humanitarian aid to civilians. [Mengistu Haile Mariam's brutal military junta ruled Ethiopia from 1974 to 1991. Mengistu was overthrown in a civil war by the current Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, leader of the Marxist guerilla group, TPLF]. This report is different because our research looks at the ways in which the current Ethiopian government is using large-scale development aid programs to silence political opposition and dissent, often in subtle ways that aren't obvious to observers. Both the aim and the method of manipulation are different. This research is important because it's the first time that there's independent research that shows a pattern of government abuse of aid — that aid isn't just a neutral factor, it's contributing directly to repression. CBC News: Could you summarize the main allegations in this report? Lefkow: Our findings show how the Ethiopian state apparatus is used at village level to punish people viewed as critics and opposition by denying them access to seeds, tools, fertilizers, jobs — all the resources people need for their livelihoods. More than 80 per cent of Ethiopians are rural farmers, and it's village leaders and councils who control the lists of who should receive these resources. Those village leaders are almost universally members of the ruling party; this is a fact which was cemented in the last two elections in 2008 and 2010, when the ruling party won more than 99 per cent of the seats. The report also shows how the ruling party is totally intertwined with the government — there are no independent institutions or checks and balances. Even non-governmental organizations have been decimated by a new law that bars them from doing work on human rights, and there are almost no independent media left, so there's hardly anyone even to question what is happening. CBC News: What is the evidence? How many interviews did you conduct and with what range of interviewees? Lefkow: Human Rights Watch spent more than six months conducting the research for this report. We interviewed more than 200 people across a wide geographic and ethnic spectrum, in several states, over the course of several different trips to Ethiopia. The geographic range shows that the abuses aren't localized, they're not just the product of a few rogue officials. This was very challenging research because it's incredibly difficult to interview people in rural Ethiopia. The government's surveillance apparatus is extensive. It reaches into almost every household, so there's a deep climate of fear. Even if one person has been punished in a rural village — by losing access to a food-for-work program, for instance — that's enough to send a message to the whole community. The report is not a comprehensive survey, that still needs to be done. But it shows that there is a serious problem that can't be swept under the carpet. CBC News: Could you summarize your recommendations to the donor countries and agencies? Lefkow: Ethiopia is widely viewed as a success story for economic development and this report shows a much more sinister side of how development aid is being used in the country. Donors currently give more than $3 billion a year to Ethiopia. Some of these programs are flagship programs, and many of them have good goals and do provide much-needed aid to people. The problem is that although many donor officials privately admit that Ethiopia is becoming more repressive and authoritarian, we're not seeing that recognition reflected in the way donors are engaging with the government. We're not seeing human rights even raised as a concern by all donors, much less any lucid questioning of how their programs are contributing to repression. Human Rights Watch is not calling for all aid to be suspended. We are calling for certain programs that purportedly support "democratization" to be suspended. For example, there's a multimillion-dollar program, the so-called Democratic Institutions Program, that is supposed to promote good governance and build the capacity of government institutions. We think these programs should be cut immediately, because they are only contributing to a repressive single-party state. But other programs that support health, for instance, these are programs that should be reviewed and independently investigated, and the monitoring should be done much more strictly, but not cut. CBC News: Describe the reaction to your report by the World Bank and donor countries. Donors currently give more than $3 billion a year to Ethiopia. >(Jose Cendon/IFRC/Reuters). Lefkow: We sent a letter of our findings to the World Bank and donors months ago, and met with many of the agency officials in person. The reaction was mixed. On the one hand, some donors did acknowledge the issues we were raising and the broader political environment. Some acknowledged that their monitoring wouldn't even capture the kind of discrimination we were concerned about. But there's a tendency to wring their hands and to complain that it's so difficult to deal with Ethiopia, and then do nothing. I think a lot of donor agencies have yet to recognize that "business as usual" isn't good enough. We have been raising concerns about the growing repression in Ethiopia for several years now, yet donor aid is rising all the time, it has doubled since 2004 despite donor concerns at that time about the "political capture" of donor funds. We all saw that the May 2010 elections were a perfect illustration of just how problematic the environment has become. It's time for donors to review their policies. CBC News: Some have said that western donor countries have less leverage in Ethiopia that one might expect because of the presence of China as an alternative source of aid money. What do you think of this argument? Lefkow: This is a threat that the Ethiopian government likes to dangle at donors, but I don't think China is going to replace the funds that are given by the Western donors. Much of Chinese aid goes into infrastructure and other kinds of projects. It's not the kind of budget support that Western donors are giving, even if that budget support is going to regional governments rather than the central government. CBC News: Can you explain how Ethiopia is of strategic importance to the West, and how does this perhaps inhibit criticism of suppression of dissent and indirectly lead to the misuse of aid money? A woman sits on sacks of food in southern Ethiopia. Canada is Ethiopia's fourth largest donor, giving more than $152 million US in 2008. (Jose Cendon/IFRC/Reuters) Lefkow: Donors are very concerned about Sudan, about Somalia, and about the burgeoning terrorism threat in the region, and Ethiopia is considered an important strategic and security ally. Ethiopia is also considered "stable," so of course these other interests play into the donor dynamics. Development agencies have also invested hundreds of millions in Ethiopia, so there may not be much interest in rocking the boat. All of these interests contribute to a pervasive timidity on the part of donors when it comes to criticizing Ethiopia. And Ethiopia has been very clever at scapegoating some of the smaller countries that have been critical. For example, some of the Scandinavian countries have had their diplomats expelled when they've tried to raise human rights issues. The donors need to unite around a common set of benchmarks — changing the status quo will require some strategic and bold leadership on the part of some of the larger donors — like the United Kingdom and the United States. CBC News: There is a concern that negative reporting about aid to Africa fuels the anti-aid camp, those who argue that aid is easily corrupted and often futile. What are your thoughts on this? Lefkow: I don't agree that all aid should be cut, and that's certainly not what we're calling for in this report. I think it's possible to give aid in appropriate ways, with good monitoring and a lucid political understanding. But donors need to set out their red lines for what is unacceptable. Right now they have already crossed too many. For instance, the new law regulating NGOS, this law essentially bans work on human rights and good governance — that should have been a red line.

^Oo adeer SL ma reer awoowgey uunbaad leedahay hada sawkay lahaayeen qoys maahe waa qaran?

Where did i say qabiil here ??? ,, cajiib Waaka meeshaad qabiilka kusheegtey quote: waanu idinka nasiib badanahay uun Af Soomaaliga miyaa kugu yar ninyahow. Waanu idinka nasiib badanahay bal waxaad ka wado sharax ha lawada maqle e? Idinkoo aya ah?

My Comment-Do you do see qabiil or region in this: JB ilaahayow adiga iyo inta kula midka ah JB's commnet: Waxaa iyo wax ka daranba horaanu u soo aragnay adeer ee waanu idinka nasiib badanahay uun .... maantaba waanagaa cagahayaga ku taagan Where did I mention idink or does JB stands for SL? Do you see qabiil in everything?

^Just in Minneapolis, I can count over 50 people that I personally know who their relatives are in jailed for no reason. My brother is in jail for the 8th month now.My roommate's brother is in jail more than a year. Dadka sida JB aan waxba ogeyn may iska aamusaan oy SL duushayda uun ku ekaadaan maxay falaadha noogu gilgilayaan waa yaabe? Maxay ka helaan iney been faafiyaan dad soomaali ah oo lagu tumanayo xaqooda u duudsinayaan? JB ilaahayow adiga iyo inta kula midka ah dadkaas waxa lagu saliday oo kale ama ka daran haydinku salido. aamaiin

^Stoic, do not let that bother you because I do not think I stand a chance in Garissa either.hopefully, a day will come where one will be chosen not because of his tribe but rather for what he or she can do for the people and for the public at large. Haatu, adeer waa sida lasheegey e nin **** ah umma falaad ekid! If anything, Af-gaab iyo Ijara mid waan kaa aqbalaynaa.Kuwaasaad u talaaba egtahay [ October 18, 2010, 02:49 AM: Message edited by: Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar ]

Aniguna waa inaan habaasweyne ka istaagaa next elextion 2016. **** meela looma ogola miyaa? War meesha aad umakala aqaane e yaa igu qabsandoona? [ October 18, 2010, 02:32 AM: Message edited by: Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar ]

This is the leadership of ONLF and we don't see none of them: Political Wing: Admrl Osman Dr. Maxamed Ismaaciil Mr. Cadaani Hiirmooge A/rahman Sh. Mahdi (maadey) General Mukhtaar Mr. Dhiirane Mr. Xaamud Rayaale Military Wing-only top 3: Sh. Deeq A/Kariim Sulub passingWoyane, show SOLers anyone of these men in these pictures

Non of these so-called ONLF leaders were ever being part of ONLF except Maow who was expelled in 2004 for corruptions and mis-using the Org's assets. We shall see where this will end and how much of a peace it will bring. Please listen to Dr. Ducaale on this factious peace deal Dr. Ducaale You will be prompted with a broken link. Please type Ocaden properly spelled of course

^Yaa Aba-Salmaan, how are you calling Arabsiyo and hargeysa? Or do you have some local (as US/Canadian) numbers for these places then just dial them as US local numbers? Any1 knows similar ways to make free calls to the Eropeans countries either using google or anything else? Please share! Thanks

Thanks to the Walendos To your benefits and you are still calling us walendos? Adeer xaal iyo xumaynbaa kugu waajibay!

Markey gaarto Ilaahayo Isreal halaag, Maraykanka halaag blah, blah, I quitely pray for forgiveness and mercy Rasoolulaah prayed for their distractions. Lets you were praying behind the Rasoolulaah and he prayed for their destraction, would you say Allahuma Aaamiin or you would say "what is the point and not answer his prayer"? Al-fatiha-Ayah 7: The way of those who have accepted your loving blessings and (1) notthe way of those who have anger over them -Jews (2) nor of those who have gone astray -Christians

^^I agree waa intii u waalneed but there is a reason as to why. See, the only Ethiopians we came contact were the soldiers. Of course, knowing that we see them as occupiers and dislike them, they curse us and that's how I came to know these filthy words! That was then, Mengistu's days but even now, not many people speak Ahmaric. I really like this proudness and defiant behavior of Somalis in ******. I am not agaisnt learning any language but not learning their language and culture kept us Somalis thus far. If we would have learnt their language and culture, we would have intermarried them, assimilated and lost our somaliness long time ago. When I went to Addis in 2006, I really did not like what I have seen, somalis from somalia maryying them and loosing their culture, and acting more Ethiopians than Somalis. It was disappointing! mins 1:12> Waa hal jaan qabiilkuye intuu haysto faraqeena Reer hebel miyaad tahay intaa lugu hadaaqaayo Kolba meesha hooska intey labo ka haasaawi

^adaaaba intaas yaqaana sxb. Anigu intan baa ka bartey askartii Mengiste. I know they all offensive words but this is all I know anigow waliba Jarar ku dhashey kuna caqliyeystey taasina waxay marag utahay inaynaan Ethiopian ahayn waligeedna noqoneyn! -Inaati Libdhaa -Ximsi qulaa dafaa -Wishaashaa -Handharaa -Leebaa -Soomaali shirdhaanow iyo -Min cayntisawiyaa

Meles way ka dhaamatey! Sheekadiisu waa nin gowracan geedo kama waabto. Ma arkeysay markuu reerka ku mashquulsanaa xoqashuu ku waashey ilaa ood ka baqdo inuu bidaarta iska mudhxiyo....waa nin been sheegi caadadiis inuu xoq xoqdo. Hadii laangaabkii Meles jiif iyo joog saas ugu diidey maxaad umaleyn markuu laandheeruhu soo galo? War ninka yaa saas ukala barey reerka, tolow ma Ibraahim dheeraa mise waa Shakuul mise waa Iley? Midkuu rabo ha ahaade e koley ninkanu waa nin Zubeyr c***r ah uun waayo cagdheertii kale iyo adeerkoodtoona waxba uma ogola!

If you just want to learn arabic then these said methods are just fine but if you want to understand the deen better by learning arabic first, then start with learning Nahw & Sarf. Without these, you might learn spoken arabic but it might not help you learn the deen much for even the arabic speaking people start with Nahw and Sarf. I took this note from Abu Taubah the other day Shortest Route to Taalibul Ilm Albukhaaris caqiidah Mesmorize Quran (Fiqh) – A small classical work from one of the madh-habs Study Carabic: Abu al shujaacwajeez -letter by letter -Teaching Reading -Master letters -Imlaa or rasmi –dictation -Inshaa-u -Sarf -aajurimiyah -poetry -Mu calaqaadtul Sab-i -Balaaghan While doing this, listen to tafseer and Islamic Seerah

^I think (JB) inuu yaqaan waayo labadiisa jaariyadood midna waa qoti midna waa uraago inskastoo dhina mida uraagada ah uyara janjeedho

^At least shabab don't live in Amison Tank like your leader. If he ever gets off the Tank, then he runs off to his masters in Addis.

Let Amison get hell out of our country. They came to Somalis and impossing themselves and you are affording them some excuses to massacre, maim, kill, rape. Let them stop killing us and we won't bother them. Otherwise, they should expect the same, nothing less!

Good move by the president this will only strengthen his position and weaken his opponents (namely Al Shabaab). To hell with this incompetent and imbecil Shariif and his TFG entity. At least Shabab can fight like real men while this stooge runs to his master Zenawi for protection. Ninkani waa damiirlaawe diintiis iyo dadkiisiiba duunyo iyo magac ku doorsadey