Fighting famine? The state-sponsored land grab in Ethiopia endangers the peasant's food resources!

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) sharply criticizes that the Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi will be taking part in the G-8 summit at Camp David. US President Barack Obama invited Zenawi to the meeting. "If Obama wants to talk to the Ethiopian Prime Minister about ways to fight the famine in Africa, this is like setting a fox to keep the geese," said the STP's Africa-consultant, Ulrich Delius, in Göttingen on Friday. "The state-sponsored land grab in Ethiopia is a threat to the livelihood of tens of thousands of small farmers and indigenous people. Instead of fighting the famine effectively, new dependencies are created."

It was only last Wednesday that Zenawi had announced that an area as big as the Netherlands is now available for foreign agricultural investors. "But this land is not abandoned – it is the basis of existence for more than 100,000 indigenous people in Ethiopia," Delius objected. "Zenawi's politics are neither exemplary for attempting to fight the famine, nor may they stand for good governance. It is not a good sign to Africa and the world, to pay court to such a despotic regime at a meeting of the major industrial countries."

At a conference for foreign investors in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian Prime Minister had announced that there were more than 40,000 square kilometers of "fertile and unused" land ready for large farming projects. Until now, about 3,000 square kilometers of agricultural land have been cultivated by investors. The largest investor group is the Karaturi Global Limited from India – one of the worlds biggest producers of Roses. Around 60,000 Anuak-aboriginals will have to leave their traditional areas in the Gambella region in the southwest of the country to make way for a plantation of 1,000 square kilometers. Critics accuse the government of letting out the land to foreign investors below value. Some companies only pay 90 cents a year per hectare.

"Zenawi's regime does not only support the land grab, but also silences anyone who points out the tyranny and the human rights violations," criticized Delius. For example, a verdict against the well-known blogger Eskinder Nega is expected for today. The journalist, who has won international awards for his work, may be facing death penalty. His offense: He had criticized that anti-terror laws are being abused to silence critical journalists. Officially, he is accused of supporting terrorism. This is now the sixth time that the journalist was arrested for political reasons. When a newspaper had dared to reprint his plea in court, the editor was punished with a suspended sentence of four months in prison in May 2012.