| Summary: | "The Ethiopian government has forcibly relocated to new villages some 70,000 mostly indigenous people during the first year of a three-year "villagization" program. Under the program, the Ethiopian government plans to move 200,000 people in Gambella region and 1.5 million in four other regions during the next three years. Human Rights Watch found that contrary to government claims that the transfers would improve access to infrastructure and basic services, the relocations were not voluntary, and that promised schools, hospitals, and agricultural support were not provided in the new villages. This report is based on interviews with over 100 transferred villagers, including refugees presently in Kenya. It details the inadequate consultation, the lack of compensation and intimidation, assaults and arbitrary arrests committed by state security forces against those who questioned the villagization program or refused to move. The food security situation in many new villages is dire because of disrupted harvests and insufficient food aid. Livelihoods have been disrupted, health care inadequate, and access to education and other services greatly limited. Villagization is happening in areas where the Ethiopian government is marketing and leasing land to investors for commercial agriculture. Villagers were told the reason for their displacement was because they were not farming the land productively and that commercial investors would make better use of it. Human Rights Watch calls upon the government of Ethiopia to halt ongoing human rights violations in the name of villagization and punish the perpetrators. Transfers to new villages should be voluntary, adequate compensation provided, and infrastructure should first be in place before people are relocated to these new villages. Ethiopia's foreign donors are concerned about the villagization program and have commissioned assessments of its effects but have not published their findings. The villagization program is indirectly funded in part by Western donors through the Protection of Basic Services (PBS) program. Human Rights Watch urges Western donors to ensure that no aid goes towards the villagization program"--P. [4] of cover.
|
|---|
