human rights abuses

Land grabs and forced resettlement

In 2011 the government began to lease out vast blocks of fertile land in the Lower Omo region to Malaysian, Italian, Indian and Korean companies to plant biofuels and cash crops such as oil palm, jatropha, cotton and maize. It has started to evict Bodi, Kwegu, and Mursi people from their land into resettlement areas to make way for the large state-run Kuraz Sugar Project, which could eventually cover 245,000 hectares. The Suri who live west of the Omo are being forcibly resettled to make way for the ‘Koka’ oil palm plantation.

Communities’ grain stores and their valuable cattle grazing land have been destroyed. Those who oppose the theft of their land are routinely beaten and thrown in jail. There have been numerous reports of rape and even killings of tribal people by the military, who patrol the region to guard the construction and plantation workers.

The Bodi, Mursi and Suri have been told they have to give up their herds of cattle, a vital part of their livelihood, and may only keep a few cows in the resettlements, where they will become dependent on government aid to survive.

Hundreds of kilometers of irrigation canals will follow the dam construction, diverting the life giving waters to the plantations.

No environmental or social impact assessments of the impact of the plantations and irrigation scheme have been carried out, nor have there been any consultations with indigenous people.

Despite meeting Mursi and Bodi community representatives and hearing their accounts of serious human rights abuses, the UK and USA, the two largest donors to Ethiopia, have failed to investigate these allegations.

Ways of life

The Lower Omo Valley is a spectacularly beautiful area with diverse ecosystems including grasslands, volcanic outcrops, and one of the few remaining ‘pristine’ riverine forests in semi-arid Africa which supports a wide variety of wildlife.

Excited Hamar women blowing their horns and shouting taunts to the Maza men who will whip them. Women regard the scars as a proof of devotion to their husbands.

© Ingetje Tadros/ingetjetadros.com

The Bodi (Me’en), Daasanach, Kara (or Karo), Kwegu (or Muguji), Mursi and Nyangatom live along the Omo and depend on it for their livelihood, having developed complex socio-economic and ecological practices intricately adapted to the harsh and often unpredictable conditions of the region’s semi-arid climate.

The annual flooding of the Omo River feeds the rich biodiversity of the region and guarantees the food security of the tribes especially as rainfall is low and erratic.

They depend on it to practice ‘flood retreat cultivation’ using the rich silt left along the river banks by the slowly receding waters. 


They also practice rainfed, shifting cultivation growing sorghum, maize and beans on the flood plains. Some tribes, particularly the Kwegu, hunt game and fish.

Cattle, goats and sheep are vital to most tribes’ livelihood producing blood, milk, meat and hides. Cattle are highly valued and used in payment for bride wealth.

Tribal song from the Omo Valley. Recording by Daniel Sullivan.

They are an important defence against starvation when rains and crops fail. In certain seasons families travel to temporary camps to provide new grazing for herds, surviving on milk and blood from their cattle. The Bodi sing poems to favourite cattle.

Young Hamar boys painted with white ash, Omo Valley, Ethiopia. The Gibe III dam that is being constructed will destroy their people's livelihood.

© Magda Rakita/Survival

Other peoples, such as the Hamar, Chai, or Suri and Turkana, live further from the river but a network of inter-ethnic alliances means that they too can access the flood plains, especially in times of scarcity.

Despite this co-operation there are periodic conflicts as people compete for natural resources. As the government has taken over more and more tribal land, competition for scarce resources has intensified. The introduction of firearms has made inter-ethnic fighting more dangerous.

No voice

For years the tribes of the Lower Omo Valley have suffered from the progressive loss of access to and control of their lands. Two national parks were set up in the 1960s and 1970s where they are excluded from managing the resources. Tourists can go on safari and hunt for game on tribal lands yet the tribal peoples themselves are banned from hunting. This has resulted in increased malnutrition.

A Hamar family sit outside their home, Omo Valley, Ethiopia. The Gibe III dam that is being constructed will destroy their people's livelihood.

© Magda Rakita/Survival

In the 1980s, part of their territory was turned into a state-run irrigated farm and recently the government has begun leasing out huge tracts of tribal land to foreign companies and governments so that they grow cash crops including biofuels.

The tribal peoples who have been using the land for generations to grow their own subsistence crops and to graze their livestock, have had no say in the matter.

Although the Ethiopian Constitution guarantees tribal peoples the right to ‘full consultation’ and to ‘the expression of views in the planning and implementations of environmental policies and projects that affect them directly’, in practice consultation is rarely carried out fully and appropriately.

The Lower Omo Valley peoples make all public decisions after extensive community meetings among all adults. Very few speak Amharic, the national language, and literacy levels are the lowest in the country which means they have little access to information about developments which affect them.

‘

Now the people live in fear – they are afraid of the government. Please help the pastoralists in southern Ethiopia, they are under big threat.OMO TRIBESMAN

’

A USAID official who visited the Lower Omo in January 2009 to assess the impacts of the Gibe III dam reported that the indigenous communities knew either nothing or virtually nothing about the project.

With the aim of limiting debate on controversial policies and restricting awareness of human rights, the government published a decree in February 2009 stating that any charity orNGO which receives more than 10% of its funding from foreign sources (which is virtually every charity in Ethiopia) cannot promote human and democratic rights.

In July 2009, the Southern Region’s Justice Bureau revoked the licences of 41 local ‘Community Associations’, accusing them of not co-operating with government policy. Many observers believe the revocation is really an attempt by the government to stamp out discussion of and opposition to Gibe III.

Fonte: Survival.it

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