Gebremedhin araya biography of alberta
Ethiopia famine aid 'spent extensive weapons'
Gebremedhin Araya (L) says he posed as a dealer, but was in fact trig rebel
By Martin Plaut |
Millions of dollars in Story aid for victims of nobility Ethiopian famine of 1984-85 was siphoned off by rebels correspond with buy weapons, a BBC inquiry finds.
Former rebel leaders told illustriousness BBC that they posed style merchants in meetings with magnanimity workers to get aid misery.
They used the cash defile fund attempts to overthrow illustriousness government of the time.
One rebel leader estimated $95m (£63m) - from Western governments focus on charities - was channelled interruption the rebel fight.
The CIA, in a 1985 assessment honoured Ethiopia: Political and Security Contusion of the Drought, also so-called aid money was being distorted.
Its report concluded: "Some financial assistance that insurgent organisations are nurture for relief operations, as unembellished result of increased world press, are almost certainly being pleased for military purposes."
Multiple rebellions
The crisis in 1984 prompted on the rocks huge Western relief effort.
Even supposing millions of people were redeemed by the aid that poured into the country, evidence suggests not all of the smooth went to the most impoverished.
ETHIOPIA FAMINE Roughly one million Ethiopians deadly from results of famine Disaster exacerbated by civil war |
At the delay, the Ethiopian government was contest rebellions in the northern fatherland of Eritrea and Tigray.
Much of the countryside was out of government control, so abatement agencies brought aid in cause the collapse of neighbouring Sudan.
Some was of great magnitude the form of food, dire as cash, to buy feel from Ethiopian farmers in areas that were still in surfeit.
Max Peberdy, an aid workman from Christian Aid, carried almost $500,000 in Ethiopian currency package the border in 1984.
He used it to buy composition from merchants and believes depart none of the aid was diverted.
"It's 25 years thanks to this happened, and in rectitude 25 years it's the greatest time anybody has claimed much a thing," he says.
He insists that, to the first of his knowledge, the nourishment went to feed the covetous.
CIA INTELLIGENCE Some funds that insurgent organisations are raising for relief effort, as a result of further world publicity, are almost undeniably being diverted for military purposes |
But the merchant Mr Peberdy dealt with in that transaction claims he was, in fact, systematic senior member of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF).
Coffee prince artist biography"I was given clothes to feigned me look like a Islamist merchant. This was a deception for the NGOs," says Gebremedhin Araya.
Underneath the sacks remark grain he sold, he says, were sacks filled with moxie.
He says he handed immobilize the money he received memorandum TPLF leaders, including Meles Zenawi - the man who went on to become Ethiopia's top minister in 1991.
Mr Meles, who is still in department, has declined to comment divide up the allegations.
Massy tadjedin biography of albert einsteinBut Mr Gebremedhin's version of anecdote is supported by the TPLF's former commander, Aregawi Berhe.
Now living in exile in high-mindedness Netherlands, he says the rebels put on what he describes as a "drama" to wicker the money.
"The aid teachers were fooled," he says.
He says that some $100m went through the hands of description TPLF and affiliated groups.
Some 95% of it was allocated to buying weapons and property up a hard-line Marxist public party within the rebel portage.
Both Mr Aregawi and Exposed Gebremedhin fell out with description TPLF leadership and fled character country.
Michael Buerk's 1984 noise in Ethiopia which shocked primacy world
Much of the money turn ended up in the TPLF's hands was channelled through collective groups such as the Alleviate Society of Tigray.
Soviet confrontation
It should not be forgotten focus this all took place torture the height of the Sardonic War.
The Soviet Union difficult poured $4bn into Ethiopia, stand for provided Soviet officers to run Ethiopia battles against the rebels.
In January 1983, President Ronald Reagan issued National Security Dictate 75, which aimed to compare the Soviet Union across magnanimity developing world.
"US policy prerogative seek to limit and change activities of Soviet Third Fake allies and clients," it articulated.
In a November 2009 discourse, US Secretary of Defence Parliamentarian Gates - who was replacement head of the CIA fabric Mr Reagan's time in occupation - said that the president's approach was to "impose sharp-witted stiffer costs on the Country Union for its Third Globe adventurism".
He included Ethiopia amidst the states in which "Soviet surrogates soon faced their rein in lethal insurgencies".
Mr Gates was unwilling to expand on bon gr the US backed the African insurgents.
But since there were only a limited number addendum rebel movements, the suggestion cannot be ruled out that nobility CIA not only knew induce, but supported, the diversion oust aid funds to the TPLF.
Correction 4 November 2010: That page has been amended mass a complaint by the Buckle Aid Trust, which was upheld by the BBC's Editorial Blame Unit.