ETHIOPIA DENIES FORCED RESETTLEMENT REPORTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504160023-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 9, 2012
• Sequence Number: 23
• Publication Date: March 17, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/09 :CIA-RDP90-009658000504160023-4
~~'~'E.~',~,~?~ ? NEW YORK i IMSS
~ p~_~-- 17 March , 1985
Ethiopia denies Forced Resettlement Reports '
_ case in the city of,Adigrat in.Tigre re-
By CLIFFORD D. MAY gion early this month, shot to death
sp.a.~ oo're. tNw xat irm.. 'four people who refused to board a
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, March 16 I truck bound for a resettlement camp.
- A senior Ethi fan Government otfi- ~~ In other instances, the relief officials
ci .sa its about forced resettle- ;say, families have been separated and
went o amore vrctrms are either mis- ? seriously ill refugees; as well as preg-
un a +*+~s or a work of the Cen- ', nant and nursing women, have been
tral Intelligence Agency and other. for- 'forced to board resettlement trucks.
eign agents _ o_ a says ve ^~en- ; One of the chief rebel groups is the
ti y sarea ro a anda." ,the Tigre People's Liberation Front,
Representatives o at least 've non- which is seeking greater autonomy for
Government relief agencies working in .the Tigre region and the overthrow of
Ethiopia have told Kurt Jans9on, the Lieut. Col. Mengistu Haile Mariam's
United Nations Assistant Seeretary p?'o-Soviet Government. The rebel
General who is in charge of emergency group is allied with the .Eritrean Peo-
operations here, of instances in which ple's Liberation Front,'which has been
they say they or members of their _fighting for the independence of Eri-
staffs have watched famine victims
being recruited by coercive measures
for the resettlement program.
Under that plan up to 1.5 million peo-
ple are to be moved this year from
northern areas afflicted by drought,
famine and civil strife to more fertile
areas in the south and southwest. Crit-
ics of the plan charge that it is designed
to remove support from northern re-
gions where there is substantial rebel
activity. .
Aid workers have charged that Gov-
ernment officials recruiting settlers
have oa occasion withheld or denied re-
lief organizations permission to distrib-
ute food and . blankets, physically
threatened famine victims and, in one
tree, a former Italian colony on the
Red Sea.
.The relief officials who discussed the
charges, many of whom have also
spoken with Western diplomats and
journalists, have asked not fo be
?named, saying that they fear that such
identification'could lead to their expul-
At a meeting with Western reporters
Thursday Mr. Berhanu said he had in-
vestigated ffie allegations given fo him
stun or to the expulsion of their organi-
zations from the country.
last week Mr. Janson conveyed
their testimony to Berhanu Bayeh, the
Minister of Labor and Social ? Affairs
and a member of the Ethiopian Polit-
buro, who is believed to be one of the
top five figures in the Government. Mr.
Janson "expressed his deep concern"
about: the reports, a spokesman for his.
office said.? '
by Mr. Janson and found them all to
be false. Some of the reports, Mr. Ber-
hanu said, could be the result of "mis-
understanding and. misinterpretation
of some incidents."
He said relief workers "might have
seen the security forces engaged in
some other activity like, for example,
trying to insure the security of the peo-
ple in the ?shelter, to insure that the
shelters are not infiltrated by terror-
ists." .
Mr. Berhanu said some of the aliega-
tions had probably been fabricated to
damage the image of the Ethiopian
Government. "We don't
know how
man C.I.A. a ants ve
trateti us,
i
ence a enc es ve
t~I
'iIl-rammed
~ us a sar u rumors ' such
propagan a, are to
A senior uropean peoma~said pri-
vately earlier this week that "the evi-
dence isnow overwhehaing that forced
resettlement is taking place." He said
he did not believe it was-the policy of
the central Government to resettle peo-
ple against their will. Instead, he said,.
local Government officials maybe "far
more worried" about meeting aasi?ned
recruitment targets . or quotas than
about infringing on famine victims'
rights.
"The early settlers, I suspect. wem
voluntarily," the diplomat said. "Hut
as time goes on it obviously becomes
more difficult to find people who want
to go. If a local official fails to find
volunteers, however, that may be seen
i as a failure of his own efforts."
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/09 :CIA-RDP90-009658000504160023-4