Addisu wond.

Government officials are intimidating us: Evictees from Benishangul

Over 3000 people of the Amhara ethnic origin, who have been evicted from the Benishangul Region, now resettled in a large area found in front of FenoteSelam City Administration of Western Gojjam Zone have said that they are being intimidated by the officials of the Region.

“Although officials from the Region’s Capital, Bahir Dar and the Zone came to speak to us, their response was disheartening” said one of the evicted farmers to ESAT.

According to the farmers, they were told by the officials to immediately leave the town and move to their Woredas. When we asked about our land and prosperities in Benishangual, the authorities said “we don’t know. Who told you to go there in the first place”, said another farmer. The homeless farmers fear epidemic diseases might kill their children and mothers due to the extreme lack of sanitation in the area.

The farmers are being provided food. It is not immediately clear if the government or Red Cross was providing them with food, however.

A mother, who gave birth in the area, was ordered to leave the area, the farmers said.

Other farmers, who are still in Kemashe Zone of Benishangul Region and are about to be evicted, said the persecution and assassination on those, who have not left the region, is intensifying. One farmer was shot dead while two others have gone astray after groups tried to rob the properties of the evictees.

Meanwhile, in its press release titled “The government is responsible for the death, eviction and exile of citizens! We seek the criminals to appear before court immediately”, the Unity of Democracy and Justice (UDJ) Party said “the language based ethnic federalism of the dictatorial EPRDF regime and its fervor to stay in power, is becoming a clear and present danger to the people of Ethiopia, who lived for centuries intermarried, interrelated and in tolerance”.

Denouncing the forced eviction of thousands of Ethiopians of the Amhara ethnic origin from the Benishangul Region and the death of 59 of these people, UDJ stated that it believes the Regime should be taken responsible for these “inhuman acts”. The Party stated that it was paradoxical to allow foreign companies to buy and own land for cheap rates while disallowing and evicting citizens.

“We want the international community, human rights organizations and Ethiopians to be informed of this inhumanity” UDJ noted in its press release.

UDJ urged that the forced eviction should stop immediately and those already evicted be given compensation.

The Officials of the Amhara Region have not so far given any official presser or explanation regarding the issue.
March 30, 2013ESAT News