DATE=4/28/2000
TYPE=U-S OPINION ROUNDUP
TITLE=HORN OF AFRICA FAMINE
NUMBER=6-11797
BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
EDITOR=ASSIGNMENTS
TELEPHONE=619-3335
INTERNET=YES
CONTENT=
INTRO: The growing famine in Ethiopia, and
neighboring nations around the "Horn of Africa" is
drawing increasing attention in U-S editorial columns.
The papers say Ethiopia's bitter and costly border war
with Eritrea is making the job of aid agencies
significantly more difficult than in past disasters.
We get a sampling of editorial comment now from
_____________in today's U-S Opinion Roundup.
TEXT: For about two years now, Ethiopia and Eritrea,
two of the world's poorest countries, with long
histories of drought and famine, have been pouring
hundreds of thousands of dollars into a border war.
Many outside critics say the war is being waged over a
few hundred square kilometers of desert and makes no
sense. But to the nations involved, the war is a
matter of national pride. What no one questions is
that the war has diverted critical resources,
including money and manpower away from dealing with a
now, three-year long drought.
We begin our sampling with the "The [Bergen County]
Record, a northern New Jersey daily, which cites the
stark statistics coming from the region as
justification for its concern.
TEXT: An estimated 180 children die each month from
starvation or disease in Ethiopia. Three years of
scarce rain, plus a nearly two-year border conflict
with Eritrea, have wreaked havoc in that African
country. So far, the famine-related death toll ranges
into the low thousands. In some regions, the earth is
baked so hard -- temperatures regularly rise above 38
degrees [Celsius] - - that nothing grows from it.
More than 90 percent of the cattle and 65 percent of
the sheep have died. But the worse may be yet to
come. Aid agencies say an even greater human
catastrophe looms as eight million Ethiopians are
threatened with starvation. ... Sudan and Somalia
also have worsening drought problems.
TEXT: The Record ends its editorial with a long list
of U-S non-governmental aid agencies to which people
can contribute.
The Washington Post looks back to the 1985 famine,
which the paper blames largely on the Marxist military
junta led by Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam. Colonel
Mengistu, the paper says, waged both a civil war and a
foolish- - according to the Post- - farm
collectivization program that profoundly disrupted
Ethiopian agriculture and failed. But the paper says
of the current calamity:
VOICE: This year's incipient famine is not exactly
government-made ... Still, the hunger this time is
clearly government-exacerbated. /// OPT ///
Specifically, Ethiopia is locked in a bloody and
costly war with next door Eritrea, upon which the two
states -- both among the ten poorest nations in the
world -- spend an estimated one million dollars per
day. Yet Ethiopia's president, Meles Zenawi, breezily
disputes any link between war and famine: "In
Ethiopia, we do not wait to have a full tummy to
protect our sovereignty," he says. /// END OPT ///
How should the international community respond? True,
food aid frees up more Ethiopian resources for the
war; but doing nothing is not an option. Callous as
their government's priorities may be, Ethiopia's
drought victims should not have to suffer because of
them. ... And international mediation efforts to end
the pointless border war, including the worthy one
quietly being pursued by the Clinton administration,
need to be infused with new urgency.
TEXT: In Texas, where they know something about sun-
baked land and cattle starving from the occasional
drought, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram waxes poetic:
VOICE: Eight million hungry people should take
precedence over Ethiopia's territorial aspirations.
Ethiopia, during the last two decades, has provided a
favorite stomping ground for two of the four Horsemen
of the Apocalypse: war and famine. They're riding
again. ... The country ... has a permanent food
reserve of 400-thousand tons set up and the means of
delivering it anywhere in the country within days.
But that's not enough grain to meet the need, and
Ethiopia does not have a sufficient transportation
network to allow timely delivery of outside aid. The
problem is exacerbated by Ethiopia prohibition against
food aid routed through Eritrea, although Eritrea has
promised safe passage. The stage is set for a repeat
of the 1984-85 cataclysm in which more than a million
Ethiopians died of hunger or its side effects.
TEXT: On New York's Long Island, another call for aid
comes from Newsday, with this caveat.
VOICE: /// OPT /// ... [in] Ethiopia ... nearly ten
million people are threatened with starvation after
crop failures brought on by a three-year drought.
Severe food shortages are facing eight million more
people in neighboring countries - - Eritrea, Somalia,
Sudan, Djibouti, Kenya and Uganda. All the signs - -
agricultural failure, war and civil conflicts, cross-
border hostilities - - point to a repeat of the
scenario that cost more than a million lives in 1985,
before a massive international relief effort ended the
deaths from hunger. /// END OPT /// ... There are
[however] basic ethical questions involved in aiding
these warring nations. What obligations do rich
nations have to help if [some of] these [nations] are
squandering their meager resources on war instead of
helping their own people survive? ... These are valid
issues, but they pale beside the urgency of staving
off hunger for millions.
TEXT: The Sun in Baltimore agrees that aid should be
sent, though admitting the Ethiopian-Eritrean border
war has made the situation worse.
VOICE: The United States and non-government agencies
should not stint or place conditions. Most of the
food needed has been pledged. Relatively little has
been delivered. ...[However] Short-term aid must be
accompanied by strong pressure for a settlement
between two countries, whose geography and kinship
demand cooperation. Neither the long-term solution
nor immediate relief can succeed otherwise.
TEXT: A call to arms for the United Nations to take
the lead in this pending disaster comes from
Jacksonville, and Florida's Times-Union.
VOICE: The primary duty of the United Nations is to
prevent wars by resolving differences. However, its
charter also empowers the organization to solve
problems of a "humanitarian nature." It's time to get
serious about that mandate, realizing that it is only
temporary relief and that long-term changes must be
made in Ethiopia -- one of the least-free nations on
Earth -- or this will be a recurring story throughout
the 21st century.
TEXT: With that bleak assessment of the situation, we
conclude this sampling of comment from the U-S press,
on the growing danger of famine in and around the Horn
of Africa.
NEB/ANG/KL
28-Apr-2000 13:49 PM EDT (28-Apr-2000 1749 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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