DATE=5/25/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=ETHIOPIA FAMINE
NUMBER=2-262817
BYLINE=REBECCA WARD
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
INTERNET=YES
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: An Ethiopian human rights activist predicts
the number of people affected by famine in that
country - currently estimated at more than eight
million - will double next year, despite international
relief efforts. We have details from V-O-A's Rebecca
Ward in Washington.
TEXT: Geographer Mesfin Wolde-Mariam - the founder
and former chairman of the Ethiopian Human Rights
Council - says Ethiopia's war with Eritrea is
exacerbating food shortages, but a more serious
problem is the weather. He says Ethiopians face a
harsher drought condition this year, and that in turn
will affect food shortages a year from now - leading
to mass starvation.
Speaking at a Washington news conference, Mr. Mesfin
gave credit to the international community for
responding to the famine with much-needed aid. But,
he says, that creates a culture of reliance on relief
assistance - and prevents Ethiopia from properly
identifying the problem.
/// FIRST MESFIN ACT ///
Famine originates in the social-economic-
political system and not as the result of
drought. Drought simply, if and when it
happens, pushes it further. But it does not, in
the case of Ethiopia, cause it.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Mesfin says the root causes of the problem are
excessive taxation of the peasants and control of land
by the state.
/// SECOND MESFIN ACT ///
All land, whether it is urban or rural, is under
government control. Now the peasant, therefore,
feels he is landless. And for Ethiopian
culture, to be landless is to be nothing.
Literally, it is to be non-human.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Mesfin says the land should be privatized. He
recommends a return to large-scale commercial farming,
which he says took place in the 1970's and resulted in
tremendous agriculture growth before it largely
disappeared. He says one obstacle to developing the
sector is the high price demanded by the government
from potential investors.
The government of Ethiopia - one of the world's
poorest countries - is carrying out an internationally
supported economic reform program intended to
liberalize the economy, attract foreign investment,
and bring state expenditures into balance with
revenues.
/// REST OPT ///
Mr. Mesfin says Ethiopia has vast untapped
agricultural potential.
/// THIRD MESFIN ACT ///
One thing we must realize, I must tell you, is
that Ethiopia has the resources, the land
resources, the water resources, the climatic
resources, to be not only to be self-sufficient,
but even to be fully exporting country. The
problem is one of management.
/// END ACT ///
Farming accounts for more than half of Ethiopia's
Gross Domestic Product, 90-percent of its exports, and
80-percent of total employment. Coffee generates 60-
percent of the country's export earnings.
NEB/rw/gm
25-May-2000 18:00 PM LOC (25-May-2000 2200 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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