It was in 1984-1985 that Northern Ethiopia in general and the region of Tigray in particular was hit by the country’s worst famine in living memory. The world was shocked and responded humanely by pouring in massive relief aid to avert the disaster.
In my capacity as a member the CC at that moment, I had to participate in the decision-making process of the Front when, among other things, a majority decision was made to allocate massive sums of the incoming relief aid money for political and military projects of the Front, the TPLF, and its political wing, the Marxist-Leninist League of Tigray (MLLT), amidst the debilitating famine. This decision, to which I did not agree, was the saddest moment in my life.
The huge amount of relief aid that was donated by international humanitarian organizations to mitigate the severe conditions of millions of famine victims was collected by the Relief Society of Tigray (REST), a “humanitarian” wing of the TPLF, which in turn handed it over to the leadership of both the TPLF and the MLLT party for its allocation.
This relief aid was then diverted for the political-military purposes of the TPLF and MLLT in an alarming proportion: 50% was to go for strengthening the then recently created MLLT, 45% had to be spent on the Front’s activities (that included buying military equipment, like anti-tank mines, ammunition, radio communication, vehicles and fuel, and also financing other friendly fronts both from Ethiopia and Eritrea), and the remaining 5% was left for the victims of the 1984-85 famine. My appeal to raise the amount proposed for the victims of famine was flatly rejected by the then chief ideologue (de-facto head) of the MLLT and the current Prime Minister of Ethiopia. The plan was endorsed by the majority of Central Committee members of the TPLF/MLLT.
The donor agencies and relief organizations involved in these donations did not know what exactly happened to their funds, but it is certain that they would not approve of the alternative spending of their funds. There are grounds to thoroughly investigate the details of this diversion scheme. The donor agencies that provided the relief aid will probably not know what happened to it after the aid funds were delivered.
This matter was first reported in a BBC news message of 3 March 2010, and is evoking a lot of debate (see: ‘Aid money for weapons scandal 2010 – the story comes out. On the trail of Ethiopia aid and guns”, BBC; see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-2/hi/africa/8535189.stm).
The details / minutes of the debate over the decision to divert the relief aid for the purpose other than intended were well-documented in writing and on tape, recorded on a tape recorder. The tapes/transcripts if and when they are made available will, I am sure, corroborate these facts. The tapes and manuscripts of this debate are important documents of the Central Committee of the TPLF and they can be found in the party archives and/or the office of the head of TPLF/MLLT, Ethiopian PM Meles Zenawi.
Your Excellency,
Recalling the establishment of the “Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic Congo that reported its findings to the President of the UN Security Council signed by former Secretary-General Kofi A. Annan, in 12 April 2001”, I now appeal to your Excellency, Secretary-General of the UN, for the establishment of a Panel of Experts to investigate the diversion of tens of million of relief aid money for political-military purposes while millions of people for whom the relief aid was donated were perishing because of the famine. This will be in line with previous acts of the UN, such as the case of the former Liberian President Samuel Doe, etc. Since this act tantamount to crime against humanity by all measures, I call on Your Excellency to bring the leaders of this inhuman crime before justice and set a precedence of order that would be deterrent to such crime from being repeated.
Anticipating your prompt response,
Sincerely,
Aregawi Berhe (PhD)
Chairman TAND (Tigrian Alliance for National Democracy) and
Executive Council Member of UEDF (United Ethiopian Democratic Forces)
