The
Ethiopian government/EPRDF recently circulated a manifesto declaring that the Hawassa
town in Sidama be placed under the control of the central government and be
administered nationally. The objective of the manifesto written in Amharic is
to undermine and permanently silence the age-old demand of the Sidama people
for regional autonomy.Since EPRDF’s
advent to power in 1991, the Sidama people have consistently demanded that
because of their population size (which government puts at 3 million but
independent estimates put at 5.6 million) and their high economic contributions
(Sidama is a major producer of coffee that earns about 60% of foreign exchange
for the country) they be granted regional autonomy in Ethiopia.
This
is a basic human, economic and political right that is enshrined in the very
constitution promulgated by the EPRDF government itself.However, the Ethiopian government repeatedly
rejected the constitutional demand of the Sidama people and in a number of
occasions crushed peaceful protests with brute forces. In 2002, when the
Government announced that it was going to place Hawassa town under national
administration, the Sidama people rose up and rejected the proposed measures
and pressed with their demand for regional autonomy.People carried out peaceful rallies to
underscore their dissatisfaction with the Government’s proposal in various
towns and villages across Sidama. However, peaceful marches by Sidama elders,
high school students and children from Hawassa and its surroundings were
brutally crushed by the armed forces and security police who used live
ammunition and massacred over 100 people of whom the bodies of about 70 have
been recovered and buried.
The
ensuing crack down on the Sidama people saw further atrocities in the form of
extrajudicial arrests, torture, and forced removal from employment positions
and forced exile of educated and skilled Sidama nationals. However, such brutal
repression did not dampen the spirit of the Sidama people who have fought four successive
regimes in protracted liberation struggles at times fully liberating half of
the province from the oppressive regimes in spite of suffering recurring setbacks.
The struggle for basic rights of regional self-determination continued covertly
and overtly until today.
Notwithstanding
this fact, the regime that is hell-bent to impose its will on the people to
protect the interests of the few in the land recently produced a new manifesto
to uproot the Sidama people from their home land of Hawassa.
The
manifesto is written in Amharic and has four sections: an introduction, why the
Hawassa administration is key to the national government, principles to follow
to restructure Hawassa town administration, and a conclusion.
We
provide below a rough summary translation of the manifesto while providing
clarifications to readers about glaring policy inconsistencies contained in the
illegal and unconstitutional document under each paragraph.
Title
of the manifesto:
How to administer our
metropolitan cities
1.Introduction
When
the South Ethiopian Peoples’ Democratic Movement (a branch of EPRDF in South Ethiopia)
conducted its revolutionary renewal meeting recently, it passed decisions to
enhance the capacity of the administration in Hawassa town and other towns that
are included in the government’s reform program and that have shown weaknesses
in spearheading political and economic transformation.
The
regional EPRDF meeting decided that due to its importance as one of the “metropolitan”
cities in the country, the capacity of the administration of the Hawassa town be
enhanced by appointing “capable individuals” in leadership positions.
Comments
from Sidama: Hawassa with a population of 162000
in 2011 is not a metropolitan city by any standard; although there are few high
rise buildings and few kilometers of tar marked roads the town is still one of
the less developed towns by any global standard as the entire country is. Housing and other basic social and economic
services are inadequate. However, the town remains one of the fastest growing
towns in the country due to two factors: (a) it is the centre of cash crop
–coffee (Sidama produces most of specialty Arabica coffee highly demanded in
the world market alongside with significant amount of ordinary Arabica coffee),
and (b) geographical beauty due to the location of the city along lake Hawassa.
The town developed faster under the Sidama administration in the past 20 years
than during any time in its history. The term metropolitan area refers to a region consisting of a densely
populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories, sharing
socioeconomic infrastructure with its surroundings. A metropolitan area usually
comprises multiple jurisdictions, and municipalities, smaller towns, other
cities; districts and so on. Which other
jurisdictions in Sidama does a Hawassa “metropolitan” area encompass? Is even
Tuula which is 4 kilometers from Hawassa part of Hawassa “metropolitan” area?
Is there any industrial infrastructure, housing and metropolitan transport networks
that link Hawassa with its surroundings? Who is fooling whom? The main objective of the
manifesto is to uproot the Sidama people from their land because they are not
politically loyal to the current regime, and thereby ensure that the rents
collected smoothly flow to the offshore
accounts where billions of the country’s meager hard currencyhas been transferred during the past decade
or to central government for developments in other priority regions.
This
discussion paper (manifesto) is prepared to guide the South Ethiopia EPRDF
executive committee to implement the stated reform in “consultation” with different
layers of administrations in the region and in line with a revolutionary, developmental
, and democraticprinciples without
causing unnecessary misunderstandingof
our courses of action.
Comments
from Sidama: Changes of administrators to be implemented
in consultation with the Sidama people? 99.9% of the Sidama people have
rejected the current regional arrangement in South Ethiopia and continued to
demand regional autonomy for the past 20 years. South Ethiopian regional state
is illegal and remains to be illegal based on EPRDF’s own constitution. No one
was consulted when the five independent regions were merged into one in 1993.
And any proposals to uproot the Sidama people from their land have been fully
rejected by the people. As we speak, all Sidama people are protesting against
this very document in all 19 districts.
The
South Ethiopia EPRDF executive committee underscored the importance of
“consultation” and reiterated that there was a need to rectify the
misconception that town administrations
are there to collect rents instead of promoting economic development by
building the revolutionary democratic
social basis that will enhance participation in and beneficiation of citizens from development.
Comments from Sidama:
The statements that allege that the Sidama administrators in Hawassa were ‘corrupt
rent collectors’ makes mockery of the corruption in Ethiopia. Who owns the
Ethiopian economy?The Heritage Center
states:“Ethiopia’s economic freedom score is 52.0, making its
economy the 134th freest in the 2012 Index. Its overall score is 1.5 points
higher than last year, reflecting improvements in four of the 10 economic
freedoms including investment freedom and monetary freedom. Ethiopia is ranked
28th out of 46 countries in the Sub-Saharan Africa region and its overall score
is slightly below the regional average.
Progress toward greater economic
freedom has been very uneven, and Ethiopia underperforms in many critical
policy areas. The absence of an independent and fair judiciary weakens the rule
of law and undermines prospects for long-term sustainable economic development.
Corruption is pervasive, and the efficiency of government services is poor.” Is
the above due to corruption in Hawassa? Come on EPRDF!
According to a report
published by Global Financial Integrity in 2011, Ethiopia has lost
$11.7-billion to outflows of illicit funds in the last decade. In 2009 alone,
the figure was $3.26-billion, exceeding both the value of its total annual
exports and the total development aid it received that year. And it is on the
increase. The candid finding: “The people of Ethiopia are being bled dry. No
matter how hard they try to fight their way out of absolute destitution and
poverty, they will be swimming upstream against the current of illicit capital
leakage. ‘Is this due to corruption in Hawassa?’
The
manifesto outlines the reasons why the administration of Hawassa is a pivotal
question and suggests measures required to implement the proposed changes of
leadership. The main objective is to
replace the existing structures with competent transitional administration that
will ensure the total elimination of rent seeking and promote developmental
political economy that will maximize the benefits to the people.
Comments from Sidama:
for which people? Is it for 99% of the Sidama people or for the regime?
2.Whythe Hawassa Administration is a fundamental Challenge
2.1The need to ensure that the system
based onrent collection is abolished
andcompetition , which is a foundation
for developmentis installed
Comments
from Hawassa: The Ethiopian economy is not
competitive at all: it is dominated by few endowment companies owned by EPRDF:
“In practice, Ethiopia’s ruling EPRDF government retains control of a large proportion
of available sources of rents and economic levers, including large state-owned
enterprises and so-called ‘endowment-owned’ businesses.” (Africa power and
politics).
The
importance of our towns is measured by their potential to generate profit to investors.At the same time our towns also attract those
who are bent on profiteering illegally. The fact that these towns are the focus of both genuine investors and
those who intend to amass wealth through fraudulent mechanisms obviously
complicates our struggle.
It
is clear that except our capital city, Addis Ababa, and Oromia regional towns
in the surroundings of Addis Ababa, no other towns in Ethiopia compete with
“our Hawassa.”
Comments
from Sidama: What a shame EPRDF: did not this
happen under Sidama administration during the past 20 years? Then why are you
so determined to change it?
The main factors that
make “our town Hawassa” the most attract place are:
1)Its natural beauty and attractions,
2)The People of Sidama are a cash crop (major
Coffee) producers and Hawassa is the biggest market for the product;
3)The center for towns in Southern
region up to the Kenyan boarder,
4)The entrepreneurial skills of its dwellers,
among others;
These
factors create opportunities to foster faster economic development in the area
if the government is able to mobilize resources effectively, allocate them properly
to the development collectively and ensure “competition”.
On
the other hand, if rents collected are allowed to continue to be embezzled, the
few individuals will shine temporarily but economic development will be short
lived because it is not based on” hard work and competition”.
Hawassa
has been plagued by the second challenge and as result it has failed to achieve
its full development potential.
Comments
from Sidama: this contradicts the very statement
above that Hawassa is the fastest growing city not rivaled by any other
regional cities except a few in Oromia, but it failed to achieve its full
development potential. Which city achieved its full development potential in
Ethiopia? What a contradiction! Why not change administrators of those regional
cities that have failed to perform as good as Hawassa did first and then come
to Hawassa if it is overtaken by them. Would not that be logical policy
sequencing for any policy maker in his right mind?
Since
recently we have taken measures to ensure that everything we do is based on the
fundamental principles of competition, and openness, and conducted with
justice, challenges still remain. We are therefore committed to replace the
existing Hawassa leaders with leaders that transcend the rent collection and
abuse culture and are capable and committed to work based on the principle of “competition”.
If
we do not carry out the proposed reform, we will undermine our people particularly
those living in Hawassa city. This would allow the culture of rent collection and
abuse and corruption to spread among our general public thereby by endangering
our political system. This will lead to societal decay and ultimately to
underdevelopment, disunity, and conflicts amongst our peoples.
Comments
from Sidama: remember the Sidama people have
lived in Hawassa for the past over 1000 years. Hawassa means large in Sidama
language. Hawassa town was found only in 1957, 55 years ago. The majority of the people, living in Hawassa
today are Sidama. Whom does the EPRDF proposal of uprooting the majority of the
people make happy? The Sidama people are naturally respectful to anyone who
comes to their land and lives with them in peace. But if they are to be
uprooted to give their lands to others they will never accept it as they have
demonstrated during the past 10 centuries.
After
South Ethiopia EPRDF renewal, we have realized that this is not a hypothetical scenario
or fear; we have witnessed this route of disaster in reality and if it is
allowed to continue in this manner the route of disaster will be emboldened and
will repeat itself soon.
Comments
from Sidama: Is the route of disaster in Hawassa due
to its fast development under the Sidama administration? Your argument does not
hold any water, please.
2.2 The need to
inculcate revolutionary, open and developmental attitude
China’s
rise to power as the second largest economy in the World was driven by the 1978
reform of opening-up by the then president Deng Xioppeng;
China’s
decision to open up to the external world and global competition enabled the
country to achieve rapid economic growth during the past thirty years.
Comments
from Sidama: Oh, come on: China’s opening up
under Deng Xiaoping (he is not Xioppeng) and the country’s rapid economic
transformation compared with changing leadership in Hawassa.Obviously, the EPRDF cadre who wrote this
manifesto has no clue what he is talking about. China’s opening -up was a historic shift in the development strategy of
the whole country from closed socialist to more capitalist, market
orientedsystem based on true
competition.It could not be reduced to
a little land grabbing strategies here and there. And who is Deng Xiaoping in
the case of Hawassa land grab? Let me quote Ezra Vogel on Xiaoping:
“Deng was the
pragmatic yet disciplined driving force behind China’s radical transformation
in the late twentieth century. He confronted the damage wrought by the Cultural
Revolution, dissolved Mao’s cult of personality, and loosened the economic and
social policies that had stunted China’s growth. Obsessed with modernization
and technology, Deng opened trade relations with the West, which lifted
hundreds of millions of his countrymen out of poverty.” Is Ethiopia going to
apply a radical policy shift only in Hawassa while the rest of the country continues
to languish under poverty? What a mother of all jokes?
We
always reiterate that Hawassa is becoming a metropolitan town. We would like “our
beautiful town” to become the tourist center. We would like our city to become the leading industrial center in the
country. We know that Hawassa has the
potential to become trade and distribution center.
As
some countries in the world have one city designated as global conference centers
such as Sharm el Sheik in Egypt; Banglore in India, Durban in South Africa;
Camp David in United States, Hawassa also has the potential to become the
Hawassa conference centre of Ethiopia. The city has the potential to become the
centre of scientific and technological research and development. It has the
potential to become the second city in Ethiopia.
Comments
from Sidama: Is the objective to transform
Hawassa to a place like a resort town of Sharm el Sheik in Egypt to reduce it
to a recreational facility for the new ruling elites by chasing away poor
Sidamas from their town?
Our
opening-up policy is meant to make Hawassa becomes a city admired by the Sidama
people; different peoples living in South Ethiopia; all Ethiopians and the
global community. On top of this we would like to ensure that it will become
the city loved by its dwellers.
This
revolutionary thinking rejects the mentality of rent collection and
embezzlement, and antirevolutionary attitude.
Among
the investors in China’s about 70% come from the west and the remaining
originate in the country’s arch foe, Japan. This indicates that in the interest of economic development, countries
put their historic rivalries aside and invite investors from their former
enemies. To ensure people benefit from development, we need take such
revolutionary actions.We should ask
ourselves why it is important to make such critical decisions in the interest
of the people.Those who made these decisions
have implemented free market economies and benefited their people and enhanced
their roles in the world.
Comments
from Sidama: Invite investors from former enemies
in the interest of the people?Are we
talking about inviting investors from Wolayita or Gamo?But Wolayita and Gamo are not enemies of
Sidama. The fact of the matter is that they do not have more resources than
Sidama. All Ethiopians from any corner of the country are investing in Hawassa
under Sidama administration. Did the Sidama people block Haile Gebre/Sellasie
from investing in Hawassa? No one is the enemy of the Sidama people and the
Sidama administration in Hawassa will continue to attract investors from the
country as well as the rest of the world. What a Walayita and Gamo, or Shakicho
can do, any Sidama can. If the intention is to bring in the Tigre nationals as
the leaders of Hawassa city let it be clear.
At
present we are at a time when we have to lead our Hawassa “metropolitan” town
based on the same principle. If we do not take the proposed measures, Hawassa
will lag behind leading to under development and conflicts.
Comments
from Sidama: you stated above clearly that the
Sidama administration ensured that Hawassa performed better than any other towns
in the country for the past 20 years. What a fallacy!!
2.3The
need to understand rights of nations, nationalities and peoples in light of revolutionary
democratic principles.
Both
federal and regional constitutions ensure the rights of nations, nationalities
and people to regional self-administration and allow them to develop their languages
and culture while ensuring that nations and nationalities will have fair representations
in institutions that belong to all.
Comments
from Sidama: Regional self-determination does not
apply in South Ethiopia. Ethiopia has two systems of administration (a) unitary
in South Ethiopia and (b) ethnic based federal arrangements in the rest of the
country. Do not underestimate people in the South, particularly the Sidama
people. We are not stupid. Either follow
a unitary administration throughout the country or ethnic based federalism
throughout the country. We know it is not possible to have about 56 regions in
the South. The demand of the people is to return to the previous 5 regions with
likeminded peoples together in one region. This is the root cause of the
problem of Hawassa. Without addressing it, EPRDF will never be able to address
the questions of the rights of nations and nationalities to self-administration
in the country.
The
representation of nations and nationalities and representation of the elite
groups from these nations and nationalities has often led to contradictory interpretations.
Comments
from Sidama: How do you separate educated Sidamas
you labeled here as “elite groups” from the Sidama people: a third system of
dividing people and societies.
Nations
and nationalities are represented by officials in various structures of government
that people elect whether these officials are educated or uneducated.
Individuals
elected to the various councils have the power to promulgate laws and identify areas
to be administered by these laws and conduct various other functions and as
such are the true representatives of the people.
However,
at present representatives in most councils have lost touch with the people and
fail to carry out their tasks of guiding and supervising the executives while
the role of the executive has become inflated and accountable to those who work
with them instead of the people thereby undermining the revolutionary ethos.
We
understand that in executives branches there are positions that are performed exclusively
by those elected by the people.These are
constitutional provisions and laws that emanate from it.
Notwithstanding
the above, executive positions should be filled by those who have the capacity
to implement the tasks they are assigned to do. The first criterion of capacity is the capacity of revolutionary
development and democracy; while leadership skills and academic qualifications
that are commensurate to the positions can also be considered as additional criteria.
Those to be assigned in executive positions should be able to understand the
developmental and democratic polices and strategies in their localities, urban
or rural. This will enable them to understand the policies and strategies and implementation
methods and inculcate them into others.
Comments
from Sidama: in Sidama people’s representation
should be divided into two. The Sidama people will keep the legislative
positions, but EPRDF will take away the executive positions.While in the rest of the country people’s
representation means full representation in the legislative, the executive and
the judiciary since regions are demarcated based on ethnic identities. Who is
dumb; you or the Sidama people?
In
Sidama the benefit to the people should not be measured by the number of people
assigned but by the good administration that emanates from full understanding of
the revolutionary development. That is why we in our renewal article of 1993 EC,
stated that we would uproot narrow nationalism and chauvinism!!
Revolutionary democracy is different from
others because of its stand on peoples’ democratic participation. Revolutionary
democracy strongly believes that people should actively participate in all processes
at all levels. This is mainly done at kebelle, woreda and town levels. However
peoples’ participations should not be limited to these levels, People should fairly
participate and be represented at zonal, regional, and at the level of the federal
government.This ensures equitable
national participation.
Comments
from Sidama: stop nonsense about revolutionary
democracy; there is no democracy in Ethiopia at all. The ruling party wins
99.6% of the votes and you keep on lamenting about democracy throughout this
illegal crap document.
The
executive, which provides the political leadership, has similarities with the
council of peoples’ representatives and council of federal representatives.However, the executive is formed by the party
that wins the election and as such the winning party appoints those whom it considers
to be capable to deliver. If the party is formed from limited nations and nationalities
the executive (cabinet) will also reflect that composition thereby limiting participations
by various peoples.The presence of some
regions where EPRDF has norepresentations
may thus lead to imbalances in the executive representations.This may also limit the availability of capable
individuals that the party would like to appoint in executive positions. As a result
of this there would always remain discrepancies between those positions held by
elected officials and those held by the executives.
The
rights of all Ethiopian people will be respected only if the polices of EPRDF
are fully implemented. And this can only be ensured if the executives appointed
by the ruling party have the required capacity. If we continue to appoint people who do not have capacity in order to fulfill
the quota of nations and nationalities, this will not benefit the country and
negatively impact on all people.Thus if
the national representation does not protect the interest of the people it is not
a revolutionary national representation. We implement the representation of nations and nationalities as long as
it does not affect the capacity of the executive to deliver.
Comments
from Sidama: the rights of the people will never
be respected in one party dictatorship. Is EPRDF living in 12th
century? Does this apply to all the country or Sidama only? It does not. Can
you appoint a Sidama as a mayor of Mekele? Again, is Ethiopia a unitary or
ethnic based federal state?
Few
educated individuals from various ethnic groups often do not fully understand
the meaning of popular representation and think that they have the right to
represent the people simply because they belong to a certain ethnic group.
Comments
from Sidama: Individuals in Ethiopia neither have
the rights to represent their ethnic groups nor the country. Why did you chase
away political opponents who claimed to represent the whole country, if you are
so against claims of ethnic representations? The fact is no one can represent
anything in Ethiopia. The political system is akin to that of North Korea.
Trying to divide individuals and the societies they belong to EPRDF is making
another historic blunder. This is the most bizarre attempt to divide individuals
and the society they belong to. It implies that only the Tigres in ERPDF who
are the true representatives of all the people in Ethiopia. A Sidama
intellectual has no right to represent his own people nor does he have any
right to represent the country.
During
the discussion the Sidama people have exposed the intentions of the few
educated Sidamas stressing that they have been hiding behind the Sidama umbrella
to enrich themselves and promote their private benefits not the benefit of
society.
Comments
from Sidama: let the facts be stated clearly; corruption
is rampant in Ethiopia in every corner of the EPRDF led regions. Ethiopia lost
US$11 billion during the past ten years in corruption. What the poor EPRDF
cadres in Hawassa are being accused of is the tip of the iceberg. Besides,
Hawassa has performed better under the Sidama administration than any other
regional cities in the country as this manifesto itself admitted in various
pages. The most corrupt towns in the country have obviously lagged behind
Hawassa in development during the past 20 years. If EPRDF is genuinely
concerned about the development of cities it should first address the
development challenges of the laggard cities not the city which is performing
the best in the country. Do not make a mountain of corruption out of a mole
hole in Hawassa while you have real mountains of corruption throughout the
country.Beside, receiving two plots of
land can never be compared with receiving direct aid funds meant to the country
from international donors in the name of endowments for specific regions,
unless of course we are forced to believe that the mighty is always right!
Therefore,
there will be two forms of administrative representation in Sidama: (1) where
there is a need to maintain ethnic national representation, the Sidama individuals
will be able to represent the Sidama people; (2) in areas that require better capacity
to implement development and democratic principles in order to ensure improved
governance that will benefit the people, appointments should be based on the
ability to deliver not on being Sidama or not.
Comments
from Sidama: Does this apply to all the regions
in Ethiopia including Tigray?
We
will continue to fight the two extreme views of executive representation, i.e.
the demand for Sidama national representation in executive positions in Sidama
and rejection of leadership capacity as the main criterion for executive
appointments.These two attitudes are antirevolutionary
and we will continue to fight them.
2.4The need to ensure that the metropolitan
towns will not be continued to be administered in the previous manner.
Comments
from Sidama: which other towns in Ethiopia are to
be administered nationally? Apparently all of them are performing very poorly
compared to Hawassa but their administrations will never be changed. We know
that under dictatorship anything can happen. However this is one of the most
blatant deceits and should be stopped immediately!
Towns
will serve as the centers of knowledge and technology to enhance agricultural and
rural development.They will accomplish
this role only if we are able to deliver effectively social and economic services
in these towns themselves. These include among others; modern town planning;
adequate socio-economic development planning, land use and administration, housing supplies;developing strategies for landscaping, and
sanitation the town remain the corner stones for the development of these towns.It requires political commitment and capacity
to deliver these.
Comments
from Sidama: The Sidama leadership that ensured
that Hawassa grew faster than any other towns in the country during the past 20
years is regarded as having no political commitment and capacity to deliver
these all of the sudden! Another blatant fallacy!
We
cannot continue to administer Hawassa in the same manner as we used to
administer rural Sidama. That will not continue anymore!
Comment
from Sidama: To EPRDF, it does not matter if rural Sidama continue to be administered
by people with poor capacity; but it does matter when people with poor capacity
administer Hawassa. That is what EPRDF calls championing the cause of the
poor!! Do you people think before uttering such extremely shameful words, which
leave your true intentions naked?You
are committed to replace those who administer towns where there is good amount
of rent, but not interested in improving the administration of rural Sidama
where 90% of our people live.
Thus
we need to urgently take over Hawassa and appoint individuals with better political
and leadership capacity and commitment.
3. Principles
to be followed to change the Hawassa
town administration
1)Since Hawassa town is in Sidama zone,
the representation of the Sidama people in the town administration has been
ensured in related laws.This will be
implemented without undermining their right for representation.
Comments from Sidama:
this is not true. This very document undermines the right of the Sidama people
for self-administration. Another blatant fallacy!!
2)Outside of the positions that reflect
the right of the Sidama people for representation, appointment will not be
based on quotas but the ability of individual to fully understand and implement
EPRDF town and industry development policy and their detailed implementation plans.
Comments from Sidama:which positions in Sidama do not require
Sidama representation; are we talking about two constitutions in one country;
can you appoint me as the mayor of Mekele; I am a Sidama and as capable as any Tigere.
You cannot. You have to clearly and honestly state that the EPRDF constitution
does not apply to South Ethiopia and you can bend the rules you have
promulgated as you wish in the South.
3)Notwithstanding (2) above it is
possible tofind members of EPRDF regardless
of ethnic distinctions that are capable of leading the stated transition step by step;
Comment from Sidama:
Indeed you have as many capable Sidamas as possible who can lead that little
town Hawassa; But your criterion is a political commitment to EPRDF, which none
of the capable Sidamas have. Nor do capable Ethiopians elsewhere in the country
have political commitments to EPRDF.
4)The main principle is to ensure that
the Sidama people, peoples of the region and the direct beneficiaries of the proposed
change, the residents of Hawassa benefit from revolutionary and developmental
leadership.
Comments from Sidama:
the main objectives of the proposed change of leadership in Hawassa town are
twofold: (1) permanently silence the Sidama demand for regional autonomy, and
(2) ensure that the rents collected will go to the central government and
through it to the offshore accounts where US$ 11 billion have been transferred
during the past decade or to the developments in the priority region.
