Newsnight investigation: Billions of dollars used as a tool of political repression in Ethiopia.

a Newsnight investigation into how billions of dollars of development aid money is being used as a tool of political repression in Ethiopia.
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, a non profit media group led by the award wining journalist Iain Overton , says it has leaked reports that expose extreme abuses during the 2005.

The United Nations has added its voice to the barrage of criticism on Ethiopia's massive Gibe III hydropower project, calling for work to be suspended until the negative impacts of the dam have been determined.

The World Heritage Committee, which establishes sites to be listed as being of special cultural or physical significance, said the dam's construction endangered the existence of Lake Turkana.
The lake, the largest desert lake in the world and listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997, sits astride the Kenya-Ethiopian border.

In a letter to the Ethiopian and Chinese governments after its annual meeting, the committee underlined the importance of Lake Turkana as an outstanding research area for animal and plant communities.

"The area's rich fossil finds have allowed reconstructing the history of animal species and mankind over the past 2 million years," the committee report copied to the Ethiopian government read in part.

Both Ethiopia and China as members of the World Heritage Committee were asked to fulfill their obligations for the protection of such a site.

China is helping fund the building of the dam.

The UN body also asked the governments of Kenya and Ethiopia to invite a monitoring mission to review the dam's impact on Lake Turkana, while encouraging the project's lenders "to put on hold their financial support" until the committee's next annual meeting in June 2012.

The Gibe III dam is being built by an Italian company, Salini Construction, and a Chinese state-owned bank has approved funding for the project, while its export credit agency is financing the erection of transmission lines.

The dam has been the subject of a massive campaign by mainly western rights groups over what they say are negative environmental and social impacts against an estimated 500,000 people in Kenya.
International Rivers, a US-based campaign group, said the project may be one of Africa's worst development disasters" because of the harm it may cause people in the south of the Horn of Africa country.

But Ethiopia has categorically denied the accusation and further signed an agreement with Kenya to export electric power. The transmission line connecting the two countries is nearing completion.

During an international hydropower summit in Addis Ababa recently, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi defended the decision to expand dam projects.

The views of western critics are "ironic" as Ethiopian facilities are "infinitely more environmentally and socially responsible than the projects in their countries, past and present," he said.
Mr Meles articulated his suspicion that there is a conspiracy against hydropower projects in Africa and that those who were advocating against hydropower electricity generation were condemning African and its people to remain in extreme poverty.

"They are concerned about butterflies' lives but not human diseases," he said.

The Ethiopian premier said that most of the activists residing in Europe and North America were not condemning their countries for causing global warming by producing carbon emission gases.

Mr Meles is the current African Union spokesperson on climate change.

Ethiopia has a hydropower potential of 45,000 Megawatts (MW), the second-largest capacity in Africa after the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the World Bank.

Under a five-year plan, the country plans to raise its power generation to as much as 10,000 MW and expand electricity coverage to 75 per cent of the population, from the current 41 per cent.

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[alador2212]

why not let him finish? why show what you just want us to see?

[JIGGIRI1]

I'm sure 99% of you that watch this don't have clue of this fact. And second when people in Libya go out on the streets to demand change, the west sends in NATO.. I wonder if NATO is going to step in to help the freedom lovers of England? O they call those "rioters." To all My Ethiopian Brothers & Sisters put politics aside & develop your country because the Market is much more powerful than any politician. If You want change, some has to sacrifice with current condition which will naturally

[aceone1988]

@Eyaasu

You know what the agmes have done now they have passed a law where all the land belongs to the government, what that means is if you have a house in Ethiopia only the structure is yours and can only sell structure and since the government is 98% agame that means Ethiopia belongs to Tigres.

[aceone1988]

@bahremuz

Kill yourself agame pig.

[theevilofusa]

This guy is not real ambasader he only live for his stomach.He is dust trashy on the eye of TPLF/the gang group leading the country/

[theevilofusa]

Why westerns they act like they don't know the nature of Ethiopian government.......?This is just a piece of the Iceburg,where is the hiden prisons all over Ethiopia,where are those people killed and dumped and people doesn't know ehere about them.....etc etc etc..........

[Gebrefull]

@1Alazar1 come on! u can see the crying babies waiting for help while those who lead the country are full of flattery. This is enough if any proof is needed. After all, there is no need of apology. The Ambassador started by saying ` Thank u for allowing us to explain...`` is actually what all the cadres say while hiding the fact. When will he listen himself instead of being a puppet. what a shame as he spent many years studying but he put confusing and childish arguments as a defending remark.

[Gebrefull]

This is how the reality of the so called Ethiopian government revealed. But when will the time come with little light of hope. The weyane are accusing of the derge regime while they are breaking international human right law. First of all, they don`t know God. They don`t have got a feeling heart. I tell u today that a long time is coming as time is pledged to decide everything. Thank u for uploading.

[1Alazar1]

This is false: a week later BBC apologized for what they said. They were asked for proof and they had nothing to show. BBC said that the money given to ethiopia by Bob Geldof was used for the army. But they were wrong and apologized to Ethiopia and Bob Geldof.

[somebody343]

before Agame people who used to face the hunger, but now the south people very sad!

[bahremuz]

Really...? This is western ppl's way of making sure ethio never gets peace. PPl don't get caught up in this news. White ppl will NEVER want African ppl to get along. Why? They want to keep Africans down and under their control. We don't need your AID!!!! Westerns are freaking out since ethio is developing and growing. They want to make sure there is no peace in Ethiop and create false allegation so they could say we give AID to Africa. Because Africa will never care for herself. It's really sad.