Mr. Ian Kelly, the U.S. State Department Spokesman, in his November 12, 2009 daily briefing has indicated that the United States was aware of reports of politicization of humanitarian assistance in Ethiopia. Earlier this week, Ethiopia’s major opposition group, Medrek – the Forum for Democratic Dialogue (FDD), accused the Zenawi government of using aid to buy votes and support for the ruling party by denying benefits to members of the Opposition.

Mr. Kelly added that the U.S. was committed to the people of Ethiopia and ensuring humanitarian assistance reached those most in need. To that end, “personnel from U.S. Embassy in Addis are increasing their field visits to observe how the assistance is distributed, and they’re aware of these allegations, so they’re conducting these monitoring activities specifically with these allegations in mind.”

In 2008 the U.S. provided Ethiopia with $934-million aid package, of which half was for humanitarian assistance, according to Mr. Kelly.

Commenting about last week’s meeting between the U.S. Secretary of State, Mrs. Hillary Clinton, and Ethiopia’s Foreign Minister, Mr. Seyoum Mesfin, Mr. Kelly emphasized that human rights issues held central position in bilateral dialogues between the two countries. It is to be noted that the State Department’s own annual reports have documented gross human rights abuses in Ethiopia over the years; to quote the 2008 annual report:

“Human rights abuses reported during the year included limitations on citizens’ right to change their government in local and by-elections; unlawful killings, torture, beating, abuse, and mistreatment of detainees and opposition supporters by security forces, usually with impunity; poor prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and detention, particularly of suspected sympathizers or members of opposition or insurgent groups; police and judicial corruption; detention without charge and lengthy pretrial detention; infringement on citizens’ privacy rights including illegal searches; use of excessive force by security services in an internal conflict and counterinsurgency operations; restrictions on freedom of the press; arrest, detention, and harassment of journalists; restrictions on freedom of assembly and association …”

Mr. Kelly did not give further details about last week’s meeting between Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Mesfin; he was asked if the upcoming election’s fairness was part of the dialogue.

Only a week after the high-level meeting between Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Mesfin, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has started a new rhetoric claiming that Africa’s economic crisis was to be blamed on the recent U.S. financial failures; he gave this speech in Addis Ababa at the annual African Economic Conference. In the same speech, Mr. Zenawi gave his vote of confidence to Africa’s cooperation with China in lieu of the U.S. and the west. Most of Mr. Zenawi’s critics agree that the Prime Minister looks to the east whenever his relations with the west becomes rocky; his recent rhetoric on strengthening the Africa-China relations and blaming Africa’s economic ills on the U.S. comes on the heel of the meeting between Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Mesfin. Did the meeting deliver what Mr. Zenawi wanted to get out of it?

Here’s the transcript of the briefing:

QUESTION: I have a couple of Ethiopia questions.

MR. KELLY: Ethiopia questions.

QUESTION: Yeah. Has the State Department or USAID investigated claims by the country’s opposition, including a former president and defense minister that some of the $850 million in food and anti-poverty aid from the U.S. is being distributed on the basis of political favoritism by the current prime minister’s party? And then, also when the Secretary met with the Ethiopian foreign minister last week, did she bring up the issue of the jailed opposition leader Birtukan Mideksa, and did she express any concerns about the fairness of the outcoming Ethiopian elections in May?

MR. KELLY: Yeah. Well, regarding the assistance, we’re committed to assisting people in need all over the world. And we provide humanitarian assistance that is politically neutral, socially impartial, and based on people’s needs, rather than on political factors. And we’re, of course, aware of these reports that you raise, Indira, about the politicization of humanitarian assistance in Ethiopia. Regarding that, let me say that we have monitoring systems in place to prevent or expose such activities, which we are continually reviewing and working to improve. Personnel from U.S. Embassy in Addis are increasing their field visits to observe how the assistance is distributed, and they’re aware of these allegations, so they’re conducting these monitoring activities specifically with these allegations in mind. We are committed to the people of Ethiopia and ensuring that our humanitarian assistance does reach those most in need.

In fiscal year 2008, the U.S. provided $934 million in overall assistance to Ethiopia, of which $479 million was humanitarian assistance. The fiscal year 2009 numbers will be available at the end of the calendar year. This – the meeting last week, I was not in that meeting, but I understand that a full range of issues were discussed. And in general, human rights are at the center of our bilateral dialogues with Ethiopia.
———– Source: the U.S. State Department

Watch the briefing (the topic on Ethiopia is towards the end of the video):