By GRAIN On 25 February 2010 @ *, Ethiopia |

Oromo Studies Association (OSA) | February 25, 2010

Here’s the full text of the open letter written by the Oromo Studies Association (OSA) and submitted to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Ban Ki-Moon.

OPEN LETTER TO THE UN SECRETARY-GENERAL ON THE LAND GRAB, EVICTION OF THE OROMO PEOPLE, THE 21ST NEW COLONIZATION AND MODERN SLAVERY IN OROMIA

Oromo River Valley (Getty Images)
To: His Excellency Mr. Ban Ki-Moon
Secretary-General, the United Nations
Office of the Secretary General
885 Second Avenue
New York, NY 10017

Dear Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon:

I am writing this open letter on behalf of the Oromo Studies Association (OSA), a scholarly, multi-disciplinary, nonprofit international organization, established to promote studies on and relevant to the Oromo people residing in East Africa, mainly in Ethiopia. The Executive Committee of OSA is following the issue of land grab in Africa and the eviction of the Oromo people, the 21st century new colonization, and the practice of modern day slavery on the Oromos in particular with a great deal of interest.

In the Ethiopian Empire alone, Oromos constitute about 50 million of the 80 million. The Oromos developed their own cultural, social and political system known as the Gadaa system. Gadaa system is a uniquely democratic political and social institution that governed the life of every individual in the society from birth to death. The Oromos were colonized during the last quarter of the nineteenth century by a black African nation – Abyssinia. The fact that the Oromos were colonized by black African nation makes their case quite special.

Today Oromos are being evicted from their land by the Meles Zenawi minority regime. Their land is being sold by the Meles Zenawi regime to the so called investors from Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, India, China, Egypt, the Sudan, Nigeria … etc. The Oromos are being displaced and forced into refugee camps all over the world and into modern day slavery, because of the new 21st Century colonization. The Saudis are enjoying from Oromo land rice harvest, while Oromos are dying from man made famine as we speak. On March 4, 2009, it was reported, “Saudi Arabia has announced the arrival of the first food crop harvested in Saudi-owned farms abroad, in a sign that the kingdom is moving faster than expected to outsource agricultural production. Rice, harvested in famine-hit Ethiopia by a group of Saudi investors, was presented to King Abdullah recently and comes as other countries are still in the early stages of investing in overseas farms.”

So far, the following countries and individuals from foreign countries have made illegal deals with the illegitimate regime of Meles Zenawi in acquiring Oromo land:

• Djibouti via its Prime Minster has acquired 25,000 acres of farm land and 13, 000 square meter of urban land.
• Saudi Arabia has acquired 250,000 acres of farm land. 240 individuals from Saudi Arabia have been give license to invest 2.5 billion dollars in addition to the 1 billion dollars that Saudi Arabia government has planned to invest in land grabbing scheme.
• India has acquired 741,000 acres for rose production (kanuturi rose farm) and 2 million acres of land for cereal production.
• Nigeria via its former President Obasanjo has acquired 40,000 square meter of urban land for hotel and tourism development by evicting local Oromo residents.
• Egypt has acquired 50, 000 acres of farm land.
• Others countries, like China, Middle-East countries, the Sudan, South Korea … etc. are in negotiation with Meles regime to acquire more farm land by evicting Oromo farmers.

NOTE: So far the Meles regime is leasing Oromo land for 99 years for 15 birr ($1.18) per acre per year illegally.

Today, the Ethiopian minority regime and illegitimate government with blood on its hands has been permitted the privilege of ruling over Ethiopia by the World powers.

At grass root level in Africa, African Union has the following articles in its Preamble:

The Organization of African Unity, now known as African Union was dedicated to eradicate all forms of colonialism. When it was established, there were several states that had not yet won their independence or were minority-ruled. South Africa and Angola were two such countries recognized. The OAU proposed two ways of ridding the continent of colonialism. Firstly, it would defend the interests of independent countries and help to pursue those of still-colonized ones. Secondly, it would remain neutral in terms of world affairs, preventing its members from being controlled once more by outside powers. Years of colonialism had weakened Africa socially, politically and economically.

In 1948, after the Second World War, United Nations enshrined the following declaration:

“Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.”

As members of the world society, the Oromo people have the full right to be protected by the above declaration.

Despite of the above facts, the Oromo people are being evicted, displaced, tortured, rapped, imprisoned and murdered daily in thousand under the colonizing minority regime of Meles Zenawi. Today, the Oromo issue is not hidden from the world leaders and stakeholders. However, it is being ignored. The Oromo people do not have a place to run to any more. They are being cornered from every direction. Therefore, this open letter is to bring to your attention, that the peace loving innocent people of Oromia will rise one day and diffusing the outrageous outburst might not be possible. The Meles regime is selling Oromo land on world market, although this government does not have the right to sell Oromo land. The prisons of Meles Zenawi are over crowded by Oromo prisoners. There is a report that Ethiopian prisons speak the Oromo language now days. We do not understand why the world has turned deaf ears on the Oromo sufferings. Oromos are human beings and should be treated as humans. Evicted and displaced Oromos are all over the world. They are ashamed of telling how much they suffered in the Ethiopian prisons, because the tortures they went through have been embarrassing to tell the world. To our surprise, the exact number of Oromo refugees has remained top secret.

Therefore, we call on the international society to look at the crazy act of the minority illegitimate regime of Meles Zenawi, and on the so called greedy investors to stop harassing the Oromo people and halt their colonizing process. If a devastating crisis starts in Oromia and beyond, the minority illegitimate regime of Meles Zenawi will be held responsible and the so called investors will loose the money, they are giving to Meles Zenawi, because they are doing an illegal business with an illegitimate regime.

With a copy of this open letter, we are advising the world political organizations, financial institutions, governmental and non-governmental organizations, church organizations, and the media not to blame the Oromo people, if unseen crises are manifested. Oromos are being colonized and modern day slavery is being imposed on them. The world leaders are being alerted, and they can not wash their hands off. We are telling them to take proactive steps and avoid a devastating crisis. We also ask all Oromo nationals and all peace loving people of the world community to stand up and let the world leaders know that the voiceless Oromo people deserve peaceful life on their land. Prosperity, human rights, equality and freedom are God given rights to the Oromo people.

Thank you,

Haile Hirpa, PhD

OSA President

http://farmlandgrab.org/11361/print/

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Land leasing in Ethiopia: a shameless land grab by the rich or an opportunity for the poor?
25 Feb 2010

http://farmlandgrab.org/11359

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Emergent Asset Management claims to run the biggest agricultural fund in Africa, but it is not clear how much progress has been made on the ground

By GRAIN On 18 February 2010 -  Emergent, Landkom |
AgriProds | February 18, 2010

By Charles Wyatt

Susan Payne

It is impossible for townies to understand the affinity farmers, peasant or otherrwise, have for their land. They now its quirks, its potential and its problems. Remember the problems the Canadian company Gabriel Resources had in moving the inhabitants of a village to make room for the Rosia Montana mine in Romania. Promises of bigger and better houses and just as much, if not more land, held no appeal. They had lived in their village for generations and it was in their blood, so the thought of moving was anathema. Another example is the stretch of coastal villages known as Alibag near Mumbai. The rich people from the city are now seeking to build second homes in this beautiful area, but they have to buy the land first and this is not necessarily good news for the inhabitants. As SJ Lele, a local engineer points out, “Farmers selling their land is a bad thing. They start spending and will wipe out their earnings in a single generation.

There is no new land being made in this world. Once it is sold it is gone. One wonders if this means anything to people like Susan Payne who is chief executive of Emergent Asset Management. She claims to run the biggest agricultural fund in Africa, but says nothing about the people who have had to be moved off that land. Her god is money as is only natural for someone who worked previously for banks such as JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs. Property to her is probably a large house in Surrey as that is where Emergent is based, but she would sell it at the drop of a hat if required by her company or if she moved to a new employer. She earns no money from the land surrounding that house so must find it very difficult to understand those to whom that land is their only source of income.

She is quoted by the Spectator as saying, “My father was a senior director at the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation in Rome and he used to say that giving aid to Africa was a little like spitting in a fire.” Good one, Susan, but financial aid to despots has been US foreign policy for a long time. The Chinese do it better. They build roads and railway lines and put in power stations and waterworks to the benefit of the country first. This brings jobs to hitherto barren areas where they want to develop mineral resources. At least the land owners then have an option to work if they sell their land, but the ideal is always for incomers to lease land. Leases have to be renewed at higher prices and the indigenous landowners retain an interest. A sale is a sale and over a comparatively short time with rising prices of land it can start to look like theft. Wouldn’t want to stir up the natives, would you Susan?

Mozambique is a country she has targeted and there is something amazingly patronising in the way she claims that Emergent has ‘adopted’ a local village of 3,000 people and has hired its citizens to help clear 2,000 acres of greenfield land and then farm it with Emergent. If you hire so many people to clear a bit of land this size it would take no more than a month working on the basis that each one had to clear 1.5 acres using primitive tools such as picks and hoes. Thereafter Ms Payne will have to find work for all these people on what she would classify as a farm, but farming, as she later points out, has become ever more mechanised. A modern tractor such as the Case IH STX Quadtrak has a 15 litre Cummins turbodiesel engine and it costs the best part of £250,000. It holds the world ploughing record of 321 hectares in 24 hours and can set its steering by using global positioning satellites. It pulls a chain of harrows, cultivators, drills and rollers and computers control the amount of fertiliser and seed that is used.

The fly in the ointment is that it is only really efficient over large areas of land such as on the prairies of America. In Kent a single Case and its accoutrements owned by a farm management company is all that is required for six different farms covering 5,500 acres, but it is important that these farms are close together as this machinery is big and ugly when moving around England’s country roads. How it will work on the areas of inexpensive farmland that Emergent proposes to buy in Sub-Saharan Africa is anyone’s guess. Ms Payne is confident that an annual return of at least 25 per cent over the fund’s five year term can be achieved. Perhaps she ought to have a chat to the founders of AIM listed Landkom who set up a farming company in the Ukraine which did all the right things like leasing land from farmers and then employing them; using modern equipment; and constructing sufficient buildings for storage.

Lankom’s original plan when it listed in 2007 was to have 350,00 hectares under its control by 2011. The latest update from the company is that it has planted 16,500 hectares of oil seed rape and another 5,500 hectares of winter wheat. In addition another 10,000 hectares have been prepared for spring planning of maize ands soyabean and there is further modest acreage in the Crimea. Not within a country mile of its original target, yet its original plans were sound. When Russia withdrew from Ukraine in 1991 its economy was on the point of collapse and this hit the rural population very hard. Worse, farmers then had to pay a land tax which was more than the meagre income they squeezed from their land. Landkom therefore offered to lease their land, paying the land tax and offering them jobs. The focus was on the prime, fertile lands in western Ukraine close to the border with Poland where buyers for its products were closer at hand, not air miles away. It will be worth watching Emergent closely as it may not have taken full account of the fact that weather, pests, non-governmental organizations and politicians can devastate the best laid plans in farming.

http://farmlandgrab.org/11247/print/

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Susan Payne Video - Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

Susan Payne speaking at the 2nd Agriprods Forum

http://www.eaml.com/?func=PageVideos

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2nd Agriprods Forum - 25th November 2008 - Emergent Asset Management Ltd

Susan Payne - Chief Executive Officer

http://www.unquoted-analyst.com/media/Minsite/251108/251108_05_Emergent.html

Land leasing in Ethiopia: a shameless land grab by the rich or an opportunity for the poor?
25 Feb 2010

http://farmlandgrab.org/11359