“Murder by
Hunger," Wall Street Journal editorial, January 10, 1985.
(Summary by Harminder
Bhullar)
Summary
The title of this article itself unveils its essence. It argues that the
Russian-backed Ethiopian government exploits famine as a weapon against
proliferating rebellions. More than half a million natives of the
Tigre province straggle west towards
Sudan, receiving
“meager rations from whatever supplies the Relief Society of Tigre, an NGO) has
managed to bring into the province.” Some have been on this trek for eight
weeks, rather than a three-hour walk to a government controlled feeding center.
Occasional truck shipments of Western grain supply the million or so children
and aged too week to make the move. Both, the truck and the refugees travel only
at night to avoid being spotted and attacked by Ethiopian government MiGs.
“Here is the
real horror of the Ethiopian famine….The true cause and extent of the Ethiopian
famine is being whitewashed by the U.N.,
large Western charities, and American
journalists working under the Ethiopian government’s influence.”
The mere fact that these Tigrean
natives are shunning the much publicized Ethiopian relief centers in government
controlled areas should tell you that more is in play than a drought. The Tigre
People’s Liberation Front, a Marxist nationalist group which controls more than
80% of the Tigre province, has been
fighting an even more Marxist, Soviet-backed regime. The Red
Sea province of
Eritrea, led by the Eritrean People’s
Liberation Front, has been fighting secession for 23 years in the north,
capturing several strategic areas last year. At least four other groups are
fighting elsewhere. The government will do with hunger, “what its helicopter
gunships and ‘Stalin organ’ rocket launchers can’t.”
However, this tactic is not
particular to
Ethiopia. The
article makes notes of “Stalin’s man made Ukrainian famine of 1932-33, and
similar patterns in
Cambodia and
Afghanistan. The
military will not allow Western agencies to cross its lines to give aid to areas
outside of government control. “If the Soviets can’t control a people, they’ll
gladly let them starve, helping the process by bombing crops, restricting relief
and depopulating the countryside.” Many Tigreans are shunning government feeding
center because they say that they are “forcibly shipped to an inhospitable
climate where they are used to displace native Oromos, also in rebellion.” The
Ababa regime claims they are helping the family victims start anew in more
fertile areas, but it provides no housing, doctors or medication (malaria
prevails in the region). Yet still, “some Western reporters swallow the
government line with modest reservations.” And more than 90% of foreign
continues to flow through the Ethiopian government. The only way to avert this
catastrophe is to work through
Sudan with
native groups such as the Tigrean and Eritrean Relief Societies, and redirect
aid to the worst-hit areas.