DOCSLIB.ORG

Villagization

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Villagization Villagization A case study of Ethiopia’s villagization programme By Mads Holm Table of content ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................................................... 3 ACRONYMS ................................................................................................................................................................... 4 1. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................................... 5 1.1 WHAT IS VILLAGIZATION? ...................................................................................................................................................... 7 1.2 RESEARCH ON RESETTLEMENT AND VILLAGIZATION ........................................................................................................ 8 1.3 RESEARCH QUESTION: .......................................................................................................................................................... 10 1.4 READING GUIDE ..................................................................................................................................................................... 10 2. METHODOLOGY .................................................................................................................................................. 12 2.1 METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS ............................................................................................................................... 12 2.2 RESEARCH DESIGN ................................................................................................................................................................ 12 2.3 LIMITATION ............................................................................................................................................................................ 14 2.4 RESEARCH EXPERIENCES ..................................................................................................................................................... 15 3. THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS ................................................................................................................. 18 3.1 THE IMPOVERISH RISK AND RECONSTRUCTION MODEL ............................................................................................... 18 3.2 THE EIGHT MAJOR IMPOVERISHMENT RISKS .................................................................................................................... 20 3.3 RECONSTRUCTION COMPONENTS ...................................................................................................................................... 24 3.4 IMPLEMENTATION APPROACHES: TOP-DOWN OR BOTTOM-UP? ................................................................................. 27 3.5 PRELIMINARY ARGUMENT/HYPOTHESIS OF THIS THESIS .............................................................................................. 28 4. HISTORICAL VILLAGIZATION PROGRAMMES ........................................................................................... 29 5. THE CASE: ETHIOPIA ......................................................................................................................................... 31 5.1 ETHIOPIA ................................................................................................................................................................................ 31 5.2 A HISTORY OF VILLAGIZATION ............................................................................................................................................ 35 5.3 WHAT DOES THE THEORETICAL ASSUMPTIONS SAY? ..................................................................................................... 38 6. CONTEMPORARY VILLAGIZATION IN ETHIOPIA ..................................................................................... 41 6.1 THE OFFICIAL OBJECTIVES OF THE PROGRAMME ............................................................................................................ 41 6.2 ASSESSMENTS OF THE PROGRAMME .................................................................................................................................. 42 6.3 ASSESSMENT BASED ON EMPIRICAL FINDINGS FROM THE FIELD ................................................................................. 54 7. REFLECTIONS ...................................................................................................................................................... 67 7.1 WHY SUCH DIFFERENT ASSESSMENTS AND WHAT IS THE REAL PICTURE? ................................................................ 67 1 7.2 IS THE CURRENT PROGRAMME ANY DIFFERENT FROM THE DERG’S AND OTHER HISTORICAL VILLAGIZATION PROGRAMMES? .............................................................................................................................................................................. 69 7.3 OTHER POSSIBLE THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES .............................................................................................................. 70 7.4 POLICY SUGGESTIONS ........................................................................................................................................................... 74 8. CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................................................ 76 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................................................. 78 2 Abstract Villagization programmes have been implemented around the world in governments’ attempts to realize political agendas, usually with very limited success. Ethiopia is in this regard an interesting country, as succeeding governments have used villagization to promote their own agenda, which is also valid for the current government of the country. The objective for the contemporary villagization programme in Ethiopia is to ensure socio-economic development for the participants by delivering socio-economic services to them. It is promoted as being based on voluntary participation, which would be different from the previous government’s and many other villagization programmes in history. Much negative attention to the programme has though been given from large international organizations. They accuse the government of violating human rights, forced participation, unfulfilled promises and relate it to other negative issues such as land grabbing. The government on the other hand emphasize that these are false accusations and portrait the programme as very successful, as the participants already have gained many of the promised benefits by being included in the programme. The research of the thesis unfortunately shows that the portrait painted by the government does not hold up. People of the programme have gained better access to services then before, but to a much smaller degree then promised. Many of the socio-economic services that should have been provided are not and people are thus participating without full knowledge of what they are joining. Participation is therefore still not considered to be voluntary. It is further evident that the people do not have any say in how the new villages are being organized, which from the start of the programme makes them marginalized in their new settings. This top-down implementation approach from the government must be changed if the current villagization programme should have a real change to become a successful development programme. On a more positive note, the programme is found to have a great change of becoming a success if the critical elements of it are changed, as much of the population of Ethiopia knows that a change towards more sustainable lifestyles are needed and they are willing to do so, because of the harsh environment they are living in. 3 Acronyms AAU Addis Ababa University DAG Development Assistance Group DIDR Development-Induced Displacement and Resettlement HRW Human Rights Watch IRR model Impoverishment Risk and Reconstruction Model IO Oakland Institute MDGs Millennium Development Goals MoA Ministry of Agriculture NGO Non-Governmental Organization PA Peasant association PBS Provision of Basic Services programme PSNP Production Safety Net Programme SNNRP Southern Nation, Nationalities and People’s Region 4 1. Introduction For decades, resettlement programmes have been implemented in different forms around the world. The purposes of these programmes have usually been related to developmental objectives or political ideologies. It can be done on a small scale with only one person being resettled due to e.g. smaller infrastructure projects or whole communities being resettled due to droughts, large infrastructure projects, political agendas or to achieve socio-economic development for an underdeveloped and vulnerable population by for example villagization. Over the years, especially large-scale resettlements have generated much attention. These have mainly been implemented in poorer countries as attempts to develop the particular country and its people. Unfortunately, the attention has mainly been negative due to inefficient implementation and unsuccessful outcomes of these large resettlement programmes, which has made many parties very cautious in dealing with resettlement.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • 519 Ethiopia Report With
    Minority Rights Group International R E P O R Ethiopia: A New Start? T • ETHIOPIA: A NEW START? AN MRG INTERNATIONAL REPORT AN MRG INTERNATIONAL BY KJETIL TRONVOLL ETHIOPIA: A NEW START? Acknowledgements Minority Rights Group International (MRG) gratefully © Minority Rights Group 2000 acknowledges the support of Bilance, Community Aid All rights reserved Abroad, Dan Church Aid, Government of Norway, ICCO Material from this publication may be reproduced for teaching or other non- and all other organizations and individuals who gave commercial purposes. No part of it may be reproduced in any form for com- financial and other assistance for this Report. mercial purposes without the prior express permission of the copyright holders. For further information please contact MRG. This Report has been commissioned and is published by A CIP catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library. MRG as a contribution to public understanding of the ISBN 1 897 693 33 8 issue which forms its subject. The text and views of the ISSN 0305 6252 author do not necessarily represent, in every detail and in Published April 2000 all its aspects, the collective view of MRG. Typset by Texture Printed in the UK on bleach-free paper. MRG is grateful to all the staff and independent expert readers who contributed to this Report, in particular Tadesse Tafesse (Programme Coordinator) and Katrina Payne (Reports Editor). THE AUTHOR KJETIL TRONVOLL is a Research Fellow and Horn of Ethiopian elections for the Constituent Assembly in 1994, Africa Programme Director at the Norwegian Institute of and the Federal and Regional Assemblies in 1995.
    [Show full text]
  • The Ethiopian State: Perennial Challenges in the Struggle for Development
    Macalester College DigitalCommons@Macalester College International Studies Honors Projects International Studies Department 4-26-2016 The thiopiE an State: Perennial Challenges in the Struggle for Development Hawi Tilahune Macalester College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/intlstudies_honors Part of the International and Area Studies Commons Recommended Citation Tilahune, Hawi, "The thiopE ian State: Perennial Challenges in the Struggle for Development" (2016). International Studies Honors Projects. Paper 21. http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/intlstudies_honors/21 This Honors Project is brought to you for free and open access by the International Studies Department at DigitalCommons@Macalester College. It has been accepted for inclusion in International Studies Honors Projects by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Macalester College. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Ethiopian State: Perennial Challenges in the Struggle for Development Hawi Tilahune Presented to the Department of International Studies, Macalester College. Faculty Advisors: Dr. Ahmed I. Samatar and Professor David Blaney 4/26/2016 Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 3 ABSTRACT 4 CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 6 I. THE CHALLENGE 6 II. RESEARCH QUESTIONS 7 III. MOTIVATION 8 IV. SOURCES AND METHODOLOGY 10 V. PREPARATION 10 VI. ORGANIZATION 12 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 15 I. THE STATE 15 II. NATIONHOOD AND NATIONALISM 30 III. WORLD ORDER 37 IV. DEVELOPMENT 43 CHAPTER III: BASIC INFORMATION 50 I. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY 50 II. POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY 51 III. SOCIAL GEOGRAPHY 51 IV. ECONOMY 52 CHAPTER IV: EMPEROR MENELIK II (1889-1913) 54 I. INTRODUCTION 54 II. EUROPEAN IMPERIALISM IN THE HORN 55 III. TERRITORIAL AND CULTURAL EXPANSION 58 IV.
    [Show full text]
  • The Ethiopian Revolution 1974-1984
    THE ETHIOPIAN REVOLUTION (1974 to 198 SUBMITTED BY ANDARGACHEW TIRUNEH FOR THE DEGREE OF PH.D LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS JUNE 1990 UMI Number: U044491 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U044491 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 fH£S»S F 6 8 0 O X *=3 HI ABSTRACT The thesis is concerned with the Ethiopian revolution between 1974, when an urban popular uprising broke out, and 1984, when the new regime established the Workers Party of Ethiopia. Chapter 1 discusses the background to the revolution and introduces the factors that became important in the causes and outcomes of the revolution. Part one (Chapters 2 and 3) is concerned with the collapse of the old-s£ate in 1974. Chapter 2 deals with the urban popular uprising of early 1974 which followed in the wake of the structural crisis. Chapter 3 deals with the capture of power by a group of junior officers and privates (the Derg) claiming to represent the security forces. 1974 to 1977 discusses under part two (chapters 4 6) can be taken as the formative years of the post­ revolutionary order.
    [Show full text]
  • Fews Country Report Ethiopia
    eN-SM' 96 FEWS COUNTRY REPORT ETHIOPIA Oil ir-i!i flii f ~ ',105 SA-18 ore, D 205232C, Africa Bureau, USAID Famine Early Warning System (FEWS) May, 1986 This is the first of a series of iontlh'reprts issued by the Famine Early Warning Systesr (FD'7S) o Ethiopia,,)It is designed to provide decisionnEJers with curren-information and analysis on existing and ,potentiai nutrition emergency situations. Each situation ide:itified is described in terms of geographical extent and the number of people involved, or at-risk, and the proximate causes insofar as they have been discerned. Use of the tecL1 "at-risk" to identify vulnerable opoulat.ons is problemtical since no cenerally-aqreed definition exists. Yet it is necessary to identify or "target" populations in-need or "at­ risk" in order to determine appropriate forms and levels of intezrvention. Thus for the present, until a better usage can be found, FB7IS reports will enzqduloy the term "at-risk" to mean... ... those persons lacking sufficient food, or resources to acquire sufficient food, to avert a nutritional crisis, i.e., a progressive deterioration in their health or nutrition condition below the status quo and who, as a result, require specific intervention to avoid a life-threatening situation. Perhaps of 2-ost importance to decisionmakers, the process underlying the deter iorating situation is highlighted by the FE,,S effort, hopefully with enough specificity and forewarning to permit alternative intervention strategies to be examined and implemented. Food assistance strategies are key to famine avoida ice. However, other interventions can be of Ii'ajor importance both in the short-term and in the long-rLun, including medical, transport, storage, economic development policy change, etc.
    [Show full text]
  • Voluntary Villagization Scheme (Vvs) for Transforming Semi-Pastoral
    Journal of Sustainable Development in Africa (Volume 14, No.5, 2012) ISSN: 1520-5509 Clarion University of Pennsylvania, Clarion, Pennsylvania VOLUNTARY VILLAGIZATION SCHEME (VVS) FOR TRANSFORMING SEMI-PASTORAL COMMUNITIES IN BENISHANGUL-GUMUZ REGION, NORTHWESTERN ETHIOPIA: CHALLENGES AND LOCAL DEVELOPMENT INDICATORS Guyu Ferede Daie Addis Ababa University (AAU), Ethiopia ABSTRACT The main intent of the Voluntary Villagization Scheme (VVS) is to collect a scattered settlement pattern of rural populations onto a nucleated form of villages to sustainably supply rural communities with social and economic infrastructures so that they can improve agricultural production and productivity. This helps the villagized communities overthrow rural poverty and Chronic Food Insecurity (CFI) and ensure the sustainability of the livelihood and food security in rural areas. However, this goal is achieved if and only if the scheme is appropriately implemented according to the guideline of villagization action plan. Thus, this study was aimed at assessing the extent of implementation, challenges, consequences and development indicators of VVS in Benishangul-gumuz Region (BGR) during the past two years. To achieve this objective, the data were collected from the annual report on the overall implementation of the scheme from the regional government, case studies, key informants and field observations. The result shows that the scheme was under-implemented at 56.4% with regard to clustering of the households, forces were applied to some extent during relocation of resettlers and major principles of VVS were only partly respected. Moreover, people in some villages refused the scheme and still remained there. While some basic infrastructures were only partly supplied, others were incomplete and others such as road infrastructures were totally nonexistent.
    [Show full text]
  • The Reaction of the Gumuz People Against Large-Scale Land Acquisitions in Benishangul-Gumuz Region, Ethiopia Tsegaye Moreda1
    Listening to their silence? The reaction of the Gumuz people against large-scale land acquisitions in Benishangul-Gumuz region, Ethiopia Tsegaye Moreda1 Abstract In Ethiopia, large-scale land acquisitions have been looming ever larger over the last few years, mainly in the lowland parts of the country. A substantial amount of land has already been acquired by both domestic and foreign investors in Benishangul-Gumuz region. The land acquisitions pose apparent threats to the economic, cultural, and ecological survival of local indigenous communities. In particular, Gumuz ethnic groups, who depend on customary forms of land access and control, as well as whose livelihoods based heavily on access to natural resources, are being differentially affected. Through a case study in some selected administrative districts of the Benishangul-Gumuz region, this paper is an attempt to use empirical evidence to examine how local indigenous communities are engaging with or challenging the recent land acquisitions. By doing so, the paper shows how the apparent silence of the Gumuz people regarding the land acquisitions is misleading. It shows how local communities, although not organized either politically and economically, express their discontent in differentiated ways against the state and social forces - particularly over land, access to employment and around state politics. As I show in this paper, local reactions range from covert to more open forms of resistance. Key words: large-scale land acquisition; local resistance; Benishangul-Gumuz; Ethiopia 1 International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Hague, The Netherlands; e-mail: [email protected] 1 1. Introduction This paper sets out to examine how local indigenous communities perceive ongoing large-scale land acquisitions in Ethiopia, and how these communities, with a particular focus to the Gumuz people in the Benishangul-Gumuz region, have been reacting to it.
    [Show full text]
  • The Political Economy of Agricultural Extension in Ethiopia: Economic Growth and Political Control
    Working Paper Working The Political Economy of Agricultural Extension in Ethiopia: Economic Growth and Political Control Kassahun Berhanu May 2012 This paper was produced as par t of the FAC Political Economy of Agricultural Policy in Africa (PEAPA) work stream Working Paper 042 www.future-agricultures.org 1. Introduction • EPRDF’s close cooperation with the west in the fight against thriving political Islam in the sub-region has also brought it into conflict The central argument in this paper is that, for the past with some radical Islamist movements two decades, state-led agricultural extension in Ethiopia, engaged in terrorist activities, for example implemented by excluding other players in general and in mainland Somalia. Tight political control non-state actors in particular, has facilitated uncontested throughout the country may be seen as a control of the public space by the incumbent Ethiopian means of ensuring that such groups do not People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). In addition to its presumed economic ramifications, the establish a foothold within Ethiopia. ongoing agricultural extension scheme that is a major component of transforming smallholder agriculture • Last but not least, EPRDF’s Marxist-Leninist is driven by political imperatives aimed at effectively past espousing the role of a vanguard party controlling the bulk of the Ethiopian electorate whose still inherently persists forcing it to emphasize votes in periodic elections are crucial to the regime’s control in its management of public affairs. perpetuation in power. Despite the aforementioned, however, it could In this vein, I argue that the urge for effective control be assumed that control and patronage in a large of the majority among the electorate is necessitated by and populous country like Ethiopia characterized by the existence of potential and actual threats to regime numerous diversities, competing claims, and multiplicity survival as indicated below: of incompatible interests could serve only short-term goals that cannot endure over a longer period.
    [Show full text]
  • World Bank Document
    Report No. 75199-ET Public Disclosure Authorized Report and Recommendation Public Disclosure Authorized Ethiopia: Protection of Basic Services Program Phase II Project Public Disclosure Authorized Additional Financing (P121727) and Promoting Basic Services Phase III Project (P128891) Public Disclosure Authorized February 8, 2013 The Inspection Panel Report and Recommendation On Request for Inspection Ethiopia: Protection of Basic Services Program Phase II Additional Financing (P121727) and Promoting Basic Services Program Phase III project (P128891) A. Introduction 1. In accordance with the Resolution (hereinafter “the Resolution”) 1 establishing the Inspection Panel (hereinafter “the Panel”), the purpose of this Report and Recommendation on Request for Inspection (hereinafter “the Report”) is to make a recommendation to the Board of Executive Directors as to whether the Panel should investigate the matters alleged in this Request. The Panel’s recommendation is based on its consideration of the technical eligibility of the Request and its assessment of other factors as stipulated in the Resolution. 2. The Panel’s determination of the technical eligibility of the Request, in accordance with the 1999 Clarification to the Resolution,2 is set out in Section E (1) below, and Section E (2) summarizes the Panel’s observations on other factors considered before making a recommendation to the Board. The Panel’s recommendation is presented in Section F. 3. On September 24, 2012, the Panel received a Request for Inspection (the “Request”) related to the Ethiopia: Protection of Basic Services (PBS) Phase II Project Additional Financing and to the Promotion of Basic Services Phase III Project, which form part of the Protection of Basic Services Program.
    [Show full text]
  • Ethiopia 2014 Human Rights Report
    ETHIOPIA 2014 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Ethiopia is a federal republic. The ruling Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), a coalition of four ethnically based parties, controls the government. In 2012, following the death of former prime minister Meles Zenawi, parliament elected Hailemariam Desalegn as his successor. In national parliamentary elections in 2010, the EPRDF and affiliated parties won 545 of 547 seats to remain in power for a fourth consecutive five-year term. Although the relatively few international officials allowed to observe the elections concluded technical aspects of the vote were handled competently, some also noted an environment conducive to free and fair elections was not in place prior to the election. Authorities generally maintained control over the security forces, although Somali Region Special Police and local militias sometimes acted independently. The most significant human rights problems included restrictions on freedom of expression, including continued restrictions on print media and on the internet, and restrictions on freedom of association, including through arrests; politically motivated trials; and harassment and intimidation of opposition members and journalists. The government continued restrictions on activities of civil society and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) imposed by the Charities and Societies Proclamation (the CSO law). Other human rights problems included alleged arbitrary killings; alleged torture, beating, abuse, and mistreatment of detainees
    [Show full text]
  • AFTER Rhile DERG: an ASSESSMENT of RURAL LAND
    AFTERrHilE DERG: AN ASSESSMENT OF RURAL LAND TENURE ISSUES IN ETHIOPIA by John W. Bruce Land Tenure Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison Allan Hoben African Studies Center, Boston University Dessalegn Rahmato Institute of Development Research, Addis Ababa University A collaborative project of the Land Tenure Center, University of Wisconsin- Madison, and the Institute of Development Research, Addis Ababa University, funded by the Ford Foundation. March 1994 AN ARSSI PEASANT'S REFLECTIONS Before the Derg we were servants. The Derg gave us land, but took away our children. When the cooperative came we did not have rest or the right to market our crops. Today is good. Everyone has his own land and can market his own crops. Our only problem now is that there is not enough land. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS List of boxes Vii List of acronyms ix Preface xi Executive summary xiii 1. Background and context 1 1.1 Prerevolutionary land tenure 1 1.2 Agrarian reform 2 1.3 Rural institutions 6 1.3.1 Peasant associations 6 1.3.2 Producers cooperatives 7 1.3.3 Service cooperatives 7 1.3.4 Current situation of rural institutions 8 1.4 Postrevolutionary land tenure policy 9 2. Current situation 11 2.1 Smallholder agriculture 11 2.1.1 Role of smallholder agriculture 11 2.1.2 Access to agricultural land 12 2.1.3 Transactions and strategies 19 2.1.4 Redistribution by the TPLF and EPRDF: pressures and pros- pects 22 2.1.5 Fragmentation and subdivision 28 2.1.6 Security of tenure and investment 30 2.2 Other production contexts 32 2.2.1 Land endowments 32 2.2.2 Large-scale commercial agriculture and access to land 32 2.2.3 State farms 36 2.2.4 Community forestry 37 2.2.5 Community pasture 38 2.2.6 Pastoralist land tenure 39 2.3 Making land policy and administering land 42 2.3.1 Current situation 42 2.3.2 Leadership and decentralization 44 2.3.3 Land registration and taxation 46 3.
    [Show full text]
  • Ethiopia 2015 Human Rights Report
    ETHIOPIA 2015 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Ethiopia is a federal republic. The ruling Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), a coalition of four ethnically based parties, controls the government. On May 24, the country held national and regional elections for the House of People’s Representatives, the parliamentary body. The EPRDF and affiliated parties won all 547 seats to remain in power for a fifth consecutive five- year term. On October 5, parliament elected Hailemariam Desalegn prime minister. Government restrictions severely limited independent observation of the vote. A mission from the African Union, the sole international institution or organization permitted to observe the voting, called the elections “calm, peaceful and credible.” Some nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) reported that an environment conducive to free and fair elections was not in place prior to the election. There were reports of unfair government tactics, including intimidation of opposition candidates and supporters, and violence before and after the election that resulted in six confirmed deaths. Civilian authorities generally maintained control over the security forces, although local police in rural areas, the Somali Region Special Police, and local militias sometimes acted independently. The most significant human rights problems included harassment and intimidation of opposition members and supporters and journalists; alleged torture, beating, abuse, and mistreatment of detainees by security forces; and politically motivated
    [Show full text]
  • 5. the Secret Wars to Crush the Southeast, 1978-84
    5. THE SECRET WARS TO CRUSH THE SOUTHEAST, 1978-84 For most rural people in Harerghe, Bale and parts of Sidamo, the end of the "official" Ogaden war did not represent the end of suffering and human rights abuse -- rather, the end of the beginning. The Ethiopia-Somalia war had profound consequences. Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam was immeasurably strengthened -- he gained both prestige and a vast new armory. He benefited from a surge of nationalist feeling in Ethiopia and also from international condemnation of Somalia's aggression. President Siad Barre was humiliated, and processes of political decay and fragmentation in Somalia were greatly accelerated. The Somali army was gone, but internal conditions in southeast Ethiopia had not improved, and the Oromo and Ogadeni insurgencies continued. Large-scale human rights abuses by the Ethiopian army against the local population increased. Six years of secret wars, that were both more widespread and more bloody than the official war, were to end in the defeat of the insurgents, and the creation of widespread famine conditions. Many of the inhabitants fled to Somalia, where the refugees became pawns in another political struggle that was slowly degenerating into civil war, and where hunger and human rights abuse were common. In early 1978 the Ethiopian government had acquired a new aresnal from the USSR and had built a greatly expanded army, spearheaded by Cuban combat troops. Though established to combat a conventional invasion, that force was now to be used for counter-insurgency only. The government could now contemplate crushing an insurgency by brute force alone.
    [Show full text]