May 17, 2012 Dear President Obama: Your ... - Oakland Institute

Name From Comments
916. Raphael Sperry San Francisco, CA
917. Seni Kassa Montville, NJ
918. Hannah Johnson Lexington, KY
919. Carole Furman Saugerties, NY
920. M. Messai NY, NY President Obama, are you and your Administration about
to give financial support to Ethiopia’s autocratic ruler,
Meles Zenawi, to help him carry out his cruel villagization
program? Zenawi’s government is forcibly removing the
Gambella, Benishangul-Gumuz, Somali and Afar peoples
from their ancestral lands and deliberately turning whole
communities into internally displaced peoples in their own
country. Those refusing to be relocated are imprisoned or
killed. Shame on US Ambassador Booth, claiming that the
Gambella people are benefiting from the fruits of
development, when many human right organizations and
reputable journalists have written to the contrary.
Environmentalists are also concerned that clearing more
than 3.5 million hectares of land for the planned farms
could have a detrimental impact on the environment,
because many trees have to be cut which would destroy
Ethiopia's protected game reserves, as well as the wildlife.
The UN, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the UN
World Food Programme and the World Bank have all
written against such a policy in Ethiopia where famine
stalks the country every other year. It is alleged that the
Ethiopian government has leased out an area the size of
France for 99 years, which is expected to generate a
lucrative business. Global Financial Integrity’s (GFI) report
dated May 12, 2011 “Illicit Financial Flows From the Least
Developed Countries, 1990-2008” lists Ethiopia as the
ninth top exporter of US$8.4 billion of illicit capital. As a tax
payer, I am also against my tax dollars going to such a
brutal ruler.
921. Hoover
DouglasHooverD
922. Degu Balagru Hamburg, Germany
923. Lee Zeigler San Francisco, CA
924. Alejandro Del
Aguila
925. Desalegn Melaku
Beyene
new York, NY didn't we sign the UN declaration of rights for indigenous
people? who is getting this land for farming? if its not the
people who originally lived there then it's going to the
wrong people.
Mexico, Mexico
addis abeba, Ethiopia
926. teflose aebram zürich, Swaziland
927. Beyene Tesfu Rødekro, Denmark Stop funding forced reelocation of Poor Ethiopian farmers
Page 44 - Signatures 916 - 927