Ethiopia dismisses Egypt's "psychological warfare" on dam

Tue Jun 11, 2013 1:11pm EDT

* Cairo says new hydroelectric dam may reduce water flow

* Talk of hostile action raised by Egypt's politicians

* Ethiopia says not intimidated by "psychological warfare"

By Aaron Maasho

ADDIS ABABA, June 11 (Reuters) - Ethiopia dismissed Egyptian talk of military action against a giant dam it is building on the Nile as "psychological warfare", and said on Tuesday it would defend itself and carry on with the work regardless.

Bellicose rhetoric between two of Africa's most populous and fastest-growing nations has raised fears of conflict over water, though both sides are also pursuing diplomatic compromise over what would be the biggest hydro electric plant on the continent.

Responding to a speech on Monday by President Mohamed Mursi, in which he said Egypt did not want "war" but would keep "all options open" to avoid losing any water, Ethiopia's Foreign Ministry spokesman said: "This sort of bragging won't divert our attention."

The spokesman, Dina Mufti, added: "Ethiopia is not intimidated by Egypt's psychological warfare and won't halt the dam's construction, even for seconds."

Egypt's previous military rulers had contingency plans to attack Ethiopian dams that might disrupt the flow of the Nile.

Some politicians were caught on camera last week talking of air strikes or backing Ethiopian rebels after the start of major new work on the project took Cairo by surprise late last month.

Asked if Addis Ababa was looking at measures to defend the Ethiopian Grand Renaissance Dam, Dina said: "No country operates without precautions, let alone Ethiopia, which has a track record of defending its independence from all forces of evil."

Mainly Christian Ethiopia and Muslim Arab Egypt share a long history of suspicion and friction, including over the Nile.

Egypt's foreign minister, who has said he will give up "not a single drop of water", is to visit Addis Ababa. Mursi hoped for a political solution with Ethiopia, a "friendly state", whose demands for economic development he said he understood.

IMPACT

One bone of contention is a technical analysis of the impact of the $4.7-billion dam being built by an Italian firm on the Blue Nile near the border with Sudan, which supports the plan.

Ethiopia says a joint report, still kept under wraps by both governments, supports its assurances it will do "no appreciable harm" to Sudan and Egypt downstream. It has no plan to use water for irrigation and says that once the reservoir is filled, all the river's water will be free to flow through its turbines.

Mursi, however, said Egypt had carried out studies that showed "negative consequences". Less water would flow while the reservoir is filling. Once full, more water may evaporate.

Egypt, whose 84 million people use almost all of the Nile's supply that reaches them to meet their needs, cites colonial-era treaties guaranteeing it the lion's share of the water. Ethiopia and other upstream neighbours say those claims are outdated.

"Ethiopia cannot remain poor," Foreign Minister Tedros Adhanom said in a statement. "It must utilise its resources to lift its people out of poverty."

Despite its lack of means, Ethiopia insists it can fund the project itself without help from international lenders wary of the diplomatic dispute. It has been aided by a $1-billion loan fromChina to build power transmission lines.

It says the project, on which work to divert the river temporarily began in May, is 21 percent complete. With a target generating capacity of 6,000 megawatts, it is part of a plan to make Ethiopia the biggest electricity exporter in Africa. (Editing by Alastair Macdonald and Mike Collett-White)

>reuters

Nile crises, where do we Oromos stand

By Adugna Dinka

According to some online news the construction of Ethiopian renaissance dam or The Abay dam is 21 per cent complete and it was just last week that Ethiopia started to divert the course of water about 500 meter to start the main work. When it get finished, the dam is expected to generate about 6000 megawatt of electricity which of course will be used to cover the electricity demand of the Ethiopian empire as well as electricity export to the neighboring countries to earn foreign currency for Weyane government. 

Egypt, who has the lion’s share of the Nile water based on the colonial era agreement of 1959, and who has a veto power on upstream water development projects doesn’t want its quota of water to be reduced due to the construction of this dam. It was just not long ago that the upstream countries of the Nile River signed a new agreement that was rejected by Egypt.  But due to unknown reason, the Egyptian kept silent until the day Ethiopia started diverting the water course. Since then, the issue is boiling between the two countries. The Egyptian politicians were even caught on air/TV broadcast/ threatening to go to war against Ethiopia or support Ethiopian rebels.  It appears that the Sudanese government is in support of the project may be due to the benefit it might get from the electricity supply after the completion of the dam.

From the Ethiopian side, the timing of the construction of the Abay dam is very interesting. Because it is a time that Egypt is becoming weaker and weaker due to the political situation in Egypt, the long lasted revolution as well as the change of the ruling party. There is still instability in the Egyptian politics. Other than this, Ethiopia claims that the dam doesn’t affect the downstream countries (Sudan and Egypt) at all. To the contrary, they say the dam will benefit them. They even invited others to join the project.

On the other hand, it appears that the project (the construction of the dam) has much opposition at home and from diaspora communities of Ethiopia from across the world. The TPLF, which has absolutely dominant power in the government of Ethiopia has tried many times to raise fund by selling bonds to diaspora communities and failed. They even faced with stiff opposition and protests. This is due to the fact that the human right record of the regime is very bad. The TPLF led government is unfriendly to the citizens, opposition parties and journalists.  The government creates conflicts between ethnics for a political benefit by claiming the conflict is caused by opposition parties or by rebel organizations. Moreover, the rebel organizations like Oromo liberation front (OLF) and Ogaden national liberation front (ONLF) are categorized as terrorist organizations by the TPLF dominated parliament of the country.

Over all, the success of the dam is debated both at home and internationally.  Nationally, the project is not fully supported by all nations and nationalities. The funding issue is another problem. Nobody is sure whether it is possible to raise such a fund locally.

Internationally, the dam affects countries those depend totally on the water supply of the river. It is said that 85% of the Nile water comes from Blue Nile. If the water supply of Egypt and Sudan is affected there is going to be a regional war.

In any case, there are countries or people who are going to be affected. Some will be affected more than others. Oromo people are those who are going to be affected much. The Oromo refugees in Egypt who left their homeland due to the brutality of the TPLF led government are already paying the price.

But, the bigger picture of the dam for Oromo people is more than this. If the Dam is to be constructed, as it is funded locally most of Oromo natural resources are going to be sold on cheap prices. The Weyane government is already selling everything including land to any investor whether it is national or foreigner customer. Most Oromos and other nations and nationalities from the southern part of the country are going to lose their resources and even they can be displaced from their land and it is already happening.

The worst case scenario of the dam is if Egypt goes to war against Ethiopian and destroy the dam to save its water quota. Under this case, one has to ask the question what is the cost of the war and who is going to fight? We have already seen the cost of the war with Eritrea which is a very small country. The life of dignified people and the resource expended on that nonsense war was too much. During that war, the majority of those who fought the wrong war and died were the sons and daughters of the poor Oromos.

If war happens with Egypt today or tomorrow, the poor Oromos and others are going to fight for the TPLF led government of Ethiopia just to benefit others. The leadership of the military is all in the hand of the Tigreans as all the generals and commanders are from them. The leadership of the country is in their hand. Then who will talk for the Oromos at this point. Are we going to fight a wrong war again?

Over here, we need Oromo leadership that takes us to the right position. Those Oromo leaders abroad or at home must come together and say a word about the position of Oromos in relation with the controversial dam as we are the one who are going to pay the price. As Oromos are the majority in that empire lets show our position and let it impact the decision that is made in that country.

The divided Oromo leadership in diaspora must come together at this point by putting aside their difference and come up with a unified leadership position that we all follow confidently. And it must be on time before it is too late.

Adugna Dinka (re_appear1@yahoo.co.uk)

UNHCR Calls on Egyptians to Protect Ethiopian Refugees

Monday, 10 June 2013

Press Release

UNHCR Calls on Egyptians to Protect Ethiopian Refugees

UNHCR Regional office in Cairo has been receiving several complaints from Ethiopian refugees reporting physical and verbal assaults by some Egyptian nationals against them, after the recent escalation of the dispute regarding the Nile dam project (Renaissance Dam), and finding difficulties in receiving police support to stop such attacks.

Some Ethiopian refugees shared with UNHCR additional difficulties related to accessing services, including health care at some hospitals because of their nationality. They added that some of them were kicked out of their jobs by their employers, or from their apartments by their landlords.

UNHCR is concerned about these allegations and calls upon the Egyptian public opinion to protect the physical integrity and the other rights of Ethiopian refugees in accordance with the international obligations of Egypt and the traditional hospitality of the Egyptian people that is clearly shown nowadays in the great support towards Syrian refugees.

It is of paramount importance that all differentiate between the political dispute with the Ethiopian government and the treatment of Ethiopian refugees, who fled their country to seek sanctuary in Egypt.

There are 2,608 Ethiopians registered with UNHCR as refugees and asylum seekers in Egypt.

Mohamed Dayri

UNHCR Regional Representative in Egypt

–Full document In JPG

>ayyaantuu