Millions of Ethiopian famine aid used to buy weapons

Mike Pflanz in Nairobi Published: 1:09PM GMT 03 March 2010

Previous of Images Next Bob Geldof talks on theatre at Wembley Stadium at the commencement of Live Aid in 1985 Photo: AP At the time, the Ethiopian Marxist supervision of Haile Mengistu Mariam refused to pass food to famine-hit civilians Photo: AP The mutinous armed forces involved, headed by Ethiopia"s stream budding minister, Meles Zenawi, went on to overpower Ethiopia"s Marxist supervision Photo: REUTERS

At slightest a little of that income was expected to have come from the �150 million lifted by Live Aid and Band Aid. More than 3 million copies of Do They Know It"s Yuletide sole in only five weeks in late 1984 to lift supports for the estimated eight million Ethiopians confronting starvation. Up to a million died.

According to a inform published on Wednesday, mutinous soldiers sheltered themselves as pellet traders and handed over sacks of silt dark underneath genuine food aid, in lapse for money from Western donations.

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The mutinous armed forces involved, headed by Ethiopia"s stream budding minister, Meles Zenawi, went on to overpower Ethiopia"s Marxist supervision and has run the nation since.

Mr Meles has been one of Britain"s majority lucky African leaders after earnest approved reforms.

The review by the BBC, will lift serve questions over Western await for Mr Meles and his statute Ethiopian People"s Revolutionary Democratic Front.

That celebration grew out of the Tigrayan People"s Liberation Front, the mutinous armed forces since Western money to buy food assist during the 1984-5 famine.

At the time, the Ethiopian Marxist supervision of Haile Mengistu Mariam refused to pass food to famine-hit civilians vital in the north of the country, where a polite fight was already years old and where a dry weather was satirical hardest.

Instead, Europe and the US shipped food by Sudan and in to the northern provinces of Tigray and Eritrea.

Some areas had over-abundance harvests, and food was paid for from those farmers around a internal assist group, the Relief Society of Tigray and trucked to famine-hit regions.

Max Peberdy, an assist workman in 1984 with Christian Aid, told the BBC that he carried some-more than $500,000 opposite the limit in to Ethiopia to buy food.

He insisted that there was "a finish separation" in between team-work from the mutinous armed forces and the "logistics" of shopping food from internal farmers.

But one of the traders who sole pellet to Mr Peberdy directly, Gebremedhin Araya, pronounced that he was in actuality a comparison mutinous commander.

"I was since garments to have me see similar to a Muslim merchant. This was a pretence for the NGOs," he said, referring to non-governmental organisations, or assist agencies.

He pronounced sacks filled with silt were dark underneath a tip covering of genuine pellet bags.

Another man claiming to be a comparison commander, Aregawi Berhe, pronounced that "95 per cent" of the $100 million since to buy food was diverted to squeeze weapons or to progress the rebels" cause.

"The assist workers were fooled," he said.

Recently declassified papers from the CIA await these claims.

"Some supports that mutinous organisations are raising for service operations, as a outcome of increasing universe publicity, are roughly positively being diverted for troops purposes," the Agency wrote in a tip 1985 report.

A orator for Mr Meles could not rught away be reached. A second Ethiopian supervision orator pronounced that he had not nonetheless seen the BBC report.