Ethiopia Expels Six American NGO Staff

April 1, 2005

Addis Ababa

The Ethiopian Government has expelled six officials from three American non-governmental organisations. The officials who are from the international republican institute, the National Democratic Institute and IFES were Wednesday evening given 48 hours to leave the country. They were here to implement a USAID project aimed at giving training and civic education to Ethiopian communities and organisations ahead of the general election to be held on the 15th of May 2005.

The expelled officials have been in the country for around two months. One of the American officials said that all were called to the Foreign Ministry on Wednesday and told by authorities they had two days to leave.

The official who spoke on condition of anonymity said that the government was all along aware of their presence in the country and that some of them were working closely with the Ethiopian National Elections board.

He noted that all the organisations had started the process of registering with the Ethiopian Government.

"I am very surprised and disappointed because my understanding is that they were all aware of our projects, we had approached the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington months before coming over and we thought that our work here was appreciated," he said.

But a senior official at Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the Americans came into the country and were granted visitors visas upon their arrival.

He added that the US Officials started setting up offices in Addis Ababa without the permission of any government institution. He said they were expelled because of meddling into preparations for the election which he termed as a very domestic issue.

The United States Agency for International Development which was funding the activities of the three organisations has sharply reacted to the government's move.

A USAID official termed the expulsion of the officials as shocking. He however said that it will not affect the commitment of the United States in helping all parties involved in the election.

According to AP, all three organizations believed they were being expelled in a broad Ethiopian retaliation to recent U.S. criticism of Ethiopia's human rights record - especially a U.S. State Department report released earlier this year.

The report, one of the annual human rights updates the U.S. government prepares for every country, said Ethiopia had made progress in respecting human rights in 2004, but noted that police lacked needed training and continued to employ excessive force, the judiciary remained overburdened and lacked capacity and there were still restrictions on freedom of the press.