Karuturi to outsource Ethiopian land to Indian farmers

Raghuvir Badrinath / Bangalore October 12, 2011, 1:03 IST

Karuturi Global, the city-based publicly-held floriculture major and one of the world’s largest exporter of roses which is aggressively rolling out an agriculture business venture in Ethiopia, is looking at outsourcing 20,000 hectares of farm land in the African nation to Indian farmers on a revenue-sharing basis.

The company has leased 300,000 hectares in Gambela, in the western corner of Ethiopia. It has been looking to develop a bouquet of crops such as paddy, maize, cereals, palm oil, and sugarcane, among others, to cater to the huge demand in Africa and also look at the export market. According to senior officials of Karuturi, they have taken possession of 100,000 hectares, and after the completion of this, they will be able to take possession of another 200,000 hectares. And here is the rest of it.

Meles met by protests

Norwegian News

A chorus of critics demonstrated outside the Oslo hotel where Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi was attending an international energy conference this week. He brushed off the criticism, while Norwegian leaders say they took up some of it with him.

“Norwegian and other countries’ organizations think they have a right to involve themselves in African countries’ politics,” Meles Zenawi told newspaperAftenposten. “At the same time, I, as an Ethiopian, have no right to involve myself in Norwegian affairs. We have never accepted this double standard.”

He said that Norway can gladly “help us” in economic issues, “and say what you think.” But he warned outsiders from meddling in Ethiopia’s political processes.

Norway has donated around NOK 1.4 billion in aid to Ethiopia over the past six years, and Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg has worked closely with Meles Zenawi on a UN-backed effort to raise funds for measures to halt climate change. That’s at least partly why Meles Zenawi was in Oslo this week, to take part in the latest conference involving energy and climate issues. While he was welcomed by his Norwegian hosts, Aftenposten reported how demonstrators outside the Radisson Blu Hotel in downtown Oslo were chanting “shame, shame, shame.” Most of the demonstrators were Ethiopian-Norwegians who are not at all happy with Meles Zenawi’s rule back home.

“This is a man who imprisons journalists and opposition groups,” Adam Mulualem Zerikun, one of the organizers of the demonstration, told Aftenposten. He accused Meles Zenawi of gathering all political power in an ethnic group that makes up only a small percentage of the population, of prohibiting aid organizations and impartial observerser into southern portions of the country and of turning Ethiopia into a dictatorship.

Meles Zenawi was unmoved. “If they don’t agree with the government’s politics, it’s natural they protest,” he told Aftenposten. He also stressed that Ethiopia has never been a colony and that’s why aid organizations aren’t allowed to get involved in political activities, including promotion of human rights.

After 20 years of rule, he has won international acclaim for boosting Ethiopia’s economy, but he’s also attracted criticism for a lack of progress on human rights and democracy. Most recently his government reportedly has used an anti-terror law to imprison hundreds of journalists and political opponents, including two Swedish journalists. Meles Zenawi insisted they were messengers for a terrorist organization.

Stoltenberg said he took up the issue of the imprisoned Swedes with Meles Zenawi on Monday, along with reports of murder and abuse of civilians in Ogaden. Yet he and government minister Erik Solheim also hailed the Ethiopian leader for promoting stability and growth in Africa.

“We’re working with Ethiopia to fight poverty,” Stoltenberg said. “Trade and investment are closely tied to improvement of human rights.”

Zenawi calls jailed Swedish journalists terror accomplices

(CPJ) New York, October 11, 2011--Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's public accusations on Monday against two imprisoned Swedish journalists compromise the presumption of their innocence and predetermine the outcome of their case, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The journalists were arrested in Ethiopia in July and charged with terrorism for associating with armed separatists. In July, Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye, contributors to the Sweden-based photo agency Kontinent, were arrested after they crossed with rebels of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) into Ogaden, an oil-rich province where the media is barred independent access. Earlier this year, the Ethiopian government formally designated the ONLF a terrorist group under an anti-terrorism law. Under this 2009 law, journalists risk up to 20 years in prison if the government deems their reporting favorable to groups designated as terrorists. Both journalists were charged without their lawyers present, CPJ research shows.

In a Monday interview with Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, Zenawi said Persson and Schibbye were accomplices to terrorists. "They are, at the very least, messenger boys of a terrorist organization. They are not journalists," the prime minister said. "Why would a journalist be involved with a terrorist organization and enter a country with that terrorist organization, escorted by armed terrorists, and participate in a fighting in which this terrorist organization was involved? If that is journalism, I don't know what terrorism is."
Zenawi then singled out Persson, citing footage in a government-produced video released by authorities in July in which the journalist is seen handling a weapon. "We have video clippings of this journalist training with the rebels," the prime minister said. In the same video, Schibbye is heard being told by Ethiopian security to say to the camera, "We came to the Ogaden region to do interviews with the ONLF," according to CPJ research.
"Since arresting Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye, the Ethiopian government has compromised their fundamental rights of defense--chiefly, the presumption of innocence--by portraying them in the media as accomplices to terrorists, charging them with terrorism without the presence of their lawyers, and making accusatory statements against them, like those by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, which appear to predetermine the outcome of their trial before it even starts," said CPJ Africa Advocacy Coordinator Mohamed Keita. "We call on the Ethiopian judiciary to guarantee both journalists a fair trial in what has become a politicized case."
In the interview, Zenawi called the journalists' case "an issue of crime, an ordinary criminal issue," and said, "Those who want to enter Ethiopia legally are not being prevented from entering the country legally, including journalists." However, media in Sweden reported on Monday that not one Swedish journalist who had applied for a visa to attend the journalists' October 18 trial had been approved yet.
With eight journalists behind bars, Ethiopia trails only Eritrea as the foremost jailer of journalists in Africa, according to CPJ research. Ethiopia's repression of the independent press has also driven into exile the largest number of journalists in the world, according to a CPJ study. Yet Zenawi told Aftenposten that Ethiopia was "moving in the right direction" in terms of human rights. "We have reached a very advanced stage of rule of law and respect for human rights," he said. "Fundamentally, this is a country where democratic rights of people are respected."