GSE WILLING TO ACCEPT STARVATION TO BREAK

C O N F I D E N T I A L ASMARA 000468 SIPDIS SIPDIS AIDAC STATE FOR AF/E STATE FOR AF/EPS STATE FOR EB STATE FOR PRM/AF STATE FOR IO USAID FOR AA/DCHA, FFP, OFDA USAID FOR AA/AFR AND AFR/EA KAMPALA FOR USAID/FFPO NAIROBI FOR REDSO/RFFP ADDIS FOR USAID/FHA KHARTOUM FOR SHA LONDON FOR AFRICA WATCHERS PARIS FOR AFRICA WATCHERS E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/31/2006 TAGS: EAID PGOV PREL PHUM ECON EGAD ER SUBJECT: GSE WILLING TO ACCEPT STARVATION TO BREAK "CULTURE OF DEPENDENCY" CLASSIFIED BY: AMB Scott H. DeLisi, for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). REFTEL: A) Asmara 201 B) Asmara 280 C)Asmara 341 ¶1. (C) Summary: As tensions rise around food security and the availability of basic food stocks, the GSE appears to be willing to accept malnutrition and even starvation of Eritrean citizen as an acceptable price to pay in breaking a "culture of dependency" on food aid. Meanwhile, while food is generally available in the urban areas, the price is becoming more than the average Eritrean can bear and anecdotal evidence suggests conditions in the rural areas are increasingly difficult. Further, as some government staff reportedly seek to blame the USG for food shortages, we may be seeing the start of GSE efforts to coerce donors into providing food aid even if it means support a cash for work strategy that so far is ill-defined and an unlikely mechanism for effectively distributing food to those most needing help. End Summary. ¶2. (C) The departing Director of Catholic Relief Service office in Eritrea recently paid a farewell call on Minister of National Development, Wolday Futur. In the course of the conversation the Minister acknowledged that malnutrition and hunger were issues currently in Eritrea. Nonetheless, he added, these problems, and even the deaths that might flow from them, were a price the GSE was willing to accept in its effort break the "culture of dependency" on food aid. A similar message was delivered to departing UNMEE staff officer, Bruno Mpondo-Epo, in his final call on May 31 with Yemane Ghebremeskel, Director, Office of the President. Mpondo-Epo told PolOff that Yemane acknowledged that Eritrea was experiencing a food crisis, however, Yemane asserted, the continued dependency on foreign food assistance must end. The GSE, Yemane said, planned to achieve food security within four years. Yemane told Mpondo-Epo that there was an Eritrean expression that the GSE was eager to see disappear: "As long as it is raining in Canada, who cares about the rains in Eritrea." He believed, he said, that the GSE has the duty to break this mindset, acknowledging the cost could be extremely high. ¶3. (C) Conversations by POL FSN with Asmarinos and a mid-level government official, show an increasing sense of frustration about food assistance with at least some animosity directed toward America. We are starting to hear reports that people are accusing America of "not providing food when people are starving." Such reports are not necessarily surprising in light of one incident, witnessed by POL FSN, in which a mid-level government official from the Ministry of Trade told some unhappy Eritreans that the lack of food was "the fault of the Americans who brought the food in and then locked it up in their warehouses and refused to distribute it." ¶4. (C) In a recent visit to Zager, a village about 20 kilometers outside of Asmara, POL FSN reported the situation appeared grim. While villagers reported the highland rains had been pretty good to date in the pre- summer rainy season, the crops were just starting to grow. The villagers had nearly nothing left from last year's harvest and little was available to buy. Some merchants from Asmara were bringing bread from the capital to sell, most likely made from GSE-appropriated WFP wheat that reportedly has been released into the urban markets, yet this bread supply was often sold out even before the merchants arrived at this village. (Note: The GSE has denied taking/releasing and WFP commodities but all the evidence we have seen suggests the contrary. End Note.) ¶5. (C) Villagers in the area also told POL FSN they had been participating in what they were told was Cash for Work on assorted projects for the past two months and had yet to be paid. The elderly are not participating in such a program and have not received any food supplements or support. Villagers told POL FSN, "we are starving." ¶6. (U) In urban areas food is available for a high price while in more rural areas the availability is questionable. Some in urban areas are able to obtain some basic food supplies through the subsidized food distribution centers while, for those with money, grains and oils are available on the local markets for nearly three times the subsidized price. In Asmara, there are well-supported reports of military staff selling flour for as much as Nakfa 1500(USD 100) per quintal (100 kilos). (Note: The subsidized price is approximately half the market price.) ¶7. (C) Matiwos Woldu, Economic Advisor of the Ministry of National Development explained to PolOff that Cash for Work is just one part of a more comprehensive food security strategy. Going on at length, Matiwos outlined the five year USD 100 million Integrated Rural Development Project for which the GSE seeks funding from the European Comission, African Development Bank and World Bank. This project will focus on three regions, Gash Barka, Debub and the North Red Sea aiming to enhance access to and the distribution of water, through diversion canals, microdams and reforestation. In this effort, labor would most likely be provided by Cash for Work participants. ¶8. (C) Comment: Despite its recent assertions to WFP that a good harvest and good rains had obviated the need for an emergency food aid program, the GSE is fully cognizant of the potential for a severe humanitarian crisis due to drought and food shortages. However, its continued reluctance to proved information on the harvest, crop assessments, or the results of nutritional surveys, adds to donor uncertainty as to actual food assistance requirements. Meanwhile, the GSE disingenuously continues to insist that its still undefined Cash-For-Work scheme is all that is needed to meet peoples' needs and is storming toward implementation of this strategy - even if the cost of doing so includes malnutrition and even deaths. Meanwhile, recent efforts blame food shortfalls on the US may be the start of an effort to coerce donors into subsidizing the GSE cash- for-work strategy. We will continue our efforts to obtain better and quantifiable information on the level of need and potential for a humanitarian crisis here. At the same time, however, we should continue to consider contingency emergency food delivery mechanisms that would allow us to respond to a crisis and contingency media strategies to avoid blame for a crisis of the GSE's own making. End Comment. DeLisi