- Amnesty International says 5,000 people tortured, raped and ‘disappeared’
- Over the last three years the UK Government has given Ethiopia ยฃ1 billion
- It pocketed ยฃ261.5 million in 2012 and ยฃ284.4 million in 2013
By VANESSA ALLEN FOR THE DAILY MAIL
More than ยฃ1billion from taxpayers was given in aid to Ethiopia while its security forces tortured, killed and raped, campaigners claimed yesterday.
Amnesty International has documented thousands of shockingly brutal abuses against citizens suspected of political opposition.
The human rights groupโs report follows calls for greater scrutiny by Britain and other donors to ensure their money does not support state-sanctioned killings and brutality.
Amnesty warned that thousands have faced repeated torture while unlawful state killings have been carried out in a โrelentless crackdown on real or imagined dissentโ.
Horrors inflicted on ordinary Ethiopians include women being gang-raped and tortured by prison guards. Amnestyโs report also tells how a teacher was stabbed in the eye with a bayonet after refusing to teach pro-government propaganda to his students.
Entire families were arrested with parents and siblings โdisappearingโ after they were taken to army camps, said Amnesty.
Britain has donated more than ยฃ1billion to Ethiopia in the last five years alone. The Government has denied funding security forces in the autocratic one-party state.
But Britainโs relationship with the East African country is likely to come under scrutiny in a judicial review into claims made by a Ethiopian farmer.
He has been given legal aid in this country to pursue allegations that UK aid supported the regime while it forced thousands of villagers like him from their land using murder, torture and rape.
