January 29, 2006 (HAN) - The Ethiopian Prime minister Meles was speaking ten days after Britain said it would block 50 million pounds ($89 million) in budget support because of concerns about governance and human rights after a deadly crackdown on post-election demonstrations. Britain said it would re-direct the funds to humanitarian aid in donor-dependent Ethiopia.
Western donors currently fund about 10 percent of the budget in sub-Saharan Africa's second most populous country. "The government has the capacity to run regular activities and main development programmes of the country through its own expenditure, should any serious measures be taken by development partners," the Ethiopian Herald quoted Meles as saying.
Meles said he was not aware of any reduction in overall aid to the Horn of Africa nation, "as has been alleged by some media outlets," but appeared to acknowledge that some donor countries were shifting budget support to other forms of assistance.
Ethiopia had no problem with this in principle but strongly objects to the reasons given, he said, adding allegations that it had taken "inappropriate measures following the election are wrong and baseless".
Meles accused the only Ethiopian guerilla rebels- the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), neighbouring Eritrea and CUDP hardliners, of being behind the post-election disturbances in Addis and other parts of the Ethiopian territories.
http://www.geeskaafrika.com/ethiopia_28jan06.htm
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