'NO FAMINE IN ETHIOPIA NOW’

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33425, 5 January 1974, Page 1

'NO FAMINE IN ETHIOPIA NOW’

A spokesman for Oxfam, the major British aid organisation which led the campaign to raise about $2.1 m lor famine relief in Ethiopia, said in London yesterday that grain was being exported from that country, writes an N.Z.P.A. correspondent.

• The spokesman said: “There is no famine in Ethiopia now, and our money will go to longer term rehabilitation projects.”

“The immediate crisis is now over,” she said. “I know it’s not very pleasant to think that the Government may; have been exporting food ; while we were collecting ! money to buy it for starving people, but the situation in 1 Ethiopia is very complicated. J “The main problem with , the famine was distribution i of food. The Government may ; have had it, but was not able ' to deliver it to the people who needed it. “We are now planning to;buy 16,000 oxen and assist in j other rehabilitation pro-f grammes rather than merely buying food.” N.Z. TEAM In response to 'a request from the International Red Cross in Geneva, the New Zealand Red Cross Society will send a medical team to Ethiopia. The secretary-general of the society (Commander M. C. Ashdown) said yesterday that the association was proud to be asked for medical help. Although the request came only yesterday morning, a decision was quickly made to send a doctor, two nurses and a driver-mechanic. Commander Ashdown said the members of the team would be chosen by next week and should be flown to Ethiopia towards the end of February. “SLAP IN FACE’’ A Washington report that the Ethiopian Government was not “overly concerned” about food shortages caused by drought conditions was described in a statement yesterday as “tragic oversimplification’’ by the chairman of the Overseas Development Committee (Mr P. A. Gar-j side). i The suggestion that the!

alleged lack of concern by; the Ethiopian Government might make the United States hold back on aid and development “is a slap in the face to all Third World countries,” Mr Garside said. “People in New Zealand should understand that the governments of’the economically poorer countries are; naturally very sensitive about! admitting to problems which question their governing! ability and credibility over-) seas. “The presence of food supplies in one part of a coun-l try would not automatically' ensure just distribution to those most in need, or excuse) the rest of the world from doing what it could,” Mr Gar-! side said. “PLENTY OF FOOD” A Wellington businessman. recently in Ethiopia said ini

•an interview yesterday that •he saw no starvation and \ plenty .of food in Addis > Ababa. There was plenty of food in Ethiopia and the Ethio- [ pian Government could have ! alleviated the situation in J the drought-stricken northern • regions a long time ago, said Mr David Crew. 1 Mr Crew, of Silverstreani, returned early in December after spending 10 days in i Addis Ababa. ■ “The European society in Ethiopia is closed, but they 'know the situation,” he said. I “In a market place in Addis Ababa there would have been I about a square mile covered ■with their type of food. ; “We saw poverty but at Ino stage did we see anyone, (starving in the capital,” Mr Crew said.