A Ethiopia As food is again being airlifted into Ethiopia as the north African country heads in- to yet another drought,the political events which lead to such disasters are becoming more apparent. Kathryn van der Meulen, a Terrace resident who was working for a volunteer relief agency in the area during the worst of the 1984-85 famine, observed some of the effects of the Ethiopian government’s policies, ‘The farmers are used to such droughts, and had been able to prepare for them. They knew famine came- in cycles, and stored food on their land. They knew that some people might die, that some assistance would be needed, but they were able to lessen the effects. Then Mengistu (the government leader since 1974) made it illegal for the farmers to store food in their own graineries. We were told by farmers in our camps that soldiers were sent by Mengistu to burn their graineries down. In fact, farmers said they had grain growing in their fields . in 1985-86, and soldiers burned that down, too, Van der Meulen first entered Ethiopia in September, 1984, as a volunteer nurse and relief - worker for the interdenomina- tional relief and rehabilitation organization, Emmanual Inter- national, It was the tenth an- niversary of the revolution that saw Mengistu Haile Mariam take over the government from Emperor Haile Selassie, moving the country from feudalism to : socialism. With large . celebra- tions going on, van der Meulen’s visa was delayed several times before she could get permission ‘Lessons In history: the politics of famine in A Terrace woman recalls her work In Africa, and examines the underlying ; causes of the ongoing tragedy to enter the countrry. ‘They seemed to spend a lot of money on these celebrations,‘ she ‘noted. Yet a month later, on Oc- tober 24, 1984, Mengistu appeal- ed to other countries for massive aid to save the estimated 6.4 million people facing starvation. These seemingly contradictory events point to the complex underlying reasons for the famine. According to the world affairs journal, Current History, Mengistu’s ‘innovative and drastic’ steps to revolutionize Ethiopia contributed to the drought. Ideoligically-inspired programs of land redistribution, ‘villagization®, and population relocation disrupted agricultural production immensely. In addi- tion to this, a military solution to political uprisings in the Ogaden, Tigre and Eritrea areas of the country focused the new government’s energies on to swords, not plowshares. _ Land reform involved taking holdings from landowners and distributing it among peasants who had formerly been tenant farmers. While this policy was popular among peasants, van der Meulen also saw some of its negative effects. ‘Some small landowners who said they had been doing quite well, growing food crops for sale and for their own consumption, lost most of their -land. They. were: instead ‘given only a small plot for their own food growing, and worked on communal fields of coffee and cotton for export to Russia.”’ The ‘villagization’ program Terrace nurse Kathryn van 1 der Maulen assisted and cared for famine refugees at this camp In Ethiopla three years ago. She sees many of the factors that contributed to that disaster becoming apparent again t this year. Your ticket to savings on spotless drycleaning Whatever you wear. .. We clean wilh care Mystery ee, el Stop.in today and pick up a Mystery Spot scratch-and-win card! Rickards Cleanars wastes terre yu tee peratcn Here For Savings! w The Thornhill Public Market was implemented to centralize services such as schools, health clinics and clean water. But as Current History has pointed out, villagization also “facilitates government control of the population (and) heldp force the pace of collectiviza- tion’’, Van der Meulen said, “Some people were told they were chosen to be relocated, but they would not be forced to move. But the alternatives they were given were to ‘choose’ to be relocated, or to ‘choose’ not to receive any more aid or assistance.” The population relocation program moved people from the active fighting and drought- ridden areas to the less populated south. This program also separated families and weakened the formation of rebellious forces. When a group of 600 men, 14 women and a few dozen children wandered into a relief camp, starving, with few clothes, and sick with tuber- culosis, malaria, pneumonia, and even gun shot wounds, Kathryn van der Meulen heard an unforgettable story of such a relocation, “T had been transferred to work with Fellowship for African Relief in Sudan. Our camp was near Damazin, just west of the Ethiopian border and the Tigre area.”’ .**When this large group first started coming into the camp, the first thing that struck us was how many men there were. ‘Usually groups were made up of ‘women and children - the men were still trying to farm, or they had been recruited to be soldiers. These men told us they were farmers from the Tigre area who had been relocated to the south. When their grain stores were destroyed, they were told to go to a certain place to register for Red Cross food aid. Instead, they were surrounded by soldiers, herded into trucks, then crowded into planes. They were afraid that if they tried to escape, they would be shot.”’ ‘‘When they arrived in southern Ethiopia, they were basically locked up for three , Regul 18 Gam os _ Terrace Review — Wednesday, April 6, 1988 15 Kathryn van dar Meulen, a nurse and resident of Terrace for the past year, worked for a volunteer relief agency In Ethiopia during the worst period fo the 1984-85 famine there. These two children were among millions displac- ad by the government’s relocation program during that time. months while they received com- munist education, Then they were allowed out onto their new land, but it was swampy and fill- ed with mosquitoes. Being from the north, they weren’t used to mosquitoes and caught malaria. They said there had not been enough food or clean water. They said they received only a small handful of rice a day, unless an official was touring, when they received big bowlsful.”’ ‘“‘The relocated people wanted to go back to Tigre, but were afraid of going through Ethiopia, and so crossed the border into Sudan. But the southern Sudanese, who we heard received food from the Ethiopian government, con- sidered them northern rebels, and turned them away. However, they took some of the women and children, Others were drowned crossing rivers, got lost. or ran into wild animals.’’ Several thousand people had left the south, and the dwindling DOORS OPEN AT 4:30 P.M. Terrace’s Bingo Place Lucky Dollar Bingo Palace 4818 Hwy. 16 West SUNDAY: Terrace Athletics Assn. (MONDAY: Terrace Minor Hockey . TUESDAY: Kermodes or Jaycees WEDNESDAY: Terrace Blueback Swim club THURSDAY: 747 Air Cadets FRIDAY: Parapelegic Assn. SATURDAY: Parapelegic Foundation EVERYONE WELCOME! (Age 14 years and up) Thank youl Have a Nice day! numbers of people crossed back: into Sudan further north. Again the soldiers stopped them. They had dressed some of the women as men, but when these soldiers took their clothes, they discovered the women. More women and children were taken. The conclusion of this dramatic story was that ‘‘In January, 1986, the first group arrived in our camp, one year after they started their journey north,”’ Van der Meulen said her ex- periences in Somalia, Ethiopia, and Sudan from 1981 to 1985 are unforgettable. Fellow volunteers offered support through discussion and prayer when the fighting drew near the camps, or when young children just couldn’t be helped to sur- vive. ‘‘We tried to talk over both the positive and negative events of the day. It hurts to see suffer- ing when.you get to know the refugees as individuals, when you see a child’s parents griev- ing. But when you see dramatic continued on page 23 Extra Games