Ethiopian Leader Deplores Burning of Famine Camp; Says Decision Wasn’t His

UNITED NATIONS —  Ethiopian leader Mengistu Haile Mariam said Monday that he had not approved last week’s dispersal of tens of thousands of famine victims from an Ethiopian refugee camp that was then torched. He vowed that “appropriate action” will be taken against the responsible local officials, U.N. officials said.

Ethiopian authorities had denied last week that more than 50,000 drought victims were forced from the Ibnet camp in the country’s Gondar region. They said the people left voluntarily after being given food and seed to plant in their home areas after recent rains.

The initial Ethiopian account conflicted with reports from Western correspondents, who said the Ethiopian army used force to evacuate and burn the camp and that long lines of refugees were seen snaking through dirt roads and river beds toward their drought-ravaged home provinces. The reports said that many of those forced to flee were young children or adults considered not strong enough to survive long treks.

U.S. Called It ‘Brutal’

The Ibnet operation has been strongly condemned by Western donor governments, including the United States, which termed the camp incident “brutal.”

Djibril Diallo, a spokesman for the U.N. relief operations, said that Mengistu’s remarks came Monday during a meeting in Addis Ababa with the U.N. special representative in Ethiopia, Kurt Jansson.

Mengistu “emphasized that the action was not authorized and that he did not agree with it or approve of it,” Jansson told reporters.

“He also stressed that such actions would not be allowed to reoccur” and that “appropriate action will be taken with respect to the local officials concerned.”

Diallo said in the meeting with Jansson, Mengistu had denied any involvement by the Ethiopian army in the burning of empty huts at the camp and said that the main camp, consisting of tents, had not been set afire.

Authorities Uniformed

“The chairman (Mengistu) stated that the initiative for the action at Ibnet was taken by local officials without informing the authorities in Addis Ababa,” Diallo said.

Jansson, asked by U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar to investigate the camp incident, determined that the evacuation of the camp was necessary and voluntary but said it was done too hastily and with too little preparation. After visiting the camp, Jansson said the burning of the huts was done to avoid health hazards.

During Monday’s meeting with Mengistu, Jansson was also reported to have stressed the need to step up food transport and distribution, saying the Ethiopian government should make every effort to use as many trucks to accomplish the goal as possible.

The Ethiopian leader said his government will take immediate action to increase the transport vehicles available for relief work and that the daily tonnage unloaded at the key Red Sea port of Assab will be increased to 4,000 tons by utilizing military vehicles and other trucks.

The U.N. officials said they do not know the present daily tonnage being unloaded.

Mengistu was reported to have ordered his transport minister to Assab to review the situation, and Jansson was invited to join him on a visit to the port.

Meanwhile, relief flights ferrying food aid to the famine-hit areas were interrupted Monday after floods choked the airfield at Assab, a Royal Air Force officer said.

He said British planes that flew to Assab on Monday morning could not land and returned empty to Addis Ababa. He could not say when flights would be resumed.

As a result, thousands of tons of Western aid supplies for Ethiopia’s starving millions could be held up at Assab, the port through which about 75% of the aid passes.

Due to a shortage of trucks in the country, aircraft from Britain, West and East Germany, Poland and the Soviet Union shuttle relief supplies from the port to several feeding centers in the hinterland.