VZCZCXYZ0009
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHAE #0468/01 1521508
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 011508Z JUN 06
FM AMEMBASSY ASMARA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8186
INFO RUEHDS/AMEMBASSY ADDIS ABABA PRIORITY 5886
RUEHDJ/AMEMBASSY DJIBOUTI 2789
RUEHKH/AMEMBASSY KHARTOUM 0082
RUEHKM/AMEMBASSY KAMPALA 0994
RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME 1712
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 1136
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 1309
RUEHNR/AMEMBASSY NAIROBI 4567
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUEKDIA/DIA WASHDC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RHMFISS/CJTF HOA

C O N F I D E N T I A L ASMARA 000468 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
AIDAC 
 
STATE FOR AF/E 
STATE FOR AF/EPS 
STATE FOR EB 
STATE FOR PRM/AF 
STATE FOR IO 
USAID FOR AA/DCHA, FFP, OFDA 
USAID FOR AA/AFR AND AFR/EA 
KAMPALA FOR USAID/FFPO 
NAIROBI FOR REDSO/RFFP 
ADDIS FOR USAID/FHA 
KHARTOUM FOR SHA 
LONDON FOR AFRICA WATCHERS 
PARIS FOR AFRICA WATCHERS 
 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/31/2006 
TAGS: EAID PGOV PREL PHUM ECON EGAD ER
SUBJECT: GSE WILLING TO ACCEPT STARVATION TO BREAK 
"CULTURE OF DEPENDENCY" 
 
 
CLASSIFIED BY:  AMB Scott H. DeLisi, for reasons 1.4 (b) 
and (d). 
 
REFTEL: A) Asmara 201 B) Asmara 280 C)Asmara 341 
 
¶1. (C) Summary: As tensions rise around food security and 
the availability of basic food stocks, the GSE appears to 
be willing to accept malnutrition and even starvation of 
Eritrean citizen as an acceptable price to pay in 
breaking a "culture of dependency" on food aid. 
Meanwhile, while food is generally available in the urban 
areas, the price is becoming more than the average 
Eritrean can bear and anecdotal evidence suggests 
conditions in the rural areas are increasingly difficult. 
Further, as some government staff reportedly seek to 
blame the USG for food shortages, we may be seeing the 
start of GSE efforts to coerce donors into providing food 
aid even if it means support a cash for work strategy 
that so far is ill-defined and an unlikely mechanism for 
effectively distributing food to those most needing help. 
End Summary. 
 
¶2. (C) The departing Director of Catholic Relief Service 
office in Eritrea recently paid a farewell call on 
Minister of National Development, Wolday Futur.  In the 
course of the conversation the Minister acknowledged that 
malnutrition and hunger were issues currently in Eritrea. 
Nonetheless, he added, these problems, and even the 
deaths that might flow from them, were a price the GSE 
was willing to accept in its effort break the "culture of 
dependency" on food aid.  A similar message was delivered 
to departing UNMEE staff officer, Bruno Mpondo-Epo, in 
his final call on May 31 with Yemane Ghebremeskel, 
Director, Office of the President.  Mpondo-Epo told 
PolOff that Yemane acknowledged that Eritrea was 
experiencing a food crisis, however, Yemane asserted, the 
continued dependency on foreign food assistance must end. 
The GSE, Yemane said, planned to achieve food security 
within four years.  Yemane told Mpondo-Epo that there was 
an Eritrean expression that the GSE was eager to see 
disappear: "As long as it is raining in Canada, who cares 
about the rains in Eritrea."  He believed, he said, that 
the GSE has the duty to break this mindset, acknowledging 
the cost could be extremely high. 
 
¶3.  (C) Conversations by POL FSN with Asmarinos and a 
mid-level government official, show an increasing sense 
of frustration about food assistance with at least some 
animosity directed toward America.  We are starting to 
hear reports that people are accusing America of "not 
providing food when people are starving."  Such reports 
are not necessarily surprising in light of one incident, 
witnessed by POL FSN, in which a mid-level government 
official from the Ministry of Trade told some unhappy 
Eritreans that the lack of food was "the fault of the 
Americans who brought the food in and then locked it up 
in their warehouses and refused to distribute it." 
 
¶4. (C) In a recent visit to Zager, a village about 20 
kilometers outside of Asmara, POL FSN reported the 
 
situation appeared grim.  While villagers reported the 
highland rains had been pretty good to date in the pre- 
summer rainy season, the crops were just starting to 
grow.  The villagers had nearly nothing left from last 
year's harvest and little was available to buy.  Some 
merchants from Asmara were bringing bread from the 
capital to sell, most likely made from GSE-appropriated 
WFP wheat that reportedly has been released into the 
urban markets, yet this bread supply was often sold out 
even before the merchants arrived at this village. (Note: 
The GSE has denied taking/releasing and WFP commodities 
but all the evidence we have seen suggests the contrary. 
End Note.) 
 
¶5. (C) Villagers in the area also told POL FSN they had 
been participating in what they were told was Cash for 
Work on assorted projects for the past two months and had 
yet to be paid.  The elderly are not participating in 
such a program and have not received any food supplements 
or support.  Villagers told POL FSN, "we are starving." 
 
¶6. (U) In urban areas food is available for a high price 
while in more rural areas the availability is 
questionable.  Some in urban areas are able to obtain 
some basic food supplies through the subsidized food 
distribution centers while, for those with money, grains 
and oils are available on the local markets for nearly 
three times the subsidized price.  In Asmara, there are 
well-supported reports of military staff selling flour 
for as much as Nakfa 1500(USD 100) per quintal (100 
kilos). (Note:  The subsidized price is approximately 
half the market price.) 
 
¶7. (C) Matiwos Woldu, Economic Advisor of the Ministry of 
National Development explained to PolOff that Cash for 
Work is just one part of a more comprehensive food 
security strategy.  Going on at length, Matiwos outlined 
the five year USD 100 million Integrated Rural 
Development Project for which the GSE seeks funding from 
the European Comission, African Development Bank and 
World Bank.  This project will focus on three regions, 
Gash Barka, Debub and the North Red Sea aiming to enhance 
access to and the distribution of water, through 
diversion canals, microdams and reforestation.  In this 
effort, labor would most likely be provided by Cash for 
Work participants. 
 
¶8. (C) Comment:  Despite its recent assertions to WFP 
that a good harvest and good rains had obviated the need 
for an emergency food aid program, the GSE is fully 
cognizant of the potential for a severe humanitarian 
crisis due to drought and food shortages.  However, its 
continued reluctance to proved information on the 
harvest, crop assessments, or the results of nutritional 
surveys, adds to donor uncertainty as to actual food 
assistance requirements.  Meanwhile, the GSE 
disingenuously continues to insist that its still 
undefined Cash-For-Work scheme is all that is needed to 
meet peoples' needs and is storming toward implementation 
of this strategy - even if the cost of doing so includes 
 
malnutrition and even deaths.  Meanwhile, recent efforts 
blame food shortfalls on the US may be the start of an 
effort to coerce donors into subsidizing the GSE cash- 
for-work strategy.  We will continue our efforts to 
obtain better and quantifiable information on the level 
of need and potential for a humanitarian crisis here.  At 
the same time, however, we should continue to consider 
contingency emergency food delivery mechanisms that would 
allow us to respond to a crisis and contingency media 
strategies to avoid blame for a crisis of the GSE's own 
making.  End Comment. 
 
DeLisi