Ethiopian embassy accuses men

The Ethiopian embassy in Dublin has said it believed that four local government officials who sought asylum while on an official visit here last month did so for economic rather than political reasons.

It has emerged that the four officials, who were on a six-day visit to launch a partnership between their towns of Werabe and Butajira in southern Ethiopia and South Dublin County Council, had sought asylum before their scheduled flight home. The council said before the weekend that its officials had gone to meet the men on March 27th when they were due to fly home but that they had not showed up.

The chief executive of aid agency Goal, John O'Shea, said that the decision of the Ethiopian officials to seek asylum here was not surprising. He described the Ethiopian government as "a hugely repressive regime" and called for an end to direct government-to-government aid to Ethiopia.

"The Irish Government faces a real dilemma. If they refuse asylum they risk seeing the four officials imprisoned or shot once they are back in Ethiopia. On the other hand if the Government grants asylum, they will effectively be acknowledging that Ireland's aid programme is channelling money through a repressive regime," he said.

However, Minister of State with responsibility for Overseas Aid Conor Lenihan said it was "absolute nonsense" that the issue had the potential to be hugely embarrassing for the Government. He said other aid agencies such as Trócaire and Concern believed the Government should continue to provide aid to Ethiopia at current levels or higher, and that the most effective way of providing this was through Ethiopian government structures. The chargé d'affaires at the Ethiopian embassy in Dublin, Goitom Kahfay, described the men as "technocrats" and experts with their local authorities.

He said that they were not high officials and did not have diplomatic passports. Mr Kahfay said the four officials were not affiliated with the political opposition in Ethiopia.

He said the embassy was disappointed that the men had sought asylum. Mr Kahfay said he believed the reason the men were seeking asylum was economic rather than political.