AID Officials Say Ethiopia Blocks Food

The government of Ethiopia has blocked the delivery of tons of emergency American food aid to areas of civil war in that country, an action that threatens to spread starvation, U.S. officials said today.

“It is just unconscionable,” said Peter McPherson, administrator of the Agency for International Development, describing restrictions on the movement of food shipments to provinces in northern Ethiopia.

McPherson and Chester A. Crocker, assistant secretary of state for African affairs, testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Reagan Administration requests for an additional $235 million for famine-stricken African countries.

Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), the new committee chairman, said that as a result of the Ethiopian policies, “There are millions being starved out.”

6,000 Tons Seized

McPherson said the recent seizure by the Ethiopian government of 6,000 tons of food in an Australian cargo ship was intended to prevent delivery of the aid to two northern provinces in Ethiopia where separatists have been battling government troops.

“The starving people simply cannot be pawns,” McPherson said. “The conflict has made it (the famine) worse, and made it particularly difficult to move food around.”

While the United States has been channeling some assistance through Sudan to the disputed areas, McPherson said trucks carrying food across Ethiopia are stopped by government troops.

To some extent, he said, the Ethiopian rebels are also to blame for using food as a weapon to advance their cause.

McPherson said civil strife in Mozambique also is inhibiting deliveries of emergency assistance to poor people in that country.

Crocker said although there is a history of bad relations between the United States and the pro-Soviet Ethiopian government, “there must be means to get food to all those who are at risk.”