ABSTRACT
The resettlement, ordered by Ethiopian President Mengistu and carried out by brutal means, had been going on for over a year. In February 1986 Ambassador Claudio Moreno, director of the Italian Aid Fund, had sent the author to Wollo to look for alternative structural solutions. The author had spoken with officials of the regional administration, the ruling party, the Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (RRC) in charge of resettlement, those in charge of the peasant associations involved in the operations; and as many people as possible in the street and market. In February 1986 when he arrived in Wollo, the emergency shelters no longer existed. Most of the transfers to resettlement areas had already taken place. The RRC was responsible for running the reception and transit shelters, and for transporting the peasants. Before the RRC's resettlement program was finalized the World Bank had described it as an important structural instrument for solving the problems of the famine.
