Who tries to rob Irob of her Ethiopian identity?

Kinijit North America PR

March 18, 2006

For helping him become a ruler of Ethiopia, Mr. Meles Zenawi gave coastal Ethiopia as a gift to Mr. Isaias Afeworki and his Eritrean Peoples Liberation Front (EPLF). As President Carter wrote in 2005, Mr. Zenawi gave away Ethiopian coastal lands despite his council to the contrary. The gift was implemented essentially as of 1991 and officially as of 1993.

The EPLF are largely composed of Ethiopians from Hamasen, a region in the northern highlands of Ethiopia. Mr. Zenawi, whose late mother was a Hamasen Ethiopian, is the leader of the Tigrey People's Liberation Front (TPLF), and also the ruler of landlocked Ethiopia. While an alleged referendum conducted by Tigrey Ethiopians of the Eritrean region was used to show an interest of Tigrey Ethiopians of Eritrean region to secede from "slavery under Ethiopian governance" no such expression was made by the Afar Ethiopians nor by the Irob Ethiopians. Yet, the coastal territory of the Afar Ethiopians was ceded to the EPLF under Mr. Isaias Afeworki in 1991, while in March 2005 Badame became a subject of a five-point negotiation in London between representatives of Mr. Afeworki and Zenawi before Mr. Zenawi will cede it to Mr. Afeworki at the expense of the rights of the Irob Ethiopians.

It must be underscored that the Irob Ethiopians wished to remain Ethiopians and that fact was part of the reason, in addition to a desire by Mr. Zenawi to establish an international boundary within Ethiopia, that led to the 1998 wars between the EPLF and Ethiopia. The 1998 senseless wars that resulted in the killing of tens of thousands of Ethiopians was used by Mr. Zenawi and Mr. Afeworki to arrive at the 2000 Algiers agreement that is claimed to have offered a framework for establishing an international boundary, though that agreement unjustly resuscitated defunct and voided conventions. Those 1900, 1902, 1908 defunct and voided conventions were used by a five man EEBC (Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission) to delivered an unjust but legal-sounding international boundary de novo between a “state called Eritrea” that did not exist before 1889, and Ethiopia within which the region, that Italy called Eritrea, was a part for thousands of years.

Only eleven years of military occupation by Italy was the rationale for founding an international boundary within Ethiopia. Beyond resuscitating conventions that were expressly abrogated by Italy, the 2002 EEBC document invented a history of Ethiopia to extend the number of years that the coastal region was not governed by Ethiopia. The commissioners were wrong as Ras Alula killed about 500 soldiers in Dogali, only 19 kilometres from Massawa that Italians had occupied and from which they were sending soldiers to support their fort in Saati. Later, Emperor Yohannes IV camped for a month near Saati in 1887 about 26 kilometres from Massawa to attack the Italians, though he decided to engage the Dervish in Metema at which he was killed. It was in the wake of the Emperor march to Gojjam and then to Metema that the Italians ascended from the coastal plains to the Ethiopian highlands.

Their further encroachment past River Mereb was stopped as Italian soldiers were routed in the battle of Adwa of 1896. Italy signed the Treaty of 1896 in which they agreed not to cede to any other power any part of Ethiopia that they will administrate. The 1900, 1902, 1908 conventions are related to the root Treaty of 1896. Menelik II had predicted that the colonials will leave. Indeed, the Italians left, and actually in 1947 they abrogated any treaties that empowered them to have possessions over Ethiopia. The EEBC document has other serious errors that defame Ethiopia and the valiant Emperor Menelik II. However, the focus here is not on the EEBC document as it is on Mr. Zenawi who went to all lengths to deface, defame, and change Ethiopia.

The wishes and votes of Ethiopians has never been the determining factor or the concern of Mr. Zenawi and his administration. Mr. Zenawi is a dictator, whose contempt for the Ethiopia knows no bounds. It is not only the possessions and administrations of the Afar and the Irob Ethiopians and their territories that he has changed. Former residents of Wolqait, Humera, Tegede, Tselemt, all regions of Gondar were displaced and Tigrey Ethiopians were settled as Mr. Zenawi annexed that part of Gondar to Tigrey. He has done similar annexation of parts of Welo to Tigrey.

The Eritrawe Ethiopian, the Irob Ethiopian and the Afar Ethiopians are not the only Ethiopians that have suffered under the contemptuous dictatorship of Mr. Zenawi. All Ethiopians have been marginalized, demeaned, and disregarded by Mr. Zenawi and the TPLF/EPRDF. The total disregard of the interests and wishes of Ethiopians by Mr. Zenawi and his TPLF is a testament that his regime and his determinations cannot endure as they are not supported by the masses. The more sustainable and just cause of Ethiopians shall be achieved through the nonviolent movement championed by the Kinijit and other parties. Kinijit will deal with boundary issues on internationally acceptable legal basis.

Ethiopia shall overcome the troubles and tribulations dolled out day by day by Mr. Zenawi and his TPLF/EPRDF. All Ethiopians should join hands and peaceably remove the scourge that has afflicted Ethiopia.

Kinijit, North American Support Branch Editorial Board