What the International Community Should Know about the Border Demarcation Ruling
By Tseggai Mebrahtu | April 7, 2003

The international community should realise that Ethiopia has been in mourning since the signature of the Algiers conspiracy between the Eritrean president and the Eritrean prime minister ruling Ethiopia. We say that Ethiopia has been mourning because the life sacrifices of tens of thousands of Ethiopians to defend what rightfully belongs to their mother land has been nullified by those which the international community considers to be the “legal” and “legitimate” representatives of the Ethiopia. However, measured against the yardstick of the normal behaviour of all leaders of the world, those who hold the helm of power in Ethiopia cannot by any means be considered as legitimate representatives of Ethiopia under international law.

The “TPLF”/”EPRDF” stance before and after its taking of power has always been overtly against Ethiopia. Because of this, while some Ethiopians consider them occupation forces others call them Eritrean Trojan Horses. Be that as it may, one thing is clear. The “EPRDF/ TPLF” leadership has made a clear and deliberate choice of working for Eritrea by pitting Ethiopians against each other.

The fact that this clique has accepted the possible elimination of Ethiopia from existence by legalising secession (whereas no such Constitution exists in the world) should be seen from angle of their long term objective of strengthening Eritrea at the expense of Ethiopia; and if necessary by transforming the latter into an African Yugoslavia. The fact that “EPRDF/TPLF” are the first to recognise Eritrea’s independence against African and general international laws by rendering Ethiopia landlocked in the teeth of the fierce opposition of Ethiopians testifies to their role as Trojan Horses of Eritrea.

No leader of a country however dictatorial he may be has ever pled for the international recognition of the landlocked status of the country, which he rules. The Algiers and Hague conspiracies are logical continuations of the policy of destroying Ethiopia with the active collaboration of individuals and political cadres from the Tigray province who have chosen to lick the boots of EPLF top bananas.

We would like therefore to insist on the international community’s legal and moral obligation not to consider Ethiopia’s diplomatic and “juridical” debacle in Algiers and in The Hague as resulting from the just application of international rule of law. The debacle is skilfully planned and implemented by the Eritrea’s Trojan Horses who barefacedly pretend to be the legitimate leaders of Ethiopia. Although the usual practice in international relations leads to presume that individuals who officially represent internationally their respective countries do work always in furtherance of their national cause, in the case of Ethiopia, this presumption has been rebutted beyond any doubt by the exceedingly pro Eritrea (anti Ethiopia) policy of the rulers of Ethiopia. It is therefore indispensable for international community to make a difference between Ethiopia as nation of sixty seven million people and the Eritrean Trojan Horses who took power by violence on May 1991. The international community should open its eyes and take notice of the fact that any agreement entered into with Eritrea by the Eritrean prime minister of Ethiopia cannot be considered as the expression of the free will of the Ethiopian state. The international community may not understand how the brave Ethiopians were cheated as to be ruled by individuals opposed to their existence as a proud people. Well, what we are now saying is that Ethiopia does not have a government understood in the etymological sense of the word. Therefore, the Eritrean Trojan Horses cannot validly enter into international obligations in the name of Ethiopia binding on the Ethiopia against Ethiopia. As this kind of case has never been known in the history of international relations, we believe that exceptional cases should be dealt with exceptionally. Stated differently, the international community must exceptionally decide not to recognise the validity of so-called Algiers anti Ethiopia conspiracy.

From this point of view, we are very much dismayed and flabbergasted by the behaviour of the Hague based Border Commission, the Security Council of the United Nations and the United nations General secretary to resort to the intimidation and blackmailing of Ethiopia by accusing her of “jeopardising” peace. It is incomprehensible for us Ethiopians that the United Nations Security Council and the Border Commission have repeatedly conducted themselves as if they have a supranational jurisdiction over Ethiopia, as if Ethiopia was not a sovereign state. The Border Commission’s accusation that Ethiopia has jeopardised peace clearly shows how much it wants to overstep its stated mandate as an ad hoc body. The Commission’s mission, as itself has stated repeatedly, is to interpret the terms of reference determined by the “parties”. It does not have any right to talk about peace or war not to mention that it is not competent to decide if peace is jeopardised or not. As far as we know, the jurisdiction to determine whether peace is jeopardised or not belongs to the United Nations Security Council as is enshrined in the United Nations Charter. This does not however mean that the Security Council has the right to tell Ethiopians what they should do and what they should not. There are legal conditions, as they are enshrined in the United Nations Charter, which stipulate how and when the Security Council should determine if there is a threat for regional peace and the meaning of a “threat for peace”. Members of the Security Council are not disinterested states entrusted with the mission of ensuring the prevalence of peace and justice all over the world. The Security Council is composed of states whose primary aim is to see to it that their national interests are not threatened in one or another. If really the UN Security Council wants to ensure that peace is preserved in accordance with spirit and letters of the UN Charter, the first thing it must do is to see to it that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ethiopia is respected pursuant to the UN Charter and other UN resolutions. The Security Council is fully aware that Eritrea had been reunified with Ethiopia by a resolution of the UN General Assembly. Although Eritreans masked as Ethiopians are opposed to the international body’s decision that resolution had recognised the inviolability of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ethiopia. No bunch of bandits has the right and the legitimacy to annul retrospectively what had been decided and recognised by an august international body. That is why Ethiopians cannot accept the demarcation of new border between Ethiopia and its former province Eritrea on the basis of long dead void “colonial treaties”. The selective exhumation past dead treaties with view to favouring Eritrea by omitting those treaties which would have favoured Ethiopia can speak by its self volumes as to the real identity of those who rule Ethiopia.

Bearing this fact in mind any sane individual cannot fail to see that the Ethiopian masked Eritrean leadership in Ethiopia, the Security Council and The Hague based Commission and the United Nations secretary general are the only ones who are endangering peace by resorting to legal sophistry and injustice in order to cede Ethiopian territories to Eritrea. Why have the United Nations Security Council, The Hague based commission and the UN secretary general decided to endorse the conspiracy of “EPRDF/TPLF” to recognise Eritrea’s independence against the consistent previous resolutions of the UN general Assembly to consider the Eritrean case as an internal problem of Ethiopia? The UN had considered the Eritrean case as a problem of secession. However, as international law does not permit or prevent secessions, one would argue that the United Nations had no choice but to admit Eritrea as its member after the acceptance of its independence by individuals who pretended to be legitimate rulers of Ethiopia. The problem is that not only those who rule Ethiopia has chosen to be Eritrea’s Trojan Horses but they decided to consider the Eritrean problem as a colonial problem where as the United Nations had always said that it was a problem of secession. Therefore, we Ethiopians want the international community to know that by being more Eritreans than the true Eritreans themselves, “EPRDF/TPLF” have lost the legitimacy to speak and act on behalf of Ethiopia. Their policies reveal beyond any doubt that they hate Ethiopia to distraction. This has been corroborated by their decision to allow Eritrea to have a free hand on the Ethiopian economy, by their twelve years of rod of iron rule on Ethiopia, by their decision to have recourse to long dead and void colonial treaties to demarcate a new border between their Eritrea and helpless Ethiopia. In this case, is it the Ethiopian people or the Eritreanised TPLF/EPRDF, the Hague based Commission and the Security Council and the general secretary of the United nations who have been jeopardising peace?

All peace loving countries, individuals and groups know full well that Ethiopia and Ethiopians are known for being law abiding and respectful of others. They have never waged a war on their neighbours nor have they ever interfered within the internal affairs of others. On the contrary, Ethiopians have been obliged to defend themselves against repeated foreign aggressions. The last Eritrean aggression is a case in point. Why have then the Security Council and the Border Commission gone out of their way to accuse Ethiopia of jeopardising peace unless their hidden aim is to help Eritreanised rulers of Ethiopia in their attempt to oblige the Ethiopian people to accept the cession of their territories to Eritrea under the pretext that it is a diktat of the Security council? The declaration of some of the members of the Eritreanised local nobility in Tigray that they would implement the decision to cede Ethiopian territories to Eritrea only if they get a fieri facias from the Security Council testifies to the conspiracy of those so-called Tigrayans who have chosen to be at the service of Eritreans by laying the blame of the cession of Ethiopian sovereign territories at the doors of the Security Council and the Hague based Commission. However, no one is so cretin (with the exception of those belly politicians who think to be very smart enough to fool Ethiopians) to buy the present intense campaign to hold the Border Commission and the Security Council responsible for the cession of Ethiopian territories. We say to those individuals and their likes that we have seen through your pathetic efforts to wash the hands of your masters of the crime of ceding Ethiopian territories. Although, there is solid evidence as to partiality of The Hague based Commission to Eritrea, it has made it abundantly clear that its role was to abide by the mandate conferred on it by the Eritrean president and the Eritrean prime minister ruling Ethiopia. It has clearly stated that it gave a decision against Ethiopia because the evidences and arguments presented by the Eritreanised Ethiopia’s diplomats and the foreign “advocates” of Ethiopia were against Ethiopia. How does one explain that the internationally acclaimed advocates hired to reportedly defend Ethiopia’s cause turned out to be its sworn enemies by producing arguments and evidences against Ethiopia? Who instructed them to produce those arguments and evidences, which favour Eritrea? Why did the so-called Ethiopia’s advocates elect to present arguments and evidences, which they know are very prejudicial to Ethiopia’s cause? Is it not their professional obligation to resign when they are aware that Ethiopia’s rulers are bent on inflicting huge damage on Ethiopia? Can one, under such circumstances, argue that The Hague based Commission’s decision is in conformity with international rule of law? The Commission cannot say that it decision is based on international rule of law. It has been saying that it decided against Ethiopia in accordance with the desire of those who pretend to be leaders of Ethiopia. Period. For us, the Commission’s stance cannot be more clear than this.

The surprising thing is that after clearly accusing the Eritrean ruling clique in Addis Ababa of betraying Ethiopia by abstaining from presenting or by failing to present the required arguments and evidences at the required time as is required by the procedure, the Hague based Commission said that it can modify its decision if it is the will of the Security Council. What does this mean? The Security Council is not an appellate body as to approve or modify the political decision of the Commission awarding all Ethiopian territories to Eritrea. As far as Ethiopians are concerned, the Security Council like the Commission and the Eritrean rulers of Ethiopia should abide by international rule of law if any lasting border demarcation between the peoples of Ethiopia and Eritrea is to come into being. The fact that Eritrean rulers of Ethiopia, the Hague based Commission and the Security council chime like a Greek chorus over the need to give a semblance of legality to the cession of Ethiopian sovereign territories by resorting to dead “colonial treaties” and fraudulent procedural tactics does not mean that their decision is legal. Ethiopians have protested several times against the violation by the pro Eritrea clique ruling Ethiopia of previous United Nations resolutions on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ethiopia and they have condemned the enthusiasm of Security Council and the Hague based Commission to lend their unqualified support to this unscrupulous conspiracy of ceding Ethiopian territories to Eritrea. If Ethiopians had sacrificed tens of thousands of their children, it was not to be told by foreigners that they fought for territories, which had not belonged to them. As the Reverend Abba Tesfamariam Baraki has repeatedly put it, the Hague based Commission cannot pretend to know more than Ethiopians which territory belongs to Ethiopia. We wonder if members of the Commission have ever set foot in Ethiopia leave alone in the territories, which they say, are Eritrean.

The argument of the Commission and that of the Security Council is that Ethiopia has agreed to be abided by a decision of the Commission based on “pertinent colonial treaties”. What Ethiopians are saying is that Ethiopia cannot agree to be landlocked and to cede its territories. No country, in world history, has ever agreed to be landlocked and to the cession of its territories unless obliged by force. If the Hague based Commission is capable of making a difference between Ethiopia as a body politic and the Eritreans masqueraded as Ethiopians leaders, then it will understand the very reason why arguments and evidences favouring Eritrea were presented by so-called Ethiopian diplomats and their advocates. The Commission should understand that it has been used as instrument to give a semblance of legality to the cession of Ethiopian territories. That is why we cannot accept the argument that Commission has ruled without fear or favour even if members of the international media are shamelessly talking about the problems faced in the implementation of a decision rendered by an independent Border Commission.

The decision of the United Nations General secretary to ignore the numerous complaints sent to him by Ethiopians and his statement that Ethiopia’s attempt to reject the decision of the Border Commission is counter productive has very much dismayed Ethiopians. Mr General Secretary, you seem to be attached to the classical conception that only states have rights and duties under international law. We don’t think you are unaware of it. But in case you are unaware of it, we would like to remind you that we have entered a new century and a new millennium and, as a result, individuals have a right under international law against their rulers. Why have you been working towards the establishment of the International criminal court? Is it not to try individuals who commit crimes punishable under international law? Don’t you think that hundred of thousands of Ethiopians, as individuals have the right recognised by different instruments of international conventions not to be displaced against their express will from places on which they have lived for many centuries before the creation of the so-called Eritrea. You said that Ethiopia’s attempt to reject a decision displacing several hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians is counter productive. Do you mean that the illegal and forced displacement of several hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians is acceptable to you? Do you believe that there should be a differential treatment between Ethiopians and the Kosovans simply because Ethiopians are black like you? We know that it was under your responsibility as a head of the UN peace-keeping mission that the Hutus committed genocide against the Tutsis of Rwanda. Can’t you learn from your past mistakes and is it not your responsibility to see to it that the similar problems find similar solutions and different problems be solved in a different way? If you don’t give a damn to this general principle, shouldn’t you have shut your mouth up and abstained from saying that Ethiopia’s behaviour was counter-productive? Mr General Secretary, we have heard you many times as saying that you have worked for peace between Ethiopia and Eritrea. How can we consider you to be committed for peace while you advocate the displacement of several hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians from their ancestral homes? Don’t you think that peace with without justice means a mere temporary cessation of hostilities? Mr. General Secretary, if her true sons led Ethiopia, we would not allow you to make a mockery of our country. You remember that when Eritrea had invaded Ethiopia in 1998, you did nothing to get it condemned. But then, Ethiopian children did not wait for your condemnation. Our history shows very consistently that enemies as well as friend have respected us because of our proverbial determination to fight come what may for the motherland until the last man. Alas today, we are cornered and are not in a position to give unforgettable lesson to spiritual descendants of Mussolini in Ethiopia who will not sooner or latter escape from final fate meted out to their spiritual ancestor, Mussolini. It is not in the nature Ethiopians to be sentimental or superstitious. But we would like to tell to every body that those who had done wrong to Ethiopia never remained unpunished. To cite few examples, when England and other European countries had connived at balkanising Ethiopia, the Almighty punished them by making them to undergo the horrors of the of 1914-1918; when England and to a smaller degree France had facilitated Ethiopia’s invasion by fascist Italy in 1935, again the Almighty punished them by subjecting them to the atrocities of the second world war. The lot of fascist Italy was to be humiliated and occupied by the Nazi Germany. The lot of the Italian fascist leader Mussolini was to be disgraced and hanged by his own compatriots. Not only that. Somalia’s false irredentist claims on Ethiopian sovereign and historic territory and its decision to attack Ethiopia did not go either unpunished. The aggressor Siad Barre was first disgraced and then doomed to death; and the state of Somalia has been eliminated from existence. And now how about the Iraqi dictator whose Baath party has the nerve to consider Ethiopia as making part of the Arab fatherland and who had always helped internal forces bent on destroying Ethiopia? Like wise, the unduly arrogant behaviour of Eritrean leaders and a few of their emotional intellectuals towards Ethiopia and their sudden unprovoked attack against Ethiopia led them eventually to be a laughing stock of the world when the defensive trenches they had prepared during three years were routed within three days by Ethiopians’ military blitzkrieg. It is true that now it is their turn to savour their victory in Algiers and in the Hague thanks to their exceptional skill to infiltrate Tigray by making fool of some village politicians whose slogan is “after us the heavens can fall”. However, although we don’t at all wish any bad to the people of Eritrea (who are after all our brothers and sisters), who can bet that what happened to Mussolini and to Siad Barre would not happen to EPLF top bananas and their agents in Ethiopia? Who would bet that the Eritrean people would not punish their dictator just the way the Italians had punished Mussolini. The reader should ask himself if really it was a mere coincidence that none of those who had done wrong to Ethiopia remained unpunished. In this regard, one cannot completely rule out the possibility that far-sighted Eritreans would eventually punish both cliques in Asmara and Addis Ababa, which, in their ardent desire to favour Eritrea at the expense of Ethiopia, have wreaked misery and disaster over the two brotherly peoples.

In this regard, we would like to warn the Eritrean people whom we respect and with whom we want to have a good and mutually beneficial relationship in the future that they should not be led to wallow in the exceptional ability of EPLF’s agents in Addis Ababa to ridicule Ethiopians before the world. Far-sighted Eritreans could not fail to see that the “EPRDF/TPLF” are temporary boons for EPLF but for the Eritrean people they will for sure be an eventual bane, which they will regret, and curse. Governments come and go. But as people, we are condemned to live together, because; Mother Nature has decided that we abut. Therefore, we ask them to think seriously about the time bomb and the new Iron curtail that is being planted by EPLF/“EPRDF/TPLF” in our region.

Finally, we would like to ask the Government of the United States of America not to be a passive spectator of the heinous crime being committed against Ethiopia by a regime, which it has protected until now despite its appalling human rights violations record. We ask it to be true to the values of justice and liberty which cherish the American people and to help the Ethiopian people in their struggle to get rid of themselves from the regime exceedingly inimical to their existence as a nation. Despite their economic difficulty and despite American governments inconsistent attitude towards Ethiopia, Ethiopians are very faithful friends of America. This true friendly attitude towards America should not be abused by the different Administrations’ unholy alliance with ruthless dictators in Ethiopia in the name of fighting international terrorism. As of when have dictators started to fight terrorism? Is it not to eliminate terrorism that America is fighting dictatorship in Iraq so that democracy and individual liberty could be a reality in the Middle East? If America needs to sacrifice its dearest sons and daughters to democratise Iraq and the Middle East, we cannot understand why it doesn’t make a modest effort to help establish democracy in Ethiopia. The establishment of democracy in Ethiopia means stabilising politically and economically Ethiopia. The political and economic stabilisation of Ethiopia means the stabilisation of not only the Horn of Africa but also the whole East Africa. Per contra, if American leaders continue to give uncritical support to the Eritrean Trojan Horses presiding over the destiny of Ethiopia, their efforts to wipe out terrorism from the world would be futile. Terrorist and the latent anti American attitudes in the Arab world should be seen as resulting from America’s blind support for ruthless dictatorship in that region. America has the moral obligation to help Ethiopia embark on the path to democracy and rule of law. This requires a policy of tabula rasa towards Ethiopia by working for the prevalence of human rights and democracy over considerations and exigencies of the realpolitik. Only and only then can America’s claim for world leadership be justified.

Last but not last, in view of the grave peril hovering over our nation, we appeal to our people and compatriots to be united more than ever before as one man to prevent those who rule us from destroying us irremediably. We should bear in mind that our inability to take seriously the warning of Abraham Yayeh and Geberemedihin Ararya has cost us very dearly. What those individuals told us about “EPRDF/TPLF”’s main objective of balkanising Ethiopia and ceding Ethiopian territories to Eritrea has been translated into action before our eyes. If they are allowed to continue, “EPRDF/TPLF” will not abstain from completely destroying Ethiopia. In a recent interview he gave to the BBC, the individual who pretend to be Ethiopian prime minister (and who has never tried to hide his prior attachment to the state of Eritrea) made it clear that Somali and Oromo Ethiopians can be separated from their country Ethiopia if the oppositions parties claiming to represent those Ethiopians want to organise simple referendum. Is there any Ethiopian who would bet that that individual would not allow that to happen? What has he been saying about Badme. And what is he saying now? He feigns regretting the cession of Badme to Eritrea as if he did not withhold the necessary evidence, as if he did not argue that his country Eritrea was a colony of Ethiopia, as if he did not say that he and his organisation “TPLF” were very proud of working for Eritrean independence. He has never lied in all his pro-Eritrea declarations. He is very consistent in his belief that Eritrea should be built at the expense of Ethiopia. And we cannot blame him for working for the well being of what he considers as his beloved country. The Ethiopian people know that they have never faced in their very long history such kind of “invisible” enemy who speak their language and pretends to work for their well being. The “invisibility” of the enemy will require us to pay incomparably more sacrifices than we have ever done until now. It is true that “EPRDF/TPLF” have been waging a relentless war on Ethiopia. But now, as some far-sighted Ethiopians have warned us, it is not impossible that “EPRDF/TPLF” may be preparing to wage war on Eritrea by sacrificing Ethiopians for the third time to liberate the Eritrean people from the inhuman rule of the their president so that they will be in a more comfortable position to bleed and exploit Ethiopia. For “EPRDF/TPLF” leaders, nothing is too much for Eritrea even that means the death of Ethiopia. We should therefore be able to critically examine what makes the neophyte “Ethiopian patriots” break their fealty and tdemand the rejection of the Algiers conspiracy authored by their “EPRDF” lords. How does one interpret that EPLF boot lickers sudden volte-face calling on their masters to reject the Algiers conspiracy as if they have not been barking against Ethiopians opposed to the Algiers Agreement, as if they did not dub the Tigray populations’ determination to punish the arrogant EPLF as dangerous Tigrayan nationalism detrimental to the principle of equality between Ethiopian nations and nationalities, to use their archaic Marxist Leninist jargon? What guarantee do we have not to believe that they are pushing for a war with Eritrea perhaps with aim of chasing their unpredictable (as they say) Eritrean master from power under the pretext of recovering Badme? Why making so much hypocritical fuss about Badme? Why not Zalamabasa, Irob, Afar land and Assab? Why make a difference between Ethiopians living in Badme, Zalamabassa, Irob, the Afar land and Assab? As Getachew Reda and other Ethiopians put it, the issue of Ethiopian sovereignty is far more important than this or that territory. Ethiopians fight for Ethiopian sovereignty as Ethiopians and not for this or that territory contrary to what is told by the Eritrean politicians who have the nerve to clanise Ethiopian history and territory. Their leader once said Axum did mean nothing for non Tigrayans. Today, he is saying Irob, Zalambassa and Badme are nothing to Tigrayans. That is at least what he argued in Algiers and in The Hague.

Therefore, Ethiopians should be very careful about the sudden change of attitude by the exhortations of “EPRDF”’s rank and file for a rejection of the Algiers Agreement. As the editor of Ethio-media once said, Ethiopia is a loser in any kind of war with Eritrea under the leadership pro-Eritrea forces. We have made it clear to the international community that when there is a democratically elected government in Ethiopia, we reserve our right to declare null and void all Agreements entered into with Eritrea by pro Eritrea individuals ruling Ethiopia. Until then Ethiopians should say no to any attempt by the regime to drag them into a war against Eritrea. Our national effort should be directed towards our success in the peaceful struggle for the liberation and democratisation of Ethiopia. In this national Armageddon, the Ethiopian armed forces should not betray the responsibility of their comrades in arms martyred in defence of the motherland. They should defend Ethiopia and not individuals who have nullified the sacrifices of tens of thousands of their comrades. If not, their lot will be similar to that of the Ethiopian army under the Derg. Tomorrow, it is too late. They must act now and swiftly to save the country if we are to exist as historic people tomorrow. It is high time to learn the big lesson from Yugoslavia.