Badme is a case Ethiopia vs. world might, not Eritrea


 

By Team EritrreaDaily.net

29-Oct-03

 

If the UNSC was stunned by the defiant and threatening letter of PM of Ethiopia on 19 Sep 2003 and believed that its response of merely reminding the PM of his country’s commitment to the Algiers Agreement and solely telling him to abide by the border ruling would bring Ethiopia back to compliance with the rule of law, then the UNSC will realize that it erred big time and will be petrified after reading PM of Ethiopia interview with IRIN

today,  29 Oct 2003.

 

If the UNSC didn’t hear it right the first time, then they get to hear it right this time because the PM has spoken loud and clear: Ethiopia remained as defiant as before and the PM met the demands he set in his prior letter unilaterally by thrashing the EEBC, calling its ruling null and void, calling for alternate mechanism based on the Cameroon/Nigeria model, and new border negotiation. More importantly, he let the Guarantor Nations know that the Ethiopian Army in Badme dares their might to come and get Badme. That being what it is, it must be said that both the PM and the interviewer purposefully avoided mentioning the Guarantors of the border ruling and main players of the peace Agreement only to insinuate wishful conflict between the two countries over Badme, which will never happen because the border ruling is enforced and implemented by the Guarantor Nations, and not Eritrea. And the Guarantor Nations will see to it that Badme will remain where it has been adjudicated to be, in Eritrea, because they have committed and obliged themselves to exercise their authority and power to enforce and implement the border ruling by virtue of signing the Algiers Agreement.

 

Eritrea vs. Ethiopia over Badme? Don’t even think, Meles Bad me! If it comes to it, then it is inevitable that Ethiopia will face the might of the Guarantor Nations over Badme to its destruction, not Eritrea. Who is kidding whom here?

 

The Algiers Agreement that ended the 2-year (1998-2000) bloody border war between Eritrea and Ethiopia was crafted and designed with the active participation of the int’l community to only succeed. In so doing, the int’l community was expressing its commitment and determination to bring an end to the carnage over unnecessary border wars and bring about sustainable peace between those two countries in particular and the Horn of Africa in general once and for all and peacefully. To that effect, the int’l community maintains and has maintained even post the border verdict that “Only the full implementation of the Algiers Agreement will lead to sustainable peace”, will do nothing that would jeopardize it, and reiterated in resolutions after resolutions that it stands by the EEBC and its decision.

 

The integrity of Algiers Agreement in general and the sanctity (inviolability) of ruling of the Boundary commission in particular are guaranteed by the  int’l community, notably USA EU UN AU, under the threat of force, and hence cannot be unilaterally dissolved, voided, or abrogated at all. And if the Ethiopia PM thinks that he can get away with what he is doing, then he is certainly talking to himself, as do people suffering from the dysfunctional state of terminal denial of reality.

 

The PM’s interview today must be a wake up call to the international community in general and the Guarantor Nations in particular. He is once again and voluntarily calling for the forceful enforcement and implementation of the EEBC ruling and is again challenging and questioning the integrity of international commitment to do so. Moreover, the PM’s message today is that he is neither impressed nor persuaded by int’l resolutions that merely remind him of his commitments and tell him to abide by this or that ruling. The PM is calling for it, and the int’l community must give it to him.

 

Although the PM’s action is insanity, the int’l community must do what it has to do and stand up to its commitment and end this insanity. The PM’s message is strong enough signal for the int’l community to act decisively and swiftly by invoking all the pertinent measures under chapter vii of UN charter now.

 

 

 

 

Team EritreaDaily