[dehai-news] ERITREA - ETHIOPIA BOUNDARY COMMISSION ORDER OF JULY 17, 2002

From: Ghidewon Abay-Asmerom (ghidewon@aol.com)
Date: Mon Jul 22 2002 - 14:30:38 EDT

ERITREA - ETHIOPIA BOUNDARY COMMISSION ORDER OF THE COMMISSION

(MADE PURSUANT TO ARTICLE 20 AND ARTICLE 27(1) OF THE COMMISSION'S RULES
OF PROCEDURE)

WHEREAS,

1. By a letter dated 7 June 2002 Eritrea requested "that the Commission
adopt an interim order instructing Ethiopia that it must immediately cease
the settlement of its nationals into territory that has been determined by
the 13 April 2002 Decision to fall within Eritrean sovereignty."

2. The locations within which Eritrea asserted that Ethiopia was settling
its nationals not indigenous to the region were described by Eritrea as
"the Badme area of Eritrea". An attached excerpt from a Tigrayan news
broadcast referred to settlements "in Hadish Adi and Dembe Gedamu,
villages around Badme" and to a welcome accorded to the settlers by the
people of Badme and its environs.

3. On 14 June 2002 Ethiopia filed a Response to Eritreas letter of 7 June
2002. The Ethiopian Response referred to "resettlement activities in the
Badme region". The Response also stated [footnote omitted]:

        "The radio translation to which Eritrea refers says that Ethiopia
        is settling people in the environs of Badme and specifically in
        two villages, Dembe Gedamu and Hadish Adi. As indicated by the
        label "BADME" on the map at attachments 2 and 3 of Eritrea's
        letter, Badme is shown as a kebele as well as a town, and the map
        shows the kebele of Badme as lying on both sides of the
        delimitation line as depicted on the map, and, thus, the
        settlement of people in the environs of Badme is unremarkable.

        The specific villages in which people were settled according to
        the radio transcript provided by Eritrea are Dembe Gedamu and
        Hadish Adi. The label for Dembe Gedamu depicted on the map at
        attachments 2 and 3 of Eritrea's letter refers to the former
        kebele of Dembe Gedamu, which the map shows as being on both sides
        of the Commissions lines depicted on the map. Conspicuously absent
        from Eritrea's letter is a map depicting the location of Hadish
        Adi. However, Eritrea did provide a map depicting the location of
        Hadish Adi in her judges folders during oral argument in December,
        2001. This map, which is attached at Attachment C, shows
        unmistakably that the village of Hadish Adi is to the east of
        Eritrea's claim line, lying in territory that was never in
        dispute. Thus, there is no basis for Eritrea's allegation that
        Ethiopia has been settling people in areas awarded to Eritrea in
        the Commission's Decision, let alone that such settlement is a
        scheme to affect the demarcation.

        Two attachments to the Ethiopian Response referred respectively to
        the "Badme Sub-District" of the North Western Zone, "the disputed
        border area near Badme" and "the Badme sub-region". The Response
        further referred to Dembe Gedamu as "the former kebele of Dembe
        Gedamu" lying on both sides of the line delimited on 13 April
        2002, and to Hadish Adi as being a village east of Eritreas claim
        line.

4. On 24 June 2002 Eritrea filed a Memorandum in support of its Request in
which it observed that there are several places with the name of Hadish
Adi in the locality in question and stated that Eritrea cannot identify
with certainty the one to which the Ethiopian radio broadcast alludes.

5. On 1 July 2002 Ethiopia filed a "Further Response to Eritrea's Request
for Interim Measures", in which reference is made to a place called "Dembe
Bengul".

6. Both Parties have filed copies of maps said by them to be supportive of
their respective positions.

7. Eritrea has invoked Article 20 of the Commission's Rules of Procedure
as justifying the issue by the Commission of an interim protective order.
Ethiopia has denied the applicability of this Article.

8. In its Interlocutory Order of 7 July 2002, the Commission recalled that
Article 27, paragraph 1, of the Rules of Procedure provided that "the
Commission shall be entitled to make any necessary interim, interlocutory
or partial decisions".

9. On its first consideration of the matter, the Commission took the view
that it could not, at this stage, reach any final conclusions on the
Eritrean request of 7 June 2002 without further information as to the
exact location of the settlements to which that Request related.

10. Accordingly, the Commission decided in its Interlocutory Order of 7
July 2002 to send a team ("the Team") to determine by examination on the
ground and from the air the exact location of the various places mentioned
in the exchanges between the Parties and referred to in the recitals to
that Order and, so far as possible, the extent to which there had been
movements of population in or around them since 13 April 2002. These
places were:

        - Badme and its environs (including "Badme sub-region" or
          kebele of Badme);
        - Dembe Gedamu (including the kebele of Dembe Gedamu);
        - Hadish Adi; and
        - Dembe Bengul.

11. The Team, after visiting the places in question on 12 and 13 July
2002, submitted a report of its findings to the Commission on 15 July 2002
and the Commission immediately communicated these findings to the Parties.

12. The Teams findings included the following:

As to Badme, there was no observable sign of recent population
settlement or evidence of makeshift housing such as tents.

        As to Dembe Gedamu, there was no evidence of civilian settlement
        at the village of that name, which appeared to be abandoned.
        However, on maps submitted by both Parties, "Dembe Gedamu" appears
        as the name of an area as well, within which the Team did find
        evidence of a recent tent settlement housing some 90 persons, at a
        place called Dembe Mengul. "Dembe Mengul" is located 0.4 km to the
        west of the delimitation line established by the Commission's
        Decision of 13 April 2002. The one inhabitant whom the Team was
        able to interview claimed to be a displaced person who had
        recently returned to his home there. He stated that he had
        received assistance from the Government in the form of tents,
        seeds and money. Aerial photography established that this location
        was settled after 13 April 2002.

        As to Hadish Adi, there is evidence of a recent settlement
        consisting of fresh tents which appear to house some 100 persons.
        Hadish Adi is 3.5 km to the east of the delimitation line
        established by the Commission's Decision of 13 April 2002.

        As to Dembe Bengul, the Team was unable to identify a place of
        that name at the location indicated on the maps submitted by the
        Parties.

13. At a hearing held in The Hague on 16 July 2002, the Parties addressed
the findings of the Team and presented oral arguments on the questions
raised by Eritreas Request of 7 June 2002.

14. During the hearing on 16 July 2002, the Parties did not contradict the
findings of the Team.

15. At the end of the oral hearings, the Parties made the following final
submissions:

For Eritrea

        "1) that Ethiopia cease its illegal program of transfer of
        Ethiopian civilians into Eritrean territory and otherwise bring
        its conduct into compliance with the delimitation Decision of 13
        April 2002;

        2) that all land grants purported to have been made by Ethiopia
        throughout its military occupation of Eritrean territory are
        declared void and of no effect; and

        3) that Ethiopia immediately remove all Ethiopian settlers
        installed in Eritrean territory since the announcement of the 13
        April delimitation Decision."

For Ethiopia
"that the Commission should reject Eritreas request for interim
measures."

16. The Commission finds that there is no evidence of new settlement in
Badme and Dembe Gedamu. There is evidence of new settlers at Hadish Adi,
but that location is within Ethiopia. The only location in Eritrean
territory at which there is evidence of new settlement is Dembe Mengul.

17. The Commission has received no evidence of any land grants made by
Ethiopia as referred to in Eritrea's Memorandum.

18. The Commission finds it appropriate to observe that it would not be in
accordance with the obligations of the Parties for either of them to take,
or permit to be taken, any actions that prejudice, or might prejudice, the
fulfilment of the Commission's Decision of 13 April 2002. By a letter
addressed to both Parties on 21 June 2002, the Commission has already
reminded them that it would not be in accordance with the obligations of
either of them to take, or permit to be taken, any actions that prejudice,
or might prejudice, the fulfilment of the Commission's Decision of 13
April 2002. It followed that both Parties should assist the Commission in
the performance of its task and that neither Party should do anything to
prevent or hinder the demarcation process or act in a manner contrary to
the rights of the other. The Commission was also mindful of the duty of
the Parties to do nothing that would aggravate the dispute. Neither Party
should do anything to prevent or hinder the demarcation process or act in
a manner contrary to the rights of the other, or otherwise aggravate the
dispute.

ACCORDINGLY, THE COMMISSION,

in the exercise of its powers under Articles 20 and 27 of its Rules of
Procedure,

DECIDES THAT

A. Eritreas Request for the Commission to prescribe interim measures under
Article 20 of the Rules of Procedure is rejected;

B. Any Ethiopian government-sponsored resettlement of Ethiopian nationals
in Dembe Mengul after 13 April 2002 should not have taken place;

C. Ethiopia shall:

        (i) forthwith arrange for the return to Ethiopian territory of
        those persons in Dembe Mengul who have gone there from Ethiopia
        pursuant to an Ethiopian resettlement program since 13 April 2002;
        and

(ii) report to the Commission on the implementation of
sub-paragraph (i) above no later than 30 September 2002.

D. Each Party shall ensure that no further population resettlement takes
place across the delimitation line established by the Decision of 13 April
2002.

        The Hague, 17 July 2002
        Signed by the Commission:
                Sir Elihu Lauterpacht, CBE, QC, President
                Prince Bola Ajibola, SAN, KBE, CFR
                Prof. W. Michael Reisman
                Judge Stephen Schwebel
                Sir Arthur Watts, KCMG, QC
                Dr. Hiroshi Murakami, Secretary
                Bette E. Shifman, Registrar

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